I was reading the article by George Boardman in the Union Newspaper this morning and I am in agreement with his view on Nevada City and their Fire Department issues. I live in the Consolidated District (Formerly 49er) up on Banner Mountain. We pay a fee on our taxes to help fund the District. I am sure there are mutual response MOU's and rightly so. We are all in the same forest. But the issue of Consolidated and Grass Valley carrying the load for Nevada City is truly amazing.
HERE is the Boardman article today.
My experience in political decision making is quite simple. The job of governance means you provide for the safety of the people first then the rest follows if there is any money left. So police and fire are at the top in my opinion. Nevada City politicians don't seem to have that urgency in the protection of their citizens it appears. With the purchase of "Sugar Loaf" mountain above the city, we see the priorities of the town. Sure the acreage is undeveloped now but over time it will be a recreation area needing protection. That costs money but we see this one act as the town's priority for its limited money.
We see empty store fronts in the tourist town and we see a turnover of businesses that is very troubling. Long ago Nevada City decided to be a tourist destination and it implemented a General Plan and Zoning ordinance that discourages business and innovation in my view. Later, the town leaders convinced the County that anything proposed within their "sphere of influence" be ordained by them and that policy (1.15 ) is contained within the County's General Plan. If you want to paint your house, put in new windows or cut down a tree on your own property you are required to beg the city for permission and pay a fee for the privilege.
Many people like this amount of control and so it goes. But for those wishing to visit (and spend their money and go home) the streets of the City are sometimes a real problem. Homeless people sleeping in doorways, defecating in them too, trashing the streets and bothering the tourists doe not seem like a real good strategy for the City. People smoking marijuana yet rousted for smoking a tobacco cigarette seems over the top. Taxing the business owners on top of their property taxes and the sales tax they generate seems onerous to me. My goodness, the business owners are risking their money to try and make a business survive in the town and are taxed again!
So the town does not want to pay for their share of the fire protection involving Consolidated and Grass Valley eh? It looks to me like they need to prioritize their money. Keep the fire and police funded properly and the potholes fixed. Stop passing laws that keep a B and B from opening and other businesses as well. If you want to survive as a viable town you better get your act together or you may have to de-charter. If you want the Courthouse to stay within the City limits you better ensure decent fire protection. Overall, you must "get real" about these things or become nonviable.
Thanks to the Union Newspaper for getting this story out.
Todd J. Juvinall
I Miss my Husband very much! Todd was simply all about loving God, County, Family and People. My love , My husband is with Jesus in Heaven. He enjoyed communicating with each of you on Sierra Dragon's Breath. Todd was a Great, Loving, Kind man and will be Missed. Love you honey! Till wee meet again. 
Spot on Todd! Seems some fail to remember that it was Nevada City that first stopped consolidation of the fire services, they wanted their independence and did not want to be part of the effort. Plus, not one NC person attending the GV City Council meeting to explain why or ask GV for fire coverage? That was a true po-dunk move by NC!
ReplyDeleteI would not hold my breath that they will get smart. If it isn't about the color of the valance on your house these people are clueless.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the busybody of Nevada City should run for office and see if the people there will elect him. He seems to know it all about things even though he is a flatlander.
With friends like the portly pugslie of purple prose (and king of chili fries) and the worm farmer Nevada City should look outside its miniscule boundaries for solutions to its problems because its friends are only harming it. Top 10 violent crime stats and the boardwalk should be a message that sucking up to the drug dealers and pan handlers will only continue the demise of the commie capital of Nevada county. Well they could all move back to the bay area if they could afford the prices in the bay. LOL Let the Emery boys take over the city council and nationalize (citize) all personal property and fully socialize a la Chavez in Venezuela. Renette can collect poison oak leaves for poop wipe for the true believers who are so deep in their liberal guilt as a means of penance since there will be no money for grants or anything else.
ReplyDeleteIt is my opinion that people like him and her have wrecked the place as anew home for people moving from other areas. They are so weird, liberal, negative and mouthy that people make a decision not to come here because of the discontent these people spew.
Deleteyes they come and tHen they leave
DeleteSwift Communications and The Union do a lot of good for our community! Here's a story on it:
ReplyDeleteThe Bessie Minor Swift Foundation, formed by the owners and founder of Swift Communications, parent company of The Union newspaper, awards grants to programs that promote literacy, reading and writing skills, as well as programs that focus on the arts, languages and sciences.
Since 2008, more than $300,000 has been awarded to organizations in the communities where Swift Communications conducts business.
This year, three Nevada County organizations will receive grants from the Bessie Minor Swift Foundation.
Chicago Park Community Charter School in Grass Valley is awarded $2,600 to improve its library and literacy program at the school.
Plans are to purchase a book series on countries of the world for $1,500, along with $1,100 for biographies, science books and an intervention starter kit.
The intervention program is an extended school day four days per week to support struggling readers in grades 1-3.
Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Foundation in Grass Valley will receive $2,000 to purchase 1,000 books for distribution to local families during well-care visits.
Books will be provided to parents along with advice about early literacy and their child’s development.
The Nevada County Superintendent of Schools in Nevada City will be awarded $3,000 for its pilot program supporting students who are falling behind.
It will serve 192 children at three sites in a four-week summer program. Participants are in K-5 and are not performing at age level.
Funds will buy book bags, books and water bottles.
The program will include assessment, project work and parent engagement.
The deadline for 2015 grant applications was Feb. 15 and more than 200 applications were received. The foundation grant criteria calls for detail on how many people will be impacted by the organization’s project and how significant a role the Bessie Minor Swift Foundation will play in the program.
