Lesson learned: Do the right thing for your community, even if it costs you in the short term.

By Trina Kleist

Photos by Kristofer B. Wakefield

Daniel Kennerson, now 33, and Jonathan Dorfman, now 36, both graduated from Nevada Union High School. They didn’t meet until both were working for a U.S. Department of Defense contractor based in the Loma Rica Industrial area of Grass Valley. The engineer and the physicist were trying to induce nuclear fusion, but a sideline was seeking a more efficient way to distill corn ethanol for jet fuel. The contractor eventually shut down, but the duo acquired the facility. While nuclear fusion remained elusive, they realized their ethanol refinement method could be applied handily as a finishing technique to drinkable alcohol, and it would pay the bills. In 2017, South Fork Vodka was born. The name honors the course of their favorite childhood hiking and swimming spots. 

Katrina Hajimihalis, now 36, is another NU grad and Dorfman’s wife (they both had been in Mr. Baggett’s choir class). She designed the label with the Old Highway 49 Bridge over the South Yuba River; she also heads the marketing and organizes events. The team incorporated as Satellite Spirits, and they placed their liquor in stores locally and around the San Francisco Bay Area. South Fork Vodka had won five gold and silver awards when the pandemic hit in early 2020. “Seven out of 10 of our customer locations were bars or restaurants, and they were all shutting down,” Kennerson recalls.

Meanwhile, panic buying and profiteering exhausted supplies of hand sanitizer, including for the local hospital. Amid the chaos of the daily news, the team learned it was possible to create sanitizer from spirits by following World Health Organization protocols. Their fear – “what are we going to do about our employees?” Kennerson recalls thinking – yielded to an idea: “We wondered, would we be breaking any rules if we (made hand sanitizer) too?” Kennerson recalls. “The answer was, maybe, but nobody’s going to be upset with you.” Satellite Spirits was among the first in California to get an emergency license to make sanitizer from liquor, Dorfman says.

“We just shifted gears in the span of about two weeks,” Kennerson continues. They made their first batch, eventually giving 4,500 gallons to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital for free. “We started to hear the same problem was happening with first responders, senior care facilities, all sorts of places.” They donated all over town: to daycare centers, chambers of commerce, private care-givers, postal workers and package delivery companies. They packaged the stuff into rubber-corked vodka bottles, and cases of it went on sale in local grocery stores when national brands were zilch. Hajimihalis recalls trying to source pump bottles: “I’d find some place that had some, then I’d call Jon and say, ‘This guy has pump bottles.’ He’d say, ‘OK,’ and I’d call the guy back, and somebody else had already bought them.”

Sanitizer for the Brave

They made hand sanitizer for most of 2020. “We became one of the largest hand sanitizer producers in the state,” Dorfman says. “We weren’t thinking of it in that way at that time, but as it turns out, it was some of the best advertising we ever could have asked for,” Kennerson adds.

As establishments reopened, the little pump bottles stood at tables and cashier counters all over western Nevada County. People remembered with gratitude the label with the beloved local icon. “We were like, yeah, we also make vodka. It’s super-highly rated, you should give it a try some time,” Kennerson chuckles.

Local Recognition

More than two years later, the team is sitting in a local saloon. A bottle of South Fork Vodka is standing on the table next to cocktails. A woman comes over with a smile of recognition on her face. “Are you the people who make the hand sanitizer?” she says, pointing to the bottle. She’s a local dentist, committed to supporting local businesses, and she wants to buy more sanitizer for her practice. Kennerson promises to see if they still have any, and he takes her business card.

While hand sanitizer sales have faded, the liquor side of the business is gushing. South Fork Vodka keeps winning gold medals. Sales have grown 70 percent since 2017, Kennerson says. The company has expanded into gin – a London medium – dry and an herbaceous blend – and is experimenting with whiskey. The team has partnered with the Truckee-Tahoe Humane Society to raise funds, using block-chain systems for online sales of digital art. Improvements are afoot at the distillery, and they plan to enlarge distribution in their core market stretching from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe.

But Nevada County remains at the core, the relationship bonded in the crucible of coming through the pandemic together.

“Helping the community is a good decision, Kennerson says.

www.southforkvodka.com

Lesson learned: Make “community” a major part of your business plan.

