public services

The next Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting will be held on Thursday, Sept. 17 beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Sierra Room of the Community Center, located at 851 E. William Street.

Items for discussion include new shade structures in the downtown area, grant funding for fuel reduction, surplus city funding, and more.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — After much discussion and deliberation, the USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit has made the difficult decision to cancel planned interpretive programs and visitor services at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center through the end of October, including second- and third-grade conservation education field trips. In addition, we have made the decision to cancel the Fall Fish Festival this year, an event that typically draws up to 12,000 visitors over the weekend.

In a controversial open letter to the Douglas County Library Board that has since made national headlines, Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley threatened to withhold emergency services from the library after they proposed to support Black Lives Matter in an agenda item.

Lawmakers finalized hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to state agencies on Sunday, adjusting a budget that is set to lose a quarter of the revenue previously projected because of the pandemic and wrapping up a protracted session marked by false starts and delays.

U.S. Forest Service campgrounds in the Lake Tahoe Basin, and on the California side of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest will open to the public on Friday. Nevada group campsites and day use areas that hold less than 50 people will also reopen.

CARSON CITY — Gov. Steve Sisolak declared a state of fiscal emergency on Monday arising from the strain the COVID-19 pandemic has put on public services in the State of Nevada.

The global economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting commerce and negatively impacting revenues across the country, in other states, and in Nevada.

The next Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting will take place Thursday May 7 beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Sierra Room of the Community Center located at 851 E. William Street.

The Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the 2020-2021 county’s Tentative Budget on April 1, 2020. The County Manager and Comptroller have recommended the budget with no salary increases and a projected 6.6% ending fund balance which is lower than the 16.67% authorized by Nevada Revised Statutes.

The County Manager also recommended that the Board not fund any of the 35.8 positions requested by the various departments including:

24 Personnel for the Sheriff’s Office
1 Information Systems Technician
1 Community Development Director
1 Public Works Director

Gov. Steve Sisolak said that while a testing kit shortage makes it impossible to tell how much coronavirus has affected Nevada, the pace of the virus’ spread around the world means Nevada must “act quickly” to slow it — including taking drastic measures such as shutting state offices, limiting the size of gatherings and encouraging employees to work from home if possible.

CARSON CITY — With well over half of a million rides provided each year by Nevada’s rural transit operators, the Nevada Department of Transportation is inviting public input on an update to its State Management Plan which defines how federal transit funding is administered. This funding represents the majority of the budget transit operators use to provide much-needed transit services to rural areas of the state.

Members of Nevada Raider Nation, Carson City Chapter, presented a check recently for $1,000 to the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery. The money has been earmarked to upgrade the software, screen, and printing mechanism in the Gravesite Locator.

When I was about 12 years old, my family took a trip down along the east side of the Sierra Nevada on our way to Lake Havasu, California, during Spring Break 1986.

All six of us piled into the family Ford Econoline Trail Wagon, brand new at the time, and set out to break in the new set of wheels.

The region’s premiere fingerprinting experts, Fingerprinting Express, has now partnered with the Carson City School District to provide fingerprints for all employees and volunteers over the next year.

Nevada was once a nationwide model of fiscal rectitude. Not now.

During the Great Depression, state leaders even launched a promotional campaign called "One Sound State" boasting of this fact. It advertised a state with "no income tax, no inheritance tax, no sales tax, no tax on intangibles, but with a balanced budget and a surplus."

Nearly everyone, it seems, has been focused lately on Donald Trump’s nomination by the Republicans and now the chaos of the Democrat convention. We want to celebrate some other important aspects of the GOP convention (where Ron was a delegate) as reflected in speeches by Paul Ryan, Scott Walker and Mike Pence.

Here's the speech made Wednesday by Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell at the 2016 Chamber of Commerce State of the City address held at Gold Dust West:

Film lovers won't want to miss next month's Carson City International Film Weekend. Not only will audiences enjoy award-winning international and independently made films, but the weekend showings and discussions are free.

This past summer was Lake Tahoe’s busiest tourist season in recent memory. With the economy rebounding and major population growth projected for nearby metropolitan areas, this summer is also a harbinger of change. We must be prepared to meet the challenges of increased visitation in the future.

Read the full text of Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell's State of the City speech, after the jump.

Douglas County has re-launched last year’s popular budget challenge again, inviting citizens to an online conversation that will harness their input on the County budget.

Residents can participate in one of the budgeting exercises centered on the question, “How would you spend $500 to fund what is most important to you in Douglas County?”

Residents will also have the opportunity to make general comments about the budget process, upload photos or videos to illustrate their concerns or suggestions and put a value on the priorities they think are most important.

With Congress scrambling to agree on ways to reduce the deficit, USPIRG released a fact sheet to point out a clear first step to avoid the “fiscal cliff”: closing offshore tax loopholes.

Many of America’s largest corporations and wealthiest individuals use accounting gimmicks to shift profits made in America to offshore tax havens, where they pay little to no taxes. This tax avoidance costs the federal government $150 billion in tax revenue each year. USPIRG released new data illustrating the size of this loss with 16 dramatic ways the public could benefit from those lost funds.

Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell announced today that he will see reelection this fall.

Here is the statement he released:

The Carson City Sheriff's Department will be hosting a business academy beginning April 4, 2012 at 6 p.m. and running for six weeks. The course will be taking place in the Ormsby Room of the Carson City Sheriff's Office (911 E. Musser St.).

The aim of the class is to teach business owners and managers about the functions and workings of the sheriff's department as pertains to businesses. It is especially recommended to businesses in the casino, liquor, pawn, retail, restaurant, and auto repair industries.

Lake Tahoe, CA/NV – The Regional Plan Update Committee of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board made broad strides this month including endorsement of updated policies that would improve how aspects of land coverage and planning procedures are managed in the Tahoe Region.

Carson City Support Services Specialist Elizabeth "Liz" Ann Patterson can now add author to her resume.

Cooperative Extension continues to work with Carson City to gather input from the public regarding priorities in public services. As we are all faced with shrinking budgets, it's vital that those charged with providing you services know what is important to you.

We are hosting three final Public Input Sessions:

• Monday April 11 5:30 p.m., Sheriff's Office, 911 Musser Street
• Wednesday April 13 5:30 p.m., Library, 900 North Roop Street
• Thursday April 14 7:00 p.m., Business Resource Center, 108 East Proctor Street

The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and Carson City leaders will collaborate to gather input from residents regarding priorities in public services. Faced with shrinking budgets, it is vital that those charged with providing public services know what is important among citizens.
 The public input sessions will be at the following Carson City locations:

There will be some tough love in Carson City today among state employees who will take a firm stand against Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposed budget that takes aim at public services.

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 4041 employees and its retiree chapter will address their concerns to the public and press at noon on this Valentine's Day in front of the Legislative Building, 401 South Carson Street in Carson City.

Tensions quickly arose during a discussion on the economic effects of illegal immigration at a town hall forum in Reno yesterday.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, said that immigration – both legal and illegal – creates a “fiscal drain� on public services that is significantly larger than the “miniscule� effect that they have on the per capita income of the nation.

The economic recession continues to pull down gaming wins throughout Nevada, and therefore less revenues to the state for vital public services like health care, emergency services, schools and univer