Following a major North Pine Street fire, Nevada City/Nevada County declared an emergency and authorized urgent demolition of the historic building, with plans to rebuild on the same footprint in roughly 10–12 months, modeled on the Cline Street Bridge for a faithful replica. Demolition will proceed under ATF arson-fire guidance with oversight by staff, the engineer, and the owner; salvageable materials will be saved and neighbor protections provided, and the process accelerated by an amended Urgency Ordinance plus a public hearing and ongoing public input. Relief efforts are under way, led by the Chamber of Commerce and donors, with funds distributed through the Nevada County Cultural Preservation Trust and the Nevada City Fire Relief Fund; debris/e-waste handling is prioritized and a temporary courthouse facility will serve for about a year during rebuilding. The plan includes a temporary downtown mall, a narrowed work zone with one-way traffic, early brick-wall and façade reconstruction, and maintained accessibility with regular updates to businesses and residents. A mutual-disaster water arrangement with NID and continued multi-agency coordination accompany the efforts, and officials will hold a public meeting to answer questions and dispel rumors.

Full Transcript of the Video:

Thank you.

A couple of ground rules that we need to establish from the get go is that this is a timed meeting.

It will end at 3 o'clock.

We are in the middle of a business day and many people have to get back to work.

So we will run for 60 minutes or less.

Also, the topic of today's meeting is the structural condition of the walls, the building, and whether or not demolition is recommended.

Anything else that needs to be discussed, there is another meeting planned tentatively for this weekend.

If not, we have a meeting on Monday night where the other issues can be addressed.

So here comes our city attorney.

I'd like to wait for the city to see if he's got any input.

I'm prepared to give a report.

Do you want to give the council any ground rules ahead of time?
They want to know.

We'll let you know before this meeting is over.

I'll hold you.

I hope there's a question.

Well, at this point, we're basically here to have the council take a look at the issue of whether the wall should be torn down or not normally in Nevada City before you can tear down the building, particularly in the historical district.

You need a permit.

Obviously, this is an unusual circumstance where we're not really in a position in all likelihood to go through the normal process of filing an application and getting various documents showing what the building would look like, where it should place, etc.

So I think we're here today to take a look at whether the situation is such that we simply should not follow our normal procedure and just go ahead and tear it down immediately without an application.

Thank you, Jim.

Bill?
I have a memo that I was prepared by myself with input from staff as well as input from the structural engineer that worked on City Hall, who is our structural engineer who has been called, who is a consultant.

He is also in the audience.

His name is Ray Powers.

He's a very seasoned individual who's done a lot of work in structural for many, many years, as well as the county building department and their head engineer, Paul, and the head of the building department, Clint, is here also.

We're all in concurrence about what I'm going to present to you.

Maybe not that it makes a lot of difference, but in many years that I've worked for the city, it's been in my best interest to try and protect everything that we have.

I feel it's important.

It's in my own heritage personally, as well as within the city.

That is the feeling of all the staff.

I can say that.

It's not an easy thing to do what we're going to recommend today.

Under the circumstances, we feel that this is the best recommendation, and I am willing to stand behind it.

I have structural people that are willing to stand behind it with me.

I don't need to go into the details of what happened.

Everybody knows where we are.

I'm getting a lot of calls on what's going on.

We're already doing work down there.

The work that's being done down there is under the directions of the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.

They do arson fire and fire investigation, and that's beyond our jurisdiction.

I have told them in meetings that were attended by staff and other members of the city and the fire department that it's a very dangerous situation and that they would move in there at their own risk.

They have chosen to do so.

They need to do investigation prior to any rain.

It's very important to them.

That's what's going on down there.

Right now as we speak, it's not the owner, it's not the city, it's the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.

I have a memo in front of you I will just briefly review because there's people in the audience that probably speak to the fact that the city has endeavored to restore a lot of things over the years.

Things that I've been involved in, like the Firehouse No.

1, the Boulder Street Yard, the Oddball things, and the city itself.

I'm not talking about all the individuals that have done work in the city, but the city itself has recognized the importance of its infrastructure and its contributing buildings.

We did have a special situation on the Cline Street Bridge, which a lot of you know.

It was an old structure built in 1903, and the metal and the fatigue in it rendered it not restorable.

So the city, rather than putting in a concrete structure, took on the task of replicating the bridge.

We all know that that bridge is not the original bridge, it's totally replicated.

But it's replicated on site in a manner that to a person that may have been gone from town for 25 years would come in and say, "Gee, they put a new deck on the bridge.

You have no way of hardly telling.

Even myself, I have trouble with it.

"
I think that's what we should endeavor to do on what I call the Old Elks Building.

That building after the fire has been extremely compromised.

It's hard to say as to when and if and how any of those walls will come down, or which direction they will fall.

If you just let it to time, eventually they would come down.

However, it's like a, I made a model of it for discussions that we had with staff.

We basically have a shell.

And when that building was built originally, that shell was held together by the interior walls, as well as the interior floors, as well as the roof.

It is a non-reinforced brick structure that has no steel in it, it has no integrity.

The walls stand there by themselves, and without anything in the middle of them to hold them up, there's very little stability to it.

I don't think there would be a massive failure, but there will be chunks coming out of the walls probably falling into the building for the most part.

And as soon as rain and weather and anything, it will actually accelerate that process.

So what I'm going to recommend is that the staff, mainly myself, the structural engineer, and the owner, be given the authority to remove the structure and place back on the site in the same footprint a structure that has the same profile windows look and that, as we have there, or we had there at the beginning of the week.

There are some salvageable artifacts in there that I think need to be saved, that could be saved and incorporated back when the new building would be put up.

There are metal doors, there are some brick that could be reused, there are also marble.

There's quite a number of things, and those will have to be sorted out and reused as necessary.

My proposal would be that the council authorize the demolition of the building, subject to the structural engineering Mr.
Powers and myself work with Mr.
Tenel.

Mr.
Tenel is the owner, he's one of the owners, and he will be doing the construction.

He is also, as you know, the contractor that built the building we're sitting in.

I feel perfectly comfortable with him.

We have some walls that are quite unstable, some walls that are pretty stable.

We'll have to make some decisions on how to do that.

We have not made those decisions as we speak now.

Alcohol, tobacco, and fire runs will have the use of the building probably for the next two or three days, so there will be nothing that goes on until they're gone.

But if the council sees fit, I recommend that the building be removed, that another structure in the same manner as what was there be rebuilt, that it be allowed to go ahead with footings and foundations to start as soon as the demolition is complete, knowing that some of this can be done in tandem because we know from the plans of the building, which Mr.
Tenel has, the height of the walls, the size of where the windows are, how it's to be built, in other words, that's going to remain the same.

So we can design footings and foundations ahead of ourselves rather than having a full design done ahead of time.

I think that's something that may be a little hard to understand, but this particular case you can do that.

So I think that that would be my recommendation and that in the process so that the city council and the planning commission and the city staff and everybody has input throughout this entire project, that I, a city engineer, would give reports to the council and the planning commission every time we met and discuss input at that particular time.

And if I don't attend because I feel that it's not something important, I will write a memo and either one of the bodies could ask me to attend at any time.

So that as the process continues, that the bodies would be kept in the loop and any contributing information could be used.

But it would not in any way hamper the procedure because the procedure would proceed ahead.

That would be my recommendation and I will yield to where the council's coming from if I'm ready for them.

That would be the way I would suggest.

And I'd like to hear what you individually have to say about that and whether you have specific interests that you would like.

There's been talk about people wanting to save brick and things that they could sell.

We have no trouble with working with that sort of thing.