Story by Courtney Ferguson

Co-founders Beth Moore and David Kuczora called themselves ringmasters. “That’s because coordinating the three aspects of the Wild Eye Pub – restaurant, saloon and event venue – can be like managing a three-ring circus,” Moore laughs. The popular Grass Valley establishment had been open for 20 months when COVID-19 changed their trajectory. Like most new-business owners, they already were pretty nimble with making quick changes. That agility served them well. 

Whether it meant to-go-only meals, serving outside, or limited indoor seating, they followed the ever-evolving health protocols, always keeping the safety of customers, performers and staff top priority. They tracked those rules for more than two years – a decision many customers and entertainers deeply appreciated. But, sales still fell 75 percent.

“We had 100 live gigs booked when lockdown hit,” Moore explains, “but we did not cancel them. Instead, livestreaming became a welcome option – complete with virtual tips from fans   enjoying the music broadcasts from home. Some of our artists actually earned more this way, and it helped them through a bleak time.”  Wild Eye is also known for serving homemade meals, using fresh meat and produce from local farms. Scratch meals require extra time to prepare, which means more staff. “When it was take-out only,” Moore recalls, “we featured travel-friendly items, such as burgers, pasta dishes and our own desserts. That’s a change that still works for us today.”

Since support is a two-way street, Moore attributes much of their survival to the “generous support and love from loyal customers and the community.” 

Another innovation was creating 100 feet of dining along Wolf Creek. “We transformed part of the parking area into beautiful, outside dining, complete with overhead terrazzo lights, extra seating and a stage area. Used furniture, borrowed umbrellas and flowers make it a magical place from May through September, as well as warm winter afternoons.”

One challenge was the crumbling, decades-old paving that needed to be repaired. COVID grants helped address this issue, and the result is that, today – with nearly 1,000 events since they opened in 2018 – Wild Eye has more to offer and enjoy than ever.

Beat the odds with thorough planning and loyalty-based marketing

Story by Courtney Ferguson

The restaurant business was one of the hardest-hit during the pandemic. Even in the best of times, an estimated 80 percent of restaurants close before their fifth anniversary. In 2020, the lock-downs of COVID-19’s first year caused an additional 73,000 American eateries to fail, according to a report published by the Washington Post and based on a review of data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Wild Eye Pub owners Beth Moore and David Kuczora survived both gauntlets. How?

Before opening the Grass Valley pub in 2018, they researched five-year projections of industry trends for restaurants, taverns, event venues and lodging to make sure their plan was realistic.

They studied local business patterns from the Nevada County Economic Resource Council, as well as local farming trends from Sierra Harvest.

They found detailed planning templates from the U.S. Small Business Administration and other resources. They incorporated their research into a convincing business plan that received approval for a loan from their community credit union, in partnership with the SBA. 

 Moore and Kuczora have played active roles in their community for many years and have a reputation for paying their employees fairly, sourcing from local farmers and supporting musicians with a nightly performance venue.

Through frequent newsletters, they express heartfelt thanks to their loyal customers who buy take-out food, gift cards and make donations, keeping relationships strong and active. But 2023 dawned with continued challenges, and the couple announced the Wild Eye was at risk of closing. They turned to the community through a GoFundMe plea to raise $162,000 to pay debts, repair the circa-1851 building and buy new kitchen equipment. As of late January, admirers had contributed more than $22,000. The enthusiastic response from the Wild Eye’s community confirms that two-way loyalty helps generate success.

The Wild Eye Pub
535 Mill St.
Grass Valley
(530) 446-6668
www.WildEyePub.com

By Trina Kleist

Lesson learned: Figure out what you’re here for.

Brian Chambers has blended love for his family with passion for art, opening a new space amid the COVID-19 pandemic. His gallery, The Chambers Project in mid-town Grass Valley, showcases a psychedelia-fueled aesthetic where he offers multi-media events, pioneers collaborative creation, draws innovators from around the world and boosts the local economy.

When Chambers was 16, the Tennessee native found his life’s project: He started collecting concert poster art from the late 1960s and 1970s  – think Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore in San Francisco and the Grateful Dead at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Mich. He expanded into album covers and the artists who drew them – such as Yes and Roger Dean – organizing shows around the country.

