Robin Williamson

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we want to acknowledge local women who have blazed the trail for today’s women continuing to make a difference in a world once dominated by men. It wasn’t so very long ago men dominated the highest non-elected positions in Carson City government.

Carson City Library Director Sara Jones was named the 2012 Nevada Library Association’s (NLA) Librarian of the Year at its 67th annual conference, held Oct. 4 & 5 at the Sahara West Library in Las Vegas. Jones joins the ranks of an elite group of librarians recognized for effective advancement and extension of library services; exemplary library management; notable activity in recruitment to the profession; statewide planning and for broadening the scope of library and information service to the community.

The Friends of the Carson City Library organization was recognized during the Carson City Chamber of Commerce mixer at the Carson City Library on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. Chamber Chairman Stan Jones poses with Friends members, from left, Freida Ford, Robin Williamson and Phyllis Patton.
Photo by Cathleen Allison/Nevada Photo Source

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will be discussing on Thursday an amendment to the previous redevelopment incentive loan package offered to Micheal Hohl Motors to keep the company's three dealerships in the county.

The company has already received $2.4 million in redevelopment funds that was used to help build the new Honda and Subaru dealerships on South Carson Street, and is preparing to take out the remaining $2.4 million for remodeling of the GM dealership.

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.

For the past few weeks, we've been subjected to dueling columns on the Carson City Center Project, aka Nugget Project.

First you had the side that wants the question put on the ballot in November via a petition. Then, you had the project supporters who tried to push back against this effort, insisting that our elected officials should handle it.

I think you can now officially score this a win for the ballot petition.

Pete Livermore has announced he will be running for a second term representing Assembly District 40, which encompasses most of Carson City.

Livermore served on the Carson City Board of Supervisors until he was elected to the Assembly in 2010, edging out fellow supervisor Robin Williamson.

The following is the text of a press release sent out by Livermore today:

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.

Our speaker will be former Supervisor Robin Williamson. We will pay tribute to Dinah Jordan and discuss our successful Fashion Show. Plans for the July 23rd Family BBQ/Carnival will be presented. Paying rent and other business will be voted on. Call 884-3037 for information.

The Carson City Historical Society invites you to tour 13 historic properties and listen to Former Supervisor Robin Williamson give a short presentation about historic preservation. Tickets are 10 dollars and children under 12 are free and will be available at the Foreman Roberts home and at other locations to be determined later. Contact Gary at 885-7643 for information.

"You see, in our two-party system, the Democrats are the party of no ideas and the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. It usually goes something like this. A Republican will stand up in Congress and say, "I've got a really bad idea." And a Democrat will immediately jump to his feet and declare, "And I can make it sh---ier." — comedian Lewis Black

I'm not sure I've seen a better close-up example of a campaign attack backfiring than I did last night in the Assembly District 40 race.

Robin Williamson seemed to be doing everything right to fill the seat held by fellow Democrat Bonnie Parnell. She was working very hard, walking the neighborhoods, working with both Democrats and Republicans to gather the coalition she needed to win in this GOP-leaning district.

And then the Nevada Democratic Party stepped in and screwed it up.

I turned off the TV late last night, unable to withstand another minute of talking head after talking head trying to come up with a narrative for this election.

For some reason, it seems they think that their audience is comprised of 6-year-olds who can't comprehend anything that isn't force-fed to them in tiny, single-concept bites.

Was it the NObama election? Was the the fiery phoenix of the Tea Party? Was it creeping socialism, or simple arrogance? What about government spending? Or was it just time to throw the bums out?

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – There will be no supermajorities for Democrats in either the state Senate or Assembly in the 2011 session, meaning the parties will have to work together and with Republican Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval on issues from taxes to redistricting.
Republicans in the 42-member state Assembly, who had been outnumbered 28-14, retained their seats and picked up two held by Democrats, enough to take away a veto-proof majority held by Democrats in the 2009 session.

Carson City Republican Pete Livermore has won the Nevada Assembly District 40 race against Democrat Robin Williamson, costing the party a crucial seat against Republican Governor-elect Brian Sandoval.

Livermore received 51.42 percent of the vote in Carson City and within a sliver of Washoe Valley. Williamson had 48.58 percent of the vote.

"I'm humbled and grateful that so many have shown trust for me," Livermore said. "I'm eager to get started so we can get people back to work."

With all precincts, early voting and absentee ballots counted, here is the still yet unofficial percentage breakdown for Carson City elected positions.