I already talked to Mr.
Tyndall about that.

And the city yard, we have room to keep things if we need to do that.

That's a very simple matter.

So that, whoever that representative is, whoever that is, can approach me or anybody on the council.

That's why we would keep the thing going like that.

Any of those kind of things would be certainly taken into effect.

Well, one question that I had asked to me is that when the ATF people are done and prior to removing the rubble, if there are things in there that are salvageable from the businesses, will the business owners be allowed to have someone get them out?
I've been asked that same question.

We will, we will meet with the business owners.

We will do whatever we feel is necessary prior to leaving anybody into the building.

There's a few things that my powers, myself and the county building department will want to do before we let anybody in.

And then they would have to have proper protective gear and we would have to have a backup of safety people.

Yes, but we will, I understand that.

I know there's everything in that building that people want to preserve for their own use that they own.

And we will have to accommodate that.

We may need to do some wall work and/or demolition before that happens.

Bill, thinking back to the reconstruction of this building and all that we went through and also with the bridge, where in each instance you had a liaison from the council, will the liaison from the council and from the commission be helpful in this project as it was for City Hall and for the bridge?
Are you telling me that's what you want to be?
I'm volunteering for the job, yes.

I have no trouble with that.

Okay.

As part of the information that's been handed out today at the meeting, there's a resolution that I submitted, which I'm happy to report that the City Attorney has incorporated into the ordinance.

One of the items that I had suggested, and I would ask for support and would frankly ask to be individually supported by the Mayor since the Mayor makes appointments in this nature, I have to ask that two things, one which I would like to add to the motion when the time comes for the motion relative to expediting the specific language of the first, now therefore be resolved.

The second part of the now therefore be resolved was the suggestion of an ad hoc committee, and I had volunteered my services in that regard.

I served as the liaison on the bridge project and was involved as a liaison on the City Hall project, and I would very much like to be a liaison in this project and when the time comes would appreciate the support of the Mayor in that regard.

And when the time comes for a motion, which I'd be happy to make myself, I would like to add just one clause to the motion so that there's no question by the members of the community as to the resolve and purpose and commitment of this City Council.

Well, just to say real quickly that I would prefer that Steve's memo and resolution be carried over until Monday since the topic of this meeting is the deconstruction of the reconstruction, and we can address it at that time.

Well, if you'll notice in the memo, it has to do with both the deconstruction and reconstruction.

The memo is very clear that talks about my hope that the Council would adopt a resolution to assist the property owners as they face the necessary government rules and regulations relative to policy.

And our reconstructions.

Actually, the memo does address both.

It was put in a packet for next Monday at the time that I wrote it.

I was unaware and of course the meeting had not yet been announced for today.

So when the special meeting for today was announced, I asked the City Clerk if she would rather than make it for the March 25th meeting to include it today since it's germane to the topic.

So I would hope we can move forward with that.

And I think that as has been indicated, assuming this motion passes today, that things are going to start to happen in a hurry.

Safely, but in a hurry.

And I would hope to be able to pursue that liaison position with the City Engineer for demolition as well as reconstruction as requested in the memo.

Mayor, I see no reason for an ad hoc committee, but Mr.
Cottrell and I have worked before and I have no trouble with him being the liaison that will report politically and that can bring stuff to me that he hears that I don't get involved in in town.

That's perfectly fine with me.

I have no trouble with that.

Thank you for your input.

Well, that concludes your report then.

I guess the matter at hand is the ordinance number 2002-01, City of Nevada City, an urgency ordinance authorizing the demolition of the building in the historical district of Nevada City.

My memory serves there's certain rules on urgency ordinances.

Could you recap those for me please?
Well, first of all, we'll need a public hearing, but the other rule is we need a four-fifths vote on an urgency ordinance.

Okay, then.

At this time, we will open a hearing, a public hearing on ordinance number 2002-01.

If anyone would like to address this issue, please come to the microphone, state your name and address for the record, and please keep your comments brief.

My name is Jen Goss.

I'm at 15934 Airport Road.

I support the demolition, and I think that there is another person imminently more qualified if there should be a liaison in Connelly Weaver.

And I think no one else should do it.

All apologies, Steve.

Thank you.

My name is Ann Hartung Bonnivert.

My brother and I, Henry Hartung, own the Hartung Building, which backs up to the side of the building that the fire was in.

Java John's portion of it does rest against the side of the old building.

We also have a courtyard behind the other two parts, and now that is all listed as dangerous area.

What I'm concerned about is when they get ready to demolish that, what happens if the wall comes in toward us?
That's a very good question.

I can't answer that question right now, but we're aware of the fact of the sensitivity of that wall.

I'm perfectly aware of it.

And those are decisions that we will make as we go along.

I'm not even sure of how much of a party wall it is between you.

I do know the sensitivity and how that wall was compromised in the fire.

I'm aware of that.

We will take care of it.

We will work with you or whoever is your spokesperson on that regard.

In the meantime, yes, the building department did post your courtyard off-limits, and we did that for just the reason you said.

I would hope that we would keep it off-limits until, you know, I know you really don't use it that much, and right now I hope it doesn't serve as a great inconvenience, but until such time as we either shore something up, it's very important that you follow that.

No, actually we ask them not to use it, the star owners and so on, and we do our best to keep it clean.

But my name, Ann Bonivert, and my phone number is 273-7892, if you need to get a hold of me.

And I have contacted my insurance, commercial insurance.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Mayor Arnett and members of the board.

My name is Lynelle Garfield, and I'm the River Science Director at the Southview River Citizens League.

I want to express how sorry we all are at circle for the tragic losses incurred by this community over the last few days.

We want to congratulate everyone involved in containing the damage and the fire on pine and commercial streets, and I personally want to recognize this community for the amount of support I've seen downtown in the last few days.

I would also like to say that we're impressed with how little debris is currently in the street and on the pavement.

I'm glad to see that the progress is moving forward quickly and efficiently to rebuild downtown.

We would like to suggest the protection of Deer Creek through the use of storm drain pollution protection, pollution prevention at and around the fire site.

Perhaps this could be added to the resolution.

We have been through an emergency and a tragic loss, and now I see this as an opportunity for us to move further to prevent rain runoff of any toxic materials that could be present in that burn.

I wish to remind the city that the storm drain system enters the creek directly without any runoff treatment, and that is a pretty major water quality issue for us in this county and in the whole Yuba River watershed.

I've personally received almost 10 calls from concerned citizens regarding the toxic materials that could be in the runoff, and I wanted to express that to you.

And I wanted to remind you that we are looking at it seeing rain real soon, and so this is something that we should consider right away if we're going to do it.

I thank you for your time, and I'm available at Circle at 216 Main Street, Nevada City, if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Excuse me, ma'am, can we have a phone number?
We got it.

5961.

Yeah.

[laughter] That's okay.

Is there anyone else that would like to address the Council on Ordinance No.

2002-1 at this time?
No one will close the public hearing portion.

If the mayor would so choose, if you wanted Steve or somebody to be a liaison, those are the type of things that I could have a council member help me with, like what this kind of stuff.

They're the two ladies that spoke.

Those are kind of out of mind.

I'm going to be more concerned with the structural aspects of the building than I will be in trying to -- and somebody could help me with that.

Okay.

That's very good.

Regarding the recent comment from the ladies from Circle, we have the Deer Creek, what they call themselves, Friends of Deer Creek.

They were in the process of installing those sorts of traps in the storm drains.

Is that not correct?
Could we contact them and see where they're at with that?
Could those storm drains be maybe prioritized?
I think that it's -- I don't know what they do in the cities.