Drawn by Nevada County’s natural beauty and creative ecosystem, Chambers landed here – strategically, he says – in 2008. As social media changed relationships between artists and art galleries, Chambers recalls feeling threatened and worried about his business model. “But it became apparent (Instagram) was going to grow, so you figure out a way to work it to your advantage and bring it to a positive reality,” he says.

Meanwhile, his shows often took him far from family. Chambers wanted his two young daughters to see up close the lesson he had been blessed to learn: “You can turn your passion and what you love into your job.” Now 43, he recalls this epiphany: “I came to a crossroads: How am I ever going to teach this to my kids if I’m doing my biggest shows in Miami?” He yearned to pour “all this love, effort, energy and finances” into the place where he lived.

“My kids are here,” he says pragmatically. “They get to see what I do.”

Curating en vivo

In November 2021, amid the pandemic’s second wave, he opened The Chambers Project. “It was an opportunity to de-stigmatize psychedelics,” he says, and his website calls it “the world’s leading psychedelic art gallery.” Inside the corrugated metal building, works evoking a range of roots portray  other-worldly  landscapes, fantastic cubes and dizzying swirls of finely drawn shapes and carefully blended color. They speak to Chambers’ own artistic viewpoint: “I like to wonder what I’m looking at.”

“You get a bunch of magicians in a room together, and magic happens.”   

Brian Chambers, The Chambers Project

His present positive reality includes bringing together gallery, artist and the viewing, appreciating and buying public. Chambers has encouraged several artists from across the country to relocate to Nevada County. He calls himself “old-school,” meaning, he loves creating events where people gather in-person around art and artists, talk, shake hands, celebrate and make friends. “I feel like I’m a conduit to bring that around,” Chambers reflects. “I’m in a very fortunate situation to bring the general public in a town like ours, hand-in-hand with world-class artists who will be viewed in art history, for the rest of time, as leaders of the pack.” 

Early in his career, he grew fascinated with collaborative art processes, in which artists come together for short-term, large-format projects. Gallery owners who had been mentoring him were not interested, so 14 years ago, he started exploring. Now, Chambers makes collaboration a focal point. Curation includes gathering artists who might not otherwise meet – perhaps during a music festival in Yosemite or a weekend in Acapulco – and encouraging them to take chances they might not otherwise take. “They produce masterpieces in a few days,” Chambers says, and their wonder-inspiring results have become his niche. “They’re getting better, faster, more efficient,” he says, and he ponders how far the movement has come. “Collaborative arts weren’t accepted by the fine arts community. We have redefined and reset that, and collaborative arts are now seen as an amazing movement.

“And, it’s fun!”

The Chambers Project
627 E. Main St., Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530) 777-0330

www.thechambersproject.com

Miller raises the bar for service with new facility

Story & Photos by Trina Kleist

To eat out, to lift a glass with friends, to laugh and joke — without fear that your dentures are going to fall out – that’s a kind of freedom few people would think about.

Dentist Joseph Miller thought about freedom a lot as he planned and built a state-of-the art dental implant center in Grass Valley’s Whispering Pines industrial area. It opened in late 2021 and is already a center for advanced, on-site implant services for patients. Looking to the future, Miller also envisions it becoming a learning center for other dental professionals honing their skills in this new specialty.

A dental implant consists of a metal post set into the jawbone, topped with a custom-crafted tooth replacement. Implants can replace dentures and bridges with a permanent structure that fits better and is more comfortable. Typically, implant procedures are performed by dentists or oral surgeons. But Miller is part of a growing movement of impassioned professionals who have developed a specialty with its own certifying bodies, and Miller belongs to both.

Miller’s new facility for Pine Hills Dentistry is set to become one of two in California and 18 across the nation that trains interns in the fledgling specialty, with two hospital-grade surgical suites. In addition, Miller’s office provides standard dental care supported by hospital-grade sanitation for instruments and hygiene for staff. Views of oak and pine woods, local deer, bear and the occasional mountain lion come with the package, through floor-to-ceiling windows in each of 10 private treatment rooms.

