transit

NEWS RELEASE — The Tahoe Transportation District is on the brink of becoming an unfortunate casualty of legislation proposed to withdraw Nevada from the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Compact with California. The unintended consequence of Nevada Senate Bill 271 will be a direct threat to over $400 million programmed over the next five years for vital transportation improvements that will connect communities within the Tahoe Basin and further protect the clarity of Lake Tahoe.

Carson City leaders will learn next week whether the proposed Carson City Center, also known as the Nugget Project, is financially viable and may vote on whether to move forward with development agreements.

Thursday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors is a culmination of many months of studies, public meetings, workshops and a citizen's advisory committee. Supervisors will hear the results and recommendations of the project at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17 in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 East William Street.

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.

A $4.1 million road widening project that began in January of this year on Roop Street ended Thursday and was celebrated by Carson City officials, nearby residents and, of course, motorists.

A ribbon cutting ceremony at William and Corbett streets marked the occasion. The project — paid for with regional transportation and utility taxes — has been in the works for years, originally planned for construction in 2005 at a cost of around $7 million. However plans were temporarily shelved as the city assessed and paid for other pressing needs.

Well worth the wait and tremendous cost savings to taxpayers, the Roop Street road construction project in Carson City will be celebrated on Thursday, Dec. 16 with a ribbon-cutting dedication ceremony.

After nearly a year's worth of "road closed" signs accompanied by a few already-late-for-work-motorists with finger-gesture and other anger management-related issues, the $4.1 million reconstruction and widening project will permanently reopen following the public ceremony at the corner of William and Corbett streets.

Looks like there’s finally an opening date set for Roop Street. They’ve been rebuilding the stretch of Roop between Washington Street and the Lone Mountain Cemetery ever since the early summer. This has caused big headaches for traffic around town, since that is one of the major north-south routes through that part of town. Although, they wisely waited until the Stewart Street extension was done, so at least there was an easy detour to get around all the construction. But it will still be good to get all the cones and detour signs down and be able to sail through.

Carson City officials will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 16, to reopen N. Roop Street following the completion of the reconstruction/widening project.

The ceremony will take place on N. Roop Street between William Street and Corbett Street. City officials will be joined by representatives of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce and representatives of the private sector firms which participated in the design and construction of the road. Following the ceremony, the traffic control barriers will be removed, and the road will be opened to public travel.

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.

When P3 Development presented an update on the Nugget Project on Sept. 27, they included a range of estimates for annual lease payments that Carson City would have to pay for the public portion of the project.

Those payments ranged from $946,000 to $2.2 million per year.

But it wasn't clear then was how much of those lease payments was for the land owned by the Hop & Mae Adams Foundation, and how much would go to P3 for the lease-to-own deal for the buildings.

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.

Ford Motor Company and Capital Ford in Carson City are partnering to help raise money in support of Carson High School as part of Ford’s Drive One 4 UR School program.

Members of the local Carson City community will have the opportunity to raise up to $6,000 for Carson High School by test driving a Ford vehicle at Carson High School on October 2 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

With public transit ridership in the Capital City continuing to climb because of the recession, money for Carson City's Jump Around Carson bus program has been promised as part of a $2.1 million transportation improvements plan secured by Sen. Harry Reid.

The community is invited to attend an information open house regarding the proposed Carson City Center Project, also known as the Nugget Economic Development Project, on June 30 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Community Center’s front lobby.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors yesterday voted to proceed with investigating the lease or purchase of the Fireside building (or another similar structure) for the purpose of creating a business resource center. (You can replay the live blog of the meeting here.)

Editorial by Dave Morgan

An article in the Nevada Appeal this morning attempts to get new information from the Nugget Project’s “go to guy,” Steve Neighbors. Neighbors, who is now the owner of the Nugget, is quoted as saying that the project still lacks a developer to shoulder the “private industry” half of the project. That’s about all that’s new from Neighbors, that they STILL don’t have a private partner.

The Board of Supervisors today signed letters of intent with the Carson Nugget downtown investment team that the city is willing to continue planning for a large downtown development that includes a n

That’s a very fair question.

I encourage everybody to download the supporting material for the special meeting of the Carson City board of supervisors on December 10, 2009 (http://www.carson-city.nv.us/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?d

JAC service will end today’s service at 3;30. A.JAC spokesman says driving is too trecherous. One JAC bus was broadsided by a vehicle that could not stop near Carson Tahoe RMC..

(Click image to play video)

Regional Transportation Commissioners Wednesday night approved the purchase of a number of new, larger transit buses for the JAC system.