February 3, 1966 (16 pages)

secrete yy <r RELL. NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET . EDITORIAL February 3, 1966 NEVADA CITY MAKES PROGRESS ON WATER IMPROVEMENT PLANS We were pleased to hear this week that progress is being made in Nevada City on two different, but interelated . projects. The projects are those of acquiring land from the Federal Bureau of Land Management to construct an enlarged reservoir at Canada Hill and that of planning a major program of repair, enlargement and improvement to the city's water transmission facilities. The city was informed several months agothat its application to the BLM for land for water and recreation uses at Canada Hill was unacceptable and that it should be modified to cover only that land required for the reservoir. At the same time the city was assured that land would be available for other uses on Canada Hill when the needcouldbe justified. This plan is now being put into effect. On the other side of the water picture, the city is working with two federal agencies to obtain funds to plan for and then construct major improvements to the city water supply and to transmission facilities. Some time ago the city started working with the Federal Housing and Home Administration to obtain initial planning funds to determine the needs andthe methods of financingthe water project. An unsigned or preliminary application was sentin. Subsequently the city was informed that the administration was not happy about supplying planning funds for a project it might ‘later be asked to finance. The city was sentalongtothe Federal Farmer's Home Administration. Here it was learned that this organization could give outright grants of up to50 percent of the total project cost and that from preliminary information available, the city might get 20 to 30: per cent of the project cost covered by a grant. Since that time information has been exchanged on various levels and an application for a grant for the project to construct a new reservoir, install a pressure system, build a filtration and purification plant and replace inadequate water pipes, is now being considered. Once some kind of financing for the project is assured, then the city can go back to Housing and Home Finance Administration for funds to do the planning for the job. IN THE FOOTHILLS VEIN THE SHOPPING CENTER AND THE WATERFRONT We read with more than passing interest the announcement of plans for construction of a massive new shopping center just south of Grass Valley, The start of this new facility could bring into sharp focus a question that has been bothering Grass Valley merchants for years, but before has always gone unanswered, ; The question is whether there will be any kind of . real future for the city's Mill and Main Street business core, While it has been business as usual on the Mill and Waterfront scene in Grass Valley, business as usual in the last few years has always meant several vacant stores and others changing locations and redecorating in an attempt to pull in the steadily more elusive customer, Some just moved out, others moved to new shopping centers, People just do not move out when business is booming, Now the city is facing the prospect of being cut in half by the wide swath of the freeway, The route will effectively separate the business core from a large residential area to the south, Just exactly what this breaking up of the city patterns will do to trade in the business core no one can Say at this time, but there can be little doubt it will cause dislocations and changes in shopping habits, Add to the business uncertainty being created by the freeway the gl amour, easy access and newness of a huge shopping complex at the south edge of town, and Grass Valley may have pulled together all the ingredients needed to sound the final death knell to its important downtown business core, It will be interesting to see if the lure of the added tax base and prospects of added business held out by the new shopping center seem as attractive to the Mill Street merchants in a few years as they did to the city fathers a few months ago, eeeepeae eee 8 GRASS VALLEY HAS MANY unique features, Included in this list compiled by cartoonist Dan O'Neill our acute observer of the local scene, is the fact that ‘the city might be the only one in the state or perhaps the nation to have a bank over a laundromat, The location of the Grass Valley Wells Fargo office has intrigued O ‘Neill for some time. Through the medium of spy movies, cops and robbers.and soap commercials, he has finally devised a plan to break the bank, All that is required, we are told, are two men, several laundry bags and a box of Dash detergent. Everyone knows that Dash makes your automatic clean like it’sten feet tall, Well, the ceilings in the laundromat under the bank are only about eight feet tall, Simple, eh? You pull two washers over underthe vault, putin the Dash and the 10 foot washer punches a hole in the bottom of the vault, Then the two men ride the second washer up into the bank, They fill the bags with paper money, throw the bags through the hole and jump down on the bags of soft currency, CALIFORNIA DIVISION OF HIGHWAYS VERSUS LOCAL GOVERNMENT In California we have a number of regional problems which our counties and cities cannot cope with independently, One of them surely is transportation, T hink of how the Division of Highways for so many years has dealt with local government. Typically, it has seen to it that cities accede to its route preferences by bringing its chosen routes up to the city boundaries and then all but demanding that they continuethrough, Thus in Sacramento, freeways from all points of the compass converged on the’ central city, and in effect, forcedthe city to dedicate itself to being a central switchyard for automobiles, Typically also, the Division of Highways has been able tonegotiate with local governments on separated, segmented basis. Often it finds neighboring jurisdictions disagreeing on proposed freew ay routes, and then in its wisdom has been able to choose the route of its preference, announcing with a cheshire grin that the : Sa ) ee XN = ad. rae Rane cage. Us ia NS os 5 Zz local governments.couldn't agree among themselves, Icanremember clearly when, in the very recent past, the cities of Pasadena and South Pasadena could not agree on a route for the Foothills freeway through the two towns, South Pasadena wanted a route along the canyon below Pasadena, Pasadena wanted a route through town, The result was that the Division of Highways recommended, and the Highway Commission accepted, a route that neither city wanted, It went through town, all right, but destructively. It was not the route that Pasadena wanted and it was certainly not the route that South Pasadena wanted, The county, meanwhile, farther out in the foothills, has proclaimed bravely that it will sign no freeway agreements for this highway, Perhaps it won't -this year or next -but asthe Division of Highways begins to acquire property along the route and it becomes the only available corridor, who is to say what will happen five or fifteen years from now? The Division of Highways is not subject to the demands of time the ---Don Hoagland9961 ‘¢ Areniqo4***2088nN Aun0D epeAen** “00