In-house lab: Custom fits, short turn-around

In his in-house dental lab, Miller holds a model of a patient’s upper and lower teeth. Their image was taken by low-radiation digital cameras. “I’m looking for pathology, bone density and thickness,” Miller explains. The forms are fabricated using 3-D printing and computer-aided design and milling, meaning less gunk in the patient’s mouth. “We use it for planning a surgery before we ever start working with the patient,” Miller adds. “We need to know in 3-D space how much room we have to work with.”

Another machine helps him mill a jig he will use to guide the drill precisely into the patient’s jaw. More equipment helps him create the replacement teeth, and a set of brushes, paints and glazes allow them to exactly match the patient’s gums and remaining teeth. Miller can show all of it to his patients ahead of the surgery. “It takes a lot of anxiety out of the process,” he says.

And because it’s all done in-house, from a single crown to a full-mouth reconstruction, Miller’s process shaves weeks off the usual calendar.

Expanding vision

“People who have bad teeth or dentures, it’s like a handicap. They think about it every day,” Miller says. “We’re giving them their freedom back. That’s my goal, to give people in this community their lives back.”

The Idaho native spent his teen-age years in Sacramento, and spent years in the U.S. Navy as a dentist. His experiences tending the teeth of many different kinds of people now fuel a bigger vision: Become a partner in dental education, and fill those 10 new treatment rooms with like-minded professionals.

“I built this from the ground up with all that in mind: bringing it up to hospital grade, bringing state-of-the-art treatment to the community and teaching state-of-the-art treatment to other providers,” Miller says. “The sky’s the limit… It’s becoming a reality.”

Pine Hills Dentistry
130 Crown Point Court
Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530) 272-6752
www.pinehillsdentistry.com

Find information and dentists with credentials in the emerging specialty of dental implantology. These bodies offer a higher level of credentialing according to Grass Valley dental implantologist, Joseph Miller.

American Academy of Implant Dentistry
www.aaid.com

American Board of Oral Implantology
www.ABOI.org

By Heather Macdonald

“I smell smoke!!” 

Those words strike fear into the hearts of Nevada County residents, but local businesses and organizations can help people to make their properties fire resistant.

“People reach out to us because they want that information,” says Fire Safe Council of Nevada County Executive Director Jamie Jones. The nonprofit was formed to aid both home and business owners become fire safe. The agency will come out and assess defensible space, home hardening issues and landscaping challenges such as trees and bushes on the property. It takes about an hour. The council’s advisors use a special software program that renders a full report to help the home or business owner. Never will any government agency see the report.

“And nothing is shared with any enforcement agency,” said the Nevada County native. 

Many residents want to know how to create defensible space and home hardening, but don’t want the county involved with their property. The nonprofit works with the home or business owner so they can decide what next steps to take to make their properties fire resistant. 

Action plan for roof

One of the largest companies who helps with the task of making properties fire resistant is Byers. Since 1995, the family-owned Grass Valley company has expanded its business and services, but continues with the company core of installing top-quality roof gutters.

“You must provide a means to keep debris from collecting in your gutters as of 2010 building codes,” said General Manager Jeff Fierstein, who has been with Byers for years. He has seen their patented gutters keep leaves from accumulating with their specially angled system. LeafGuard keeps leaves out, but allows rain water to slide off.

In addition, Byers can replace the entire roof according to the new fire codes for roof material replacement. 

Action plan for turf

Artificial turf can also be a part of home hardening.

Annie Costa, co-owner of Tuffgrass Inc. with husband Paul Costa, took some of their artificial turf to the county’s Eric W. Rood Administrative Center, where it was set on fire. It melted. 

“It has been tested under fire, and high-heat artificial grass will not combust,” Annie Costa says.

Tuffgrass has grown and become a major seller of artificial turf in Sacramento and the foothills since their early beginnings demonstrating their product at the Nevada County Fair, even installing a good patch for the fairgrounds.

Fire Safe Council of Nevada County
www.AreYouFireSafe.com

Byers
www.ThatsByers.com

Tuffgrass Inc.
www.Tuffgrass.com

Nevada County businesses already are adapting to a warming climate, which is bringing bigger and more destructive wildfires, longer and deeper drought, and more frequent rain-on-snow events that cause flooding. Some of the consequences include higher insurance bills, the need to use more energy and costs for making buildings more fire-resistant.

