Tag: carsoncity

There's always something exciting going on at the Casino Fandango. Their expansion plans have been active nearly non-stop since they opened in 2003. And right now they have a couple of big projects going on at once. One of them is this, the new hotel tower they're building on the site of the old RV dealership.

Work is progressing on the second story as the walls are framed up for the hotel rooms.

They're also getting close to the end of construction on their new movie theater. The structural work is finished, so now they're working on cosmetic details, like this swooping curve that's going to stand out over the main entrance.

And this, I really don't know what's happening here. This is the empty space at the bottom of the hill between Curry Street and the back wall of the casino. I keep hearing about a casino expansion that's in the works, 24,000 additional square feet, so maybe this is prep work for all of that. And it could include some kind of bridge over Curry Street to safely bring people to the movie theater. I really don't know, but it looks exciting, whatever it is.

And finally, inside the building they're going to be opening a new Italian restaurant this summer. They just never stop, do they?

There's kind of a bizarre piece in the paper today about an Army sergeant who needs to get rid of his wood (hey, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter). It seems he tore down the old apartment/motel at the corner of Nevada and Fourth Streets, and instead of chucking all the lumber into the landfill like most demolition crews seem to do, he kept it to be reused. As far as I can tell, the article is probably talking about this place, which I saw them tearing down just a couple of weeks ago.

According to the article, this place was called the "Carson House" and "Pepper's Patio Motel". It was one of those buildings you never really paid any attention to, even though you probably drove by it all the time. I remember it being kind of a junky, low-rent apartment complex. I think I knew someone who lived there, once. If the article is right, and the buildings really did date back to the 1870s, then it was a historic place that should have been given more attention. Looking at these pictures, though, I have my doubts that any of this was original.

Apparently Carson City tried to block the demolition and everything. Kind of strange that we're not hearing about it until now. Either that or it was in the paper previously, and my habit of only reading the front page most days is coming back to haunt me. Oh well, it's gone now, and it doesn't seem like much of a loss. These pictures show that it definitely wasn't anything worth saving.

Now the sergeant has gone back to Iraq, and his wife is looking for takers for the wood, which is being stored in Stagecoach. Should you want any of it, you can contact her at (775) 577-4398.

No word what's going to happen to the property now that it's been cleared off. It's owned by Kurt Brown of Capital Beverages.

It's been a long time since we heard a peep from Jethro, and I'd been wondering what he's been up to. That's Max Baer Jr, the actor who played Jethro Bodine on the Beverly Hillbillies. For 20 years now he's been trying to build a Beverly Hillbillies casino somewhere in Northern Nevada. First he tried Lake Tahoe, but found out the zoning laws up there pretty much don't allow you to build anything. Then he tried Park Lane Mall in Reno, but that deal fell apart for reasons that nobody wants to admit. Then he bought the old Wal*Mart building in Carson City, but that plan got derailed when JC Penney and the owners of the Southgate shopping mall flat out told him that he was not allowed to build a casino on the property. Several years and several court battles later, the old Wal*Mart still sits empty.

So, what should Jethro do next? Move to Douglas County of course! His latest plan is to build his fabled Beverly Hillbillies Mansion and Casino along Hwy 395 just on the other side of the Douglas County border, on the empty land right across the highway from Best Buy. A shopping center has long been in the works for that corner anyway, so Jethro's in negotiations to get his casino built kind of adjoining the center, away from the highway and down the hill a bit. He's also talking about building a convention center right next door, which is something that the Carson/Eagle Valleys are very much lacking.

The whole article this time around is pretty much positive about the project. There have been a lot of voices in the past saying the Beverly Hillbillies theme was too tacky for the area, what with its flaming oil derrick, shotgun wedding chapel, and redneck limousine. But this time there's none of that, just talk about how it would be an economic boom, bringing people to the area that might not otherwise come. Even in the Nevada Appeal's comment section, which is usually full of cynicism and bile, the only negative comments are directed towards Carson City for letting Jethro get away and losing more tax dollars. There's nobody bashing the concept itself anymore, so that either means we're growing more mature as a people, or we don't think there's a shot in hell he's actually ever going to build it, so there's no use debating the details. Your call.

The landscape has changed in South Carson over the last few years since Jethro announced his project. Back in 2003 the Casino Fandango was a piddly little place, taking up a couple thousand square feet in the corner of an empty warehouse. But now the Fandango fills that warehouse, is planning on expanding it, and has also built or started building a three-story garage, a movie theater, and a hotel. All the things that Jethro wanted to build right across the street. So moving to North Douglas County, which is pretty devoid of gaming, is probably a smarter move to get away from the stiff competitive juggernaut of the Fandango. Although the new site is really only a mile or two down the road, and it's practically on top of the new casino that's being built at the corner of Clear Creek and 395. Which, coincidentally enough, is going to be called Bodine's. How confusing do you think that will be to out-of-towners, to have "Jethro's" and "Bodine's" right across the street from each other?

And you'll notice I've been avoiding revealing what my own opinions are on the casino. That's because I'm a flip-flopper when it comes to Jethro. I used to think it was a little too Las Vegas for the area. My exact words were "We have a distinct lack of laughingstocks here in the capital city, and we rather like it that way. Jethro’s casino, if it really gets built, is just going to make us the punchline of a lot of jokes." But at the same time, look at the amount of people, and the amount of money, going into Las Vegas every day. There's something to be said about populism, and if the people want a Beverly Hillbillies casino, then dammit we better give it to them.

I guess the question is: is that what people really want?

More news as it comes in.

