Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 9:2.mp3 Air date: 2026-09-02 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertiser, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. Tom Fitzsimmons, KNCO News Time, just about 907, 59 degrees, and yes, clouds out there. It's starting to break up a little bit. It's been a remarkable change here the last few days after we were so warm before the Nevada County Fair, kind of moderated a bit, but it was still plenty warm the last couple of weeks. All of a sudden, a little taste of fall here to start September. That just means in about another week, it will be about 90 or so, so don't get too used to it. That's how life is in the foothills, after all. Nobody knows that better than Gil Matthews. He's the Executive Director of the Economic Resource Council, Nevada County. Gil, how are you doing? I'm great. Am I in charge of weather? Well, in some respects, you are. Wow. You know that. Which is, you know, I know ideally you want to get some of these Bay Area people, you kind of let them come up with their weather and stuff every once in a while to cool things off a little bit. Right. Nothing wrong with that. This is great weather. I'm loving it. I get to go do my five-mile power walk in this weather. Yeah. And nobody knows this better than Kimberly Parker as well. Kimberly Parker, of course, at the County of Nevada now. She's had a lot of different hats, but you running the economic development through the county. Has that been a rewarding job for you over there at the county? Absolutely. It's been a great experience. And I'm just, believe it or not, Tom, I'm starting my fifth year. And it's been really great to see the progress of, you know, the work that we've been doing. And it's a lot of fun to start up a program and, you know, to see some real activity come out of it and work with my great partners here who I've known forever, you know, in the community. That's the thing about you two. You guys have known each other forever, because when you were at the hospital foundation, you know, hand in hand with the ERC, biggest employer, right, private employer in the area. Right. Well, Gil was on the board for a long time. Of the hospital, right? I used to be her boss. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. He was on the foundation board for quite a few years. On foundation board, yeah. Yeah. You know, you loved saying that, didn't you, just then? I did. I loved saying that. How things have changed now. Just kidding. Yeah. Just kidding. Yeah. How are things? Things good at the county? Things are really good at the county. You know, lots of activity and good work being done by really great people. All right. Yeah. I know it's a crazy world out there, Gil. Are things good at the ERC? Things are good at the ERC. Yeah. It's been a good year for us, but, you know, I'm always watching that long-term economic business and that still concerns me. Well, we talk about the debt, and every time I hear about it, it is just astronaut, and it has not mattered who's in office, what party, what person. It just is marching up, and we all vote for it to go down. Every time, four years, we're voting for somebody who'll get it on handle, and it never gets handled. There is a small bright cloud in this business. You know that we passed the $40 trillion mark, however, the debt-to-GDP ratio has gone down. In other words, our debt-to-GDP is smaller, so that's a very good sign, which means that production has gone up faster than the debt has gone up. Okay. We'll put a smiley face on this. That's a little smiley face. It's just a little smiley face, Gil. That's all I can do. It's still $116,000 per citizen of the United States. That's your core part of the debt, Tom. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They'll take a check, won't they? Right? Yeah. Yes. All right. The ERC is celebrating 30 years. We are. Yeah. That's a big celebration for you guys, right? It's going to be a big celebration, and particularly at our economic summit that's coming up next month on the 29th, we will be celebrating 30 years of doing economic development in the community, and we'll be telling you a little bit about some of the things that have happened over that 30 years, and then talking about where we expect it to go. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be a great time. Over 30 years, it's had kind of different functions, it seems like. Am I right on that, that sometimes it seemed to be trying to develop new businesses? Sometimes it was trying to get businesses here? Sometimes it was kind of promoting tourism and getting people to discover Nevada County just in general. Yeah. That's very true, Tom, that there's been several different iterations of emphasis. The emphasis of building a more sustainable, robust economy has always been there, but the way to do that has changed some. When the ERC started out, it was to try to attract businesses. We were big in the broadcast world, and the thought was we could bring in more of those companies that worked in the broadcast world. It became apparent very quickly that it's very hard to bring a company in. If you have a company of 30 employees in the Bay Area, how do you move here? Your key employees aren't going to want to move, they're going to want to be where they are. Yeah. It was obvious that that wasn't a strategically good