Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 10:7.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-07 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. And we'll head out to the fairgrounds and connect with Tom Fitzsimmons, broadcasting live. Good morning, Tom. Well good morning, Mo. It's exciting to be at the fairgrounds and not having a fair going on, but this is something different. It's the Trades Expo, highlighting a whole bunch of different trades that young people could be exposed to today. The CTE programs from the Nevada Joint Union High School District are starting to arrive here at Gate 1. And then the big green area, you know, the place where the big Ferris wheel is and the dog activities, all that stuff is open up. It is now filled with a bunch of contractors with their heavy equipment, everything from a big drill from Peters Drilling and Well Service and Pump Service to, well, I've got this Acton Arbiculture here, got a big log right up above my head to the right. We've got plumbing services here. We've got electrical engineers here as well. The county's here. And so it's going to be a fun day to see, really, from two points of view. One, it's the contractors, after all, to see maybe there's a new workforce coming their way. These CTE students are some of the best students around, but a lot of people wouldn't think the county of Nevada would necessarily be here. But I have the county hat on, so I'm kind of required, since I didn't really steal this hat, but it was left behind by one of the interns that helped us at the gazebo, this Nevada County Fair. Your name is? Michelle Garcia. I'm Michelle Garcia. And? Tyler Deshane. Tyler, how you doing? Doing well, yourself? All right. Now, what do you do here? I am a Nevada County Road Supervisor. All right. So what is that? Well, wait a minute. Do you know Pat Day at all? I do. I do. I don't work with him every day. Does he do any work? Because we don't get him to work much at the radio station. I'm not going there. All right. So you're a supervisor. So are you the guy that gets guys on this piece of equipment in back of you and work on roads? Yes, sir. Yep. Yep. We have five lead workers that take care of five different areas of the county, and then I oversee... Well, actually, no. I'm sorry. Six. I forgot about our sign shop. So I take care of half, and then Colton over there, who just walked away, he takes care of the other half. Yeah. You guys have been busy on the roads, haven't you? Yeah. We try to stay pretty busy. Yeah. About a half a million dollars' worth of asphalt this summer, and now that we've gone through that, we're on to drainage and getting ready for this potential Super El Nino. I see. Now, here you are, young lady. This is what I'm anxious to see the students today, boys and girls, coming by from the high school district. This is... A woman can run this just as well as a guy, right? Oh, absolutely. But I actually work in our engineering department, so... So you're like a brainiac? Is that the thing? Not quite. But, so our engineering department, while roads focuses on our roads, typically we do some other overlay projects for our roads. We do our bridge projects, and that also... Public works encompasses our wastewater, transit, and solid waste departments. So public works really has a big umbrella for the county. One thing about people working in this department, if they like working outside, right? I mean, this is like a gorgeous county, and incredible terrain as well, right? Absolutely. Whether you're working in roads or working for transit, getting to drive around in our beautiful electric buses that we just got, or in sanitation, you're outside at the nice McCarty Road Transfer Station that we just redid, so... All right. Did you always want to be an engineer when you were growing up? I did. I really had a... Loved putting stuff together. I went to school for concrete. I have a concrete-specific degree, so I was a general contractor before this. You went to school for concrete. What does that mean? Like you were mixin' ready mix, or what were you doing? Concrete. In lab, yeah. I have a concrete-specific degree, concrete industry management, so yep. So that's like the key degree to build big structures and stuff, make sure they're sound and chemically? It's one of them, yeah. That and the civil engineering degree is kind of the other big one, or a structural engineering degree, so... All right. Did you know you're going to be in the county working? How'd you end up here? You know, I started here right around the 2008 recession, and I was looking for a job that I thought would be around whether the economy was booming or not, so it seemed like a wise decision, and my family's always been self-employed, and I mean, that's not necessarily something that comes with retirement, so it seemed like the secure thing to do, and it's worked well. All right. You got that big piece. What is that behind you? What is that called? That is behind me a Cat 938 loader, a wheel loader, so we use it in the summer for loading trucks or picking up the dirt from the shoulders, and in the winter we put a 14-foot plow on it, and this one will actually be out in Truckee pushing snow all winter long. Wow. All right. Is that a cool job? Have you ever done that yourself? Oh, yeah. I started at the bottom. I started here as a temporary and worked my way up, and I have done my time on the summit working like my longest stint was 90 12-hour days straight without a day off. I mean... 90? 9-0. I probably could have got a day off, but I didn't want to be a quitter, so I just suffered through it. I just kept thinking, well, next week it won't snow, and it just never came. Yeah. The Donner Party should have been your clue. So are kids going to be turning this thing on, and you're going to walk them through the paces a little bit? We'll let them climb around on it, but I don't know about... There's no real safeties to stop it from doing dangerous stuff, so yeah. Fair enough. I'll keep an eye on it. They can climb on it. They can jungle-jump it. It has no idea what's going on in here, so don't worry about that. Anyway, the county's here, Peter's well-drilling is here, and over here, we've got Millennium Planning. Speaking of engineering, Millennium Planning and Engineering is here, too, so I want to check in on them, because I'm kind of curious what they've got here for the kids. Guys? Are you guys all engineers? Not me. Not you? What are you? They are. I'm the office manager. Oh, so you're the boss? Yes. All right. So how are these guys? Are they nice guys to talk? Sometimes. Are