The Board's full Quarterly Report on progress from July to September is now available on the the county's website. The report tracks the Board's progress on its eight objectives for the year: fiscal stability and core services, emergency preparedness, economic development, broadband, climate resilience, housing, homelessness and recreation.
Below are the opening comments from Board Chair Ed Scofield.
Message From the Chair
A commitment to community service guides our employees every day. This summer, we honored behavioral health nurse Casey Davey as Employee of the Year for her work with our most vulnerable populations. We also honored our Roads Crew and Emergency Operations Center as Teams of the Year for their response to the epic winter storms.
The youth will lead us in providing services in the future, which is why we are so happy to have formed a new Youth Commission. The Youth Commission is a group of volunteers ages 14-19 that either reside within Nevada County and/or are enrolled in the county’s school system. Its mission statement is to identify, connect, and advocate for the issues facing Nevada County youth.
We scored a win for emergency preparedness by supporting the consolidation of three fire districts - Rough & Ready Fire Protection District, Penn Valley Fire Protection District, and Nevada County Consolidated Fire District -- into one combined district. This move assured continued fire protection for Rough & Ready community as their fire station was slated to close permanently on June 30.
We are so grateful that to date we have had a mild fire season, with only one fire that required evacuations – the Highway Fire in Washington in August. Thankfully, there was no structural damage and evacuations were quickly lifted.
Another possible tragedy was averted that month when Nevada County Connects bus driver Ahmer Al-Khayyali and UPS bus driver Roy Lewis helped put out a fire along Highway 49. The two were driving north towards North San Juan when they saw flames on the side of the road. Both used their extinguishers, helping prevent spread until fire fighters arrived. We recognized both with challenge coins for their outstanding service to the county.
We adopted housing ordinance amendments to help create more affordable housing. The improvements include allowing every residential property to build an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), also known as a granny or in-law unit, and a Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit (JADU), a smaller type of ADU. Now, residents can help with the housing shortage by adding these units to their properties. We also collaborated with three other counties (Amador, Calaveras and Mariposa) to produce an ADU Guidebook that can guide residents from start to finish in how to build their own ADUs while following all regulations.
Finally, realizing that recreation is a priority for our residents, we awarded $388,840 in Outdoor Visitor Safety Funds Grants to eight organizations to promote health and safety at popular outdoor recreation destinations at the Yuba River, Truckee and beyond. In my own district, we were pleased to renovate Gary D. Clarke Field with a new all-weather synthetic turf that will be enjoyed by youth and adults throughout the area.
All of us here are committed to doing our best to serve the needs of residents. We will close out the rest of the year focused on this goal.
Edward C. Scofield, Chair
Board of Supervisors