way to attack the problem. And then we began to recognize that broadband was so incredibly important, and the ERC really put a focus on broadband for several years. And now, and with Kimberly's help, it's to grow from within. That is the mantra now, and so Kimberly can actually speak about the notion of grow from within. Yeah. And you've been here for the entire growth, it seems like, of the ERC in our county, but it's been kind of a stagnant growth, but this whole idea of growing from within is kind of an exciting idea. It is, and it has a lot of different layers to it. And I've actually been involved with the ERC since 2007, when Gil was the executive the first time and brought me on to the board and the executive committee. And so, long, long history with the organization. But when I started, we worked to create an action plan that was not really simply a county action plan. It really included all the partners, ERC, Sierra Commons, SBC, the Chambers, the Arts Council. We really brought everyone in, the contractors, and really in looking at it, and Gil's absolutely right about business attraction. And we'll both say, if there's a business that wants to move here, we're absolutely ready to work with them. And I have worked with a number of smaller businesses that are kind of coming to the area. But really, our strength is the fact that we have such skilled people here. We have people that have moved here because they want this quality of life that come with incredible backgrounds and experience. So the goal was really to work with those entrepreneurs, those young businesses, those people who've maybe been in a business and want to kind of branch out on their own and do something, and really build some wonderful opportunities here. And none of it is because of any one entity. It is because of the business itself and their leadership. It's because of the many partners they're working with. Just as an example, we look at Jada Windows and their big, big expansion that they've done. Geoship, which is in this community, and their big expansion that they've done. These are companies that have both made conscientious choice to build their manufacturing piece in Nevada County. And over the next several years, are going to probably, between them, be hiring hundreds of people to those companies. And so I think our strength in Nevada County really, truly lies on the collaborative work of people coming together to make great things happen that are going to advance the kind of health and safety and goodwill of our community. And of course, with the county, I know housing is always a concern. It's a concern with anybody that tries to get a business and have it grow here. Are we doing okay with housing, Gil, the way it is right now? No. Yeah, it doesn't seem that way. We're behind. Yeah. And we're behind, really, on workforce housing. That's what I meant. I should say workforce housing. Yeah. Right. Because the upper scale housing is doing very well, but the workforce housing is lacking behind. And unfortunately, we haven't been able to build Dorsey Marketplace, which really was going to be some workforce housing for us. So that's a disappointment. Kimberly may know of things on the horizon that I'm not aware of in terms of workforce housing, but that's the biggest need we have. How do we actually make housing for the beginning school teacher, the young police officer, those people that are beginning their careers who haven't gotten to that economic level yet to be able to afford a $650,000 house? Yeah. I would just add that right now, our planning department is working on the housing element, and there's a housing element survey out there. It's really important for people to fill that out. It'll be in my next economic development e-newsletter, because that's kind of where we kind of get the key information that we need to get. But Gil's absolutely right. We've had a couple projects that have kind of start and stopped here, a project a little bit more down towards South County that was really going to be great. It was going to do apartments a couple years ago, but it got shut down because of fire insurance and the cost of fire insurance. They were ready to go. Otherwise, they were ready to put a shovel in the ground. I think the tide is turning a little bit. I'm working with Habitat for Humanity. They've got a 12-house project they're working on right now, and I think we're going to start to see some maybe smaller things come forward in the not-so-distant future. But again, we've got barriers here that I won't say other communities don't have, but certainly are a little bit more challenging in Nevada County. So there's a lot of conversations between the county and organizations and developers and places like Tracy Huber and the Community Land Trust Project and such to kind of say, how do we move this forward? And while all housing is really needed in the county, I mean, we need all housing, the workforce housing is going to be really critical going forward because as we have these companies opening up, and we know this from a 2016 report we did when I was at the Hospital Foundation that showed that of the employees that were working for the hospital that lived outside the area, probably two-thirds of them would choose to live here if they could find housing. The other people, maybe not because they have a husband that works somewhere