they smart, Alex? Are you guys geeks, though? A little geeky? Oh, yeah, for sure. All right, so you have Millennium Planning and Engineering, so what do you guys do? Well, we do a lot of planning and engineering, but I'm here for the land surveying part. Land surveying? Oh. Those guys that have, like, survey party, they have, like, a big party sign on the side of the road, and you're out there looking through that thing up there? Oh, yeah. We're looking through the total station, and it shoots a little laser out and tells you how far away you are from that little guy on top. Is this something you always wanted to do as a kid? I actually didn't learn about this until, like, two or three years ago, after I got out of the military. Yeah. Interesting. Did you do any of this type of stuff in the military? Just the map making. That was it. Yeah. All right. How exciting is it to see a bunch of high school kids kind of coming by and kind of talking to you about this stuff? I think it's going to be really interesting. I never had anything quite like this when I was growing up. I'm actually from western New York, but this is a really cool program. Are you a Buffalo Bills fan? I am. All right. Are you a Sabres fan? I am. All right. I'm a Ranger hockey fan. I'm just telling you. All right. So just sit down. Sit down. All right. Your name? Colton. Colton. I'm going to... I'm from Fortuna, Humboldt County, kind of northern California. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. So I have a problem. Now, look at this. This guy, is that... ...the last few minutes. That's pretty cool. All right. So you're not an engineer? No. I just was kind of researching careers in high school and stuff and it seemed cool, and so I went to college for it and ended up liking it. All right. With AI and all these things that are out there kind of, quote, improving things, making things better, is engineering and planning still like a hands-on type of thing, or is that just a part of it? What's added to it? At this point, it's... What's on your computer screen here? This is a LiDAR scan we do with the drone. So... Yeah, I see these drones. You've got some big, heavy-duty drones. Yeah. So we'll fly over with a laser scanner and a camera and kind of just get a model of the ground. And then we'll fly it online, kind of near Virginia City, Nevada. So... That's pretty awesome. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now, are the kids going to... Are you going to turn on some drones for the kids and stuff to show them how they work? Last year. It depends if they let us or not. So we'll see. Who's they? You've got your office manager here. The fairground people. Sometimes they don't want us to fly the drones. All right. Well, the kids... Oh. All right. Good luck to you guys. Good seeing you. All right. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Of course, one of our sponsors, Elliott Plumbing in the House. Collar plumbing. So what does blue-collar plumbing mean? Elliott's blue-collar plumbing representing all the trade guys out there that weren't college-bound but needed some instruction in life on how to gain some skills and get a career that matters to the world. I mean, we are keeping people safe sanitarily-wise. I mean, we're probably the number one disease preventer in the world, plumbing trade right there. You're going to be soldering some pipe here. We have some young ladies walk up. I have to share something with you. My sister Maureen actually is great at soldering copper pipe. I believe it. Husband's a plumber and actually puts down a better bead. Yeah. The ladies usually have a little bit steadier hand, a little bit more patience, where the guys just kind of like seeing the flame and want to torch up a little bit more. So I'm encouraged by what we're going to see today. All right. So you young ladies, you stop and invite us to say hi? How you doing? Let me get your names. We're on the radio live. Aren't you excited? Yes. I'm very excited. Your name? Sophia. Sophia. Where's she going? Who's that? That's Ari. Ari? Come here, Ari. Where do you guys go to school at? We go to Nevada Union. Nevada Union. What grade are you in? I'm in ninth grade. Ninth grade. How about you? Ari's running away. What's your grade, Ari? Sophomore. Sophomore. So that's 10th grade, right? All right. Do you guys have interest in maybe becoming like in the trades and doing this type of stuff? I do, yes. Is it in your family at all? Yes. I live with my dad. We have a ranch in Baja. So I'm around a lot of welding and animals and wood. You have a ranch in Baja? Yes. Oh, good for you. Yeah. So you have to go out there, though, and maintain things, right? I mean, that's like a big part of it? Yeah. I'm mostly in charge of all the plumbing and for all the horse stalls and stuff. All right. All right. Well, I'll let you ladies get to it because that's the thing that's going on here today is that like Elliott's Blue Collar Plumbing has displays they're doing. They're going to have kind of lessons going on, see kids get turned on to see what's going on. So it's a lot of fun. All right. All right. All right. So Elliott Blue Collar Plumbing has displays they're doing. They're going to have kind of lessons going on, see kids get turned on to the trades that are out here. There's plumbing. There's electrical. There's inside. I think they're doing some sheetrock work and texturing work in there. So a whole bunch of things are going to be on display. We're going to take our first time out, first off, to see how I sound because I have no way to monitor the station. But this is KNC inside here at the Nevada County Fairgrounds on trade day. We'll be right back. At Big O, our ProTec Plus warranty offers free flat repairs, replacements, and roadside assistance. So tire trouble is no trouble at all. Come in now through October 11th and get up to $200 in savings when you buy four or more select in stock new Michelin passenger or light truck tires. Visit our website for more details. Big O Tires, the team you trust. Installation required. Disposal fees and shop fees extra where permitted. 