Yubanet: Blue Lead Withdraws Appeal
Yubanet today reports that Blue Lead Mine has withdrawn its formal appeal to the Board of Supervisors to overturn the Planning Commission’s denial of vested right to mine.
As you may recall, the Planning Commission decided to deny Blue Lead’s application for vested right to mine after hearing significant testimony from the general public in opposition to that application.
Yubanet quotes Blue Lead’s July 27th letter to the Board:
After meetings with County Counsel and the Planning Director, Blue Lead Gold Mining, LLC wishes to notify the Nevada County Board of Supervisors that it will not pursue the pending appeal, and will instead continue working cooperatively with County Planning Staff to accomplish Blue Lead’s goals for its property. As such, please accept this letter as Blue Lead’s notice to the Board of Supervisors that it is officially withdrawing its appeal, and will instead continue pursuing the permitting process with the County.
Blue Lead will now need to resume its application for regular permits with the Planning Department. Its application — started last fall — was incomplete at the time Blue Lead changed its strategy to seek vested right to mine. Presumably it will now need to complete its application as a first step.
A related footnote: Today I heard an advertisement on KVMR for Downey Brand, the Roseville law firm employing Braiden Chadwick, the attorney who represented Blue Lead in its application for vested right to mine. The ad pitched Downey Brand as serving the local business community.
Possibly Downey Brand is hoping to represent more vested right claims in our county?
PG&E Small-Scale Solar Utility in Nevada County?
Here Chris Johns, President of PG&E, talks about the utility’s new 2-megawatt Vaca-Dixon solar array and how it could fit into a strategy of using smaller arrays, closer to transmission and customers.
The EPA has already designated the Idaho-Maryland Mine site as suitable for utility-scale solar. With Emgold’s continuing prospects looking bleaker, the city of Grass Valley should start exploring viable alternatives such as this kind of solar facility.
Great Article About Grass Valley in Today’s SacBee
Today’s Sacramento Bee featured an excellent article about the growing charms of Grass Valley.
Your Guide: You want nice place, nice people? Try Grass Valley
By Rick Kushman
rkushman@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jul. 25, 2010 – 12:00 amGRASS VALLEY – Everyone is so nice here. Not goober-sweet, insulin-shock nice. Just friendly and open and, you know, nice.
After two days of hitting this amiability everywhere – in the restaurants, the bookstores, the shops, the wine tasting rooms, the saloon at the Holbrooke Hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, even the Safeway at the bottom of the old town – I had to ask about it.
After breakfast at Tofanelli’s, a popular bistro with a killer patio (and 100-plus omelet choices), two of my servers were outside on a break. So I asked, nicely of course: “What is it with this town?”
“Everybody knows each other almost anyplace you go,” said Melenie Teehee. “So we just treat everyone like a neighbor.”
…
Read full article here.
DOUBLE-CLICK FOR GRASS VALLEY SLIDESHOW
A Kick Ass Movie, Followed by Our Comfort Restaurant
We had a great date today: A matinee at Sutton Cinemas, where we watched Angelina Jolie kick ass in Salt. A lot of fun so long as you suspend your disbelief. As one of my American literature professors used to say, “fiction depends on the willing suspension of disbelief.”
There was a lot of disbelief to suspend in Salt, a movie originally offered to Tom Cruise, who turned it down out of concern that it was too much like Mission Impossible. I’d probably be complaining about the lame retro-Soviet plot if it had been Tom Cruise, but it was great fun watching Angelina Jolie kick serious butt.
Afterward we shared a plate of Penne Chicken Dijon and a glass of chilled green tea with mint (two straws) at Cirino’s at Main Street, our favorite restaurant, while listening to Billie Holiday sing “Good Morning Heartache,” and to some vintage Sinatra and Steve Tyrell on their Sirius channel.
An altogether happy day … an adrenaline storm followed by some mellow dining and music.
By the Time I Grabbed the Camera, They’d Stopped Nursing
The fawns bounded down toward the house where the doe was grazing and began nursing immediately, but by the time I was able to grab the camera they’d stopped.
