In late January, the board of supervisors gathered for our annual workshop where we review progress on our prior year’s objectives – our top priorities – and then establish our objectives for the new year. We heard presentations on progress and challenges from 2022 from County departments ranging from the Community Development Agency (reporting on Cannabis) to the Broadband Work Group (a cross-agency group led by the County’s Chief Information Officer, Steve Monaghan).
The Board’s newly chosen 2023 objectives remain largely the same from 2022, but with the addition of one that is very important to me and our community: climate resilience (see: Snowpocalypse 2023). The 2023 objectives are: fiscal stability, emergency preparedness, economic development, broadband, climate resilience, housing, homelessness, and recreation.
Highlights from progress on the Board’s 2022 objectives:
Broadband: Received $500,000 from the California Public Utilities Commission to provide network design and engineering for broadband across the county and is to receive almost $75 million total for broadband projects from the California Advanced Services Fund
Housing: Celebrated the completion of Brunswick Commons and Cashin’s Field Housing developments, adding nearly 100 new affordable housing units in Grass Valley and Nevada City.
Economic Development: Secured $122,860 from California Office of the Small Business Advocate to support 43 Nevada County microbusinesses, and granted over $2 million in funding to nonprofits, small businesses, and special districts through Nevada County’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation.
Recreation: In the first year of this objective, the County secured $200,000 from Sierra Nevada Conservancy to fund a countywide Recreation and Resiliency Master Plan, which will be one of the first of its kind in the state of California to comprehensively integrate resiliency adaption measures as part of planning for parks, trails, and open spaces.
See more about the board's 2023 objectives.