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All right, welcome back to On the Town, actually it's KNCO Insight here at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. It is Trades Day. Becky Browning, are you kind of in charge of this thing today, aren't you, in a lot of respects? I am, I guess so, officially now. So I've kind of just been taking over the position recently. You took it over from? I did. I took it over from Luke Browning, who we do, he's my husband, so we do have a previous relationship. Absolutely, it's been something that we've participated with as a site at Nevada Union, that where I came from, and then also my daughter is part of the CTU program that she's been involved with as well. This has been going on for a few years, and it is an amazing event to give the students opportunity to see all of these local businesses, and the hands-on activities that they have offered here are just amazing. And I heard that the kids are going to be well-behaved, come in here, go right to work, and do things, and that's what I'm seeing already. I know, we were just kind of talking about this this morning, it's kind of like a small town, so you can't really get away with much without somebody seeing something, but no, we really have some amazing students, and it is so cool to have such a big event where so many people are involved, and so many pieces of equipment and activities, you can hear the chainsaws in the background and everything, but yeah, the kids are super engaged, and they're active, and they're doing things, and they're hands-on. So who are the two young ladies you brought here? I got a couple representatives from the Nevada Union FFA chapter officer team, and they're part of our agriculture CT pathway, and so I just thought you can maybe check in with them and see how they're enjoying the day so far. And your name? Riley Rist. Riley Rist. You're part of that Rist family of high-achieving kids, right? Yes, I am. How's your big sister doing? She's actually doing really good. She had a sorority rush the last couple weeks, so she was really enjoying that, and then her class started just a couple weeks ago, so she's been back on the school grind, I guess. Yeah, now I saw you in the gazebo. How did you do at the fair? I never see kids right after the fair. Did everything go great? It did go good. I was really happy with how it went overall. I had a little issues with showmanship with my pig, but in the show, he did amazing, and I was super proud of him, and then just happy he sold. All right. Did you get a good price? I did, yes. I was very happy with the price that I got. All right. Now, what are you going to be doing here? Do you have some things you specifically want to look at while you're here for Trades Expo? I would like to see some more of the inside booths that they had. I know last year that Sierra Customs was here, and some interior design places were here, so I would like to go see those, and then just kind of do some of the hands-on activities that are here as well. All right. What office do you hold in the FFA? I am the treasurer. So you're in charge of money? Does Becky Browning know that? Yes, she does. All right. And your name is? I'm Eliana Hensley. Eliana, how are you? I'm good. How are you? All right. Now, what's your position with the FFA? I am the reporter this year, so I run our Instagram accounts and all of that. You're going to be a radio star. Do you know that? I am. Yes. We're going to get reports from you guys. I'm a radio star. Really? Are you already a radio star? I came in over the summer, about a week before the fair, and recorded my letter, and that's my first connection with you guys, and then we've been trying really hard. My other officer, Kylie Ward, she's been also reaching out to you guys as well. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. Well, you're reaching out to the program director now, so this is good. Perfect. Because you guys have stuff going on all year, right? All the time. All the time. Yep. We have a bunch of events and stuff, and especially things like these, we want to talk about it, and talk about other kids as well, and have them share how they experienced it. Do you see why women kick butt so much in this stuff? Because the women really kind of rule, especially at NU. NU's FFA. I think at one point, there was all women officers a few years ago. There has been a couple, I think, but yeah. Why is that? Are the guys too goofy? I guess so. I don't know. Maybe they're just not as serious. All right. Now, is there anything you want to look at in particular today? I don't know. I kind of just ... I know a lot of people who are in the trays, just family friends and stuff, because of my dad and stuff, so I don't know. I like seeing other people, and people that I know, and also getting to introduce other peers into that, too, and maybe ... All right. So what do you want to do when you grow up? I want to go into dental hygiene, actually. All right. That's interesting. I don't know if I asked you, Rosie. What do you want to do? That's a great question. I don't know yet. All right. Still got time to figure it out. You're going to be like a cardiac surgeon, or something like that? Because I think somebody told me that, and now she's doing Rush, so I don't know if that's still true. Yes. Mackenzie does want to be a surgeon. She does? She does. Yes. Cardiothoracic surgeon, I believe it is. Okay. Yes. I mean, she's a grown woman and stuff, but tell her to leave the boys alone. They're no good in college. All us guys have been there. Luke was ... Oh, I can't even tell you Luke Browning's stories. Well, hopefully she listens to this and gets the gist of it. So ... To say, we met in college. Luke and I did. What college? Well, actually ... That's kind of a long story, but we went to Chico State for a short while together, but I was going to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and I landed up transferring up there. Wow. You went from beach girl to ... I went from beach girl to ... Upper Bidwell. That was, yeah, Northern California. I actually grew up in San Diego, so yeah, it was a big switch for me, the Northern California switch, but yeah. All right. All right. Well, this is a very exciting time, and very exciting time for the CTE program, which has grown immensely at the school, huh? It is. It's amazing the work that ... It's the whole team between the CTE team, with Jeff Dulles helping out and managing our internships. We have over 200 internships that we have within our district. We have Delia, who's our CTE secretary, who's working super hard. We've orchestrated a lot of this to help make it happen. We've been working super closely with the Contractors Association, who is really the backbone of this whole event, and work so hard to orchestrate with all the different companies in the area to provide all these opportunities for the students, so yeah. It is a team effort, and there are so many hands in making all this happen for our students, and to give them the opportunities to do this. Right, and I know these two young ladies are right within earshot, but