Business owners (and residents) can take steps that both save money and help solve the underlying cause of the growing climate crisis, by reducing the use of energy, fossil fuels and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Many small steps, taken together, can make a difference.

Here are a few ideas and examples.

(Part One of a three-part feature)

Nevada County’s Sierra Business Council can help small businesses lower energy bills

Small business owners can get help when they make investments to lower their energy use. The Sierra Business Council offers free services that show people how they can reduce their utility bills and get help with the cost of those investments.

Through the council’s Sierra Nevada Energy Watch program, business owners can get a free audit of their energy use, look for ways to lower that use, and find rebates that offset energy-saving improvements. Some improvements also may qualify for zero-interest financing of the costs up-front.

Energy-saving improvements commonly include upgrades to heating, ventilation, air conditioning and insulation, replacing doors and windows, roof repairs and new lighting.

Every business owner’s situation is different, and the improvements and financial options vary accordingly, says SNEW Program Manager Sam Ruderman, based in Truckee.

“So many buildings still have outdated and inefficient light fixtures… that can easily be replaced by LEDs for the interior and exterior,” Ruderman adds.

Fourteen counties, including Nevada, Placer, Yolo and Sierra, are part of the SNEW program. The Public Purchase Program charge, a small monthly fee paid by all Pacific Gas and Electric Co. account-holders, pays for the program. 

SNEW helps both governmental agencies and businesses: Nevada City replaced the heating system for the men’s and women’s showers at the Pioneer Park pool with high-efficiency, hot-water heat pumps, says Sierra Business Council’s Katey Ford. In El Dorado County, the transit authority upgraded its lighting. Savings are in the thousands of dollars yearly, SNEW reported.

Small- to medium-sized businesses that use less than 500,000 kilowatt-hours per year of electricity qualify for the program. (Homeowners are not eligible as of this writing, but the program may expand in the future, Ford says.)

Working with SNEW, a vetted energy contractor comes to the business and later sends a written report outlining areas where energy could be saved and how. With help from SNEW and the contractor, the business owner learns about resources available to make those improvements, including financing opportunities such as rebates.

Many energy-saving upgrades may qualify for a zero-interest loan that comes through the business’ PG&E bill. It’s called on-bill financing, and it works this way: In the energy audit report, the contractor includes a cost analysis for all measures, including projected savings, Ruderman explained. If the project is eligible for on-bill financing and the customer agrees, the contractor performs the work and pays the upfront costs. The customer continues to pay the utility bills as before; but, the amount of money “saved” by the upgrades goes back, through PG&, E, to repay the contractor.

Even in a scenario where the business owner pays the costs up front, he or she would see savings immediately on the energy bill, Ruderman pointed out.

The team at SNEW guides people through the process to enroll in the program, and explains the ins and outs, and manages the upgrade project. There is no charge for any of the program’s energy audits or consulting services.

“We tell people, ‘You’re already paying for these services’” through the charge on the PG&E bill, Ruderman says. “You should take advantage of these opportunities. It costs no money up front to just see what they are.”

sam ruderman, Snew’s program manager

BriarPatch Food Co-op in Grass Valley is the most recent business in western Nevada County to start working with SNEW to audit problems and finance solutions. They are early in the process, and it’s not clear what upgrades the store will pursue through SNEW, says BriarPatch Sustainability Coordinator Lauren Scott. In addition to saving the store money, energy-efficient upgrades fit with the member-owned store’s values supporting sustainability and environmental stewardship: Lower energy use means fewer greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming. “We are constantly evaluating opportunities to lower our environmental impact,” Scott says.

Sierra Nevada Energy Watch

This program offered through Sierra Business Council provides free services to help business owners reduce energy use:

• Energy audits
• Incentives, rebates, 0-interest loans
• Energy efficiency project management
• Education and training

SBC also offers a free Building Operator Certification course for public agencies to train building maintenance and facility people in energy efficiency best practices.

California Green Business Network offers sustainability guidance – studies show that many consumers care about eco-consciousness and climate change

Businesses that take steps toward environmental sustainability can use that status to attract customers — and a statewide program shows business owners how to get there.

