Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Here’s the agenda from this week’s ERC meeting, communicating results from a recent survey:

The ERC survey was a by-product of a sub-committee formed as a result of the ERC’s May 2012 board retreat.

The survey gathered critical and candid information with a 9 percent return. It was not surprising that 69.8 percent of the businesses that took the survey have been in business for greater than 10 years, with 64.3 percent of those having fewer than 10 employees.

They chose to locate their businesses in Nevada County for four primary reasons:

•Native to Nevada County or have family here
•Quality of Life
•Outdoor Recreation
•Arts

Companies that relocated here came from two major areas — the Bay Area and Southern California.

The key findings were:
•Inadequate communications infrastructure
•Increase local government focus on:
-Regulatory process and the burden
-Service
-Collaboration in business development and growth
•Labor pool – Difficulty in recruiting and retaining skilled trades.
•Most were pleased with the infrastructure throughout the County.
•ERC needs to strengthen the organization; find additional opportunities to advocate for small business. Survey comments sighted lack of higher paying jobs. New businesses would revitalize tired economy.

The next step for the sub-committee is to get back together, drill down on the information and come up with 3-4 tasks that the ERC will focus on with its collaborative partners over the next 2-3 years. Update @8/12 board meeting.

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“Last week, I noted that most financial and market data sites are wrong about a key piece of information for Facebook: Its market capitalization,” Henry Blodgett writes today on Business Insider.

“These sites, which include Yahoo Finance and Google Finance, ignore the company’s outstanding “Restricted Stock Units,” stock options, and other share equivalents.

As a result, they’re showing market capitalizations for Facebook that are 10%-25% too low.

“In other words, Facebook is still valued far more highly by the market than most people think.

“In the prior post, I promised to dig up the details of how these market-data sites are undercounting Facebook’s fully diluted shares outstanding.

The rest of the article is here.

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Editor’s note: This is cool. Two Nevada City residents have Riva wooden boats in the 40th annual Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance Boat Show on August 10-11 on the North Shore. We know one of them, Dirk Reed. Dirk’s home also has been on the Music in the Mountains home tour. Good going and good luck!

CIARA
1970 22’4″ Riva Ariston
220-hp, 8-cylinder Chevrolet engine
Dirk Reed, Nevada City, Calif.
Ciara was originally delivered in 1970 to Viscount Modrone in Milan, Italy. The current owner purchased the Ariston hull #918 through Sierra Boat Company in the summer of 2003. Her “no stone unturned” restoration took place in 2003/2004 with Eric
Thearling and Greg Rudelof responsible for bringing the boat to her show condition for the 2004 and 2005 Concours d’Elegance BELLA

SOGNATORE
1967 18’8″ Riva Junior
190-hp, 8-cylinder Riva Crusader engine
Bob & Nikki Robertson, Nevada City, Calif.

Junior, #141, was purchased from Venice, Italy in 2000, stored until 2011, when a complete restoration was begun, which included new bottom, engine, upholstery, bright work and varnish, and new name – Sognatore.

The entrants are here.

An article about the Concours d’Elegance and famous “woodies,” republished from the current issue of Sierra FoodWineArt magazine, is here:

LAKE TAHOE IS WORLD FAMOUS FOR its restored wooden boats, or “woodies,” which race across the lake’s sparkling waters all summer long. It is an “Old Tahoe” tradition.

Along with the familiar wooden boats such as Gar Wood, Chris-Craft and Hacker-Craft, the Riva runabout is characterized by “old world quality, new world design.” Riva was founded in 1860 by Pietro Riva on the Oglio river in Northern Italy.

“The intrigue of these boats quickly spread from their environs to the Italian Riviera, then to the French Riviera and Monaco,” according to the owners of the Riva Grill, a South Shore restaurant named after the runabout. “By the ‘60s, fleets of Riva’s were docked side-by-side in the holiday ports of the Mediterranean.”

Riva opened its first U.S. showroom in 1964. The runabout caught on with well-to-do West Coast residents who summered at Lake Tahoe.

These “precious mahogany sculptures” became the rage, with powerful V8 engines, leather upholstery and sunbathing space over the engine compartment—as glamorous as an Italian sports car. Tahoe is now home to the largest concentration of Rivas in North America, with names such as Ciao Tahoe, Alcazar II and Mia Basillissa.

This summer, in a fitting tribute to its fame, the Riva Aquarama will be the Marque Class at the 40th annual Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance Boat Show on August 10-11 at the Sierra Boat Co. on Tahoe’s North Shore. The event—the nation’s premier wooden boat show—offers the best chance to see the Riva and other wooden boats up close. About 80 vintage boats will be on display, at an estimated value of more than $15 million.

“We are thrilled to feature one of the rarest and most elegant boat lines, Riva Aquarama,” says Tahoe Yacht Club Foundation President Dave Olson. “This promises to be one of the most successful shows to date.” In 1972, a group of Tahoe Yacht Club members and friends got together to share their passion for wooden boats. From this modest beginning, the Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance has grown to play a major role in the wooden boat community.

The show is known for the quality of boats, the highest of judging standards and, most important, sharing the passion of wooden boats between exhibitors and the public.

Attendees can meet with the owners, who share their unique experiences. Children are welcome. There is music, food and wine to go with the artistic boats. Last year was the largest crowd in the event’s history.

For tickets and more information, visit LakeTahoeConcours.com.

Dine with Woodies
Riva Grill and Gar Woods Grill & Pier are premiere lakefront dining restaurants named after famous wooden boats seen at Tahoe.

Riva Grill is located on the South Shore, while Gar Woods is on the North Shore. Both offer large decks and floor to ceiling windows with lakefront views.

The menus feature seafood, steak, pastas and salads, as well as the famous “Wet Woody” specialty rum cocktail. GarWoods.com and RivaGrill.com.

(photo credits: TahoeTV.com, H2OMark.com and Nina Miller)



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Our nephew plays quarterback for Iowa State, and here is a photo the team posted on its Facebook page this morning. Earlier this week, I booked a trip for our family to see the Cyclones play Texas Tech in Ames on Sept. 29 — their first conference home game. (“Please route us through Des Moines this time,” my wife asked politely. Last year I had routed us through Omaha, with a longer drive, to save some money. “Fine, fine,” I said, and found a great deal on Frontier).

There’s nothing like the excitement of Midwest college football. Ames is the quintessential college town, complete with a Saturday morning farmers market. The town has a wonderful swimming pool to shake off the summer heat and humidity — unless it’s closed for an hour or two due to lightning strikes (as it was last year).

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