Hey guys, welcome back.
I have been traveling and in and out of town for the last few weeks, so I am definitely a little out of sorts, but I am still here for you guys, and honestly, having this every week helps keep me on schedule too.
That being said, since I have been a little more out of the loop with what has been happening around town, I had to go a little more online than my usual ear-to-the-ground approach this week. But I think we still brought back some of the classic Monday Town Notes spirit: just helpful sh*t to know.
We have a roadwork heads-up, a quick lesson in how not to accidentally start a garbage-truck fire, and then, a little late, some thoughts on the County budget, which was probably one of the bigger civic stories of the summer.
And finally, at long last, we have our Napa Lowdown event calendar.
Now, do not get me wrong, it is still very much a rough draft. There are only a couple things in there right now, and I already know there is plenty more to add, but I think we can iterate our way into making this a genuinely useful home base for what is happening around Napa.
The recurring staples will live there, and eventually I will also add the events that make it into the Friday Weekend Game Plan. So if you just want the quick hitters and are too lazy to read the email, no judgment, that will be the place.
You can check it out here:
Now for your trivia: Napa County’s $996 million budget works out to roughly how much per resident?
A. $750
B. $3,500
C. $7,500
D. $75,000
The Berryessa Drive Is About to Take Longer
If you are heading toward Lake Berryessa, Winters, or anywhere along Highway 128 over the next month or so, leave yourself some extra time.
Caltrans has started daytime lane closures on Highway 128 between Berryessa Knoxville Road and Monticello Dam for roadway resurfacing.
The closures are scheduled to run through August 21, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with possible Saturday work during the same hours.
Traffic will be reduced to one lane through the work zone, with flaggers escorting vehicles through.
Which means this is not necessarily a full road closure, but it is exactly the kind of thing that can turn a normal Berryessa drive into a much longer one if you hit it at the wrong time.
And there are not exactly a million convenient alternate routes out there.
Caltrans says electronic signs will provide updates, but the easiest move is probably to check QuickMap before leaving and assume you may spend a little time staring at the back of someone else’s car.
Work is weather-dependent, but the current schedule runs through August 21.
One Battery Can Apparently Set a Garbage Truck on Fire
This one starts with a garbage truck catching fire in North Napa, which is already a pretty good way to get my attention.
Napa Fire responded to the incident recently and used it as a reminder that lithium-ion batteries, hot ashes, and anything still smoldering should never go into household trash. (not quite common sense yet I guess)
To all the people wondering how this isn’t common sense yet - the lithium battery part can be understandable because they are hiding in way more things than most people think. Phones, laptops, power tools, e-bikes, rechargeable toys, vape devices, portable chargers, wireless headphones. Basically, half the modern junk drawer.
The problem is that once those batteries get crushed or damaged inside a collection truck, they can heat up, spark, and ignite. Which means one casually tossed rechargeable battery can turn into a fire involving the driver, the truck, nearby cars, the transfer station, and whatever happens to be around when it goes up.
So the practical takeaway/fyi is simple: rechargeable batteries do not belong loose in the garbage or recycling cart. Evidence below (real image):
Where Does a $996 Million County Budget Go?
A couple weeks ago, Napa County adopted a new budget for the fiscal year.
Drum roll please……We came in just shy of a billion dollars ($996 million, up about 3% from last year), which is a pretty striking number for a county with about 133,000 residents: $7,500 for every resident! You can make that out to Callie at Napa Lowdown thank you!
For comparison, Marin County, with roughly 254,000 residents, adopted an all-funds budget of about $903 million. Sonoma County, with around 486,000 residents, is much larger at $2.9 billion. So Napa is sitting in an interesting spot here: much smaller than Sonoma, about half the population of Marin, but operating with a headline budget that is actually a little larger than Marin’s. (Census.gov)
Now, before anyone starts imagining $996 million sitting in one enormous Napa checking account (guilty), that number seems to include everything: restricted funds, capital projects, special programs, grants, and money that can only be used for specific purposes.
The part that tells you more about the County’s actual day-to-day room to move is the General Fund, which comes in at about $338 million.
And this is where the budget gets more interesting.
The total budget is growing, but the General Fund is actually down slightly from last year. At the same time, labor, employee benefits, insurance, infrastructure, and storm-recovery costs are all rising faster than some of the County’s main revenue sources.
The clearest priorities are $66 million for public safety, $37 million for roads and infrastructure, $34 million for fire services and wildfire resilience, and $24 million for affordable housing, homelessness response, and housing stability. The County is also continuing work on a new behavioral-health treatment center. (Napa County)
And honestly, when you put those numbers together, the takeaway is less “wow, Napa has almost a billion dollars” and more “this is what it costs to keep a small, expensive, infrastructure-heavy county functioning.”
We have rural roads, wildfire risk, tourism pressure, aging facilities, housing problems, public-safety demands, social services, and a lot of geography to cover for a relatively small population.
That probably helps explain why the budget looks so large compared with the number of people who live here.
Still, nearly a billion dollars is nearly a billion dollars. Let’s make the most of it Napa.
Trivia answer for today: C. $7,500.
Napa County’s nearly $1 billion budget works out to roughly $7,500 per resident. It is not a bill (thankfully), but it is an interesting way to wrap your head around the scale of what it takes to run a county like ours.
Before I let you go, one last thing.
I would love your help with Version 1.0 of the Napa Lowdown Calendar, and I am only asking again because now you can actually see it.
Right now, it is mostly the staples: farmers markets, trivia nights, live music series, and other recurring things. But community meetings, meetups, volunteer opportunities, and anything else we think is genuinely useful or important absolutely belongs there too.
Then, once that foundation is a little more filled out, I can start layering in all of the neat one-off events that make it into the Weekend Game Plan, including the ones I inevitably miss.
So if there is something you think belongs on there, send it my way. Odds are, if you thought of it, someone else will probably be glad you did too.
And if you missed it in the intro, or just do not want to scroll all the way back up again, here is the link:
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you Friday.
Callie