The California Green Business Network offers guidance to business owners wanting to save money on energy, water, garbage collection and other bills. By implemeting environmental sustainability practices recommended by the network, businesses also can improve employee wellness and productivity with steps such as using less-toxic cleaning products. 

Business owners who want to see what practices might work for them can get help through the Sierra Business Council, says the SBC’s Green Business Coordinator Katey Ford, based in Truckee.

Several businesses in eastern Nevada County already are on board, and on the western slope, BriarPatch Food Co-op in Nevada County is the first to become certified through the Green Business Network.

BriarPatch Sustainability Coordinator Lauren Scott encourages business owners to check it out. “The (network’s) survey questions cover a vast scope of operational details and will likely shed light on new opportunities for any business,” Scott adds.

More than 60 percent of American consumers care about whether businesses engage in sustainable environmental practices, according to a 2021 study by global strategy and pricing consultants Simon-Kucher & Partners. Around 40 percent of younger shoppers are willing to pay more for sustainable products and services, the survey found.

Check the SBC website for webinars.
https://www.sierrabusiness.org/

Sierra Business Council
10183 Truckee Airport Rd.
Truckee, CA 96161
SNEW@sierrabusiness.org
www.SierraBusiness.org/archives/SNEW

(Part Two of a three-part feature)

The paint you choose for your business or home can help solve the climate crisis. That’s because most paints contain volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which gas off and contribute to the warming of our atmosphere.

You can smell VOCs when you paint a room or get into a new car. They are solvents used in thousands of things such as plastics, cleaning solutions, scented candles and body lotion. VOCs make paints easier to apply and give them better resistance to sunlight and the effects of freezing and thawing, according to the manufacturer Sherwin-Williams. But companies have been working on alternatives for two decades, and they’ve developed durable paints with low or nearly-zero VOCs to safeguard both the environment and people’s health (indoors, the off-gassing of VOCs can cause a range of allergic reactions from mild to severe).

In 2000, federal law required paint manufacturers to lower the VOCs in their products. “Now, they have zero-VOCs as well,” says Nevada County painter Jason Gilliam. He and partner Shane Manley operate Jason Gilliam Painting/New Look Painting, and they’re enthusiastic about their industry moving toward environmentally sustainable products.

“We are getting more and more people asking us about no-VOC paints,” Manley said. Those can be used for smaller business structures and residences, but many industrial applications do require the low-VOC products, Gilliam adds. They’re using low-VOC paints at the remodeled McKnight Crossing shopping center in southern Grass Valley.

“We’re here to help you get through any type of painting in this more-sustainable direction,” Gilliam says.

Jason Gilliam Painting/New Look Painting
Jason Gilliam & Shane Manley
(530) 210-9655
(530) 559-7255

Climate Change 3-part series:

• Part 1: Yuba Bucks & Nevada City Chamber of Commerce
• Part 2: Sierra Business Council & Sierra Nevada Energy Watch
• Part 3: No-VOC paints

Lessons Learned: Using Yuba Bucks in an effort to communicate. Coordinate. Try something new. Support each other.

(Part Three of a three-part feature)

During the early COVID-19 pandemic, when lock-downs shuttered brick-and-mortar retailers, the already growing e-commerce sector surged. In 2020, the pandemic’s first year, online sales across the United States grew 43 percent, rising from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nevada County businesses already were struggling against both online ease and big-box shopping down the hill. Those that survived the pandemic have reopened to a complex new reality, facing entrenched consumer habits and, now, an uncertain global economic outlook.

Yuba Bucks is one effort undertaken by the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce to help bring people back to town.

Yuba Bucks is a MasterCard-brand virtual credit card placed on a cell phone. You buy it online and give it like a gift card, explains chamber Executive Director Stuart Baker. (It was proposed by then-board member Jesse Locks.) The hitch: Recipients can spend it only with the town’s 40 participating merchants.

“The format is good for Millennials and Gen Z,” Baker says, and it appeals to people’s feel-good impulse to support local businesses. The bigger problem, the chamber is finding, is getting people to act on that impulse, setting down their click-buy addiction long enough to peruse in person.

