funding

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting today at noon to approve the canvas of results from last week's election.

At the board's next regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 16, it will vote to appoint John McKenna to fill the remaining term of Supervisor Pete Livermore, who resigned last week after winning his election for Nevada Assembly District 40.

The board will also tackle funding for the downtown ice rink and holiday events, and the approval of a grant application for federal funds to support the proposed City Center/Nugget Project.

With 34 people turning out for a good cause, the Dayton Resource Bank raised more than $1,100 during its 5K Run on Oct. 23. One hundred percent of the funds directly benefit Dayton area school children.

Among the participants were Dayton Elementary School Principal Cory Sandburg, Healthy Communities Coalition director Christy McGill, and the entire Freshman Volleyball team of Dayton High School.

What is the Resource Bank?

Nearly 100 students in Dayton schools have been assisted through the Dayton Resource Bank in the past 2 school years.

The Northern Nevada Special Olympics program will support training and competition for 97 new bowlers this year and wants all area bowlers to participate in a fundraiser.

The "Bowl for the Gold" community fundraiser will take place on Friday, Nov. 12 at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno. Sign-in begins at 5 p.m. Bowling begins at 6 p.m. This is the inaugural "Bowl for the Gold” event in Reno.  A “Bowl for the Gold” event has been hosted for three consecutive years in Las Vegas to support southern Nevada bowlers. 

Republican Steve Martin, whose neck-and-neck race with incumbent state Treasurer Kate Marshall will be decided Tuesday, recently answered some questions about his candidacy in an e-interview with the Nevada News Bureau.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s “actual� unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2010 increased to 22.3 percent from 21.5 percent in the second quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Judy Whites letter about John McKenna's job at Access TV is right on the money. John MckEnna was the teasurer on the Board of Trustees for the Carson Access Television Foundation when over $500,00 dollars was embezzeled by Craig Swope. I remember this story now because I was so outraged that Craig Swope got a slap on the wrist while any Joe Smo would have got years in prison. The president of that Board was Tom Baker. Mr. Baker had been in office longer than the by laws permitted.

The Appeal's Brian Duggan has a story that a new study commissioned by the Nugget Project developer shows a hotel and events center could be feasible and lure convention business to Carson City.

This seems to conflict with P3 Development's presentation to the citizens advisory committee last month, where the developer said the hotel would not be feasible for at least five years.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – The question of how well the Gibbons administration has done in quickly and efficiently deploying Nevada’s share of stimulus dollars is difficult to quantify.

The Secretary of the Interior announced the approval of $90 million in funding for continued restoration at Lake Tahoe along with other park and trail projects in Nevada as part of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act.

The funding includes money for the purchase by the Forest Service of the 13 acre Schulz property near the Kings Canyon Waterfall as well as funding up to 40 percent of the $1.6 million for the acquisition of the Bently, Carson River Canyon property. The balance of the funding and future management will be through the City’s Open Space Program.

You can watch the Nevada Day Parade on the internet live as it happens.

Viewers will be able to watch the parade online at www.NevadaDay.com beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 30. We Shoot Video, a local media production company, will stream the Nevada Day Parade live via the internet.

Dozens of Nevada’s nonprofit groups, service providers and others met this week in Reno and Las Vegas to consider the looming threat of deep cuts to the state budget cuts which threaten to eliminate or dramatically reduce health care, education, and human services.

Service agency and nonprofit directors from Lyon and Storey counties attended the Monday meeting, hoping for insights on how to plan for the upcoming deep cuts to Nevada’s public education, health and social services that will hit the rural areas especially hard.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors today approved $106,255 plus a 5 percent contingency to fund the Arlington Square ice rink for the coming season.

Parks and Recreation Director Roger Moellendorf said they are looking at leasing to own the ice rink equipment this year, thus reducing the cost for future years, and the contingency was requested to account for the additional costs.

The item was originally discussed two weeks ago and postponed because the supervisors preferred the ice rink be funded through redevelopment funds rather than the general fund.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is defending his decision to seek stimulus money on behalf of constituents and Nevada government entities despite voting against the massive funding measure in February 2009.