else or something, but the vast majority of people wanted to be here. And these are good-paying professionals that would bring a lot to our community, not just in the house they purchase, but in their day-to-day living. It just means a lot. I mean, when you have a town, no matter what the town is, if their cops work there and can live there, they're more invested. If the teachers work there and live there, it all is a great continuity for everybody, without a doubt. But even in this building, I just had my main news guy come in. He's down there in Marysville. My FM guy comes all the way from the town of Sutter. So that's a long way to come, down there by the Buttes. So this is something that hits home here. So we're kind of like an example of what a lot of people are dealing with here. But that's the thing. We've got to go in the right direction. So we're going to take our first break. We are talking ERC Today and Kimberly Parker in the house too. So a quick break. We'll be right back. When the time comes to find the right care for someone you love, you deserve more than just a facility. You deserve a place where your loved one truly feels at home. Crystal Ridge Care Center in Grass Valley is a Medicare four-star rated skilled nursing and rehabilitation community. Our licensed nurses are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 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It is a very strong group of women, and we, I will just say, work really well together, but I must say there's also some really great strong male leaders over there, too. Well, that's what you have to say, but nobody's buying that. That was political. Nobody's buying that. I've met those guys. They have to defer to the ladies at this point. Ladies have it going on, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. As a matter of fact, when I keep seeing these trillions of dollars deficit, it's about time we get a woman in the White House, and I don't care what party, but maybe we have to try something different. I'll go with that. I'm just saying it. I'll go with that. That's just me. Now, one thing about this, the whole thing about, Kimberly, you being there, I noticed that you have a two-year economic plan underway and developing, so what's its status, and how did you develop it? We brought in an outside consultant the first year and went through a process of evaluation and research, and then we brought in many, many community partners. I think that there were probably 12 key stakeholder partners. There were 35 groups, I think, that were interviewed, and I think some 82 individuals really to kind of create this plan that was really focused on, we knew we were not ready for Nevada County Master Plan, so we really wanted an action plan of how to get things up and going, and again, I really didn't want it to be Nevada County offices. I wanted it to be countywide, and we cover a wide range. We go up to Truckee as well, so including all county areas, the incorporated cities as well as the unincorporated areas was important, and we discovered some very key things. We talked about grow from within, but of course, business was a very big part of that plan. I should say, when I say business, I also mean non-profit, because we work a lot with non-profits as well, and that's really important, but also like strategic projects and infrastructure, and as Gil mentioned earlier, broadband and those kinds of things, and a couple things kind of came in pretty quickly, and they dovetailed nicely into the plan, but I don't know that when I first started, I knew they were going to be as important as they are. One is I cover regional tourism, and so work on that quite a bit, but the one area that's been really interesting is in June of last year, Governor Newsom came out with $750 million of tax credits for anyone who filmed in the state of California, and that was the end of June 2025, and between middle of July 2025 and the first week of September, I already had 11 film inquiries, and so we've really been building out a film program. We just finished a project, two scenes from the Netflix television show Mr. and Mrs. Smith just finished filming up on Donner Pass. We get inquiries about commercials, about documentaries. I have a YouTube inquiry right now, and so really discovered quickly that we really needed to build out some kind of a program to be able to address this, because it can bring incredible economic impact. A lot of people remember the holiday movie, The Christmas Card that was filmed. They just had their 20th anniversary. People still come to Nevada County because of that movie, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith is an example of the primary team working on that, and understand only two scenes were filmed of a particular episode, and Tom, I'll quiz you, because you're always quizzing me. How much do you think the budget is for one episode of that show? Oh, gee. Okay, I'm just going to round it off, half a million dollars. $25 million. $25 million. That's how I feel. That was your next guess. Wow, $25 million for one episode? For one episode. And so, they had people staying on site for a month before doing all the prep. During the filming, there were over 100 cast members, and it was in Nevada, Placer, and El Dorado Counties over a four-day period, I think. They were kind of moving back and forth. They had caterers. They