For years, 306 Bath St on the west side of Carson used to be home to Stickman. Stickman was nothing more than a stick figure made out of plastic pipe, his hand raised in a permanent wave at the traffic going by. But he was a Carson City icon, noticed by everyone who drove by. I've been looking for any evidence of Stickman online, but of course I can't find anything. Not even in the Nevada Appeal's archives. Because I'm pretty sure that one time, several years ago, Stickman was stolen and it made headlines. If I remember right he was eventually recovered and reassigned to his post, a little cracked and chipped but otherwise in good health.

Stickman has been MIA for a couple of years now. I'm not sure what happened, if he was stolen again or if he just retired and moved to Florida. I think his family still lives in the house, though, because if you drive by 306 Bath today, you'll find Stickdog and the StickKids playing in the yard and waiting for Daddy to come home.

Does anyone else remember Stickman? Any pictures out there? I'll see if I have any to dig up.

Remember the Waterfall Fire of 2004? Here's an image I came across that shows exactly how spread out the 8,000+ burned acres were.

Here's an ouch for you. Seen on South Carson Street Friday morning.

This Friday is Arbor Day, and to celebrate the Nevada Division of Forestry is holding a tree planting ceremony at Mills Park. It will take place at noon at the Firefighters Memorial in the park, and the ceremony will be followed by refreshments.

More at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' blog.

By the way, how awesome is it that a State agency has a blog?

So now all of Carson City, Douglas County, Dayton, Washoe Valley, Fallon, and the Comstock have all been lumped together in the shadow of Reno and Lake Tahoe. In the new brand campaign, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada has taken what used to be called "Northern Nevada" or sometimes "Western Nevada" and renamed it to "Greater Reno-Tahoe". And they took $400,000 of our money to do it. They also came up with a lime green logo sporting the slogan "Can Do". The point is to get businesses and workers to move here from elsewhere in the country, and to put this snappy brand in front of them to get them to do so.

So far the response has been overwhelmingly negative.

Canned Poo.

Sounds suspiciously like a task on the "Apprentice".

$400,000 and that's all they can come up with?

Go back to your yuppie drawing board and leave us alone.

How do you say "can do" in Spanish?

Myrna has some thoughts, and the Nevada Appeal's editorial board. Most everyone says the same thing: generic, bland, could be used in any city in the Mideast. Kind of underwhelming.

Is this what I get for rushing around all the time with my head down? Java Joe's, the venerable old coffee house located in the Kitzmeyer furniture building downtown, has suddenly changed its name to "Joe Mango's Cafe". The newspaper has a story from six weeks ago about the change. The owner of Java Joe's, John Davis, decided to retire from the 70-hour-a-week job of running a coffee shop, and lease out the space to someone new. That's where Jody Valente came in, switching the business to a "Hawaii thing" with a new menu and a new atmosphere. They have a website, www.joemangoscafe.com, and in a really good development it's nothing but a blog. Unfortunately, it's an empty blog, just a freshly-installed copy of Wordpress with all the defaults still in place.

So, half a point for effort?

There are probably a lot of Java Joe's regulars out there who are little cheesed off about this, especially since the new owner states that he doesn't care much about coffee, being a Starbucks guy himself. Has anyone tried the new place?

It figures that when I'm out of town all the exciting stuff happens. Last Tuesday, April 10, the McCloud Railway's #18 locomotive slipped quietly through town on it's way from Northern California to Central California. Now, any train locomotive being hauled through town on a semi is exciting. How often does that happen? But this was even more exciting because the #18 is the locomotive that will be used on the new Virginia & Truckee, running from Carson City to Virginia City, once all the track has been laid. It was bought by the V&T Railway Commission in 2005, but for the last two years it's been sitting in storage in McCloud, California, unused. This month it was finally time to move it out.

Now, the #18 wasn't headed for Carson City, it was only passing through; which may be a little confusing because this is its future home. The reason it's not staying here is that right now there's no place to keep it and nothing for it to do here. Until the tracks have been laid all the way down the hill, which is scheduled to be finished in 2010, having the locomotive here in Carson City would be pointless. So instead it's being shipped to Oakdale, California, and its trip through Carson City was merely a coincidence. CalTrans wouldn't allow the train to travel on I-5, the most direct route it could have taken. So the next best route was Highway 395, which just happens to pass right through Carson.

And if you're wondering what's so special about Oakdale, that's where the Sierra Railroad operates out of. Sierra Railroad is the firm that won the right to operate the V&T last year. And since the V&T tracks won't be ready for a few years, and since it was costing money to keep #18 in storage in McCloud, Sierra Railroad came up with the idea that they could operate the engine on their tracks in the Sacramento area until then. This way, not only will the engine actually be generating money for the V&T Commission through usage fees, it will also be raising awareness of the V&T project by acting as a moving billboard. Signs will be hung on the tender, and the #18 and the V&T will be mentioned prominently in all of Sierra Railroad's advertising.

So by being out of town I missed the #18 cruising along Carson Street, and I missed it getting stopped in Woodfords to wait for the storm to pass. But, this summer we'll be able to travel over to Oakdale to see it in action, and in a few years we'll all be able to ride behind it up the rails to Virginia City.

There are some photos of #18 being loaded up and leaving McCloud on this page, and passing through Jackson, CA on this one. And this site has a full discussion about the move, including comments from Chris Hart, president of Sierra Railroad.

And work is actually happening on the V&T, even though you don't hear about it much. The rails are being delivered, 11 miles worth, and as I understand it people are working on clearing out the partially-collapsed Tunnel #2, which is one of the biggest hurdles to getting the tracks down to Mound House. It's getting closer every day.