Amid Pandemic 1.0, the chamber and city started offering broader support, and that’s continuing. “What’s happened in the community is a lot more communication and coordination among the merchants,” Stuart says, with 25 to 30 business owners gathering monthly to share knowledge and ideas. The new city manager and police chief attend those meetings. Officials and merchants also are working toward a permanent, outdoor presence on Commercial Street – a boost for hard-hit restaurants.

“All of that has been a big positive,” Stuart added. “The merchants feel like, ‘People have my back.’”

Nevada City Chamber of Commerce
132 Main Street
Nevada City, CA 95959
530-265-2692
www.nevadacitychamber.com

Lesson learned: Never compromise on quality. Instead, make your product profitable.

By Courtney Ferguson

Empty supermarket shelves during the pandemic were an abrupt wake-up call, reminding shoppers that local farmers are a welcome alternative to standard grocery distribution channels.

CASA Farm owners Victor Estrada-Hildebrand and Michael Hildebrand-Estrada had just purchased their five-acre agricultural property outside Nevada City.

“We wanted to escape from the Sacramento suburbs and raise our own animals and produce,” Estrada-Hildebrand said. He added, “We knew what we harvested would exceed what we could use and our longer-term goal was to share our homegrown bounty.

“Much of our growing season lasts year-long. Our produce gets to market sooner and keeps it going through fall.”

Victor Estrada-Hildebrand

A vital part of their success relied on finding a way to extend their growing season. Hardworking friends helped them build a large hoop greenhouse. “Much of our growing season now lasts all year long,” Estrada-Hildebrand confirmed, “so we can get our produce to the market sooner and keep it going through the autumn.”

“This spring will mark our first foray into local farmers markets, starting with the Grass Valley one on Saturdays,” Hildebrand-Estrada said, “and we’re looking forward to building our reputation by increasing our presence.” They have seen a sharp increase in existing customers for fresh produce and special-occasion meats and poultry.

While COVID may have been the catalyst, the lessons learned have opened wider doors to new opportunities. What started as an alternative line of thinking has turned into a preference for many grocery-store shoppers.

casafarmca@gmail.com
(530) 265-9395

Homeowners can take steps to improve sales potential

By Heather Macdonald

The Gold Rush returned to Nevada County in 2020. Real estate was hot. Buyers were desperate. Sellers were riding high on the money wave. Then, in the summer of 2022, the wave froze.

Will it melt in 2023?

“The market is not dead!” exclaims realtor Diane Helms. A Nevada City realtor with more than 40 years of experience, Helms says the crazy real estate market of 2020-21 was not sustainable. Interest rates were down to 2 percent, COVID-19 fears sent buyers from the city to the countryside, and companies allowed employees to work remotely. This all made Nevada County’s Gold Country extremely desirable. Residents couldn’t believe what buyers from areas such as San Francisco and Los Angeles were willing to pay.

Home sale tip: Fire resistance certification adds appeal

“It was totally crazy,” Helms recalls. “Out of whack.” In 2022, inflation rose and so did mortgage interest rates. While no one can predict the future, Helms says the slowdown had to happen. “It is not the bubble of the last recession, just adjustments that needed to happen,” she adds. People can improve their property’s sales appeal by taking steps to make it fire-resistant, Helms suggests.

Two local entities can inspect your property and make recommendations for fire hardening:

The FireSafe Council can issue a Wildfire Prepared Home Certification after working with a property owner. This certificate can help sell a home in Nevada County in the current market, Helms says. Having firewise landscaping also improves a property’s curb appeal.

The FireSafe Council makes it easier for homeowners to get recommendation to make their properties fire resistant, without involving county officials. Its role is to help, not to enforce county code, and no information is shared with any enforcement agency, council Executive Director Jamie Jones says.

A FireSafe Council advisor first walks the property with the homeowner. They do everything possible to help the homeowner, from devising a plan for employing defensible space and land clearing; to how to make the house itself fire resistant with new “fire proof” materials such as noncombustible decking, siding and roofing. They will even create reflective, easy-to-see address signs and chip brush cleared for defensible space. Low-income senior residents or those with medical disabilities may qualify for free assistance in defensible space clearing.

Still a good time to sell

Despite the challenges posed by wildfire, it is still a sellers’ market, Helms says. Nevada County remains one of the most beautiful rural and historic areas in California.

“There will always be buyers who want to live here,” she says.