There's actually like a cloth they just put over the grate that allows the water to flow through, catches the bigger particulates, and then they get cleaned out every now and then, and possibly volunteers from Circle or whatever, because we're so strapped with our city.

People could, you know, watch and maintain those, but also what you're speaking of probably might be something further.

Maybe if she could speak again.

That's John Vanderjegen.

John Vanderjegen, right.

He is familiar with what you're just talking about.

So we could do perhaps short-term emergency catches, and the concrete permanent ones perhaps could be re-prioritized and set on those drains.

Perhaps I don't know.

The Friends of Deer Creek staff are all out of town right now, and that's the only reason I'm here talking to you today, because I'm sort of standing in for them.

The fabric-type mesh is a very easy installation, and it's very easy to maintain, and it's very effective.

And there's probably between nine and ten storm drains in town that would be vulnerable to rain runoff.

And I could definitely activate some volunteers to help out with the process if needed.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Well, if there are no further comments from the Council, I read a motion to ask me to move on.

No, I won't comment.

Okay, good.

I didn't want to lose her to that point.

I think one thing that we do need to keep in mind is that we have lost this building, and our utmost determination should be to work with the building owners and the businesses there to try to get it back on track as fast as we can.

And hopefully we won't get stuck in bureaucratic red tape, and I don't mean -- what I mean is that let's -- you know, if Steve's going to represent us, what have you -- work with Bill and this Council, make the decisions, and I think it's imperative with the jobs that have been lost due to this situation be, you know, getting the job done.

Get the construction completed, and once again, these people can be back to work, and I think it would be a feather in all our caps.

And the way we have done -- come together before, I'm sure this will happen.

Also -- I agree.

We -- it's -- we read it in the paper, it's real exciting to see the positive side of how everyone comes out and the things that are already planned for moving the musicians down to other places to play so we can still hear them and they can learn their living and fundraisers that are being planned.

There's all types of things that are already, you know, in the works.

I'm sure that it's -- from the moment we saw that smoke, it was in all our minds to get to this point where we would be offering our full support in expediting this tragedy and turning the finance overlining in the cloud.

We entertain motion, Kevin?
Well, I will.

Just after one quick comment.

I don't mean to.

Obviously, this has been a terrible, terrible event, but I'd like to think of it more as a disaster, because the fire was contained or confined to one building and no one was injured.

And that, in my mind, is the difference between a disaster and a tragedy.

And no one injured.

And so -- and I think that that's very commendable to the firefighters and the support people, absolutely.

One more thing.

I think we should all give very special thanks to all the fire departments and all the volunteers that basically saved our town by keeping this fire contained where it was.

We're very, very fortunate.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much.

Matt Sands.

Thank you.

[applause] And now I will entertain motion.

All right.

I'm going to throw a motion out that will hopefully accommodate Circle's request.

It's going to be a little generic in nature, but as we said, we can finesse it.

It will certainly capture the spirit, I think, of what Circle is asking for.

I would move for the adoption of Urgency Ordinance 2002-01, and on item C, section 2, I would suggest the following language be added.

This is for the benefit of the audience.

This says that the council fines that it is in the best interest of public health and safety to immediately remove the remaining portions of the building and understanding.

I am suggesting instead of a period, there will be a comma in the following clause.

While being sensitive to potential environmental impacts to Deer Creek and elsewhere in town.

And I hope that that would be a satisfactory suggestion.

I hope that would accommodate it, and then we can figure out the best way to make sure we have those protections.

And then I would add to the ordinance, the following, that the council adopts this ordinance with a pledge that City Council of Nevada City will do everything in its power and authority to expedite the reconstruction of said building and the reopening of affected businesses in the shortest time possible.

[Applause] Mr.
Mayor, I will second that.

Okay, it has been moved and seconded to adopt Urgency Ordinance 2002-01 as amended.

Could I stop just for a second?
Technically, we should have a motion to read the title only first.

Oh, and then immediately vote.

Okay, I would move to read title only.

Seconded.

Okay, moved and seconded to read title only.

All those in favor?
Aye.

This is ordinance number 2002-01, City of Nevada City, an Urgency Ordinance authorizing the demolition of a building in the historical district of Nevada City.

Now we will entertain a motion.

All right, I will, I'm going to move and I'm going to carry it.

This is absolutely germane.

I will ask for the following motion, your indulgence, for approximately one minute relative to a germane announcement, fairly consistent with what Councilmember McKay indicated.

At this point, I would move for adoption of Urgency Ordinance number 2002-01.

As amended.

As amended.

I'll second it.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded that we adopt ordinance number 2002-01 as amended.

Any further discussion?
All those in favor?
Aye.

Opposed?
Motion carries.

I would if I could then, just as a brief announcement before we adjourn.

Number one, I would, I really, I can understand the suggestion of the audience member.

I really would ask for your support carried to be the liaison.

Also, just as long as we have some folks here, this would be a good time to make an announcement that is germane.

And we are well before three o'clock.

The Chamber of Commerce has set up a bank account for relief fund and there are a lot of efforts underway to raise money as David indicated.

The musicians are going to raise money for themselves and for others and there will be in about a month a silent auction that I think is going to generate tremendous income for the folks that are unemployed.

Some of the restaurants this Sunday indicate they want to do something.

I think you're going to see a lot of efforts to raise money.

Councilman Dyer and I, along with Joe and Paula and Bob Crabbe.

We sat down yesterday and we tried to figure out how we could raise some money.

We've made our contacts and we're comfortable in announcing that on Thursday, all day in Nevada City, we don't have everyone yet signed up at Bygolly.

We will before the sun sets tomorrow.

On next Thursday, that every restaurant and bar in Nevada City, we hope, we have most of them already committed, their employees will donate all of their tips for the day.

And the restaurant and bar owners will donate a portion of their proceeds as they see fit as their portion.

Today, I had a history class that I taught to elder hospitals, 41 people, adults from all around the United States.

One raised their hand and said, "What can we do to help?"
And I said, "Well, there's an account set up.

I have an envelope.

"
I see David Burton, President of the Chamber, is here.

I have an envelope for you here, David, with checks and cash of $114 from visitors from all around the United States who are here.

And to jump start the bar and restaurant portion of this, and this is a challenge for all you bar and restaurant owners, I have a check for $500 from Bryce Lee at the mine shaft.

He said, "I don't want to worry about percentages.

"
Here's $500.

You know what the memo says?
"Fire relief fund," and he will match the tips.

(Applause) And that's the way Nevada City reacts, and no one knows better than me, because July 21st at 1.

30 in the morning, I got burned out of everything I owned.

And if it wasn't for David Ray and the other firefighters in this town, they saved the rest of that block of Spring Street.

And the people who came to my aid and raised over $3,000 for me, and people like Greg and Rona Kuk who immediately said, "What do you need?
How much furniture do you need?
How many pots and pans do you need?
How much silverware do you need?"
I might not have made it in this town.

So Pat and I have taken this on as our little project.

I'm glad I have a chance to promote it.

And I'm glad, David, we started with $614 today.

Thank you, Steve.

Just to say one thing, the chamber is being the escrow company for the money at this point.

And if you are planning something, we'd like to know, because today we've had several calls of people planning things, and we've been able to put people together and saying, "If you're doing this, or these folks doing this, it can be a more collective effort.

If people will just call in and let us know what they're going to do, and then we'll try to help them out and make it go.

"
Thanks so much.

Thank you, David.

Members of the Council, my name is Ken Baker, along with my wife Kay and Gary and Patty Tennell.

We're the owners of the building at 109 North Pine Street.

