The Carson City Board of Supervisors is meeting this morning at 8:30. You can watch the live video here, and the agenda is here. The Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project, will be discussed during the afternoon session beginning at 2 p.m.

In today's economically stressed environment, it would be quite the political feat to enact any kind of tax increase.

But the backers of the Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project, are going to have to hope they can pull off a miracle two-fer.

There are enough nuggets buried inside the Nevada Appeal's follow-up story today on the Carson City Center Project — aka Nugget Project — to keep heads in this town spinning for a week.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it.

That's the basis of the argument being put forward by some of the more vocal supporters of the Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project, as they try to fight back the attempt to put the issue on the November ballot.

They would be wise to follow their own advice.

The people behind the effort to put the Carson City Center aka Nugget Project on the ballot were out Saturday collecting signatures at Mills Park. According the Dennis Johnson, the groups is about halfway to having enough signatures for the question to qualify for the ballot.

In the three months since the Carson City Board of Supervisors approved the Carson City Center Project (aka Nugget Project), proponents of the project's Knowledge and Discovery Center have been gearing up their fundraising efforts to meet the $21.5 million commitment.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 tonight to move forward with the $49 million Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

You can see the live blog coverage here.

The motion to proceed to the next step of this controversial development included a commitment by the city of $11.3 million in redevelopment funds, $12 million to come from recently increased landfill fees, and a one-time expenditure of $500,000 from the city's utility fund.

I was just finishing up a column about how far the Nugget Project has come, from a vague, unrealistic plan that left the city on the hook for the whole bill, to an exciting, well-designed public-private partnership that deserves our qualified support.

But I was forwarded an email this morning that almost makes me want to change my mind.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will vote Thursday evening on whether to move forward with the revamped City Center/Nugget Project.

An evening session of their regular bi-monthly meeting is planned to discuss the $50 million project, of which $23.7 million would come from the city.

The agenda (attached below) makes reference to "a public commitment to the project of a 1/8th-cent sales tax

I don't pay a lot of attention to the Reno Gazette-Journal for Carson City news. It's been years since they shut down their bureau here, and I haven't seen them do much original reporting about our city since then.

But I ran across this correction to their story on this week's Nugget Project meeting, and had to laugh. It's one thing to blow the original story, but the correction blows it, too.

After hearing the details of the new plans for the Carson City Center/Nugget Project, the Nugget Advisory committee voted tonight to forward the plan to the Board of Supervisors.

The committee extensively questioned Nugget President Steve Neighbors and city staff on the $49 million project. Many of the previous points of contention were addressed in the new plan, from the ownership of the land to reducing the city's financial obligations.

The vote was 7-1, with one abstention.

Taking a look at the new plans for the Carson City Center/Nugget Project, there are several new things that stick out.

First, the announcement that partnership with P3 Development has been terminated because they could not come to an agreement. It was revealed earlier this summer that the the project partners switched architects because they weren't happy with what they were getting from P3. But now it seems P3 is out of the picture entirely. Not only was P3 slated to build the project, but it was supposed to handle the financing.

Carson City leaders addressed a packed banquet room at the Gold Dust West today to discuss the State of the City in a program put together by the Carson City Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor Bob Crowell, Supervisor Shelly Aldean, Sheriff Kenny Furlong and School Board Chair Joanna Wilson each spoke to the crowd, and in general agreed that while these are challenging times, each made the case that things are going well and improving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uLECuGK07U

Several people at yesterday's Board of Supervisors meeting mentioned the generosity of Mae Adams for donating land to Carson City for the proposed Knowledge and Discovery Center and public plaza, the centerpiece of the City Center/Nugget Project.

I've heard some critics complain about this donation, which does little to bolster their case. Despite the unorthodox lease deal, it really is a donation we should be thankful to have the option of using for a new library.

But this donation does come with one very large and expensive string attached.

It happened almost too fast. Mayor Bob Crowell made a quick motion, and asked if anyone on the board had any appetite for raising property taxes. No one did.

The finance director spoke up to suggest a small adjustment for one area. Supervisor Karen Abowd made a different motion to keep taxes the same except for this small adjustment. That motion passed unanimously.

Gee, and you thought the big issue at Thursday's meeting of the Carson City Board of Supervisors was going to the redevelopment project that has been the object of heated discussions for the past year.

But the revelation that a 14 percent hike in the property tax rate was also on the agenda seems to be causing people to put the Nugget Project on the back burner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTDn2A7hcY

For more than a year, the lack of firm details about the Nugget Project has been a major source of frustration to those trying to get their heads around this undertaking.

Without real numbers or plans, those arguing for or against struggled with hitting the moving target that is this project.

But that target just got a whole lot more stationary, as Carson City Manager Larry Werner released a 100+ page feasibility report (attached below) for the Board of Supervisors to use this week when a decision is made on whether to move forward with the project.

Here is the second part of our interview with Carson City Manger Larry Werner about the Carson City Center/Nugget Project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoQy5DYXEso

One piece of new information in this portion is that Werner said they would delay final approval of the project until they know what happens with the state's budget, and if that will impact the city's finances.

Carson City Manager Larry Werner sat down for an interview on OurTown yesterday, and we hope to have that video up soon. But in the meantime, I do want to share a couple of newsworthy items from that interview.

The biggest item was that Werner said there has been a change — or at least a clarification — in the question of who would own the land under the public portion of the Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

At the end of today's Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting, city manager Larry Werner said that he has city staff working out answers to questions raised about the Nugget Project before forwarding it to the board.

Werner noted that questions about the location of the parking garage and hotel/conference center portions of the project were raised at the last citizens advisory committee meeting, and he wanted resolve those questions before sending it to the board.

One of the things that came out at Monday night's Nugget Project advisory was a setback for the business incubator part of the project.

It was announced by project consultant Mark Lewis that C4Cube, the business incubator in Reno that was considering operating the planned Carson City incubator, was no longer a part of their discussions. We don't know exactly what happened, but not having an experienced operator could threaten this part of the project.

The Carson Nugget Development Advisory Committee will meet tonight at 6:30 in the Sierra Room at the Carson City Community Center. The committee will be discussing the feasibility report for the Carson City City Center/Nugget Project, and will possibly vote to recommend the report to the Board of Supervisors.

We will have the live video of the meeting here. You can see the agenda here.

I have been been going over the Nugget Project feasibility report this morning, tying to digest the details.

Overall, it really isn't much different than what was presented to the citizens committee back in September. The one exception is that P3 Development seems to think that building a hotel is more feasible now, following another study showing that it is.

Carson City Manager Larry Werner announced at today's Board of Supervisors meeting that a financial feasibility plan has been completed and will be released to the public sometime today.

Update: Werner emailed and said the plan would be available Wednesday morning at 9.

Werner said that the plan covers the financial feasibility of the project, and that they think they have a feasible project to move forward with. He said that as far as the actual development plans, not much has changed since P3 Development gave the Nugget Project citizens advisory committee an update in September.