rented the Donner Ski Ranch parking lot for all of their trailers and everything. It was a big deal for two days. And so, if you really start to add those numbers up, that brings tremendous economic development to that particular area, Soda Springs. Didn't we have a film type of commission at one point, maybe 30 years ago? It seemed like back when The Phenomenon was made by John Travolta, that was filmed over in Auburn, I think. And in Sacramento, yeah. Yeah, in Sacramento. And then, there was another one that had some filming of another show that was done off Bittany Springs Road. I wish I could remember that. I don't go back that far, so I don't know. But I will tell you, because we are registered with the California Film Commission, that even though it's not what we consider a traditional film commission, my office is actually considered a film commission office. And so, again, the inquiries, and the cities have their permitting, and the town, but I really work with them because they don't have a person, so they're just looking at permits that come in. So, what we've discovered is there's a lot of negotiation and work on these films, and those conversations that have to happen, and talking to scouts and all. What I'm trying to do right now is to be that conduit, and as things come in, and it looks like it might be appropriate for Nevada City as an example, then I would work with Nevada City and try to push it over there. I have to admit, Nevada City looks like a movie lot. It does. It's incredibly landscaped, the way the street is terraced with gas lamps, it's amazing. It's perfect. And, you know, sometimes we can't accommodate things like the call I got last year that really was interested in Nevada City, but they wanted me to guarantee it would snow. And I was like, I was like January, I'm like, yeah, I can't guarantee that, sorry, you know, so you get some kind of outrageous calls, but, you know, some of them are very interesting. Right. That is very exciting. Is the future bright, economically, for the county? You know, the county, I think, is being very thoughtful, you know, we had a very thoughtful budget process this year, and I will say the county's in a very stable position, especially if you look at other counties that aren't doing nearly as well as Nevada County. We're a little bit more, you know, conservative in terms of spending and such, but I think it's the right approach for right now, and they're still, despite that, it really hasn't slowed down the important work that needs to happen, you know, through OES, or Health and Human Services, the Community Development Agency. Everybody is, you know, busier than ever. I think we're just being more thoughtful about how we're approaching it. And like a lot of people, kind of waiting for this period maybe to adjust, and for things to start to kind of go up a little bit more. We'd like to see, you know, some funding for some things like broadband and other things open up again, which have kind of closed down. And so we're just kind of keeping an eye out on those things. All right. Well, I'm just looking up here. It's a nice tradition. I haven't had Kimberly on for a while. The tradition has never changed. We're late for our news break, but just by a couple of minutes. We're going to get a news break in, weather forecast, and continue our conversation when we come back. I'm Chris Gilbert with the KNCO Local News Update. A year and a half since the incident was first reported, charges have been filed in the death of a Grass Valley woman following a lengthy preliminary hearing in a Nevada County courtroom. The District Attorney's Office says in a Facebook posting that the court has found sufficient evidence to establish probable cause and ordered Andrew Gall to be held to answer on charges that include furnishing fentanyl leading to the death of 44-year-old Chandra Zimmerman, whose body was found in Gall's home in Nevada City. Gall led Nevada County Sheriff's deputies on a pursuit before he crashed near Washington Road and Highway 20, where he was taken into custody. He had only been facing a felony drug charge until recently. And after a harrowing operation, a woman and her dog are both alive and well. They were found being rescued in the South Yuba River Canyon last week. Nevada County Sheriff's Sergeant Dustin Moe says the evening incident unfolded near Emerald Pools, a popular rescue area off Bowman Road. The department dispatched and activated its Search and Rescue Ropes and Drones team to locate them after getting the original call for help from a friend. She was actually stranded on a rock in the middle of the river. So it sounds like her, her friend, and her dog were up there visiting the area when her dog was swept downstream of the river. She ended up jumping in after her dog. And due to the complex, steep terrain and difficult access, additional specialized fire resources also responded. Sergeant Moe says the ropes team rescuer was lowered to the riverbed, assessed the woman who had minor injuries, and also equipped her with a personal flotation device. The rescuer then secured the dog in a harness and they were safely raised about 50 feet to the rim of the canyon. He then lowered back down to the woman, secured her in a climbing harness, and initiated a haul up the cliff face. Our search and rescue team will commonly go out and do joint trainings with our local fire departments, both Nevada County Consolidated as well as Truckee Fire Department. So they've kind of been already working on building those relationships and working together. And I think this is a prime example of how it's paid off because everything went smoothly. And the entire operation finished up at night about four hours later and involved 50 first responders. Join us for our next local news update at the bottom of the hour. And for news and weather anytime, you can go to knco.com. I'm Chris Gilbert, KNCO News Talk 830. Why suffer through slow, spotty internet, or worse, no internet at all? At Smarter Broadband, we believe fast, reliable internet isn't a luxury, it's essential. 