Updated 4/14/06
Jim has been on the Board of the Golden Drift Historical Society for many years, and was president for four years. The Society manages the Golden Drift Museum, in Dutch Flat. He served on the county's Historical Advisory Board for several years. For a transplanted Californian, he's quite the Gold Rush history buff.
He's also started, with the help of other interested locals, a new non-profit, the North Fork American River Alliance. Its aim is to protect access to and the environment of the North Fork of the American River, above Colfax and below, say, Royal Gorge. That's taken quite a bit of time, and has also led him to be active in regional organizations like the Sierra Nevada Alliance.
I've become pretty busy after retiring from Placer County, in December 2004. I'm on the Community Service Area 28 Zone 27 Advisory Board, which recommends expenditures from a county fund to pay for emergency medical services training and equipment for a district which runs from Meadow Vista to Emigrant Gap. There are five fire districts and departments within that area which respond to emergency medical calls, and residential and wildfire emergencies. It's interesting work, and important to the smaller communities in the area.
I'm also president - again - of the Dutch Flat Community Center. We have a good board and are hoping to add several improvements to the Community Center (the old Dutch Flat Grammar School). In addition to completing some work on the foundation and basement, and checking the roof for soundness, we want to add a building-wide sound system and exterior lights in back.
The DFCC presents the Dutch Flat 4th of July Parade each year, and holds monthly potluck dinners for the community from September through June. There are other activities, too, enough to keep me pretty busy.