Scott Schrantz's Blog

Record Courier: Free movie tonight in Heritage Park

The Town of Gardnerville’s Movies in the Park continues with Carson Valley Pops Orchestra entertaining at 6:30 p.m. today with show tunes with the classic movie “Citizen Kane” following at dusk in Heritage Park, one block east of Highway 395 off Gilman Avenue.

I think the commenter on this article says it all. Best.Parents.Ever.

Record Courier: Three children removed from 'filthy disaster'

An Indian Hills couple was arrested on drug and child endangerment charges Monday, accused of raising three children in conditions a Douglas County sheriff’s investigator called a "filthy disaster."

According to the investigator’s report, the residence reeked of "an unbearable stench." The home was strewn with rotten food, dirty dishes and clothing, broken computer parts, tools and infested with insects.

Deputies reportedly found marijuana, methamphetamine and paraphernalia in the master bedroom. [The mother] tested positive for marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and opiates. She reportedly told deputies she was trying to get “on a runner” so she could stay up and clean the house.

The BLM has just launched a website with over 60,000 of their images available for download and use, all part of the public domain. The photos are taken from their vast collections, mostly color, some black and white, some older, some newer. For the most part they are photos of the West; Nevada, California, Idaho. Browsing the through the collection I see a lot of landscapes and photos of flowers. There is a group of pictures of Burning Man. Pictures of grazing cattle. And photos from the cultural sites that the BLM manages. For the most part, at least the Nevada pictures are all of rural areas. There's not a lot of pictures here of town, and the few buildings I've seen seem to be deserted shacks.

If you have the patience to comb through an endless pile of pictures of the West, you should check out the collection. Hat tip to Gina Lauer for bringing this to my attention, as well as a story in the Idaho Statesman about it.

The plan by Park Cattle Company to change the Douglas County master plan to allow them to build 5,000 new houses in Minden and Gardnerville was denied by the Douglas County Planning Commission Wednesday night. There article doesn't say if this is the final word or if the matter still has to go to the county commissioners.

Update: The Board of Commissioners meets on Sept 4 to discuss and vote on the issue.

Douglas Times: (Douglas) County commission races fail to lure voters to polls:

Douglas County set a record for voter apathy in the Tuesday primary.

"It's the lowest we've ever had," county clerk-treasurer Barbara Griffin said.

Maybe that's because on my primary ballot there were exactly two races, county commissioner and state supreme court. Primary elections have always had a lower turnout than general elections anyway, but give the people only two races to decide, and they're going to start looking at whether it's worth their time to even go down to the polling place. Douglas residents apparently decided it wasn't. This was a case where you really needed to have a stake in the election, either someone in particular you wanted to vote in, or someone you really wanted to vote out, to show up.

News Carson City has the report that the Mervyn's in Carson City, down south by Raley's, will be closing in a couple of months because it wasn't performing strong enough. The whole company went bankrupt a little bit ago, and closing stores is part of their restructuring. So now Carson City is going to have another big gaping empty store, like we don't have enough of those.

More from the RGJ and Nevada Appeal.

The newest craze at Lake Tahoe: Stand-up paddling.

More at Bike Carson.

New Then And Now:
#34 - Hi-Way 50 Motel

Today, August 12, is supposedly the actual 150th birthday of Carson City. The deed transferring the land Carson sits on over to Abe Curry and his partners was signed on Aug. 12, 1858. Of course at the time there was nothing here but a small trading post and a lot of empty land. The "town" took several months to come together in any form, first by being surveyed and streets laid out in September, then by getting an official Post Office in November.

It's amazing to me that anyone came to live in the new town, especially during those first few months when there was literally nothing here. But Curry was determined to create a town, even if only through sheer determination of will, and the fact that we have streets and houses still here today stands as testament that he got the job done.

Now whether August 12 should even be named the "birthday" at all is in doubt, as this article in the Appeal details. That date comes from the deed, but the deed wasn't filed until four years later. People were living in the valley before Curry & Co came; couldn't they be considered the "founders"? What about the Eagle Ranch itself, which had been established six or seven years already when Curry came in to buy it? When was the first house built in Carson? When was the second house? At what point does three houses in the desert become a "town"?

We could debate this all day, but does it really matter? History is nothing but vapor anyway, tales told around the campfire. Whether that campfire is an actual campfire, or a library, or a computer, doesn't matter. We're still talking about things that are long past, people that are long dead. So I'm happy to point to August 12 as the birthday of Carson City, and to be content to say "Happy Birthday Carson City."

And even though today is the birthday, the party won't be until Saturday. The Appeal also has a rundown on everything that will be happening that day, as does Arlington Events. The main celebration will be at the Nugget's west parking lot (former home of the Arlington Hotel) from noon to 6, with satellite events scattered around at the Capitol, the Museum, and other places downtown.