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This from the KNCO-BNC ACE Home and Garden Center Weather Center. ACE is the place. Here is your forecast on KNCO News Talk 830. Partly sunny today with a high in the upper 60s near 70 and a light southwest wind. A few clouds overnight, tarlow near 50. And areas of rain developed during the day on Thursday with a high in the low 60s. Widespread rainfall Thursday night, tarlow near 50. Showers end early Friday with a high in the upper 60s. For more weather anytime, click on the Weather Center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holiday on KNCO News Talk 830. It's not often you get that forecast. This time of year from Dan Holiday, KNCO News Time, 936, 62 degrees, but old-timers. I remember years ago with one of Gil's best friends, George Rath, they would be almost like wives tales, you know, like just saying, oh, it always rains one day at the Nevada County Fair and things like that. Which, maybe there's truth to that, but it just does show that weather does change out there and it's a crazy thing. One thing about our weather, it is part of our quality of life here in Nevada County. Makes it so wonderful, without a doubt. And there's a lot of great reasons to live here. The economy, you know, we were just talking off the air, Gil, that some business is thriving. Even though it doesn't seem like things are, quote, thriving out there, there are some companies that are doing very well. There are. There are companies that are doing the best years they've had ever, and by a huge margin. Are they certain type of companies that have that? Nothing in common, necessarily. Nothing in common. Oh, that's interesting. So, yeah, it's very interesting, but a couple of things I would comment about that. One is that bad news travels faster than good news, and so these are good news stories. They don't travel. If a company closes because of an economic disaster, that news travels very fast and resonates throughout the community. Yeah. But I want to make a comment about our weather. Sometimes people will ask me about the weather that interested maybe in moving here, not necessarily a business, but we have four seasons and none of them are bad. I agree with that. There isn't any place else that can say that. No, we have fantastic weather here in the foothills. I love that the trees are going to be turning here shortly, which is one of my favorite times of year because it's usually just fall. It's just great weather temperature-wise. It's beautiful visually and all that stuff. Winters come. Yes, we can have some big storms that go on through, but relatively speaking, it is just another season. It's not inundating, even though we've had snowmageddons, these kind of weird events. Springtime comes. It is always just gorgeous. Summer times have been hot, but that's part of what we have. The rest of the world is hot. We don't have the humidity. Yeah, and we don't have the mosquitoes that they have. There we go. Anyway, I want to make that comment about weather because that is one of our huge economic drivers is our weather. People stay here because of that. I totally agree. Yeah. All right. Now, there's been a couple of things that I wanted to catch up on. One is Food X. Food X. That was the last time you were on. Yeah. Can you explain to our listeners again what this Food X thing is? It's a three-day celebration, first of all, that incorporates Sierra Commons together with Sierra Harvest. Sierra Harvest last year did a thing called the Food Fight. The Food Fight. Yeah. Correct. That's on again this year, which is a part of this celebration over the three days of the 24th, 25th, and 26th. A lot of people think in Food Fight, they're thinking about Kimberly's sorority parties throwing things and all that stuff, but it's not that. It's not that at all. Days gone by. Yes. Those were the days. Yeah. This Food Fight is the celebrity chefs of the community getting together, showing off their best, and trying to beat one another with their cuisine. That's going to be on the 25th. On Saturday, Sierra Commons is putting on Food X at the foundry in Nevada City. They're going to set up the foundry to be a marketplace, a supermarket of Nevada County produced food articles. You'll be able to go in there. That's interesting. Okay. Yeah. If you were a caterer, as an example, in Nevada County, you could go there and see all the different things that are manufactured in Nevada County in the food industry. The community can come in and see just how vast that is. Part of that is ... There are two parts to it. One is to expose what we do here to the community, and to help them prosper, because the more food that we could consume in Nevada County that's produced here, the better off we are economically as a county. That would make sense. Yeah. Yeah. That's an all-day event starting on Saturday about noon, I think, running, and they're going to wind up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon with an idea that I'm going to steal. It's called Wine Down. Wine Down. Not Wine Down. No, but Wine Down. Wine, with an E at the end. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's going to be starting at 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. That sounds great. Yeah. Okay. There'll be a band, a couple of bands out there. There'll be tickets at Sierra Commons for that particular event, I would think, right? Go online at Sierra Commons and find them. You can go on our website and find them. Okay. All right. At www.ncerc.org. Yeah, it's going to be a really fun weekend. Yeah. I know the county was active getting, what would you call them, cottage industries with food production and stuff. It seems like once that opened up, people took advantage of that. Is that true? Absolutely. I think, to some extent, we've always had some of that, but now I think we're becoming more and more aware of it because food and food inequity has really risen to the top of being a very important commodity and area of where Nevada County can shine a light. Yeah, whether it is breads or there's a woman, I just was at the farmer's market. I bought her product. She does a chili oil, and I think she went through Sierra Commons. Just all sorts of different products we're seeing these days, and yes, Food X is going to be wonderful. I really encourage everyone to check it out. It's a great collaborative effort, as Gil mentioned, with Sierra, Harvest Sierra Commons, our community overall. Yeah. Food industry seems like it's good. Is that the ERC seeing it that way, too? Commodore is a great example of what Robert Trent has done with some of these business startups and stuff. I would have to say that of the people, the new businesses that come to me for some kind of counseling or coaching, the preponderance of them have been food-related, so that's a sign that there's an interest in it, there's a demand for it, and the more that we can produce locally, the better off we're going to be. Food X is going to be a great way to see how that whole industry is prospering. All right. The other thing that's knocking on the door, we talked about at the very beginning of the show, especially with Kimberly here from the county, is Allison Lehman. She is going to be part of your economic summit that's coming up, correct? She is. She's going to moderate our panel. So fortunately, she said yes, and it's going to be great because she's terrific at that kind of thing. And so the panelists, we're still formulating that a little bit. We'll put the final touches on that in the middle of this month, but right now, it looks like we're going to have Horizon Hotels that revamp the two hotels in town, talking about why they came to Nevada County and picked up those properties. What do they see about the future going forward? They're incredible properties. You're talking about the Holbrook and the National. That's two landmark businesses. So we will have three people, three companies up there on stage for that. We were going to take a look back over 30 years, and we thought, you know, that's kind of plowing old history, but the world wants to know where we're going and why. So that's going to be the question we ask is, why are you investing significant dollars in Nevada County? As Kimberly pointed out, Jada Windows and GeoShip, some significant investment dollars in Nevada County because it is Nevada County. So we want to celebrate that. Yeah, it makes sense just to hear more about Jada Windows. Where were they from originally? Are they from here, and they just developed? They started up at the old nail factory, above Bloomfield Road up there, years and years ago. Wow. They're an interesting company, and probably Kimberly can speak to them perhaps better than I can. Kimberly, what do you know? Well, you know, actually, and it's interesting, I'll just say kind of a side story. I'm working with them right now because, you know, Jeff Dellison, he and I work on internships together and they've had a tremendous experience with a young man as an intern who is, you know, just, it's an amazing story of how he has kind of gone from just being this high school intern to being kind of a valuable part of their team, probably could be, you know, an employee. And, but, you know, they do very, very high end, like windows, you know, which sounds like a silly little thing, but, you know, like they're doing like Tom Cruise's windows and windows in very exclusive parts of, you know, the country and the world, and probably not the kind of windows, Tom, you or I could have in our house. But that's, that's incredible stuff. It is. And I think what we have to understand, too, is when we have companies like that in Nevada County, not only is it about the fact that, you know, they are doing really great work, but the people that they are doing work in even a small way are getting exposed to Nevada County. And that's really important, too, because, you know, they're doing, they're doing work all over the world. GeoShip looks to do work all over the world. So, you know, this can