Retaining Calistoga's economic vitality

The Calistoga City Council on Tuesday asked City Manager Jim McCann to put together some proposals on how the city can best execute the initial steps suggested by the former Economic Vitality Group and bring his suggestions to the council early next month.

The lengthy report -- the result of more than 2,500 volunteer hours -- compares Calistoga's basic values with a variety of areas needing improvement, from tourism, business growth, capital development, recreational needs and economic investment to bolster the city's future economic health.

The report suggests creation of an architectural review body to help define parameters for new development, expanding local government's role in encouraging development consistent with the developing Urban Design Plan and creating a new city hall department for business and tourism development./John Waters Jr.

School district kicks in $50,000 for pool

The Calistoga Joint Unified School District Tuesday pledged $50,000 toward the construction costs of the Calistoga community pool project.

Two council members -- Karen Slusser and Janice von Pohle -- said they felt the donation by the school district was too low.

"I don't want anyone to think I don't appreciate the money, I do, but I'm a little disappointed in the amount," Slusser said. "We're going to let (schools) use the pool from here to eternity for no money."

"We are on a leap of faith hoping we'll find a way to pay to maintain the pool every year," von Pohle said. "I'd like to see the district come back with more."

Late last year, the community pool project won the support of three anonymous backers who had agreed to match every dollar raised by Calistoga Community Pool Project up to $200,000, or through April 1, whichever came first. The $50,000 donation from the school district does not qualify for this match./John Waters Jr.

Power loss to mobile home park

Some 243 Vineyard Valley Mobilehome Park residents lost power for about 18 hours March 13, before PG&E could restore power to the park.

In order to bring the power back up, PG&E had to take the whole park offline for a few hours, and then only succeeded in restoring power to half the park. Early the next afternoon, workers discovered a switch failure burned out transformer connections. PG&E workers brought a new switch and fixed the transformers, only to have the power immediately go out again.

PG&E investigated further and found another switch that was only partially functional. However, workers managed to restore full power to the park a few hours later. When the crews left, they indicated the park will be "hanging on by its fingertips" until the switch is replaced in the next few months.

There have been four outages at Vineyard Valley in the last two years as the result of bad underground cables./Jesse Duarte

New CEO for

St. Helena chamber

Napa resident Nancy Levenberg -- director of development for Aldea Children and Family Services -- has been appointed the new CEO of the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce.

After former CEO Rex Stults announced in December that he was leaving to join the Napa Valley Vintners, the Chamber initiated a multi-state search for someone to fill the job. Some of Levenberg's friends approached the Chamber and recommended her.

"It's my understanding from my experience with St. Helena that this is a community of people known for their collaborative quality, which dovetails with my own work style," she said. "I imagine I'll spend a lot of time figuring out how the collaboration works, who the major and minor partners are, and where the Chamber fits into that." /Jesse Duarte