Forward thinking is what’s needed for sports/ entertainment zone

We’re impressed with some of the forward thinking by area officials when it comes to that area in Yuba County around the amphitheater and new Hard Rock Casino.

More growth is expected in the sports and entertainment zone, as well as a nearby industrial zone. So the Olivehurst Public Utility District is looking to expand its water and wastewater services to the area. It will likely cost 10s of millions of dollars and grants are being sought. The return on investment? It’s a good bet it will be many fold.

John Tillotson, OPUD general manager, said they’re getting calls from businesses interested in the area, but they need infrastructure in place before further development.

The Community Development and Services Agency has had more meetings and discussions with developers over the past year than they had in the past 10 years combined, according to Kevin Perkins, planning manager for the county.

“The investment the Enterprise Rancheria and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino have made in Yuba County is the game changing driver the Sports and Entertainment Zone has needed,” Perkins said recently. “It has been a really exciting time to see the vision Yuba County had 20 years ago materialize into bona fide economic development that will benefit the residents of Yuba County and the surrounding region.”

The zone was established in 1998 after voters approved a measure rezoning about 1,000 acres of land at Highway 65 and Forty Mile Road. OPUD is in the process of annexing the area, located within its sphere of influence.

The Yuba County Airport management is also looking ahead, and taking the sports and entertainment zone into consideration. They’ve been looking to make it easier for larger jets to land and offering more amenities to businesses and users. They recently completed a $4.5 million project replacing concrete for the apron.

A lot of jets come into the airport, including passengers who are celebrities; and with the completion of the Hard Rock casino later this year, and a hoped-for increase in shows at the neighboring amphitheater, the traffic at the county airport could grow.

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Three cheers for the Olivehurst-linda Little League Girls Majors Softball team. They and their local supporters are celebrating a great season today.

The 12-girl squad led by manager Dan Martin and assistants made it all the way to the West Regional Final in San Bernardino –and were just a game short of winning the West Regional title and advancing to the World Series.

“I think that’ll drive them to work hard next year to reach the pinnacle –the World Series,” said Martin.

Their “Homecoming Parade” will start at 3 p.m. near the Rite Aid in Olivehurst and Fifth avenues and make its way south to 11th Avenue, where it will turn and continue to Yuba Gardens School, where there will be an awards ceremony.

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Want to help veterans locally? The 20th annual Yuba-sutter Veterans Stand Down is just a couple weeks away. The event brings dozens and dozens of service providers to the Cotton Rosser Pavilion (Aug. 21 - 23) and helps out hundreds of local vets.

Mike Nichols, president of the Yuba-sutter Veterans Stand Down, said they can use monetary donations and volunteers with time to help. More information is available at www.yubasutterveteransstanddown.org. (He also suggests that veterans visit the site and find the registration form and take care of that business ahead of the actual event.)

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We’re sorry that a bad scare in the final hours of the run will be what many people remember about this year’s Yuba-sutter Fair.

We enjoyed making the rounds – lots of vendors’ wares to look over, lots of local projects and great works of art to ogle, good music playing all the time, a successful auction and entertainments in the arena, and good food and lots of good company. It was a very successful fair. Someone late in the evening on Sunday night reported the sound of what they thought was gunfire and law enforcement secured people in buildings and cleared the grounds ... and found nothing. After a few mass shooting episodes in short order, including one at the Gilroy festival, we were all on edge. Ironic that the county fair was just the tonic we needed to get out of our funk; and then it ended that way.

Regardless, congrats to the