Your citizen journalism project: Nevada City street paving

I'm trying to stick to climate change, but looking into & reporting on this would make a good project for someone.

This Nevada City street was paved last year, as part of the Measure S street resurfacing. It has already developed a pothole; a revealing one.

Is the asphalt supposed to be a quarter of an inch thick? What did the bid specs say?

Was this a one-spot problem, or is it thin like this in extensive areas & on the other Measure S-paved streets?

Does anyone check the contractor's work during the project, and if so, what process is followed?

Was the contractor local, or a Sacramento-area one?

Does the problem lie with the paving contractor, or with whoever prepared the street for paving, or are they the same entity?

What recourse do we-the-city have, if this turns out not to be an isolated problem?

Pothole location: Nile, just down from Clay.

Fine old NYTimes story on Amigo Bob Cantisano, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply founder; and Felix Gillet

Amigo Cantisano's Organic Dream, by Verlyn Klinkenborg, from March 1996.

"... So I became a test plot," Amigo says -- a metaphor that describes his working life almost perfectly. ...

Tree Q&A tonight re ordinance etc, Nevada City Planning Commission

Saw this in The Union. Here's the tree ordinance (City Hall mailed it to me just now).

If you can't make the meeting (630pm tonight, City Hall), and you have a Q about Nevada City trees, ask in the comments below; I'll try to get you an answer.

Update: there's now an updated URL for The Union's updated story about tonight's meeting. It has the same title, but a new date and a few extra sentences; and it sheds the (3) comments from the previous version of the story.

Downtown Nevada City sidewalk report: icy, treacherous, unsanded. Beware.

Next morning update: much better. See comment below.
In the short time I was in town today - including just now - I saw two people who'd fallen. One had a bloody face; one had hit the back of her head. Many downspouts drain directly onto the sidewalks, which - in the snow-thaw-freeze weather we're having now - means the sidewalks sport many rivers of ice. Unsalted, unsanded rivers of ice - the word at City Hall is "the sidewalks are the responsibility of the businesses, so we can't call Maintenance to do it" - and the merchants aren't prepared for this kind of weather, and may not realize it's their responsibility to make the sidewalks safe.

Result: Nevada City's a boomtown for personal injury lawyers today; but if you're not one and you don't want to hire one, get yourself a pair of YakTrax, or go out to dinner somewhere else tonight.

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Confidential to homeowners who shoveled plowed snow back into the street yesterday (where it turned to slush, melted, refroze): thank you, it's much more exciting to walk down the hill now.

As for the YakTrax - Mountain Recreation (where I got mine; 491 E. Main, GV) says they have 9 pairs left, but no Mediums.