Further, applicants must provide a complete description of the project including objectives and strategies to meet those objectives, explain how the project will be evaluated and submit a budget.
Recipients will report on their results and insights from their program once the projects are completed.
This year, more than $67,000 in total has been awarded to 33 deserving organizations across the country,
“The Bessie Minor Swift Foundation thanks the many groups that took the time and energy to apply and encourages those that were not selected to submit applications in the future,” a news release states.
Applications will be accepted again starting Jan. 1, 2016 with a deadline of Feb. 15, 2016.
Local lib critics will spin this as a Tea Party plot.
DeleteThank you for including a link to Boardman's article like a "real journalist" would do. I did not see any problem with Boardman's article. Whining about "bashing Nevada City" is a rhetorical tool which seeks to avoid discussing the real issues that face the city. Grass Valley is thriving, while Nevada City is dying on the vine. Instead of bellyaching about The Union, some personal reflection would be in order. Not many vacant store fronts in Grass Valley, but Nevada City on the other hand is full of them. Identify why that is and fix it. I can guarantee to you that attempting to shift the focus to The Union and whining like a child with hurt feelings (because you got fired from The Union) is not going to change the business dynamic in Nevada City.
ReplyDeleteWe on the right are always solution oriented. We want to fix what is broken. Libs in Nevada City want to simply sit on their ass and complain. That is the difference between the kinds of people GV elects and NC elects.
DeleteThe portly one needs to suggest solutions but I truly think he and his ilk are still living in 1850 and not 2015.
Amgen (a one weekend tour) is not keeping businesses open in Nevada City. There is a systemic problem in Nevada City that needs to be positively identified. Personally, I think that Boardman nailed it; Pelline just does not want to admit it. "The first step in solving a problem is identifying it." Pelline does not want to identify...just whine...and that my friend is the very reason nobody takes him seriously.
DeleteI agree Barry. Of course we have had the Bike Races since the 60's on Fathers Day which brings in, or did, a lot of people and money for one day. You need a lot of "one days" to make a city or town be a healthy place to live and do business. What I see is the town is being run by people who have no clue about governance and budgets. But they were able to somehow find money and time to get Sugarloaf! Anyway, the FUE is irrelevant in the health of Nevada City as he tells us all about his vacations in Tahoe and Italy. What a hoot!
DeleteYes, The Union does a lot of good for our community!
ReplyDeleteTheir best move was to remove a flatlander as editor.
DeleteTo become a real tourist destination we need to have overnight facilities for at 300 more people who can drive up from the flats, eat dinner, see an evening performance at one of our venues, and then not have to drive back home late, tired, and perhaps a few sheets to the wind. And then in the morning have a good breakfast and be on their way. The NC/GV community needs a new hotel or two to make the trip up here a comfortable outing, especially for the retirees.
ReplyDeleteTry and built one in Nevada City! Not going to happen. Remember the "Northern Queen"? It is mainly an old folks apartment complex I am told and the restaurant is gone. We have seen the town scare off most everything over the years and if not scared off they were cowed into submission.
DeleteInstead of growing occupancy, they are going after bed and breakfasts. No common sense...and Pelline...simply does not fit into this small town. When there is a lack of common values, folks from the coast simply cannot properly integrate. Pelline's case is extreme due in large part to his unusually inflated opinion of himself. He will never embrace small town vakues and will alwayd be the "guy that bitches all the time."
ReplyDeleteHe truly is an outsider begging for acceptance isn't he? But his attitude and values prevent people from even liking him. Hell, we have accepted everyone accept him in my lifetime. He must have a negative pheromone that turns everyone off?
DeleteNot pheromones...it narcissism.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are just jealous of Me because I am an "award winning journalist", and used to fetch coffee for Herb Caen! Just because I have a little boat and cabin on Lake Tahoe doesn't mean that I think I am better than you po-dunk good old boys. That is as silly as thinking that just because I have a magazine about food and booze, and the the world's best collection of hamburger pictures, that I would be an obese time bomb who can't put his own shoes on! No wonder you are all stuck in this silly little cul-de-sac!
ReplyDeleteThey is nothing wrong with food an booze but onlu in modest protions which is why some people should cut back
DeleteHerb Caen?! Shoot. Herb Caen would rollover in his grave to know that Pelline is habitually using his good name in such a manner. Me thinks that Herb Caen would not approve of Pelline's mode of "journalism." It is certainly not Pulitzer Prize material...it could not even cut it at The Union.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Thatcher once said that "Sooner or later you run out of other peoples money". NC has run out and now they are going after GV's.
ReplyDeleteHere I was peacefully in my grave remembering martinis at the Balboa and I am disturbed by some idiot who claims he knew me and keeps using my name in vain. Who is this human hippo pelline? I can't tell if Michal Moore and this pelline POS are one in the same. So leave me out of this hippo boy so I can rest in peace! Back to dreams of Baghdad by the bay.
ReplyDeleteSCOOP! I found another typo in The Union! Yippee! I live for this! At least...I think it might be a typo. I mean, if I've never heard of a liberal non-profit that is based in Nevada City, it must not exist, right? So, I am calling it a typo. And hey, Spirit of my Idol, Herb Caen, please say you remember me, please? Remember, I am the pudgy guy that brought you coffee? And you let me park next to your car if I promised wash it? You have to remember me. I was the guy that everybody hated. Some things never change. These Good Old Boys just don't get it. I was really somebody, back in the day. Now I am stuck in this po-dunk town and can't get a job. Got fired from the best job I ever had. Now I take pictures of hamburgers, and dream about chili fries with bleu cheese. Damn I hate it here.
ReplyDeleteI suggest you stop the fries and start Slimfast.
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