We'd like to thank you very much for your action here today.

I think the expeditious manner in which you have presented yourself to us in an available manner is very much appreciated to allow us to get started in this process and in a timely fashion.

Perhaps more than thanking you today is we'd like to thank all of your employees, both your fire employees, your public works employees, your city engineer, your city manager, city clerk.

They've been outstanding in this endeavor to help us through this time of mini-crisis for two or three days now.

The mutual aid effort within Nevada County was, without a doubt, outstanding.

I think, Kerry, you hit on it today when you said they contained it within the building.

As I sat there for the first hour and a half, I was saying, "Let's stop this fire.

Let's stop this fire.

"
And then the next hour and a half, I was saying, "Burn, baby, burn.

Let's get down as far as you can because it's over with.

"
And so it was kind of with mixed emotions where I was, but I was consoled by friends, relatives, and fire people through that entire process.

And during the last few days, I think I've met more fire investigators than I knew there were in the world, much less the northern part of the state of California.

But really, our heartfelt thanks to you as a city council.

We look forward to rebuilding the building in as timely a manner as we can, and we pledge to you we will build it back in a fashion that you will recognize it as you did before the fire started.

And we hope that it will be a landmark, as it once was, for the city of Nevada City.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

[applause] And as somebody pointed out, the day of the fire, you know, in 100 years, the new building will be historic also.

[laughter] As will the city hall.

That's right.

Mayor's Council members, my name is Pascal.

I'm from UBNED, which is one of the community sites around here.

And on the day of the fire, on the next days, we got around, I don't know, probably up to 150 emails from people who asked, "How can we help?"
And, "What is there to do?"
So the Chamber of Commerce and now Minders Foundry have agreed to collect the funds and help in the distribution of the funds for the relief fund that goes to the employees and the artists who have lost their jobs now.

So I'm very happy to announce that all the media of Nevada County, me and KBMR, KNCO, the Union and UBNED, have pledged to fully support the relief fund and publicize it to the best of our abilities.

Any event that will be held, any fundraiser, we will publicize everything.

It's going to be a public service announcement.

And I am happy to announce that we received this morning from a donor who happens to be a friend who lives in the Netherlands, who came once in Nevada City, I saw the city, and this morning I have received an international money order from $1,000 that he made out to the relief fund.

And he said, "I just spent 48 hours in Nevada City, but hey, this is worth more than $1,000.

Please.

"
And so there it is.

Thank you, Frances.

Hi, Ellen Davis from Minders Foundry.

I need to clarify that it's not the foundry that's involved in the assistance here.

It's the Nevada County Cultural Preservation Trust, which is the owner/operator of Minders Foundry.

The trust was actually set up to be a vehicle like this.

It would be a wholly separate account and those kinds of things.

And we're going to the bank today.

But I wanted to make it clear that it's not the foundry, it's the trust that will be the assistance here.

Thank you.

I'm Bud Burke, and I'm known as the Nevada City Streetwalker.

But it's really true because I walk Nevada City streets every day and night and day, almost any time of the day.

I came to Nevada County in 1966, and I'm not going to give you all my history.

But I'll tell you, I've been really proud of living in Nevada City.

And the people here in Nevada City, you know this is a unique area to live, and all of us already know that, so we're just kind of patting ourselves on the back when we say that.

But I think I know every one of you here personally.

And if I don't, I wish I did.

But anyway, I just want to tell each one of you that are sitting up here how much I appreciate each one of you individually.

And I'm so thankful that we have people that are going to move ahead on things.

Most people don't even know what I did because they just think that I was a dirty old PO that came to town here and kind of messed up a lot of the kids.

But I originally came here to build the Spring Hill Manor Convalescent Hospital and all the other buildings that are up there right along with it in 1966 before the freeway was here.

And from the time we broke ground, it took us 39 days, and our contractors, our builders were able to walk off.

But it took a lot of ground work ahead of time to be able to coordinate it that way.

And with you guys' attitude here, I think we're going to see some miraculous things happen here in Nevada City.

And I'm here to assist anyone in any way, shape, or form that I can, if I can kind of help crack the whip or whatever.

I've done it before, and I'm ready to do it again.

So thanks for all of you good people here.

And I also want to thank Burl in a special way because, boy, I've seen him doing a lot of things here for many years, and I'm just thankful for Burl.

And I'm proud that we have a guy that has a reputation that he's made here in this town and in the state of California and all over the United States really for the length of time that he's been able to put up with all us guys.

And I see another guy right over here, Jim, and I could name every one of you.

But anyway, I'm just thankful for all of you.

And I'll sit down and shut up.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name's Levy Bucknell, and I was co-owner of Herb Shop Records with Ron Quintana.

And I just wanted to thank Mr.
Tintall and Mr.
Baker for being so great all these years, and also to Laura for letting us open back there in the back of the Herb Shop.

I have a little bit of information.

Michael Graham, I don't see him here, and he called me, and he seems to be working around the clock getting things going, fundraisers and the like.

And I know that he wouldn't mind if I told people, if you want to contact him, his phone number is 477-0929.

And he's setting up, one thing he's setting up is many of the musicians who used to perform seven nights a week at Friar Tux, he's going to be having them perform at Cooper's starting on Sunday, seven nights a week.

And if the community supports this and keeps coming out, he wants to keep having that happen there.

And then Cafe Mecca, and as well as it's escaping me, the new restaurant that went in with them, thank you.

They, I believe on Sunday, are doing something, I believe it's at 4 o'clock, all the dinners go towards the fund.

So that's some information to a little more specific.

I like to network and advertise.

And the other thing is I have an extensive mailing list, email mailing list, and so if anybody wants to use me to network, I can send out information to all the people I've gathered their email addresses for the last few years.

And so you can contact me at lowercase, lovey, L-O-V-I-E, at jps.

net, and I'll be happy to extend information to the thousands of people on that.

Thank you.

Great, thanks.

And don't forget to pick up your disco ball on the way out.

It's in the main office.

I'll put that on top of Jared.

Hello Peter.

Do I get a disco ball?
I'm Peter Van Zant, the first district supervisor from the county.

I'd like to congratulate everybody that worked on, as Carrie said, this tragedy that, or disaster, I'm sorry, that wasn't a tragedy because nobody was hurt.

I'm here with a couple of items.

One is that the staff out at the landfill will be notifying the owners that we're going to waive the fees for the demolition materials that are going to be going to the landfill.

They're going to do that in advance and then recommend to the board of supervisors that we permanently waive them, that we have to go through the bureaucracy.

I'll certainly be supporting that.

There's also some other issues around e-waste and all that stuff, so we're going to work with the city and the owners to make sure that that happens in a fast manner.

I'm also on the board of the Sierra Economic Development District and our president, Betty Riley, is working up a menu of services and supports to people who have been displaced out of jobs and also business assistants through Sierra College.

So I will be getting that to you folks and to the chamber as additional backup and help for these folks.

So that's my report for today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter.

[applause] It's Greg Cook from the Friar Tucks here in Nevada City.

Just to dispel any myths you might have heard of me moving somewhere, which I've been approached from every place from outside of Sacramento to Colfax to across the freeway.

One of the things I've learned in the last couple of days is life is not bricks and mortar, it's wood.

We can fix that and replace that.

It's the spirit.

And the corner of planning commercial will be Friar Tucks in a very short period of time.

[applause] My name is Glenda Zenone.

I'm here today as a representative of the Foothill Theatre Company and since Steve started off this list, I would like to invite everyone in this room, their friends, anybody they know.

