It seems like retail stores are falling with some regularity...I just received an email from Maureen Harris that Jewell's on Mill Street is the latest to close in this dreadful economy. But there are some upsides as well: Grocery stores, kitchen stores and fabric stores all report brisk business. What does that tell you? People are staying home and cooking and sewing -- not necessarily a bad thing.
That got me thinking about our county and cities...Chris Dabis, who is tight with a nickel, made conservative investments, and therefore Nevada County is in pretty good shape. How many California counties can boast the same?
Grass Valley had the unfortunate loss of 2 car dealers (there goes the sales tax!) but began trimming and doing things like furloughs LAST YEAR, before the word furlough as even a thought to Arnold. As a result, they've trimmed $700,000 -- not an easy feat -- and may only be down about $200,000 or so. That's smart planning in difficult times.
Nevada City is sitting pretty good, for a place that is only slightly bigger than Nevada Union High School. They need to plan for the possible flight of Thomson, and I'm sure they will.
So why is it, in our rural county, we're doing so much better than the Big Boys in the Big Cities? Who has an answer to that?
Dixie,
I cannot say too much about the Cities but three years ago I sat in on the County BOS Retreat. I was the only private citizen in the room for two whole days. Having sat in on previous Retreats during the 1990s, when there was a much more liberal BOS, I was not expecting the economic conservatism that was exhibited at that Retreat three years ago. Joe Christoffel, Deputy Administrator, gave an eye opening assessment of the County's economic future. Housing permits were down and projected to decline even more. This was an economic flag that the county economy was slowing, that fewer people were coming to Nevada County, and sure enough the census update confirmed that fewer people were moving to the County. I cannot recall all the other indicators mentioned, but I remember Joe advising the BOS to continue to reduce costs and increase reserves the future was going to be challenge.
The theme for the Retreat was how can the staff be more productive and become more service oriented. It was impressive. I could not attend the all of the Retreat last year, and none this year. It would have been good to compare the transitional changes. Maybe others can chime in, but I got the impression that BOS and County staff saw this economic problem on the horizon and started preparing by consolidating departments, reducing duplicative efforts and shrinking the staff. They may not have see the severity of the problem, but being prepared for the unexpected is what leadership is all about.
Posted by: Russ Steele | February 10, 2009 at 10:40 PM