I think it’s fair to say we are officially in spring.

Things are kind of bumping around here right now. It is definitely starting to feel busier.

Tourists, locals, wildlife (my goodness the gator iykyk), everyone seems a little more in the mood to get out and about, and I honestly can’t blame them.

As for me, I’m just writing these Town Notes on a lazy sunday…but we’ve got some news you’ll want to know, plus a couple updates for the OGs of the Lowdown.

A quick one at the top to get out of the way.

It feels like one of these pops up every couple months, and I’ll always be happy to share it if it helps keep Napa locals from getting burned.

Napa County is warning about an escalating phishing scam that is impersonating county departments and staff, and officials say some people have already lost thousands of dollars.

In the most recent reported case, scammers posed as the Planning, Building, and Environmental Services Department and asked for wire transfers or payments tied to permits or applications.

The emails can look legitimate at first, which is why I am talking about it now ☹

The county’s advice is pretty simple:

So, save your money, save yourself the headache, and maybe save your dignity a little too - because apparently the scammers have made their way to Napa again.

Napa may be gearing up for one of its bigger city-facilities upgrade pushes in a while. There was a City Council meeting last week where officials outlined a proposed package of energy upgrades that will be in the 10s of millions of dollars.

Improvements include:

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

Sure, these presentations always sound nice. But the real question is whether any of this is actually going to happen.

I’m no expert, but it does seem like Napa is up against a July 4 deadline tied to federal incentive eligibility, so the city is not just talking - it is racing the clock to secure funding.

So here’s the quick rundown of what’s on the table - full presentation link at the bottom if you want to read through the city’s slides yourself.

Napa currently spends about $1.8 million on electricity, and you have to wonder what that number looks like now with all the recent energy demand chaos.

The city’s pitch is that solar and battery storage could help bring those costs down while protecting against future increases.

The staff deck frames the benefits in four buckets:

On paper, it all sounds very compelling. Whether it actually happens as proposed is the big question. Will Napa start looking a little more like a real solar-forward city, with panels on more rooftops and smarter EV infrastructure beyond a few parking-lot chargers?

Who knows - but it is clearly the direction city leaders are talking about.

Ok, that was kind of a long one, so let’s end with our old favorite construction project.

It’s been about six weeks, and for those who don’t see it every day like I do, here’s where we are now.

The site is firmly in its vertical construction era: Now it actually looks like a building. Or, more accurately, multiple big chunks of building.

You can now clearly see multiple levels taking shape, concrete columns rising all over the site, steel framing going in, and the giant cranes still looming over downtown like it pays rent there.

It’s definitely moving quick in that month and a half it looks like the bones are largely up and the scale is getting much easier to understand in real life.

Quick reminder of what is being built here:

If you are downtown, it is still a little annoying between the fencing, the tighter feel of the street, and the construction traffic - but hey, only about 18 months to go.

And yes, I’ll keep watching it so you don’t have to.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to bring back something a lot of newer readers may not know we have.

I honestly do not even know if I have shared these before, but we created them when we first started.

A collection of guides for our town: gyms, happy hours, preschools, urgent cares, coffee shops, grocery stores, and a few other local categories.

Some are based on what we thought people would want, and some came from research and reading through what people were saying online.

Personal favorite is the happy hour guide. The daily menu at the top is excellent. A few of these are a few months old now, so if anything is out of date, let us know. I have been meaning to clean them up.

https://guides.napalowdown.com/

Just wanted to put them on your radar in case you had no idea we had them.

Happy Monday.

Callie