some of these high school kids can be kind of goofy. There's power tools going off, and you're totally calm. You're okay with that? What they might be doing over there? Yeah, no. Right behind us, we have a lift with a log. We have power tools. What do you mean, if I didn't have to come over? Right over here. You can run to the log and talk. I said, no, no. That's awesome. We have students over here building a truss for a roof. It's amazing. Yeah, and then we have NID over here. They're doing activity with ... Practicing with some heavy equipment. They have balls on PVC pipes, where they're having to place them and accurately do so. Again, it's really getting students the opportunity to see what do these positions actually look like, what is available within our community, right here, to see how they can live and thrive within our community. With CTE, just how overreached it is, down at Bear River, I do their football games. The coach there is involved, I think, with the law enforcement CTE down there. We have two new pathways. We have our criminal justice pathway, and that's available at Bear River and Nevada Union. We have two amazing teachers that are working hard to start those programs. We also have a new aviation pathway, as well, at Nevada Union. They're working closely with ... Yeah, I know, it's amazing. With the airport and Cal Fire, they just have a tour coming up next week after fall break. Again, we're just trying to get students out to see what's available in our area and set them up for success, especially with criminal justice. Those teachers are working really hard to figure out what direction this pathway is going to go in, to help figure out how we can prepare students for jobs within our community. All right, Becky. I got one question for the reporter. We go through the fair, and we ask this all the time. The fair is in the rearview mirror. Who has the better FFA team throughout the year? Oh, gosh. I don't know if I can disclose this. No, no. I don't know if I can disclose this. She's not here. Becky's not here. It's Nevada Union. It's Nevada Union? I'm just kidding. I don't know. We're both pretty good. Everyone tries their best, and everyone tries their hardest. I asked you this during the fair, and you were very diplomatic. It's a very biased opinion, because obviously I think Nevada Union's going to be better, because I go there. But I think, like Ms. Browning said, everybody has their strengths and their weaknesses, and we all shine in different places. It kind of just depends. I don't know. We're both very good chapters. All right. Who has the better one? Oh, my gosh. Okay. A little whispers, Becky. Why do you set them up like that? Is that a bad thing? Oh, my goodness. We've got to get some Bear River representatives here, too. Are these Bear River kids here? Who are these guys from? Are these from NU, too? They're Nevada Union students. I don't know where any Bear River kids are here. Are the Bear River kids coming? No. They are. They're going to be here later. Do you know where the fairgrounds are? Yes. No. Stop. They're going to be here later. They're on session three. All right. You guys have fun. I have to do a news break. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome very much. Can't wait to get the reports going from our FFA kids because both Bear River and Nevada Union students do stuff all year long. They really do. It's a wonderful opportunity. Anyway, we're going to get a news update here at the bottom of the hour. Also, weather forecast. We'll be back at the Nevada County Fairgrounds trade show in a little bit. I'm Chris Gilbert with the KNCO Local News Update. A body found last month in the Dobbins area of the Yuba County foothills has been identified as a Grass Valley man. The Sheriff's Department says 73-year-old Dennis Madsen was found somewhere on the ground off Frenchtown Road near Dry Creek. It's been termed a suspicious death, but the department says that doesn't necessarily mean a crime was committed. On-topic results are still pending. No other information is available at this time. And today is also California Clean Air Day, established just nine years ago, and at their meeting in Truckee yesterday, Nevada County Supervisors approved their annual resolution of support. Staff says as a state, California still has some of the worst pollution in the United States. Senior Management Analyst Andy Stewart told the board that unhealthy and hazardous air quality has also become an increasing concern for county residents, and he mentioned a number of common local observances. That includes free fares for Nevada County Connects riders. They also participate in a car-free day by walking or riding their bike to work. Other possible ways to participate include planting trees, composting, carpooling, refraining from idling your car where possible, setting your air conditioners to no lower than 78 degrees, using electric tools instead of gas-powered tools, replacing your heating and air conditioning filters to enhance air efficiency, amongst many other options. Stewart also mentioned some ongoing county initiatives. That included a county employee e-bike program funded through the local Air Quality Management District. Also, an expansion of the Zero Emission Transit Fleet and the South Yuba River Shuttle Pilot Program that was launched this summer. The goal of that program was to get more vehicles off the road, lower traffic near the river, and reduce overall emissions. The resolution was introduced again by county supervisor Harney Bullock. He also noted his six years on the local Air Quality Management District Board. What's interesting about Nevada County is you wake up and you see the air looks pretty good but we have a bunch of NOx and P2M particulate matter in our air that comes from the valley so often times we're in non-attainment many days out of the year just based on the fact that transportation pollution that comes from the valley affects our air quality. Air pollution has been linked to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, and other health risks. For our next local news update at the bottom of the hour, or any time, you can go to KNCO.com. I'm Chris Gilbert, KNCO News Talk 830. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded. Hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart. The special guests, the second and fourth Mondays at 9 a.m. Brought to you by Montecito Glass, serving Nevada County since 1949, and Smarter Broadband, a local, reliable, high-speed internet. Don't miss the voices, the stories, and the history that make our community unique. Right here on KNCO News Talk 830. Colorectal cancer is the leading cancer killer in men under 50, and the second leading cause of cancer death for women under 50. The American College of Radiology urges you to get screened starting at age 45. Now Medicare and insurance companies are required to cover not only colonoscopy, but less invasive exams, like virtual colonoscopy. Talk to your doctor about your options. For more information on virtual colonoscopy, visit radiologyinfo.org slash virtualct. 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. I don't know that I saw a pitch. I know the name, though. Mostly clear overnight, Arlo in the low 60s. Sunny and dry for Thursday with a high of 91. Thursday night, mostly clear, Arlo 62. Sunny and upper 80s expected on Friday afternoon. Only deal with the west coast. Click on the weather center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holiday on KNCO News Talk 830. All right. Welcome back here to Trades Expo here at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. Dan Fussella here is the superintendent of the high school district. Very exciting to see your kids out here getting this opportunity, huh? You know, it's exciting every year, Tom, and these guys are engaged and alive and just eyes wide open and having a blast out here. You know, Chris, I really did wonder, and I kind of joked off the air. When I was a kid this age, we were like this big. Mind you, Hudson Catholic, Catholic school, right? Supposed to be better behaved and stuff. These kids are into it. Like, no doubt, they're totally respectful and paying attention. Yeah. Like we mentioned off the air, I won't repeat the stories you shared about what you were doing on field trips, but we do have some community accountability. You know, we're a tight-knit community. Everybody listening knows that that's what makes our community special. So there's not room for them to goof off, but not that they would want to. They recognize that. So there's not room for them to goof off, but not that they would want to. They recognize, you know, a lot of these guys, as we're looking around, are operating some heavy equipment. We've got kids that are building tool boxes and that are moving dirt around and moving balls around with machinery. And so these are the things that matter. There's real consequences. So they're locked in and have to be. Yeah. Now, you know, being the guy that's in charge of everything in the district and stuff, I think we just had a news story about enrollment, about, you know, costs and things like that. This is like one of the selling points for people who decided to pick a school or a school district, right, to have exciting CTE programs, too. Absolutely. And absolutely unique to us as a high school district. And I've been saying it for the last three years, and nobody's stepped up to challenge me, but we have the most robust offerings of CTE programming in the state. And then part of what makes our CTE program so amazing are the community partnerships that we have in our county. And today's really a celebration of that. You'll look around and we see, I think it's 50-plus, 55-plus industry partners out here that are providing opportunities for our students. We have close to 200 students that are placed in internships right now. That's up from where we were three years ago, which was about 35, 40 kids. So it's incredible. They're learning real skills in our classrooms, and they're going out and applying those skills in our community and supporting our businesses in the process. Well, obviously, you know, the other thing that I tell listeners of is the upbeat attitude of all the contractors that are here, because I think just having the youth come and ask them questions, pretty exciting for them, too, thinking that some people might be going into trades again. It is. It's invigorating for them. They were all there once as young learners. These opportunities and these skills are what hook a lot of our students into school. It's what gets them out of bed every morning, gets them excited about coming to school. Sorry, math and English and history teachers, if you're listening. But for a lot of these students, and like you said, a lot of the adults that are here providing demonstrations and opportunities, they see themselves in our kids, which is amazing. It's full circle. You know, it's kind of funny. I went to, like I said, you know, back east years ago, decades ago, obviously, when I went to high school. So it was college prep, and I really were focused on that. But I would have loved to have a trades expo. I didn't get exposed to any of this stuff. My dad wasn't a handyman. Until I got out on my own, I didn't have money, so I had to try to learn how to fix things. Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you, Tom. Also, growing up in the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area, didn't have those opportunities. But yeah, these are great skills. These are high-demand, high-wage jobs. In walking around and talking to some of our partners today, they're more busy than they've ever been. So a big thank you to everybody who's out here giving their time and energy when they have big projects that are going on out there. But they need us as much as we need them. So they're hungry for our students. Our students are coming out, and they're employable. And these are real, solid careers and jobs that are not going away. They're not going to be replaced by AI. And there's a need out there. And it's one of those things, when you talk about having a school district, right? We've seen all the trades, you know, not so much go away, but things like logging, other industries get hurt, even electronic ones. All of a sudden, student population goes down. If we can get these guys to do a trade and stay here, they're just adding to the school districts and stuff. Absolutely. Adding to the districts, adding to our local economy, adding to our local industry partners who are mostly homegrown and home-employed. It's a fascinating thing to watch out here. And what a better, you know, no better place to do it than out here at the fairgrounds on a beautiful day. All right. I do worry about Jim Drew walking by. Because Mr. Drew walks by, he sees a log in the air. He's thinking, well, I could just mill that thing down with my mill. Mr. Drew. How are you, Tom? Fine. How are you? Mr. Frisella, good to see you here. I want everybody to know that this guy supports career technical education. He's been a big help with all our programs. So, you know, when I was on the school board, it was pretty tough. But now, he has seen the