Carson City mayor donates $500 to Bee Hotel Project by the Leadership Institute
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Mon, 04/01/2019 - 10:46am
On Monday morning Mayor Bob Crowell donated $500 to the Carson City Chamber of Commerce 2019 Leadership Institute to help fund this year’s class project, a bee hotel in honor of the community being named the first Bee City USA of Nevada.
Carson Tahoe Hospital donated $1,000 and the land to host the bee hotel on property behind the Carson Tahoe Cancer Center.
The bees to be put up in this extended stay hotel are Leaf Cutter Bees, known to bee enthusiasts as the most gentle of bees. While they do not produce honey, they are one of the most important species of bees when it comes to pollination.
Leaving honey behind was also a decision made to deter wildlife from coming around to steal some sweet nectar.
The bees and their hotel will not only be beneficial to the community through pollination, but education as well, said Chris Gray of the Leadership Institute.
“Carson City just became a bee city,” said Gray. “Getting in on the ground floor of that is a no-brainer. We wanted to do something for the community, and to support the city’s decision. We decided to focus on this because when you read about the decline in bees at a compounding rate, it is alarming. We can’t save all the bees, but we can start educating people to start helping a little bit at a time.”
There will be an educational board placed beside the hotel to serve as an ongoing lesson for the public when they visit.
“One of the things people don’t realize is that bees are actually friendly, and leaf cutter bees even more so,” said Gray. “You can even pick them up and they won’t sting you.”
In conjunction, Open Spaces Carson City will be putting in a bee garden, and the Carson City Greenhouse Project has a food-growing garden the bees will be able to visit and pollinate.
The Leadership Institute is a 9-month long class geared toward community members who want to learn how different areas of the city work, from the courts, to public works, to city hall, as well as state institutions like the assembly, legislature, and senate.
“This is a tremendous project,” Mayor Crowell told the leadership class. “First off, the leadership class is great and the project you’ve come up with is cutting edge. You deserve all the accolades that I — and the community — can give.”
The construction on the habitats themselves has started, which are being built by contractors at Southwest Gas. Arizona Pipeline is building the pad it will sit on.
The project should completed by the end of April, said Gray, and an unveiling will be held in the beginning of June, which will include several educational speakers who plan to teach the public about all things bees and pollination.
“This is what community is about,” said Mayor Crowell. “On behalf of myself and my wife, we are thrilled to be able to contribute to this project.”
To learn more about the project, click here.
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