We are giving a special benefit performance on Saturday, March the 30th at 2 p.

m.

All money is donated.

All the proceeds will go to the fund.

Our actors will be donating their time.

The play is the little shop of horrors.

Come and just enjoy yourselves and have a few laughs and lighten the atmosphere a little bit.

And we hope you're very generous and we would like to make as large as possible a donation to the fund.

Thank you.

Thank you, Glenda Zenone.

[applause] I believe that that is going to be a pay what you wish.

It's a pay what you can.

So we ask you to be very generous since you know where it's going.

And I have to say that our home is one of the other historic buildings in this town, the Nevada Theatre.

And we're very happy to be there and to entertain you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, Mr.
Sneed informed me that if they sell out the theater on a Saturday night at regular ticket prices, they generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,000.

And I'm certain that this benefit fundraiser at 2 o'clock will exceed that greatly.

Hi, my name is Laura Solano.

I'm the owner of the Earp Shop.

And I want to thank you for being so quick at getting this happening.

And I also want to say that we are down, but we're not out, that we will be there again, too.

Thank you.

[applause] Well, I want to -- my days are numbered on this council although they seem to keep stretching out.

So I do have a few things I want to say before I do go away.

And one is I started on this council in 1986, and we put in the general plan.

And a lot of the paperwork that is in place to protect the brick and mortar.

And Greg touched on that, and it's real important.

And that's our job.

But it wouldn't be worth anything without the support of the people out there because it's the spirit and the energy that keeps this town moving.

The brick and mortar is our job to keep it intact and historical.

And we've done a good job at that, but it's worthless without your support.

So I urge everybody to come out and support the fundraisers, become part of the energy that's going to come out of this disaster, and make the most of it and find the silver lining in this cloud.

The fire has happened, but there's a lot of good yet that can be realized from it.

And we're all going to take part of that.

So don't miss the opportunity to be part of that.

There's one other issue since my days are numbered that I want to bring up and I may not be able to see through.

But I think there's an opportunity here that we should consider planting a fire time capsule regarding this accident that happened and commemorate it in a different way from the other time capsules that are in town.

And I would challenge the next council to pull the details together as to how that should be done.

But I think it should be seriously considered and that it should be planted right there on the corner on the sidewalk.

And I hope you can follow through with that when I'm not here.

Thank you, Pat.

My name is David Joyner.

I'm a bartender and waiter at Friar Tux.

And on behalf of all of the employees from Friar Tux and I'm sure the other businesses, we just want to say thanks to everyone who has been giving so much support.

And I mean these offers of donations and things are just, it's amazing.

So I just want to say thank you on behalf of everyone.

Thank you.

[Applause] I heard you.

No, just that he's available.

You are available.

Okay.

What time are you still here?
Two o'clock.

Okay.

We are going to hold in this chambers on Sunday, two o'clock, a -- I'm sorry, Kennedy.

I suppose you called it such a great title that you called it the -- The All Come.

Yeah, basically it's a community meeting.

We'll be held here at two o'clock and there will be engineers, the city engineers, the city attorney and myself, representatives from the fire, representatives from the ATF, representatives from the various agencies and organizations.

And we will be able to answer questions.

We will be able to put minds to rest, dispel rumors and just let everybody have an opportunity to ask questions that time did not permit us to deal with today.

So that will be at two o'clock on Sunday.

Right here there will also be access and information on grief management, I guess is what you would call it.

And various other aspects and safety net type things.

So everyone is invited to attend.

And with that being said, I guess we can -- I have one more item.

I would like before everybody leaves to -- the area is still very dangerous and we've cordoned it off.

And the building department has put red posters around.

And I know the crowd loves to watch what's going on.

Please, you know, stay back of the barriers and that.

It's very important to us.

As the mayor said, you know, nobody was injured or hurt at this point and we don't want that to happen.

That's a very important item.

So the police and fire will be asking you to do that.

And I know that we all like to get a step closer, but that's important.

I'll move to adjourn.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

But one thing that I would like to ask is that if there anyone that has a cell phone or a pager, if you could put it on the silent mode or turn it off during the duration of the meeting it would be greatly appreciated.

And why don't we start with some introductions.

Greg, you want to just introduce yourselves around and then we'll.

.

.

Greg, welcome to Part 2.

My name is Luther Bono.

I'm the police chief of the Tennessee Department of the Solid Cali Office of Emergency Services.

And then at the.

.

.

I'm Rob Delusper.

I'm the information department member, I'm the senior vehicle assistance program.

And I'm the director of the Air Force, I'm the head of the Air Force.

I'm Kerry Arnet, the mayor.

And I'm Bill Falcone, the city engineer.

Okay, thank you.

We would like to point out that there are handouts at the table as you are coming in the door and those cover different reactions to stress and trauma, a list of therapists and a little bit more information on stress and trauma which will be discussed today as well as some of the benefits that have been already scheduled.

So why don't we start things off with Greg.

Okay.

And there are microphones there.

Okay.

Okay, all I'll just do is I'm going to give you a general synopsis of what happened.

At 417 hours on Wednesday, March 20th, the Nevada City 49er fire parts were toned.

For heavy smoke, possible structure fire.

The first at scene units was 419 hours, two minutes into the incident.

For our engine 5486, Chief 53 for 49er.

The first request for additional engines was given at that point for three additional engines at 423.

At 426, another engine arrived.

429, there was a multiple of engines, the truck from Grass Valley, myself and another Nevada City engine.

At 433, two more 49er pieces of equipment arrived.

So about 15 minutes into the fire, we had five engines, one truck and 20 people.

At that point in time, there was heavy black smoke showing from the building.

The fire was through the roof on the North Pine Street side.

The attic looked fully involved at that point.

There was a lot of fire.

The first strike team request, which is a strike team, is five engines a liter.

Went out at 447 hours.

Between 450 and 500 hours, that strike team arrived at scene along with two air supports.

An air support is basically to fill our SCBA bottles, one from Grass Valley and one from Higgins.

At 50 minutes into the fire, we had 10 fire engines on it, one truck and 50 people.

The next request was at 542 hours for another strike team of five engines, a truck.

The next truck closest was Marisville.

And also they responded their Hazmat unit, which is another air filling system, multi-use piece of equipment.

The next one, 649 hours.

The next strike team was requested.

And the next truck, which was also from Placer County at this point, Placer Consolidated, that truck arrived at scene at 11, around 11 o'clock.

At this point in time, we had about 100 people at the fire and about 20 engines and a bunch of miscellaneous equipment.

We also had lots of overhead from CDF and other fire departments here.

Every fire department in the county was pretty much represented by the engine requests and the personnel requests.

The incident, operationally-wise, started in the attic for, I shouldn't say started in the attic, but we had heavy attic fire, heavy through the roof fire, tried to contain it to that side.

We were ventilating the roof at that point with people on it.

It kicked around behind us.

So we had to back off the roof once the roof got unstable so we didn't injure any firefighters.

Then we, it was into numerous false voids and it seemed like we were chasing it, but at the height of the fire, we had to figure out about 3,500 gallons a minute of fire flow.

We also assisted the city water system by going to the NID system on Zion Street to increase the pressure of the city water system since we were filling lots of water out there.

So we took care of that.

Two problems we had in the beginning, PG&E was it seemed fairly rapidly.

They disconnected to North Pine Street.

They thought the power was dead in the building, but the power was still hot.

We found out the power was fed from both Broughton and Commercial Street on that.

We didn't know that until it arced a couple times on us.

And for the ones that were standing down there, there was a nice little explosion of natural gas, too, that was just trapped in the pipe.