light. Our schools are doing the right things for these kids. Well, you know what? We were just talking, as you were walking up, I was just talking about how we grew up in a college prep environment where trades weren't even introduced at all. And I wish I had that opportunity. No. There was always that group of kids that was in some of those programs. But they were fed that direction. So that's changed now. We've always had super kids smattered through the programs and that. But now, it's really working out really good. All right. Do you have your mill going or anything like that here? Not here. But we've got it out at the school ranch. We've got that thing running about four days a week with our student interns that are paid through the county, I believe. So the county government is supporting that. So it's been a good deal. You've probably talked to some of our kids already. And I know you talked to Becky Browning. She's our new career tech ed oversight. What about a better half? Am I right on that? Is that a better half than Luke? We got a big deal on that one. Yeah. Yeah. And Luke has even admitted that. He said, you're going to be way better off with Becky. It's a good deal. So you're just cruising by? Yeah. I try to stop by. I know I recognize a lot of these kids that are helping out at the ranch and, of course, that are in the programs at both high schools. Jim doesn't just recognize the kids that are out here. He recognized most of the adults that he probably had as students that are working. Most people thought he changed his first name to Mr., not Jim. I've got a couple guys over here at the county booth, former students. We've got them there at the landscaping business over here. They're everywhere, Tom. I can't get down the street without seeing some of these former guys that we've had in the program. Arbor culture, whatever this thing is. The suspended log. They wanted me to go onto that to do the interview. I know. I'm a little leery of that one, too. But it looks like Aaron's got that. That's a nice knot on there, but what the heck? I'm not going under that. No, no, no. All right. OK. It's fair enough I do that livestock auction with you with those big steer going by us. I know. That's scary enough. At least there's a good fence around that stuff. I know that some of them are Jersey cows, and they have attitude just like me. Well, and I wanted to thank you and the KNCO for always supporting the junior livestock auction out there. And you even stepped up and did some logistical things for us during that sale this year, not just sharing what was going through the sale. Yeah. Oh, well, that's my pleasure. Thank you for doing that. All right. Just to be around these kids last night. I know. It's a pretty good bunch, Tom. Yeah. And it's a good superintendent. Well, it is. He's well on the board. It is. And we've got good principals at both schools and a good superintendent and helping out these kids. As a matter of fact, with the CTE program, the head coach down there, Dustin Smith, down at Bear River High School, he's like a CTE instructor for a long time because he's a cop, right? Correct. Yeah. He's a first-year instructor for our criminal justice program down there. We've got two new programs, both at Bear River and Nevada Union of Criminal Justice. And, yeah, we have Dustin Smith, head coach of the football program, also a cop in his free time, and also teaching in our CTE program, criminal justice, down there. Yeah. Pretty neat. He's a tough coach. That's what I hear, although he did get a shoulder injury trying to jump into a drill, and a kid clipped him, and so he's getting better. Say that again? He had a little shoulder injury from a kid. Well, I know he has his arm in a... He didn't tell me that story. Yeah, one of his own. Oh. Yeah. We'll save that for him, Tom. Oh, we will save that for the pre-game show coming up on this Friday night. Perfect. All right. This blonde lady right here, somebody told me she was like one of the original people with these trade shows. Cindy Olsen's one of the originators. She was working as our CTE program secretary at the time when this was just an idea. At Bear River? She's been at Bear River. She's been at Nevada Union. She was a district employee as a CTE secretary. Oh, I gotcha. She was in the room, and she was the glue and part of the engine that ran and got this thing together four years ago. Are you wandering here? Yeah, she's had a big role, and she still continues to. We can't keep her away. Who are these ladies here? We've got two board members, two board of trustees, Olivia Pritchett and Wendy Willoughby. Yeah. Big supporters of the program. Are these official shoes that Olivia is on? I checked Miss Pritchett's footwear on the way in. She has better heels for closed doors. These are outdoor stilettos. Never mind that it's white after Labor Day, but it's 90 degrees. It's about 100 degrees today. They're actually beige, so I believe that on the etiquette scale. With the heels, is that aerating the lawn, so you're doing landscaping type of stuff? I'm doing my part. Yes, exactly. What a wonderful day to be here at the Nevada County Fairgrounds for Trades Day. Definitely one of our favorites. With the board, how you guys, Mr. Drew walking up, just got CTE at a different level now throughout the district. Isn't that amazing? Yes. We definitely want to continue to build on that momentum and continue to expand opportunities for all of our students. They come here to Trades Days, and to see all of the things that are available to them, it's just simply wonderful. That's the thing, Wendy. I was talking before to see all the young ladies here. Not hesitant. Right in back of you, as I'm talking to you, is Elliott School of Collar Plumbing. They're doing some soldering over there. It's two ladies doing it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think one of the best parts of this is that students from almost all of our sites get to come. Kids that may not have known that they have an interest in that, or they find that fascinating, get to sort of explore these ideas, and then take those back, try some classes, maybe get an intern with our amazing program with the county and Mr. Jeff Dulles. You know, so it provides not just the exposure, but we have the opportunities to give them the follow through around really diving into some of these ideas for their future, which is extraordinary. You know what's extraordinary, too, is all the collaboration. Because when the kids came in, I just thought about this, Mr. Dulles greeting the kids when they came in. They were getting like little bags. But then they're going around getting passports filled out, right, to get maybe winning a bucket full of tools and stuff. And that's all collaboration. Totally. Absolutely. Obviously, looking around, and you on the radio can't see it, but there's trees and drills and huge trucks and you name it, hammers going and drills going. None of this would be even possible without our amazing communities, small businesses, and folks that are willing to step in. It's really a mutually beneficial situation and partnership. About the tree that they lifted up there, that's right where I set up. They said, oh no, we know where you should set up, right here. And then the tree went up in the air. Huh. Somewhat suspicious there, Tom. I'm not going near that thing. Anyway, we're going to take our last break. Thank you, ladies, for stopping on by. Thank you for coming. You bet. Out here at the Trades Expo at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. So a quick break. 