Democratic state Senator Joyce Woodhouse and Republican challenger Michael Roberson debated the budget, taxes and unjustified political attacks today in a race viewed as critical by both parties for the upcoming 2011 legislative session.
Woodhouse, running for a second term in Clark District 5, said the mailers sent out by the Nevada State Democratic Party attacking Roberson did not come from her campaign or have her review.

Under a proposed state budget plan, four of Nevada's museums operated by the Division of Museums and History would close, including the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, said Peter Barton, acting administrator for the Division of Museums and History.

Other museums on the proposed state budget chopping block are the Nevada Historical Society in Reno, the state's oldest museum which opened in 1905; the Lost City Museum in Overton; and the Nevada Northern Railway Passenger and Freight Depot in East Ely.

Carson City's newest recreation feature will be dedicated on Oct. 23, along with a Fishing Day, highlighting the opening of the one-acre Urban Fishing Pond.

The event, which runs from 7 a.m. to noon at the Carson City Fairgrounds at 601 Old Clear Creek Road, is free to the public. Sponsors include the Nevada Department of Wildlife, Carson City Host Lions Club, and the Carson City Parks and Recreation Department.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada remains in limbo over the status of Yucca Mountain as a potential repository for the nation’s nuclear waste even with a work stoppage on the project review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission due to funding limitations, a state official says.

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."

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons has received a “B� grade from the Cato Institute for his performance in dealing with Nevada’s major budget and fiscal challenges over the past two years.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – State Assemblyman John Hambrick has requested four bills for the 2011 session to continue with his mission of eliminating child prostitution in Nevada.

The Heavenly Ski and Snowboard Foundation at Lake Tahoe has opened registration for the 2010-2011 Alpine, Freestyle and Snowboard Programs. With a variety of options from the One-Day Program to the Full-Time Competitive Program, the Foundation has something for all ages and levels of skiers and riders. Registration packets are available online, at the HSSF building, or by calling the HSSF administration office.

The developer of the Carson City Center/Nugget Project tonight presented an update on the progress made so far on a final plan to present to the city for approval.

The meeting of the Nugget Project Advisory Committee was supposed to see the final plans tonight, but those plans have been delayed by legal and financial issues, according to City Manager Larry Werner.

What they did get was an overview of where the project stands right now, along with a look at some numbers that could determine its feasibility.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera said today he believes the Legislature will have a great opportunity in 2011 to look at ways of broadening the state’s tax base to eliminate the volatility that has created Nevada’s boom and bust funding cycles.

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.

The dispute between the Mom & Pop's Diner owner Doug Cramer and Brewery Arts Center director John Procaccini is heading for small claims court.

I wrote about this dispute back in June, adding to the story from the Appeal on the subject.

In short, Cramer signed a contract that included a diagram that showed where the bars operated by Mom & Pop's and Firkin & Fox were to be located. But those locations were changed in a way that Cramer claims was detrimental to his business, cutting off access to the bulk of the crowd. Procaccini admits that changes were made to the bar locations, but doesn't agree that the changes constitutes a breach of contract.

Law enforcement personnel from 4 northern Nevada agencies conducted a DUI checkpoint on State Road 445 (Pyramid Highway) near Egyptian Drive in Spanish Springs yesterday afternoon. Deputies from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, police officers from the Reno and Sparks Police Departments and troopers from the Nevada Highway Patrol participated in the “Joining Forces” holiday weekend administrative roadblock from 1:30 pm – 7:30 pm. During the 6-hour event, 1008 vehicles were screened with 22 of those directed into the secondary screening area.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – An examination of how well states do in educating their low-income children generated some surprising results and shows Nevada ranking 18th in the national comparison, the authors of an ALEC report said last week.

By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada’s public employee pension system earned a rate of return above its 8 percent target last fiscal year, but the long-term unfunded liability is still expected to see an increase when an analysis is presented this fall.

Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
Underdog Democratic candidate for governor Rory Reid took the opportunity at a first debate today with leading GOP candidate Brian Sandoval to challenge his opponent’s commitment to spending on public education.