NEWS FROM DISTRICT 3

Greetings, and welcome to the 2024 Mustard Season edition of my newsletter! (This photo is from Library Lane in St. Helena - a sunny moment between storms.) Below, you'll find info about the County's chipping program, a recent advocacy trip to Washington, D.C., a groundwater sustainability pilot program, the sale of the Calistoga Fairgrounds and more. Please reach out to me or my District Aide Leah Doyle-Stevens with any County-related questions or ideas. Also, you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram for day-to-day updates from the district.

Thank you for reading!

Anne

IN THE COMMUNITY

Congratulations to Calistoga Joint Unified School District on a great STEM building demolition ceremony! The event offered some remembrances of the old classrooms, and also marked the beginning of a new project that will benefit local students and prepare them for a range of career options. Thank you to the residents of Calistoga for supporting CJSHS! This milestone wouldn't happen without the community's help.

IN THE BOARDROOM

In recent weeks, my colleagues and I voted unanimously to sell the Calistoga Fairgrounds to the City of Calistoga, and the City unanimously approved the agreement as well. This milestone follows extensive negotiations between the County of Napa and the City of Calistoga. I’m grateful to my colleagues and staff, as well as to all the Calistoga councilmembers and staff, for working to find common ground to make the deal happen. I know how significant the Fairgrounds property is to the residents of Calistoga and the entire county. I’m thrilled that we have reached an agreement that will place this community asset in the ownership and control of the city of Calistoga. I look forward to supporting the city in its next steps, and finding ways to partner on issues like emergency evacuation uses of the fairgrounds. Onward and upward!

IN THE VOLUNTEER SPIRIT

Community Health Napa Valley is seeking volunteers to support their award-winning Adult Day Health Care program in Napa and Act Two, their retail store in Saint Helena. In addition to these positions, they are always looking for volunteers for their Hospice Program. Click here for more information or contact Anne House at 707-254-4172. 

Community Health Napa Valley is a leading center in community-based care delivery and resources in the North Bay for those facing the transitions of aging, chronic illness, or the end of life.

ON THE (LAND)LINE

Thank you to all who have reached out about AT&T recently. The County is aware of the application by AT&T to discontinue copper landline telephone service to some households in select service areas around the state, including Napa County. The topic will be heard by the Board of Supervisors on March 12. The County is committed to supporting access to this necessary form of last resort communication for our rural residents and will carefully craft our position of opposition to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The CPUC hearing date for this item is in April.

In the meantime, I encourage all those potentially affected customers to participate in public forums on March 19 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and submit public comment. Access the webcast here. Participants who choose to view via webcast will have audio and video but will not be able to make verbal comments. If you would like to make comment during the forums, call 1-800-857-1917, passcode: 6032788#. 

For more information click here.

ON THE HORIZON

Chipping season begins next month!

The Napa County Fire Department provides a FREE chipping service to all residents who live in the unincorporated areas of Napa County. The intent of the program is to encourage residents to comply with defensible space requirements and help reduce wildfire risk around their homes and property. Register and/or learn more here.

AT THE CAPITOL

This month, I spent several days in Washington, DC, advocating for Napa County and our region. First, I was part of the Rural Counties Representatives of California delegation, including supervisors from Butte, Modoc, Monterey, and Sierra counties. We met with several different representatives, including Congressman Thompson, and talked about agricultural priorities in the Farm Bill, forest resilience, and California property insurance challenges.

I also participated in a roundtable on disaster resilience and shared some of Napa County’s strategies to become more resilient in the face of the many emergencies we’ve faced. You can see my slides here. It was powerful to hear from leaders in Florida, Hawaii, and Louisiana, who have all faced disasters of their own.

Then our Napa County team went to work- Over a day and a half, Supervisor Gregory, Legislative Analyst Mize, and Communications Dep. CEO Dawson (all pictured with me above) and I did six different meetings, sharing Napa County's successes and priorities with federal agencies and our federal elected partners.

Some of the topics we addressed:

• Wildfire insurance (yes we brought this up everywhere we could);
• Our strong opposition to AT&T's effort to stop providing "carrier of last resort" service (see more on this in On the LandLine article below); and
• Napa County's investment of some ARPA dollars in local childcare providers (including a project in Calistoga) - we know this will help local working families.

A highlight of our work was our meeting with FEMA and Cal OES, where we thanked them for the BRIC grant that will bring millions of federal dollars to Napa County to help make our county more fire-safe. We also talked about the need for strong communication between the county and local, state, and federal level during the project.

All in all, it was a productive trip - and I’m very glad to be back in the county - especially at this early-spring time of year!

AT THE COUNTY LEVEL

Pilot Site Program for Groundwater Sustainability

The Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) seeks volunteer vineyard and/or winery managers or operators at the leading edge of water management and stewardship efforts with an interest in:

1. Sharing information with others about the benefits they have experienced from changes in practices;
2. Helping to highlight the benefits of adopting different practices for the viticulture and winemaking industry as well as basin-wide sustainability objectives; and
3. Contributing information that helps to refine the understanding of total water use in Napa Valley and aid ground truthing of watershed-scale remotely sensed data.

The Pilot Site Program is one of many actions being taken to implement the Groundwater Sustainability Plan.

If you are interested in assisting the GSA or have any questions, please reach out here.

That's it for this edition - thank you for reading! If you have a question or a topic you'd like to read about here, please email me at anne.cottrell@countyofnapa.org . You can also get in touch by emailing Leah, my District Aide, at leah.doyle-stevens@countyofnapa.org.

To see my weekly updates, please follow my Supervisor Anne Cottrell Facebook page and @supervisorannecottrell on Instagram. The County’s website and Facebook page are also good sources of information.

Thanks again. I look forward to serving and collaborating with you!

Anne Cottrell