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If you don't want to be in the air, this is how you can put the power of Swap Shop to work for you. 913-4685, 913-4685, message and data rates apply. Lock it into your phone so you're ready to call KNCO News Talk 830. And welcome back to Nevada County Fairgrounds. I'm Tom Fitzsimmons, KNCO Inside Out here. Normally ERC day, the first Wednesday of the month, and I was just thinking, Gil Matthew is going to meet me out here. There's so many people that have come out here, though. He could be just kind of wandering around the crowd. A star in KNCO has a booth out here, got Mary Ann and Sue out there entertaining kids stopping on by. I do see a young man on a little Bobcat loader going on the lawn area. That's where everybody's set up outside here with the bigger equipment. It's like the open green area out at the fair and the fairgrounds. Peter Weldrong is here. You know what? I want to see if I can talk to them real quick. Just because Peter Weldrong is one of these landmark businesses, they got a huge unit that's set up here. They also drilled something into the ground. These kids are getting hands on what the equipment does out here with Peter's drilling and pump service. You might remember Jerry Serino had these guys as one of those family businesses, like landmark businesses, that Nevada County is for. How are these businesses staying? Getting workers, getting tradesmen to come here, maybe work for Peter's and stuff. Your name is? My name is Greg Stephan. Greg, how are you doing? I'm doing good. I was just telling our listeners, Jerry Serino highlighted Peter's as one of those generational businesses and such. How long have you been there? I've been here for 42 years. That's all? 42 years? Yes, that's correct. How exciting is it to have a program like that to get these high school kids introduced to it a little bit? I think it's awesome. It's a good opportunity for these kids. It's hard to get jobs sometimes in the spring, and that's when we started our hiring. It's good to have an opportunity to give these guys a shot at it. This is an awesome truck. Now, I've seen this truck on the road, but I have never been this up close and personal with it. How old is this truck, and what's it do? This particular model is a 2015. It's the drill rig itself. It weighs about 65,000 pounds. 65,000 pounds? That's correct. That's correct. Okay. It's capable of drilling up to 2,000 feet, but an average well in the county is between two and 400 feet. Yeah. Hopefully, you don't have to go 2,000 feet. 42 years. Have you gone down pretty far at times? Yes, I have. There's some areas in the county that are more difficult to find water. All right. Now, do you guys ... I don't even know what the term is. Witch for water? You know what I mean? That old-fashioned thing? Yeah. We do kind of a three-step approach. We look at wells in the area, the history of some of the wells that we've already drilled out in an area. That makes sense. Some neighboring wells and things like that. The other thing we look at is the geology. There's certain things we look at from a geological standpoint, and if we want to pinpoint a site, we do some water dowsing. That's what I do. Yeah. Water dowsing. Yes. The other thing I noticed with the listeners is just the atmosphere of all the contractors out there. It's upbeat. I think there's an excitement seeing kids get turned on to maybe some of these things. Absolutely. I wish I would have had this opportunity when I was much younger, but I think it's a great opportunity for all these kids to look at these different options they have. How did you get turned on to it 42 years ago? I was in college, and I was just looking for something to do, just some spare money, and I ... What were you doing in college? What were you thinking you were going to do? I remember being lost. Yeah. I was probably that same guy. I was just kind of lost trying to figure out what direction I wanted to go, and start out as a summer job, and I really liked the family and the people I was working with, and it just turned into a career. This is a total family business, huh? It has been run by one family since the start in 1983. All right. And a good living people have doing this, right? Absolutely. That's the only way you keep good people around. You've got to pay them a decent wage. Yeah. Hopefully they can live here and get homes. That's what we're kind of missing, right? I mean, that little missing link, but I can come back here with the trains. That's exactly it, and that's what we want to keep going. Well, I appreciate you making time out of your jobs to kind of come out here and stuff. You're more than welcome. Now, how far in the ground is that thing there? That's just sitting there. That's actually the pump. Yeah. That goes down to the bottom of the ... Oh, that's the pump. Yeah. That's the pump. That goes to the bottom of the well. Yeah. It sits about 10 feet off the bottom, whatever the depth of the well is. It could be anywhere from 50 feet to 800 feet. So that thing better be working when you put it down there, right? It better be working. That's correct. And it's the other thing to see these young ladies stopping by too. Absolutely. Everyone's enjoying it. Absolutely. I appreciate it. Peter's Welling and Pump Service. I'll tell you, one of our great businesses. I have to get to these log people because this log has been dangling over my head for a while. It's from Acton Arbiculture, I believe is what the shirt says. There's a bunch of knots on the rope here. I've been trying to broadcast here and I'm staring at a log that's suspended in the air over here. People are paying me money to go under it. I'm not going under that. Don't go under that. You know how much that weighs? You can take a guess how much that weighs. I have no idea. That's about 1,000 pounds. 