secrete yy <r RELL. NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET . EDITORIAL February 3, 1966 NEVADA CITY MAKES PROGRESS ON WATER IMPROVEMENT PLANS We were pleased to hear this week that progress is being made in Nevada City on two different, but interelated . projects. The projects are those of acquiring land from the Federal Bureau of Land Management to construct an enlarged reservoir at Canada Hill and that of planning a major program of repair, enlargement and improvement to the city's water transmission facilities. The city was informed several months agothat its application to the BLM for land for water and recreation uses at Canada Hill was unacceptable and that it should be modified to cover only that land required for the reservoir. At the same time the city was assured that land would be available for other uses on Canada Hill when the needcouldbe justified. This plan is now being put into effect. On the other side of the water picture, the city is working with two federal agencies to obtain funds to plan for and then construct major improvements to the city water supply and to transmission facilities. Some time ago the city started working with the Federal Housing and Home Administration to obtain initial planning funds to determine the needs andthe methods of financingthe water project. An unsigned or preliminary application was sentin. Subsequently the city was informed that the administration was not happy about supplying planning funds for a project it might ‘later be asked to finance. The city was sentalongtothe Federal Farmer's Home Administration. Here it was learned that this organization could give outright grants of up to50 percent of the total project cost and that from preliminary information available, the city might get 20 to 30: per cent of the project cost covered by a grant. Since that time information has been exchanged on various levels and an application for a grant for the project to construct a new reservoir, install a pressure system, build a filtration and purification plant and replace inadequate water pipes, is now being considered. Once some kind of financing for the project is assured, then the city can go back to Housing and Home Finance Administration for funds to do the planning for the job. IN THE FOOTHILLS VEIN THE SHOPPING CENTER AND THE WATERFRONT We read with more than passing interest the announcement of plans for construction of a massive new shopping center just south of Grass Valley, The start of this new facility could bring into sharp focus a question that has been bothering Grass Valley merchants for years, but before has always gone unanswered, ; The question is whether there will be any kind of . real future for the city's Mill and Main Street business core, While it has been business as usual on the Mill and Waterfront scene in Grass Valley, business as usual in the last few years has always meant several vacant stores and others changing locations and redecorating in an attempt to pull in the steadily more elusive customer, Some just moved out, others moved to new shopping centers, People just do not move out when business is booming, Now the city is facing the prospect of being cut in half by the wide swath of the freeway, The route will effectively separate the business core from a large residential area to the south, Just exactly what

this breaking up of the city patterns will do to trade in the business core no one can Say at this time, but there can be little doubt it will cause dislocations and changes in shopping habits, Add to the business uncertainty being created by the freeway the gl amour, easy access and newness of a huge shopping complex at the south edge of town, and Grass Valley may have pulled together all the ingredients needed to sound the final death knell to its important downtown business core, It will be interesting to see if the lure of the added tax base and prospects of added business held out by the new shopping center seem as attractive to the Mill Street merchants in a few years as they did to the city fathers a few months ago, eeeepeae eee 8 GRASS VALLEY HAS MANY unique features, Included in this list compiled by cartoonist Dan O'Neill our acute observer of the local scene, is the fact that ‘the city might be the only one in the state or perhaps the nation to have a bank over a laundromat, The location of the Grass Valley Wells Fargo office has intrigued O ‘Neill for some time. Through the medium of spy movies, cops and robbers.and soap commercials, he has finally devised a plan to break the bank, All that is required, we are told, are two men, several laundry bags and a box of Dash detergent. Everyone knows that Dash makes your automatic clean like it’sten feet tall, Well, the ceilings in the laundromat under the bank are only about eight feet tall, Simple, eh? You pull two washers over underthe vault, putin the Dash and the 10 foot washer punches a hole in the bottom of the vault, Then the two men ride the second washer up into the bank, They fill the bags with paper money, throw the bags through the hole and jump down on the bags of soft currency, CALIFORNIA DIVISION OF HIGHWAYS VERSUS LOCAL GOVERNMENT In California we have a number of regional problems which our counties and cities cannot cope with independently, One of them surely is transportation, T hink of how the Division of Highways for so many years has dealt with local government. Typically, it has seen to it that cities accede to its route preferences by bringing its chosen routes up to the city boundaries and then all but demanding that they continuethrough, Thus in Sacramento, freeways from all points of the compass converged on the’ central city, and in effect, forcedthe city to dedicate itself to being a central switchyard for automobiles, Typically also, the Division of Highways has been able tonegotiate with local governments on separated, segmented basis. Often it finds neighboring jurisdictions disagreeing on proposed freew ay routes, and then in its wisdom has been able to choose the route of its preference, announcing with a cheshire grin that the : Sa ) ee XN = ad. rae Rane cage. Us ia NS os 5 Zz local governments.couldn't agree among themselves, Icanremember clearly when, in the very recent past, the cities of Pasadena and South Pasadena could not agree on a route for the Foothills freeway through the two towns, South Pasadena wanted a route along the canyon below Pasadena, Pasadena wanted a route through town, The result was that the Division of Highways recommended, and the Highway Commission accepted, a route that neither city wanted, It went through town, all right, but destructively. It was not the route that Pasadena wanted and it was certainly not the route that South Pasadena wanted, The county, meanwhile, farther out in the foothills, has proclaimed bravely that it will sign no freeway agreements for this highway, Perhaps it won't -this year or next -but asthe Division of Highways begins to acquire property along the route and it becomes the only available corridor, who is to say what will happen five or fifteen years from now? The Division of Highways is not subject to the demands of time the ---Don Hoagland9961 ‘¢ Areniqo4***2088nN Aun0D epeAen** “00