Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: Hats off to our region’s brave firefighters

The Nevada Appeal’s Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels feature recognizes achievements from the capital region and, then warranted, points out other acts that missed the mark.

SILVER DOLLAR: Brave firefighters swarmed fires in the region in the past week, including last Sunday’s fire at Silver City. They put their lives on the line every time they take on a fire; the tragic deaths of 19 firefighters in Arizona last weekend is a somber reminder of that. Silver City resident Dan Shoup called the Appeal on Sunday and said about the fire crews he was watching, “If people think these guys are overpaid, they’ve never seen them work.”

WOODEN NICKEL: An armed robber made off with an undisclosed amount of cash early Tuesday morning. The robber reportedly showed a clerk a large, dark pistol and demanded money. It’s easy to give a thumbs-down to crime, but crimes of this sort often leave the victims scarred, fearful of something similar happening again. Law enforcement is still looking for the robber.

SILVER DOLLAR: Susan Hass is the new executive director of the Nevada Rural Counties Retired Senior Volunteer Program. She had been doing the job in an interim role since the death of Janice Ayres. She has huge shoes to fill; we wish her great luck.

WOODEN NICKEL: Is it hot out there, or is it just us? Carson City hit 100 degrees in the past week. Summer is our outdoor-event season, and Mother Nature usually is kind enough to not interrupt. But hey, at least we’re not Las Vegas; the temperature reached 117 degrees there last Sunday, tying a record, and June was the city’s hottest-ever month.

SILVER DOLLAR: Nevada got yet more good economic news Tuesday: our home prices rose at a 26 percent clip between May 2012 and May 2013. That’s the best rate in the nation, and it’s nearly 6 percent better than our neighbor to the west. The national rate was 12.2 percent, also a very encouraging sign.