Sheriff:
Kenny Furlong 60.75
Bob Guimont 39.25

Supervisors Ward 1:
Karen Abowd 54.14
Rob Joiner 45.85

Supervisor Ward 3
John McKenna 63.65
Day Williams 36.35

School Board District 1
Ron Swirczek 50.53
Julie Bushner 49.48

School Board District 6
Barbara Myers 54.52
Randy Carlson 45.50

Assessor
Dave Dawley 76.65
Ian Mindling 23.35

Carson City School Bond Passes 55.44

State questions
1: no 65.25
2: no 61
3: no 68
4: no 71

State Senate
James Arnold Settelmeyer 65.88
Kevin Ranft: 29.14

Assembly District 40
Pete Livermore: 51.42
Robin Williamson: 48.58

Before you head to the polls tomorrow (if you haven't voted early), you might want to check out the candidate expense forms to see who is backing our local candidates. The Secretary of State's website doesn't have all the latest forms online yet, but here are the links to the ones they do have:

Nevada Assembly District 40
Pete Livermore
Robin Williamson

Back in August, I wrote about a conversation I had with DA Neil Rombardo about how the election could change the composition of the Carson City Board of Supervisors.

Dear Editor,

Several negative mailers featuring Assembly candidate Pete Livermore were sent out recently to Carson City homes.

These ads were sponsored by the Nevada State Democratic Party, which hired an outside firm to produce the pieces. They claim Livermore got a "sweetheart deal" from the city when it purchased land he owned in order to widen Clearview Drive.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The neighborhoods of this capital city and the Washoe Valley just to the north are ground zero for one of the most fiercely contested state legislative races in Nevada this year.
Potentially at stake is the makeup of the 42-member Assembly and whether Democrats can sustain their dominance of the lower house with a 28-member, veto-proof majority.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors voted to delay a decision on funding the downtown ice rink to give staff the time to work out details for having the funding come from redevelopment funds instead of the general fund.

At today's Board meeting, Supervisor Shelly Aldean made the motion to send the issue back to staff, commenting earlier that, "It gives me heartburn to fund this out of the general fund."

A 24-yard final field goal by Carson Senator Austin Pacheco in overtime, his third one of the night, brought home yet another victory for the Carson City high school football team, reports Carsonsports.com.
Pacheco's winning kick was the difference as the Carson High football team kept its undefeated season record intact with a thrilling 16-13 victory against arch rival Douglas on Friday night.

Carson City Manager Larry Werner told the Board of Supervisors today that they are hoping to wrap up work on cost estimates for the city's portion of the Nugget Project by the end of the day.

Werner said that these cost estimates would determine if they had a feasible project or not, compared with the funding that would be provided by a 1/8 cent sales tax increase and tax increment financing.

He told the board that the results would be presented to the citizen's committee, whose next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 27.

This should be an interesting candidate forum tonight at the community center. We will have the live video right here.

Up first will be the candidates for sheriff, which after the postings they made here, should be must-watch TV.

There is a unique situation on the Carson City Board of Supervisors this year, with two of its members facing each other in the race for the District 40 Assembly seat.

Since either Democrat Robin Williamson or Republican Pete Livermore is almost guaranteed to win (there is always the extremely remote possibility of a third-party or write-in candidate winning), one of them will likely be leaving the board early.

There is an interesting discussion going on over at the Nevada Appeal site concerning the Nugget Project.

The story begins two week ago when Guy Farmer wrote a rather harsh column that slammed the Nugget Project. In response, last week there was a guest column by Michael Douglass criticizing Farmer's take on the subject.

The city's new Business Resource and Innovation Center is now open for business.

Located across Proctor Street from City Hall, the center brings together the building, planning, business license and business development departments under one roof for the first time. The center also makes resources from the Carson City Library available for those who need to do research for starting or expanding their businesses.

A financial services bill working its way through the U.S. Senate contains a $400,000 earmark that appears to be destined for the business incubator that is part of the planned Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

Supervisors meeting as Redevelopment Authority approved resolution to suspend program to offer financial incentives to small businesses, which would allow the Office of Business Development to focus on infrastructure and larger projects.

The agenda is here. See transcript of live blog below:

The Carson City Board of Supervisors turned down a request by Supervisor Pete Livermore to put a question tied to the Nugget Project on November's ballot.

All of Livermore's fellow supervisors voted against putting an advisory question on the ballot concerning the 1/8th cent sales tax increase that would be needed to fund the yet-to-be-approved Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

Supervisor Molly Walt called the question premature since they will not know if the project is feasible until the project developer comes back with a proposal this summer.

Ok, so we know who won. But did yesterday's vote tell us anything?

I wrote earlier about how the outcome of the supervisors races could give us a clue on how the public views the Nugget Project, AKA the Carson City Center Project.

Karen Abowd, the only candidate to openly support the project, did come in first in her primary with 31 percent of the vote in a six-way race.