So there was numerous people inside the structure on the roof.

When that exploded, knock on wood, no one was hurt.

We had exposure problems on Broad Street and also an upper end of Commercial, the next building's up.

The Elks, or we call it the Elks Building, but the building down there was basically three-sided masonry.

The bank, the old Bank of America building was masonry, which helped us a lot.

The backside on the corner was an add-on.

It was wood frame, and that's where it backed up to Broad Street.

So we had a lot of lines on that Broad Street corridor to keep it from coming out that way.

We achieved that hole.

There was a little courtyard in there.

We had hose lines into that.

We also salvaged most of the stuff from off Broad Street, got all of his stuff out.

We salvaged a lot of the records from the probation department upstairs, got them out.

And we've still been putting out hotspots.

There's still a hotspot in the center of it.

And basically what that's caused by is three floors or two and a half floors of stuff all in the basement.

Everything's kind of pyramid down, so we keep putting water just runs off.

We can't get to the seat of it.

So maybe tomorrow we can get some more heavy equipment in there and get to the seat of it.

But we keep putting water, and it's not going to go anymore.

It's out in the center.

Some of the other agencies that responded, we had the ambulance there.

We had Red Cross there.

We had a great amount from the community of bringing in food, drinks and that.

There was great support, which was very nice.

Overall, we had good support from the police department and all the other county agencies on this.

I think it ran very well as far as a multi-agency, probably the biggest in this area of multi-agency, multi-county response to an incident.

That's about it, what I've got for General Synopsis.

Okay, backing up to the beginning, the first indication there was anything going on was just a couple of minutes or a few minutes after four o'clock in the morning when the one officer had on duty, Officer Rodi, responded to an alarm call to the location for, I think it was a burger alarm.

And when he got there, he saw the smoke and saw a fire coming out of one of the windows on Commercial Street.

So he immediately called the fire department and that's when they responded.

And then the next thing that he was worried about is the people sleeping or the people living in the area.

And so he immediately requests some assistance and started literally kicking in doors to get the people and get him out of the same locations that Grant was talking about.

Fortunately, a couple people who weren't home, they'd be somewhere else and the ones that were there immediately left for a friend's house or whatever.

And nobody was injured.

The responding agencies, as you know, we get a lot of looky-loos and stuff at these things and even though it was four or five o'clock in the morning, I don't know where some of these people came from, but they came.

And so we had Grass Valley Police Department that came and responded and they were handling the lower end of the Brock Street and Commercial and we had the Sheriff's Department responded immediately.

California Highway Patrol called up and said, "Whatever we need, they'll get us here.

"
They had their plane in the area.

Once we got all the traffic stopped, we got the fire engines and everybody in and keeping everybody out.

Everything went pretty smooth.

Like Greg says, it was an emergency situation that everybody responded to in the minimum amount of time possible and, you know, thank God nobody got injured.

After a little while and everybody got here, maybe eight, nine o'clock in the morning, everybody was wondering what could be done.

People started coming out of the stores and bringing us water and food and drinks and everything went across their way.

It was responding very, very good.

The main problem we had as far as the police was is just trying to keep the people out of there.

Some of them were trying to get a little closer than we would have liked them to get there, but it worked out okay for the most part.

Once the investigation, once the fire department got the thing knocked down and ATF came and the fire investigator, Sergeant Burley, is working closely with them and where we are now is that after the meeting Friday, they started their investigation, were able to get into the building.

At first, there was some concern about how stable the building was and whether somebody could get in there and when the ATF people want to investigate, there are certain ways that they take things down and they had to make a decision on how they were going to take the walls down or whether they had to come around another way and pick at the stuff that's in there.

They're experts.

This is a normal type of thing that happens in these kind of fires.

There's no indication of anything that I know of.

Nobody said anything, but they still have to try to isolate where the fire originated or what started it.

They've been taking a look at it over the weekend.

Bird has been in here three or four times this weekend, so have I.

Monday, depending on how the weather goes, they're going to start knocking it more and chipping at it.

Now, if you've looked at it, you've seen that they've taken part of the wall down on Commercial Street.

That wasn't caused by the fire.

They actually pulled that down and have carted away some of the rubble already.

What they have to do is try to get all the way down to the ground level and maybe even the basement to find out where the origin of the fire was.

That might take them to the middle of this next week or maybe at the end, depending on how things go, what the weather is like.

Tomorrow morning, about 6, 7 o'clock in the morning, there will be a lot of ATF investigators crawling around that building and Robinson Timber will be pulling the stuff out of there.

With that, that's all I got.

My responsibility as a representative of the county is dual in that because county offices were located in the building, I have a responsibility for county offices.

I was called at about 6.

15 in the morning that there was a fire involving county offices and asked to be there.

When I got there, I could see the extent of the effort that was going on to put out the fire and then I go into my emergency services responsibility as well.

My emergency services responsibility is to offer to Nevada City, offer to the fire department and anyone else involved all of the assistance of the county and the agencies within the county and ultimately making a decision whether or not we're going to require assistance from the state of California or mutual aid regions.

So I was watching the fire from approximately 6.

30 when I arrived here until 8 o'clock.

By 8 o'clock, we had put together a task force of county officials whose primary responsibility was to determine how we were going to provide probation and victim witness services in the very immediate term since obviously those services have a public safety component to them.

We convened at 8 o'clock with about 30 county department heads and other individuals who were involved in the response and based on the discussion that took place, I declared an emergency at 8.

39 and that sets in motion the county's ability to respond without going to public bid and to use all of the resources of the county in support of whoever needs it.

At that first initial meeting at 8 o'clock, we made effort to reach EDD because while Nevada County being a large institution, we're going to recover very quickly.

We were concerned about the private business people and particularly the employees of those businesses that they're not going to know what to do.

They're in shock.

We wanted to make it as easy for them to gain assistance as possible.

So we made an outreach to the EDD and asked that they set up rather than waiting for the employees to come to them that they would be proactive and make contact with the business owners and try to get the employees assistance directly through the business owner in a consolidated meeting.

To make a very long story short, we were able to get the probation department back in at least minimal operation using the Nevada City Veterans Building, which will probably start in the middle of next week, we're using the emergency operating center and the group center and we're using space in the courthouse that they had previously occupied.

My initial declaration of emergency has to be confirmed by the Board of Supervisors at their next regular scheduled meeting.

I have submitted that resolution to the Board.

We're going to be asking the Governor to use all available state resources to assist the Nevada County and Nevada City specifically.

And as well, we are asking that the Small Business Administration declare this area, and they will actually declare all of the Nevada County, to be economically impacted by this disaster and we're asking for low interest economic loans to be made available to the businesses that have been impacted.

Obviously, Greg Cook and Prior Tuck and Europe and Newshaw and Off-Broad Theater have suffered a direct loss to their business.

We know that the businesses in the immediate vicinity and those businesses certainly that are tourist-related may in fact as well suffer economic loss, so we're going to be working on that avenue and some assistance in the economic area.

I think basically that's where the county is right now with what we're trying to do.

The use of the courthouse and the best building we think will be a temporary solution.

We're going to be looking at a more long-term solution in that we don't expect that the building that we were in will be available for a year or so.

But at least at this point, we intend to go back to that building with Ken Baker and Vera Tensel are able to get the building rebuilt.

We feel that we have a relationship with them that was very good and we want to do something that damages their ability to recover.

Any questions or questions for the three of us?
Yeah, Pat Dyer, business owner and city council member.

I have been approached by members of the public and I apologize for coming in late, you may have already addressed this, to ask or they have asked me and so naturally I will ask you because I didn't have the answer.