help, you know, attract kind of a shining light to Nevada County in ways that kind of go beyond just what those companies do within our county themselves. I think GeoShip is still one of the most exciting things, just to have a ceramic based home that really is, you know, very much as fire resistant as can be. And I think these companies are really great examples of you can start small and maybe not have quite the vision that, you know, you're at today. But you know, if you have the right people, the right team, the right passion, you know, you can really, you can in Nevada County really build your company into something spectacular. Yeah. Is the public ready for these businesses to be successful? Well, I hope they are. Oh, yeah. Sometimes I always wonder, you know. Yeah. So and the, particularly with Jada Windows, because the preponderance of that money comes in from outside the county. So it pours into the county and then it multiplies within the county one to two to three times depending. So their value far exceeds what just their revenues are because of the compounding effect. So all those people have been Jada Windows, you know, they need to go to restaurants, they need to go to dry cleaners. Absolutely. Yeah. They're going to go to all the businesses in town. So they're very important. So we're very fortunate to have them. And Geoship is interesting because they'll be more locally focused right now. But as they grow and go regional with their product, they could bring a tremendous amount of income into the community that, again, would cycle through the community. Oh, yeah. And we're talking about families that they'll have and they go to school. I mean, it just kind of feeds itself. Yeah. Yeah. Got it done. All right. All right. So this economic summit, as far as getting signed up for that, is it too early to sign up? Oh, no. No, we're already. Because it's not that far away. Really. It's a month and a half away. No, you can go on our website and sign up. We've already, we're probably halfway, halfway booked right now, maybe even a little bit more than that. I should put on my glasses here. It's October 29th? Correct. All right. Thursday afternoon. Doors open at three. Program will start about 345 and we'll go until six o'clock. Is there any chance there's going to be any costumes involved? That's very close to Halloween. That's an interesting one. I don't know. I, I know that CEO group, actually the whole Root Center, correct me if I'm wrong. They do the big costume things for departments. They do. Absolutely. Halloween's a big deal. It's a big deal. Yeah. And I, and Allison Lehman, I hear Cruella DeVille might be in the office. What? Tell me no. Yes. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Could be in the office. Maybe she would come and moderate it in her gorilla suit. If you have a black or white, just hide it from Allison. Okay. By next month. All right. Anyway, we're going to take our last break. You guys are down the homestretch here, talking ERC here with Gil Matthew and Kimberly Parker. So quick break. We'll be right back. Don't miss the 2026 Nevada County Falls Prevention Summit, Friday, September 11th. Pride Before the Fall will be both educational and fun. Keynote Susan Clayton will discuss memories and maladies, how dementia plays a role with balance. You'll hear from first responders as well as physical therapists who step in after a fall. In the next steps, find out how your shoes and stride as well as changes in hearing and vision can lead to a fall. Homer Nottingham will be on hand and there will be music to entertain and encourage singing to stay forever young. Take advantage of free blood pressure screening, balance assessments, and meet with our many vendors. Enjoy morning treats and a bag lunch. It's all free, but registration is required by September 6th. Go to supportsierranevada.org. Don't let pride stand in your way. 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Alright, KNCO News time, 952-63 degrees, kind of hazy sunshine out there as clouds breaking up a bit. Yeah, rain in the forecast for tomorrow. That is going to be something to see. Tomorrow, rain. Yeah, and we'll see how that all works out. Of course, we're talking the Economic Resource Council of Nevada County here on a Wednesday. Gil, that normally means since the first Wednesday of the month, a board meeting tomorrow? It is. Board meeting tomorrow morning at 7.30 at the Association of Realtors Astor Lee Hall. Publix invited. Tomorrow's program is going to be real interesting. We're going to be talking about healthspan. Crystal Caballero is going to be telling us what healthspan means. My limited understanding of that is not trying to live longer, but live better. Live better. Better quality of life. There is lifespan. A lot of people get caught up on the chronological amount of years, but really how you're living those years is a big key. That's one thing about this blue zone I know they're going for. Even the hospital involved for healthspan, they can get a good quality of life. Yeah, and Dr. Neely, the president of our board, will be weighing in on that also. He's a fairly passionate contributor to that project. We will hear about it, but be also enlisting people to buy into the concept and begin this groundswell of activity to make Nevada County conscious of this. What I like about it is that Nevada County has an insulated quality to it. We're 24 miles off of an interstate. We can do things in this community that don't have influences by surrounding communities. If you were in Citrus Heights, for example, it would be hard to do it, but I think Nevada County could come together with Healthspan and really make some significant changes in how we live life, and that translates out into what it costs for medical care. Yeah. It's going to be a great program. Come on by and listen to it. All right. What time should people get there? 