Unusual summer rain didn’t dampen Downieville Clamper Weekend, with attendees enjoying camaraderie despite lower turnout.

Caltrans repaved CA–49 in Downieville, juggling traffic and local needs, resulting in a smooth, shiny highway.

Gold Rush Days returned to Downieville, featuring mining activities, a gunfight show, and historical music performance.

Downieville gas station prepares to resume service, with new double-walled tank installation underway.

Downieville Gold Rush Days will return from August 1st through the 4th this summer.

A gang of rogue deer was spotted running stop signs in Downieville last Sunday.

After many months of planning, John Perez’s JADAA’s Kitchen officially celebrated its Grand Opening on Saturday to a festive and hungry crowd.

DOWNIEVILLE — Community members gathered on Tuesday at the Downieville Community Hall to enjoy scrumptious food catered by Sabrina Melendrez and Autumn Barry for what will be the last lunch there for some time. Next Monday, February 26th, the long-awaited renovations on the hall will finally begin. The $775K remodel contract was awarded to McCuen Construction, Inc. at the Sierra County Board of Supervisors’ February 6th meeting. Public Works Director Bryan Davey highlighted the extensive effort in bringing this project to fruition after no bids were received during the initial bidding process.The county is pushing for the project to finish expediently, given its central importance to the Downieville community. Work is estimated to take approximately 140 working days or about seven months. The project’s scope will be scaled back somewhat from the original plans due to increases in material costs.Sabrina at the Forks will be hosting the next Senior Luncheon on February

A packed crowd attends Saturday’s Spaghetti Feed at the Downieville Community HallDOWNIEVILLE — Dozens of locals packed the Downieville Community Hall Saturday night for the traditional Cabin Fever Spaghetti Feed, recognizing our firefighters and EMS volunteers. The fantastic dinner was served by a host of community volunteers and the Downieville Volunteer Fire Department (DVFD). After a hiatus since 2019 due to COVID, folks were excited to enjoy Gary Gutowski’s famous spaghetti sauce as plates were piled high with delicious spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and a vast assortment of tasty homemade desserts.Besides the great food, folks enjoyed catching up with each other after being locked in for the winter. Fire Chief Robert Hall and Paramedic & Emergency Medical Services Operations Manager Tegan Harrington emceed the event. Chief Hall stated in his opening remarks that they are negotiating with the USFS and hoping to have a new fire station here in Downieville som

RCRC representatives, including Sierra County Supervisor Lee Adams, meet with Congressman John Garamendi in Washington D.C. Photo by RCRC.WASHINGTON D.C. — This week, Supervisor Lee Adams joined a delegation from the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) traveling to Washington D.C. to meet with Congressional Members and Federal Agency leaders on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of challenges and opportunities in California’s rural communities. The RCRC is a forty-member county service organization that champions policies on behalf of California’s rural counties. It provides legislative and regulatory representation at the State and Federal levels and services for its members to enhance and protect the quality of life in rural California counties. Both RCRC and the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) engaged in the National Association of Counties (NACO) annual Legislative Conference that was held in DC Feb 9-13, which approximately 2,000 counti

SIERRA COUNTY — Locals should have received a letter from AT&T in the last few weeks indicating the company’s request to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to be relieved of its obligation as the Carrier of Last Resort (COLR) in Sierra County. This possibility has significant implications for Sierra County and rural communities statewide, as AT&T intends to end service in all of California’s 58 counties, leaving no clear alternative.A COLR is a telecommunications service provider of basic telephone service, commonly via landline, to any customer requesting such service within a specified area. At least one telephone company in any given location is legally required to provide access to telephone service to anyone in its service territory who requests it. AT&T is the designated COLR in most parts of the state and is the largest COLR in California. AT&T is now proposing to withdraw as the COLR without being replaced by a new carrier.AT&amp

The out-of-service Downieville ATM on Wednesday, February 7thDOWNIEVILLE — If you have been looking for cash in Western Sierra County in the past two weeks, you know that it has become as scarce a commodity as a gold nugget. For more than sixteen days now, the Wells Fargo ATM in Downieville has been out of commission. Despite numerous calls from various folks, we still don’t have a functioning ATM or timeline for its repair.For three days in a row last week, a hardware technician from NCR Corporation in Reno showed up to open the ATM for a software specialist to fix it, and for three straight days, he sat on a bench waiting for a person who never showed up. The only contact number Wells Fargo provided him was the 1-800 number on the front of the ATM. Some residents have pointed out that Wells Fargo could have carted up a new ATM by wagon and horse train by now. Locals are grateful to have the Wells Fargo ATM, being the only one in Downieville (and the reason why many of us

Tegan Harrington presents on Measures A & BDOWNIEVILLE, SIERRA CITY — This year’s March 5th ballot contains a couple of measures of great importance to residents in western Sierra County.Measures A & B renew crucial funding for Paramedic and Emergency Medical Services for the Downieville and Sierra City Fire Protection Districts. The measures, if reapproved, continue the special property tax of $60 per annum per improved real property for Emergency Medical Services and Fire & Rescue Services in each district. No new taxes or tax increases are proposed in these measures. Passage requires a two-thirds approval vote and must be renewed every four years. This tax allows the districts to maintain 24/7 paramedic coverage with two paramedics. Paramedics, licensed to provide advanced care, play a crucial role in EMS because their advanced training allows for more capabilities than volunteer EMTs and First Responders. The paramedics also train our county’s EMTs and

As you drive up the Hwy 49 Scenic Corridor past Downieville, through Sierra City, and back down into the Sierra Valley, you certainly won’t find a more beautiful and geographically diverse county in perhaps the whole country. That’s largely why we all live here.You will also see a collection of shuttered businesses in the commercial districts, and most businesses that are still open are struggling to survive. It should be no wonder that Sierra County’s GDP ranks #58 out of California’s 58 counties. Dead last. Even Alpine County, with just over one-third of the population of Sierra County, ranks above us.It really shouldn’t be a surprise if you look at the fact that Sierra County is the only county in the state of California that has no focus and no plan for economic growth beyond increasing fees and taxes. The number of businesses throughout this county that shutter year after year steadily outpaces any new businesses. Those that remain find themselves sho

One of Downieville’s favorite annual community events returns to the Yuba Theatre next Friday and Saturday, November 17th and 18th. The Sierra Turnpike Players will present the play “Dogsbreath Devereaux the Dastardly Doctor,” also known as “Nurses Foiled Again.”In this year’s play, Dogsbreath Devereaux, M.D., plots to wed and do away with the wealthy widow Lotta Cash so he can inherit her fortune and her late husband’s clinic, the Hanover D. Cash Clinic. He enlists the aid of the nasty nurse, Hilda Hatchet, and promises to marry her once he disposes of Lotta. Problems arise when the insanely jealous Hilda catches Dogsbreath flirting with Wendy March, the heroine of our show. It seems only our hero, Dr. Phil Good, can save Wendy and the unsuspecting Lotta Cash from certain death. Set in a clinic filled with zany patients, the show is full of puns, jokes, and outrageous characters.The Sierra Turnpike Players have presented local community theate