We were privileged to hear from Nevada City Mayor, Gary Petersen on “The State of the City” at our lunch meeting at Bodhi-Hive. Gary first became interested in Nevada City in the 1970s when he was driving a tanker truck down the hill from Tahoe. In the 1980s a friend moved here and that started his move to our beautiful community. After a long career in public works both here and in Salinas he retired in Nevada City permanently. He was first elected to the city council in 2020 and is currently serving as mayor. 

Since 2020 the city has engaged in a strategic planning process to underscore, “Why we exist,” “the values we share,” and “where we want to be.”  He described how Nevada City is “At the Crossroads of History and Progress.” The major initiatives for the city include wildfire preparation and mitigation, housing, infrastructure, support of the arts and parks and recreation. He described new changes we can expect towards those goals including a model house with defensible space at Pioneer Park, new parking opportunities for downtown, the new (quite historic looking) bridge at the bottom of Broad Street and the new course for the Miner’s Foundry. Thank you, Mayor Petersen for your love and dedication to our community that we love. He made us proud to be the Rotary Club of Nevada City, CA!

Youth services is a strand that often weaves throughout the Rotary Service Above Self. Our club is absolutely committed to the youth in our area. One way we serve is through our scholarships. Each year we give a CTE (Career Technical Education) scholarship to a student who is pursuing a vocational education rather than a 4-year degree. Career interests include automotive technology, building industries, welding, information technology, sustainable agriculture and more.
 

Additionally, with the support of the NJUHSD Foundation, we have the opportunity to award the Allie Sells “Buckle Up for Safety” scholarship for a graduating senior with at least a 3.0 pursuing a career in Administration of Justice. Many thanks to Mai Lee, Pearce Boyer and Chris Newsom, our scholarship readers who took on the hard task of selecting among the applicants. Pearce Boyer represented us at the NJUHSD Scholarship Night Friday, April 25 to award the scholarships and awarded our CTE scholarship to Marley from Nevada Union and our Buckle Up scholarship to Keegan from Bear River. Congratulations students!

We have a busy time this week. We celebrated our community with the 49er Breakfast Club and Nevada City on Sunday, April 27 for the free screening of the movie, “Join or Die.” Our Area 4 Social is at 5:30 on Tuesday, April 29 at the Alta Sierra Country Club for a fun night of Trivia. 

Our next club social will be Thursday at 5:30 at Round Table Pizza in Grass Valley and then we’re blasting off to the District 5190 Top Gun Conference in Fallon, NV. And while Louise has our bell back, Rotary Rob continues to roam. Looks like he plans a big Top Gun Weekend at Conference!

Our Rotarians at Work Day on Saturday at North Star House  was rained out and will be rescheduled. 

Your President,