Hidey Ho Lowdowners!

Hope you had a solid weekend, enjoyed the stretch of nice weather, and got at least a little reset in.

But it’s Monday. The work week is here. And I have got a few things you will want on your radar before you accidentally run into them.

Hope you enjoy this week’s Monday Town Notes.

Napa County’s HHSA BE WELL Mobile is parked at third and coombs today. 9:00am to 4:00 pm.

What they can help with:

Just be on the look out for a bus that looks like this:

No appointment needed - walk-ins welcome and it’s free.

And if today doesn’t work - there’s another BE WELL visit tomorrow at the Senior Activity Center.

I have been seeing a lot of buzz about the County transportation plan focused on biking and walking. And on paper, it’s gorgeous. Safer crossings. Better bike routes. Improved walkability so you don’t feel like you have to own a car.

The honest question is always the same though: execution.

These plans can read like a Pinterest board for infrastructure - and then nothing changes for three years.

Still, this one is worth a look because they put the map out publicly and you can leave comments right on it. I took a peek and the feedback is actually pretty good.

Also - shoutout to whoever called out the trail behind Copia. So true. That path is one of Napa’s best serene gems and it has been out of commission for at least a few years now (I think 18 is an exaggeration whoever said that)

If you want to snoop and see what other people are saying, here’s the link:

Also in recent news, it’s looking a little shaky for NVC

Napa Valley College is in budget-cut mode. They’ve approved 16 layoffs and eliminated 17 vacant roles - 33 positions total - as they try to close a widening gap tied to shrinking funding.

For a smaller school with under 100 instructors (and not all of these cuts were professors), that’s still a meaningful hit.

On the other hand, they also approved a new multi-year faculty contract with 3% annual raises plus a one-time payment.

That can feel contradictory, but my read would be that they are trying to cut costs in some places (perhaps less desired majors) while still keeping their key instructors from walking.

The Takeaway:

NVC is one of the most important pieces of “future Napa” we’ve got. Hopefully this juggling act ends with a college that’s smaller on paper, but still strong where it counts.

Shoutout to GovTech for this one - I stumbled on this piece and just thought it was such an interesting but cautionary tale.

Rewind the clock to 2006. Solar was all the craze. New companies were popping up all over the bay area and green tech was supposed to be the future. Napa hopped on the bandwagon too.

Back then, NVC built a $7.5M solar field that was supposed to cover about 40% of campus power and save ~$300k a year.

Fast forward about 15 years and it’s offline and overgrown - partly because maintenance got expensive, the vendor chain changed hands, and the company responsible eventually went bankrupt.

It’s kind of a microcosm of that whole era: everyone sprinted into “the future”, over-exuberance kicked in overdrive, and there was a massive crash and reset…Unfortunately, our NVC are also left holding on to the remains.

Here’s the link to the full article from GovTech if you wanted to delve a little deeper: link

Let me know if there’s anything you want more of, less of, or if I totally missed something.

I do this because I’m nosy and I like digging. But it’s just as much for you as it is for me.

And honestly - the replies make this feel way less like I’m yelling into the void.

Callie