7.30. We start on time, and we quit on time not later than 9 o'clock. Right, so people can get back at it and all that stuff. Do you guys have coffee, donuts, bagels? Janet does a great job of feeding us. That's one thing we do. We support the economy by buying food and coffee and passing it out. It's Lombardi stuff. Yeah. That's right. Exactly. Yeah. Plenty to eat and drink and a lot of good information tomorrow. Yeah. It is something to be said about quality of life here, isn't it, Kimberly? Out of all the things that we have going for it, that is one that is pretty remarkable. Even the little things like going to parks like Pioneer Park and the fairgrounds. We just enjoyed our fair. It's pretty amazing. Absolutely. I mean, we didn't even get into talking about recreation and the impact recreation has on our economy and the impact of the trails, the parks, all of those kinds of things. That's in large part why people come here. Part of what we're trying to do now is come up with ways so you don't just come and walk a trail and leave, that you come and walk the trail and explore and maybe go into a restaurant or go explore downtown. Yeah. It seems like the county has taken that extra step to really make recreation a focus as well. Absolutely. We're looking at recreation economy as a big driver. Yeah. Very good. Anything you want to talk about, too, before we wrap this thing up the next couple of minutes? You want to talk about how bad the national debt is? No, we're not going to talk about that. We already did that, right? Well, it's up to over $40 trillion. Yeah. Yeah. So, we continue to watch things. I continue to publish the economic index that measures the economy of the county over time. Right. Price of medium homes and all that stuff, right? Yeah. So, we're going to augment that with a new index that will be coming out next month. It's called the Business Sentiment Index. That's going to be what is businesses' sentiment about prosperity today and as they look forward. Okay. So, modeled somewhat after the famous sentiment index out of the University of Michigan called the Consumer Sentiment. Yeah. The Consumer Sentiment. Confidence Index. Right. So, this is from the business owner's point of view. Business owner's standpoint, yeah. businesses will be interviewed on a quarterly basis to find out how they feel about their economy and their business presently and how they view the economy in the next six months to 12 months. All right. Now, you did say there were four businesses having like a great year. Yeah. Can you say what those businesses are? Are you at liberty to say? No. You're not at liberty to say? No. Darn it. Yeah. No. The three things I always tell people. He's kind of a stinker, Kimberly. I know. This is why next time you just come in by yourself. Okay. Yeah. He's a man with many secrets. Yes. Well, the three things I tell people that come to the ERC for help. Yes. I say, the three things you need to know are, first of all, everything is confidential. Second of all, everything is free. And third, I'm brutally honest about your business plan. So. And they should have a business plan, shouldn't they? You will have a business plan if you're working with us. Yeah. I've met a couple of people recently, no business plan, just feel like they're just going to do it. Yeah. Yeah. A no business plan is no plan to succeed. Yeah. And sometimes we'll sit down and we'll build a business plan, and I tell them going in, we're going to build this business plan, and the minute we're done, it's going to be obsolete. So the question is why? We're going to find out why it's obsolete, then we're going to fix that. And then we'll have a business plan that's operable. And then we'll come back and visit that business plan in six months. Well, I think what's a bit exciting for the county, too, is that this is the year of small business. Absolutely. Small business is a big thing, and that's kind of the bedrock of our county, so it's important. Absolutely. We've been doing a lot of work around that. We just had an access to capital summit with eight lenders and open to the community businesses last week, and we just did a train the trainer program recently for soft skills, which is something businesses have said they need. So really focusing on the year of small business at this point. Yeah. And I tell you, it's going to be a big year, and I've got economic summits knocking on the door. What's the website for the ERC? www.ncerc.org. All right. Yeah. Gil, as always, thank you. I'll get those four businesses out of you somehow. And, Kimberly, all the best to you. Great seeing you. Thanks. Good seeing you, Tom. Yeah, good seeing you, and glad everything's great at the county. And that does it for us. We've got ABC News coming up, followed by Swap Shop and the Shopping Show here on KNCO News --- end of transcript ---