1,000 pounds. Yeah. Don't lay under that. I don't want to lay under that. No. But what do you got here? Look at this thing. It's like a piece of military equipment. It really is a piece of military equipment. It's called a Unimog and we got a set of forks on the front of it and a little crane on the back of it. We use this on certain projects. Maybe we got to lift some wood. Maybe we've used it to clear creeks before where we got to drag stuff up out of a creek. Then we can use the forks to move that wood or that material around. Pretty cool piece of equipment. It looks like some piece of equipment, but you guys have to walk the fine line of being almost like scientists in some respects. You're working with nature, right? That's right. That's right. It's a lot of on-the-job learning that comes with it and there's not necessarily a handbook like there is with other professions. So yeah. So what are the kids doing? They coming up? I know they have passports they're filling out. Are some kids kind of interested in this type of work? I think so, especially because of the equipment and the saws and a lot of cool, somewhat dangerous stuff. It's a cool job. But we got kids learning how to tie a running bowline, which is a good knot. We use it a lot for rigging branches, for rigging wood. We can use it for pulling stuff. So yeah, we just got kids using a knot that they could use every day. You're teaching them hands-on, like right here? Is that what these ropes are? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Very good. I notice there's young ladies stopping by. They're just as involved as the guys? Yeah. Especially these days, we're seeing a lot more female arborists. It's awesome to see that coming to the industry. Your name? Collin. Collin. Yes, sir. Good job. Yeah, it's great seeing Collin out here. Again, they have a whole bunch of things going on here. I know I'm down to the last few minutes. Clear-cut construction is a little bit a ways away, but just showing you the depth of what's being displayed out here, and you probably hear a chainsaw starting up over there, what Collin Construction is doing is actually building roof trusses, just like you'd see in a house. They had some full-form ones. They actually have some miniature ones that are being built by some kids right now, including the roof line and stuff, so this is like hands-on stuff that they talked about. When Luke Browning was on, it's like having these kids pick up the tools, pick up the saws, pick up all of the equipment, heavy equipment, when they're dealing with the green area out here. They're going to be dumping a bunch of sand, doing some grading and all that stuff, so opportunities are immense with this stuff. I just noticed Luke Browning showed up, so I'm going to try to stretch my microphone. I'm going to try to steal Luke Browning away, because Becky was saying things about him. Luke, how are you doing? I'm good. Yeah, thanks for being out here. No, it's very exciting to be out here and stuff. I'm so proud of the kids. It's not that I'm surprised, but they are so well-behaved and into what they're doing. Yeah, they are, and I'm not surprised either, and I've been doing this long enough to see how they interact, and they love it. There's not issues, and you would be worried, like, hey, you've got a couple hundred kids coming out here to interact, and if you look around right now, every one of them is engaged with the booth. Totally engaged, yes. I mean, doing everything, the hands-on, doing some soldering over there with plumbing, just by the arborist booth over there, the learning knots, and so it's all young ladies at that point doing it. No, it's great, and then inside, there's some drywall set up. I see kids breaking drywall, and then fixing it, and patching holes, and it is, I think this year's the most interactive the booths have been yet in this year. Now, were you part of the group that originally came together to make this thing happen, or was it? No, so that was the year before I got into it, so that was the Contractor's Association, the high school district, and the county started it, and then the last couple years, I've been involved with it, and just partnered with the county and the Contractor's Association, but it's certainly grown to be quite the event. You know what, and I've been sharing that with the listeners, too, just dealing with the contractors. They're as upbeat as the kids. They're very excited to see youth have maybe possibly excitement about doing the same craft that they're doing. Yeah, and when you look around, so year one, when I came, there were some really great booths. There were a couple that were really interactive, and then a lot of educational booths, right, and then the contractors all talked afterwards and said, hey, how come you had kids go into your booth? And so, then they started to get competitive, and year two, they upped it a little bit, and you're, like, looking at it now, there is not a booth that is not interactive. Kids are soldering, kids are putting boards together, kids are tying knots, like you said. They're building birdhouses, I think, and things over there, right? Every booth is interactive, and that is the contractors getting together and saying, hey, how can we make this better and more fun, and a little competition, I think, too. Yeah, and that's what makes the district more diverse, too. Yep, for sure. Yep. All right, Luke, I appreciate it. You bet. Thank you. Great seeing you here, Luke Browning. Thank you, Luke Browning, in charge of this, and she's a big mover and shaker on the CTE program, taking over for Luke. So, it's a big commitment, but I tell you what, the Nevada Joint Union High School District and the Contractors Association, hats off to both of them, putting on a great event. This is my first time I broadcast out here, and I think it might become an annual event, because it's a lot of darn fun. I'll just maybe figure out how to get some shade for me, because it's a very warm day today. I'm sure there's been some days where it's probably been misty rain and all that stuff for October. Anyway, I want to thank Moe Howard, jumping in early to finish up the news and engineering KNCO Insight today here on the road at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. He's going to be back here with Swap Shop and the Shopping Show next year on KNCO Newstalk 830. --- end of transcript ---