Greenville Rising: April 12 — Coffeeshop opening soon, food trucks – the rebirth is coming
By Meg Upton
Spring, mountain style, means that you leave the house in the morning dressed for one type of weather and finish the day dressed for the opposite. I watched it snow sideways yesterday and then dry up to become a slightly warmer evening. The back and forth of rebirth is everywhere.
This weekend featured a lovely return to Easter Egg Hunts in Indian Valley. Is there anything sweeter than watching three and four year olds navigate grass and trees for the treasure of eggs?
By now you’ve seen the press releases and heard the news from multiple sources: PGE has reached a settlement with the five counties affected by the Dixie Fire ahead of this year’s upcoming fire season. Plumas County will receive the bulk of the funding from the settlement and donations made by PGE to entities within the county. Over the coming week, we will be going more into depth as to what that will mean for Indian Valley and its own non-profit organizations: Dixie Fire Collaborative which will see $3,000,000 coming its way and the Sierra Institute which will see $1,000,000 coming its way.
Also this weekend was a major step forward in what DFC has been calling Phase 0 — the planning process for the Indian Valley of the future. More on that in a separate story as well.
But taken as a whole, this feels like a very exciting week with lots of forward momentum by a variety of players.
One thing I noticed online is a good deal of armchair quarterbacks without law backgrounds or financial backgrounds commenting on how “this isn’t enough” and various other negativity at the tireless work of those securing funding for fire victims. We can do two things. We can dwell in and mire ourselves in self-pity or we can make decisions about picking up our lives and move forward. Take that negative energy and go do something with it that’s positive. That’s what, hopefully, most of us will chose to do.
With all this in mind, here’s the list of things we might want to know going on this week in Indian Valley. As usual if you have an item for the weekly column, please send it to [email protected].
Pop-Ups Coming
By this time next month, we should have coffee in downtown Greenville—the most exciting news since Nelz Towne Pump, for sure—as Rachel Goings readies her coffeeshop to open. Prior to the Dixie Fire, Goings had purchased the Sierra Sunrise with plans to reopen it. At this weekend’s Planning Process meetings, Kest Porter from Rotary, informed those gathered that in and around Crescent Highway and Pine Street (where that Greenville Gas Mart sign is) will be the site of a series of food trucks and hopefully also a trailer for the Indian Valley Thrift Store. The news was met with applause.
Meetings
Tomorrow, April 13, Fairgrounds Manager John Steffanic will be hosting a meeting at Greenville Elementary School cafeteria at 6 p.m. to talk about the proposed Indian Valley Innovation Hub. “A key component of any recovery for Indian Valley is the creativity and ambition of its residents. This meeting, and one more later this month on Saturday, April 30 at 11 a.m., is where the economic rubber hits the road,” said Steffanic. He indicates that after the meeting it will up to those who attended whether or not this Innovation Hub happens.
Representatives from both State Assemblywoman Megan Dahle’s office as well as and her husband state senator Brian Dahle’s office will be in Greenville tomorrow April 13 at Greenville Elementary School Cafeteria at 6 p.m. to speak with residents about grievances regarding the California Fair Plan (insurance). Those needing to see them are asked to write a brief narrative with claim and account information on it. As there is another meeting happening there at the same time, groups meeting with Dahle representatives will meet in a classroom once people are assembled in the cafeteria.
The monthly Indian Valley Community Services District meeting, which would have been held tomorrow is rescheduled for April 20 at the Taylorsville Historic Hall at 6:30 p.m.
The monthly DFC meeting takes place this Saturday, April 16 at Greenville Elementary School Cafeteria from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with progress updates from the Phase 0 site visit and planning process meetings last weekend, pop-up business district openings, historic building preservation, PG&E settlement information and county board of supervisor updates. The Almanor Foundation will provide lunch. For zoom link and other information please see the www.dixiefirecollaborative.org website.
Workshops, Performances, Etc.
Pachuca Productions is happy to report that it secured a grant from Bread for the Journey to help bring Carol LaPerle back to Indian Valley to work with students on healing activities. We look forward to working with her and students using the creative arts as part of our skill set of tools for coping with trauma.
We are still planning the event Speaking to Fire for May 28 at the Greenville Elementary School cafeteria where we will showcase Joanne Burgueno’s Dixie Fire Stories Project photography, the art of young people in Indian Valley responding to the fire, and storytelling of youth and others. If you’d like to participate or lend a hand in this project, please email [email protected] or call (714) 746-4093. Pachuca Productions is grateful to Indian Valley Thrift Store for a grant supporting these efforts.
Resource Center
Take note! The Rebuilding Greenville Resource Center (RGRC) has new hours of operation: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The RGRC posts local jobs available on its job board and has computers available for people who are unemployed to use to look for work. The center has computers, a printer/scanner, and WiFi services available to the public and has free group meeting space available for groups up to 15 people. Those interested in meeting there should call to reserve the space.
The center still has heaters, skirting and window insulation in stock. The RGRC offers emergency propane refills at Crescent Tow.
Center staff are working with Indian Valley Food Pantry to offload much of the RGRC’s food, cleaning supplies, and other pantry items. A few of those items are available at the new resource center location, including pet food, toiletries, and first aid supplies. Connect with the Indian Valley Food Pantry on Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 127 Crescent Street in Greenville for food pantry items.
The RGRC carries free COVID-19 test kits for the public to pick up.
The RGRC can no longer accept clothing from donors. Those wishing to help people who lost their belongings to the Dixie Fire are encouraged to take photos of furniture and other home goods and post them in an ad on the Rebuilding Greenville Resource Center facebook page with the location of the items and specifying that items are free for people setting up new homes.
For all unmet needs, donations, and questions about RGRC, contact Coordinator Lara Wheeler via text (preferred method of communication) at (530) 778-4309, phone at (530) 283-2735, x833, or fax at (530) 778-4309.
