Nevada City, Grass Valley hosting California Preservation Conference

Miners Foundry in Nevada City will serve as the conference headquarters for the four-day event that starts today.

Gretchen Bond, the executive director of Miners Foundry, said the foundation is offering a special rate of $30 per session for members and employees of local conference and partners and sponsors.

The California Preservation Conference kicked off at 1 p.m. Wednesday with a free lecture at the historic Nevada Theatre in downtown Nevada City that will focus on what the organization calls “Preservation Nuts and Bolts.”

 The four-hour workshop will be held by the staff of California Preservation Foundation and start a four-day long conference that is bringing hundreds of people to Nevada City and Grass Valley.

Miners Foundry in Nevada City will serve as the conference headquarters for the event that is called “Sierra Nevada – Preserving a Sense of Place.”

Gretchen Bond, the executive director of Miners Foundry, said the foundation is offering a special rate of $30 per session for members and employees of local conference and partners and sponsors.

This list of organizations whose members are eligible includes: Nevada City, Nevada County and Grass Valley chamber members; Nevada County associations of realtors, contractors, the historical society, the economic resource council, the historical landmarks commission, the Nevada City and Grass Valley convention and visitors bureau, the Northern Sierra Wine Country Association, the Grass Valley Downtown Association, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, SCO Planning and Engineering, Miners Foundry Cultural Center, Nevada County, Nevada County transit services, and the cities of Nevada City, Grass Valley and Truckee.

For information on all the sessions, which are held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, visit www.californiapreservation.org.

Cindy Heitzman, the foundation’s executive director, also emphasizes that anyone can sign for individual sessions at the conference, which is expected to attract history buffs from throughout California.

In addition to the many workshops and educational sessions, a free presentation will be held from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday at a plenary session at the Del Oro Theatre in Grass Valley. Doug McConnell, the host of the PBS series “Open Road with Doug McConnell, will be the featured speaker. Winners of youth film contest will be announced as well at that session.

In addition, a free lecture will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Nevada Theatre in downtown Nevada City. The lecture is titled “The Illuminated Landscape: A Sierra Nevada Anthology.”

The following story was published in April in the Nevada City Advocate:

A well-known Bay Area broadcast journalist will be the keynote speaker at this year’s California Preservation Foundation conference that will be held from May 12-15 in Nevada City and Grass Valley.

Doug McConnell was the host for 15 years of KRON-TV’s “Bay Area Backroads.” Now, he’s hosting “Open Road with Doug McConnell, Exploring the West.” Both shows are broadcast by PBS.

“I’m really honored to be asked to come up for this conference. This is stuff I really care about,” McConnell said recently while traveling to Sequoia National Park for to tape a segment for his show.

McConnell’s presentation will be on the opening day of the four-day conference. The 35^th annual conference will feature more than 30 educational sessions and workshops and more than 100 speakers, according to the history foundation.

The title of the conference is “Preserving a Sense of Place: The Sierra Nevada.” Last year’s conference was held in Palm Springs and attracted more than 600 people, according to Cindy Heitzman, the organization’s executive director.

The conference tour schedule for the four-day event is also taking shape with special events scheduled at the Empire Mine, Del Oro Theater, St. Joseph's Cultural Center, Miners Foundry, Holbrooke Hotel, Grass Valley Elks Club and other sites.

Miners Foundry in Nevada City will host the conference center, which is where attendees will gather on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings before going to educational sessions at the United Methodist Church, Odd Fellows Lodge, Veterans Building and Masonic Temple.

The conference will also have mobile workshops, including one called the “Tale of Two Cities” that will be led by Nevada City Mayor Reinette Senum and Grass Valley Mayor Lisa Swarthout.

This conference will focus on the key topics of economic development, heritage tourism, local government, preserving local character, and sustainability and preservation.

McConnell, who grew up in Gridley, said he is intensely interested in how communities can preserve their heritage and prosper.

“You guys have been doing such a great job in Nevada City. It’s unique and valuable there,” said McConnell, who has spent years reporting on many of California’s most scenic and historic sites.

According to his biography, McConnell was the host and senior editor of “Bay Area Backroads” from 1993 to 2009. He also co-authored two travel publications for Chronicle Books. Now, McConnell is the co-founder and managing partner of ConvergenceMedia Productions in Sausalito.

Heitzman said the California Preservation Foundation is working with the Nevada Union School District to hold a film competition, a new wrinkle for the annual conference. The first-place winner will earn a $500 prize and the second-place winner a video camera. The top three finishers will have their films shown at the plenary session in Grass Valley

The California Preservation Foundation, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, also announced that is partnering with the 2010 Amgen Tour of California bicycle race, which starts at 11:45 a.m. Sunday, May 16, on Broad Street in Nevada City. The 750-mile race ends eight days later in Thousand Oaks.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will be among the bicyclists at the starting line. He’s also the defending champion of the annual Nevada City Bicycle Classic, which is held on Father’s Day. An estimated crowd of more than 30,000 watched last year’s race.

 The partnership involves a cross-promotion of the two events that will likely attract visitors from across the state.

For more information or to register for the conference, visit www.californiapreservation.org or call 415-495-0349.