NCYRF President Jennifer Saylor with Mitt Romney
at the 2009 California Republican Convention.

NCYRF is Official!

Nevada County Young Republicans Federated is official! At the CRP Convention held over the weekend in Sacramento, Young Republicans Federated of California voted and approved Nevada County Young Republicans Federated as an official chapter. At Saturday’s board meeting Ben Lopez, president of the YRFC, informed chapter presidents from around the state that this is the first YRFC chapter ever to start in Nevada County. It was a great honor to be there representing NCYRF as President alongside NCYRF Program Director Kim Pruett. Getting this organization started is a great achievement, and although NCYRF has a long journey ahead I am confident that the young Republicans of Nevada County will rise to the occasion. We are a group filled with creative minds and enthusiastic individuals. Congratulations Nevada County on your first NCYRF!
Jennifer Saylor
Nevada County Young Republicans Federated, President

NCYRF First Mixer a Huge Success!

February the 9th marked the first mixer held by the NCYRF. The event hosted by Brian and Megan Hood in Nevada City turned out to be a huge success and was a chance for Board members to mix with prospective new members. Vice President Michael Horne spoke to the group and thanked everyone for coming to our event. Representatives from both Tom McClintok's office and Dan Logue's office were present and spoke to the group, as well as Dottie Ray Souter President of the Republican Women Federated and Bill Neuharth President of the Central Committee. Thanks for all the hard work by everyone involved, especially the Hood's for their hospitality. Looking forward to the next one!

Walgreens Project Suspended

The suspended Walgreens project will come up for review Tuesday at the Grass Valley Planning Commission — and is already facing local discord and scrutiny.

Only one area contractor has been hired for the Glenbrook Basin job now sitting in a lake of Sierra mud, drawing criticism from the Nevada County Contractors Association.

In addition, critics of the project charge that Sacramento-area developer Interra-Vision Development is trying to get out of an agreement made last year with the city to build two 800-square-foot retail buildings on the site.

The buildings were added to the project after former City Councilman Steve Enos complained the pharmacy giant was not adhering to design guidelines the city has embraced to make new construction more amenable to pedestrians and evoke mining-era facades.

When Interra-Vision’s Brian Kisling shut down the 14,550-square-foot drugstore job Feb. 4, he said it was for economic reasons and “the resolution of issues” concerning the extra retail buildings. Kisling will ask to put off erecting the two small stores at the commission meeting.

That attempt “smells like a pile of six-day old fish in the middle of the Mojave Desert on the Fourth of July,” Enos said. The City Council “needs to hold these folks to the ... requirements that they ... accepted when the project was approved.”

The retail buildings will be built when tenants are found for them, Kisling said. To do so otherwise would not make sense in the current financial market, he added.

The lone subcontractor hired for the project was Mitch’s Drywall Co. of Grass Valley, Nevada County Contractors Association Executive Director Barbara Bashall said.

“We’re really disappointed that on a job of that scope, they didn’t do more outreach for local subcontractors,” Bashall told The Union.

Bids from Nevada County subcontractors were submitted for almost every portion of the job but were rejected “because they were 10 percent higher than contractors from outside your area,” Kisling said. “I was disappointed. We really tried to get some local contractors.”

The main contractor of the job at Brunswick Road and Sutton Way is Huff Construction of Modesto, which has built several Walgreens in the past.

When the project will resume is unknown now that the wet season has begun in the Sierra, Kisling said. He hopes to have the project done some time this summer, he added.

-The Union, February 16th 2009

By: Dave Moller

Stimulus pork

Here are just a few of the earmarks included in Obama's stimulus bill that was passed by the Democrats in the House:

-More than $4 billion is earmarked for "neighborhood stabilization activities" money that will go to groups like ACORN, which worked closely with the Obama campaign, the same group accused of massive voter fraud.

-Almost half of the proposed spending will directly benefit the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions, or other Democratic-controlled unions, according to writer Ben Stein.

-$600 million goes for new cars for top government bureaucrats.

-Obama promised major infrastructure projects yet only 5 percent of all the money goes for this.

-$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.

-$75 million to fund anti-smoking programs.

-$650 million for the switch from analog television to digital.

-$335 million to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

-$600 million for climate change research programs.

Get involved locally: The Bel Air project

The $30 million plan to build a Bel Air supermarket and retail complex at Higgins Corner moved closer to becoming reality last month when the County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to OK an environmental report for the project. The Board also voted 3-2 to recommend a general plan amendment and 3-2 to rezone the property so the project could go forward. Although this was a huge step forward for the project, many more hurdles still lie ahead before ground can be broken. Despite the creation of construction related jobs while the complex is being built, the estimated 143 full time jobs once the complex is completed and the nearly $2 million in revenue during a 13 year period, there are still some that seek to block this project from getting off the drawing boards citing overcrowding and traffic concerns. With the current economic crisis, do you think Nevada County should be turning away an opportunity to create jobs and increase revenue?