As to the rubble being removed and disposed of, there's a lot of concern about toxics and so forth.

Have you spoken to that or could you enlighten us as to how it's going to be disposed of, particularly in regards to toxics?
I think I can initially respond and possibly great want to.

Nevada City was asked to declare an emergency also which they did.

We have segregated an area out of the landfill that all the materials will go to first so we can go through it and see if there's any recoverable items particularly personal items.

We were initially concerned that there might be toxic materials at that site such as the lead from the computers that melted and this kind of thing.

We're assured by the environmental health department that it's probably not going to be an issue but in any event all the material is going to the landfill to a designated area.

It will be sorted and sifted before it is entered into the waste stream.

Pretty much yes.

Just what Dan has said on this resolution or this thing we sent to the county on that.

And also that Robison Timber, Don Hawthorne and people down around the farmgrains right now so there's any runoff that's being kept out of that and they also handle some of the environmental health tank removal and stuff like that.

So they are at burst in, let's say, the hazards that could be there.

Robison Timber is licensed especially to handle that kind of stuff.

We're also making one other effort and that is that we will not be charging any business owner for the debris that is taken to the landfill until they've been able to file insurance claims and attempt recovery.

So we're waiving all of that process until the end.

Okay and we will have an actual question and answer period a little bit later.

But thank you very much and we'll go.

Yes, as I said my name is Rob Luskin.

I'm from the New York County's victim witness assistance program.

We assist victims and witnesses in crimes.

There's no indication that this is a crime.

We talked to our ATF people, talked to our CDF investigators.

They've actually come through and they've sort of conducted interviews with all of our formation department staff.

They've interviewed some of the first fire department responders and Steve Carvin was a special agent with alcohol and tobacco and firearms.

And Lus locally actually was on his way down to Oakland and came back and responded to this.

And it's rather typical that ATF would respond to a fire of this nature.

And then if it points towards a criminal investigation, their investigation would go off in a different direction.

And in talking to them both on Thursday and Friday, there's no indication that it is criminal of nature.

One of my concerns though in working with victims of crime and victims of community tragedy like this is that people have different kinds of reactions to a trauma of life like this.

And so I spoke with Kathy about maybe setting up this community because I think it's important that people address those issues with respect to their own trauma that they may be experiencing.

We all experience trauma and react to stress in different fashions.

One of the most important things that you can do is to acknowledge what you're feeling.

For some of us, I know within our formation department, people were very, very traumatized.

And likewise for those people, those employees that are firing packs and they were having an awful problem.

So it's real important that people acknowledge that.

There's some handouts in the back that are really useful tools in terms of identifying reactions that you might have.

Some simple things, it's real important that you try to return to your normal activity as soon as possible.

It's important that you want to maintain your sleeping regimen.

You want to be eating and taking care of those normal needs.

And there can be a tendency not to do that when people are under stress.

So pay attention to those guidelines.

If there is a need by a member of community people, I've made arrangements for their local mental health and they could actually do what we call a crisis intervention with people.

If there was a group of people that wanted to do that, they extended that offer and we could set that up in the next week or two.

So I think that's all I have.

I just want you to pay attention to that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

John, do you have something to say?
I'm John Swerver, the director for the Western Nevada County chapter of the American Red Cross.

And as you know, the Red Cross mostly deals with the immediate crisis situation when there is a fire or any other disaster.

And usually what we do is we make sure that individuals who are made homeless are taken care of.

So there's emergency shelter, accommodation, food, clothing, and then to make sure that the families are connected with the rest of the social service system in the community.

In this case, that wasn't a problem.

The second thing that we do is we then also support the emergency service personnel, the first responders, fire police and others by providing food canteen services as we did in this case as well.

Fortunately, the fire department auxiliary was immediately on the scene as well.

And we had an incredible outpouring of support from community agencies.

As you know, you saw the food that was laid out on the tables.

In one way it was an ideal emergency, if you will, because the weather was good, there was a lot of support.

We had incredible support from the other fire departments in the area.

So that's our primary responsibility and we do that whenever there is a disaster.

In fact, yesterday we sent two people off to the floods in Kentucky and we've got some more people going on Monday.

And that's part of our service to the larger community.

What I'm concerned about at the moment are those people who obviously have been displaced from their jobs, the business people who have lost their businesses.

And I'm really glad to hear, as Dennis has already indicated, that there are things in the works to make sure that they can rebuild quickly.

The building gets down quickly, rebuilding takes place quickly, there are low interest loans available.

But I've talked to a couple of my colleagues in the social services community and what I'd like to see happen as well is to see a coordinated effort taking place to make sure that those who are currently unemployed have access to financial benefits, but also have access to job opportunities in the short term.

Whether it's part-time employment or replacement employment or something else that needs to happen, because as the previous speaker indicated, it's very important for people to get back to work, get back into some normal routine, as well as obviously making sure that they have financial resources.

Because a lot of the people we're talking about don't receive a lot in the way of wages anyway.

So I'd like to make sure that that happens and to provide whatever support we can to that.

That's not Red Cross's responsibility, but I want to make sure that we support the other social service agencies in the community to do that.

So that's my key concern at the moment, to make sure that those individuals are supportive.

And I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, John.

Bill?
I'm Bill Falcone, the City Engineer.

The Mayor asked me to talk about what happens from here on out after everything that all these other gentlemen spoke to.

What's going to happen in the very near future is we will coordinate with the ATF on their investigation and their work.

And the contractor and the--that's Robinson Timber and the owner will do much of nothing but preparation during that timeframe, the next three or four days.

And then after that, the first--Mr.
Powers, the structural engineer, and myself will be meeting this week and then we'll develop a plan for the demolition of the walls.

That will be first.

And that stage, demolition of the walls and the cleaning of the building will be the exciting part for the community.

And then what's going to happen is that whole area just becomes a downtown mall for a while where people can just walk and it'll be very--get to be very unexciting after a while.

Like I say, things are in a state of flux and we have--we're going to go immediately to design the owner and the contractor, which will be Tintle, for everybody's information.

One of the owners is also a general contractor, so he will be rebuilding the structure.

But at first, you know, the walls will go back up in a brick manner and the facade will take shape.

And during that time, it will be in the city's best interest for us to work with the contractor to attempt to shrink the zone of influence and the zone of effect on the rest of the community.

I would see after the thing gets started that we would be able to reduce the effect on Pine Street to half a street.

We would get half the street back in some kind of a one-way situation, probably the same way with the commercial.

Then after the facade gets rebuilt and they're working on the inside, then we'll move back to the sidewalk.

So that's what I see going.

And everybody asks me, "Well, how long will that take?"
And I hate to be the kind of guy that doesn't want to answer the question, but I can't really answer that right now.

I think what I was instructed to do by the city manager and the council the other day was to begin the program and to give reports to the council and to the Planning Commission as we need input regarding their specific expertises.

And that will tend to unfold as the thing develops.

So that will kind of give you a scenario.

But I would say, don't be surprised if a year from now we're still fiddling around there.

Could you clarify that last statement?
Well, I mean -- [Laughter] Define it.

It's going to take a while to rebuild that structure.

It's not something that can be done.

You know, it'll take on -- I forget how long we take on City Hall.

It took us -- It took us 10 months on the bridge, 10 months in the City Hall.

You're looking at 10 or 12 months, you know.

I'm sorry, but you just -- Right, right.

I just -- One of these gentlemen said, you know, if we have a -- there's a silver lining in these things, it's obvious that what somebody, the mayor, somebody said the other day was nobody got killed or hurt.

