John Orona | Staff Writer
While COVID-19 restrictions may have closed down many businesses and limited government services, it hasn’t stopped engineering.
Tasked with overseeing developments, capital projects and generally maintaining and improving the city’s infrastructure, Grass Valley Assistant City Engineer Bjorn Jones said progress has continued.
According to Jones, when the city first closed its offices to the public, the biggest challenge was the uncertainty.
“There was a lot of unknowns with it. We didn’t know how much either our tax revenue was going to be affected or funding sources might be affected,” he said. “We did have to cut back immediately and kind of streamline our staffing and operations to meet with the unknown.”
By Rebecca O Neil | Staff Writer
Nevada County aestheticians must calculate physical and financial risks as they work through or wait out the pandemic.
A January report from the California Employment Development Department revealed 6.8% of Nevada County’s labor force remained unemployed as of December. The statistic, although not as low as pre-pandemic, looks hopeful after the rate peaked countywide at over 14% in May.
This positive change is not reflected in all industries. The unemployment rate in the leisure and hospitality sector is nearly three times that at 17%.
Taylor Van Eynde, an aesthetician at the Yoni Temple, said she just went off unemployment last week after the most recent shelter-in-place order was lifted.