Well, we have to look at the half full glass is it's March now and we can begin the construction season.

And, you know, I know that the owner and the contractor will be looking to have some kind of a roof structure on that building by late fall or, you know, early into the winter so that they can continue to work inside.

And if you could accomplish that, that would shorten the window.

So those kind of things are what we'll be trying to attempt to do.

Well, thank you, Bill.

And from my end of the things, I just wanted to briefly touch on some of -- one of the issues that John brought up, and that is some of the ongoing activity that's being taken -- that's taking place concerning the people that were displaced, the employees that were displaced.

We now have an official name for our fund.

It is the Nevada City Fire Relief Fund.

And there is a handout out in the lobby concerning that, but checks can be made and mailed to the Nevada City Fire Relief Fund, care of the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce, 132 Main Street, Nevada City, California, 95959.

It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Trust is overseeing this.

And so the donations are 100% tax deductible.

And if you have any further questions, you can always contact the Chamber of Commerce and Nevada City Chamber of Commerce.

There are other things that are going, and there's going to be a lot of things in the works to try to raise as much money as possible to help these folks over the hump in the short term.

This afternoon at Mecca and Asia, there is a benefit dinner with all proceeds going.

And as the little shop of horrors, the Foothill Theatre Company will be doing a special matinee next Saturday at 2 o'clock, which is a pay-what-you-wish performance with a raffle.

Let's see, April 14th, there's going to be a major benefit concerts and fundraiser auction at the foundry that Mackel Graham is setting up.

And there are many, many other things in the works.

Information will be made available through the Chamber, through ubanette.

com, through other various media outlets.

So this is a good thing that the community is really coming together to help these people in their time of crisis.

So this time we will open the floor to any questions that anyone might have to any of these gentlemen.

And please step up to the floor.

David McKay, Councilman for Nevada City.

I have a question on the upper end of Commercial Street.

I went over and looked and I saw that they've got the barricades down right by the back end of Friar Cucks.

But there's still the three, you know, those little things you put out that block the street off.

And I had calls from some of the business owners concerned that people just think, oh, you can't even go past those.

So at what point would those businesses be able to be known that they are accessible?
Or in what way could we do something to let people know that they are accessible now?
As early as ATF says they don't need the space, at least Friday, I think part of Saturday there was a crane back in there and down.

And even though the wall is where it is, there was still a crane there and they're swinging this thing around.

A safe zone was up to where it's at.

What will probably happen is once we're done with what we're doing there on Commercial, we're taking it down to the parking lot where it is so they can get in and out of that parking lot.

Then we'll have to do something with the road.

It's one way coming that way.

We might have to put up some signs saying the parking lot is open, the stores are open.

Within the next week I would imagine.

Okay, good.

Thanks.

Thank you, David.

I did have one question that I wanted.

It's not for me, but just one of the reasons for this meeting is to answer questions and dispel any rumors that may have been flying about.

And I think maybe that either you or Greg can help.

You alluded to tapping into the NID water.

That was because of Nevada City's pressure system, had nothing to do with the Nevada City's water, the amount of water available, correct?
Correct.

Okay.

I think that we figure around 3,500 gallons of the fire flow were taken out of that point.

And I knew that we had an NID hydrant across from the City hydrant on Zion Street.

We sent an engine out there to increase the pressure because that's coming off the top of banner.

That hydrant out there has great pressure.

So we're increasing the pressure more volume if we needed it.

There was also an intertide, which I wasn't sure if it was connected yet or not.

I put the West Broad thing that you guys just approved with the juvenile hall.

But I knew that was in service.

And years ago we had the, what was it, the freezing.

We had an engine out on the back street for two days.

We were pumping from City to NID when there were bad waters.

So I know we've gone back and forth with that.

If we weren't out of water, we just noticed our pressure was going down.

So therefore we put the planning to effect and increased our pressure.

Okay.

I just want to get clarification on it.

The downtown is all in a great system.

And I'm sure we were taking everything through that great system that we possibly could.

Yes.

You know, that's a question that we should discuss.

Greg is right.

We have a mutual agreement with the NID for disaster just like this.

So it's, and it would, it's what he did is more of a precaution than, you know, not knowing if the rest of the town starts on fire.

That's not the time to interconnect.

You interconnect before that.

We have 3 million gallons of storage that was available at 4 in the morning on Wednesday morning.

Is that Wednesday morning?
We have 3 million gallons of storage.

The tanks were full.

I was at, I was at the water plant at 6 o'clock, checking with Chris Town.

He had checked to make sure that the tanks were being drawn down.

They were down about 20% at that time already.

We cranked up the ability of the plant.

That plant on a summer day can crank out close to a million gallons a day out of that plant itself.

So we were cranking out water from the plant into the system at no time, at no time was the fire department without water.

There is always, like I gave a report and some of you people were here a few months ago, there's always a limitation to the amount of water the conduits from the tank will carry at any one time into the system.

And with all those fire trucks and everybody connected to the system trying to get water, it works in the same, it's the same manner as, you know, if you go to take a shower and you turn on all of the sprinklers in your yard and you turn on your dishwasher and your washing machine and everything else, I guarantee you, your shower volume and pressure will fall.

And that's just the same nature of anything else.

The trucks have special abilities in which they can suck from the system so they can overcome some of that.

And they were doing that.

And you have to be careful with that because you could suck your system dry and cause damage to it.

So the fire department knows fully well what they were doing.

And we had plenty of storage and plenty of water throughout the entire process.

There's something to add to that too, early on.

Sergeant Gage was at scene, and I'm not sure what time it was, I don't know if it wrote down, but it was early on in the fire.

So at 5 o'clock or so we notified Public Works to go out to the water plant to make sure everything was proceeding there.

And then also the first in Public Works person to the scene, we had them go around and check all the gate valves to make sure every gate valve downtown is open too, in case there was something.

That's when I was called and went to the plant whenever that was.

I don't know any time.

Trying to be proactive on the curves that came behind the water.

Well thank you very much, appreciate that clarification.

Is there anyone else that has a question or comment?
Yeah, great cook from Prior Touch.

I just have a question for the future because I barely beat the fire engine there and I got the call pretty much the same time.

And that was a good thing.

There was a lot of fire people there really fast.

And in the future, how do we make sure, I mean, it's 4 in the morning, people don't sleep at the fire station, right?
I mean, you got people out of bed to the fire engine and I was going 80 miles an hour down Red Dog.

And they still beat me.

So I mean it's a good thing.

So whatever you guys are doing, just make sure you keep doing it because that probably gave us a big head start.

Actually, that night there was two people at the station.

So as soon as the alarm came in, the engine was at the door.

One of them is here and I remember him back there.

James is first in, first at the hose and first at the truck.

Well, and I think that as you mentioned to me at one time, the time that the fire started, your major force of volunteers were easily accessible.

It's not like they had to come from work and from various parts of it.

So that was as far as silver linings go, that was another plus.

You know, just after that, the time came and they were counting under people at home.

So for anybody that was called back for volunteers or whatever, everybody was home.

There was not traffic on the roadway, so you're right, everybody was here quickly.

It was actually the best time for it to happen.

Put it that way if it could be the best time.

Imagine if it was 12 noon trying to keep the traffic in.

Absolutely.

Our tenant bot had 90 grand to get in, about five to five, 400 people out of the car.

Okay, well, if there are no more questions, I would like to thank everyone for attending.

I would like to thank our presenters here for the information.

And if there are any additional questions that should come up, feel free to contact the Chamber of Commerce or City Hall can redirect your calls to whoever can answer your questions.

And I thank you very much and have a fine afternoon.