Tag: carsonvalley

It seems some Minden residents aren't happy with the plans for the Minden Gateway Center commercial center, which would feature dining, shopping, and a three-story hotel at the corner of Hwys 395 and 88 at the north end of town. At issue specifically is the hotel, which under the current plans is practically being built in people's backyards, blocking their view of, well, everything, as well as giving hotel guests a direct view into their kitchens and bedrooms.

The hotel is in blue, green is a supermarket, red is a drug store.

It would be a shame to see the whole deal fall through just because of this, though. Hopefully the developer is open to making a few changes to make the neighbors happy. There have been plans tossed around for that intersection for decades now, but these newest ones are the first ones that really smell real to me. Long-timers will remember that for years there was a sign at the corner advertising "Coming Soon - Safeway!" The sign, I think, was even replaced with a newer one once, but Safeway never arrived. And across the street, next to where the Minden Medical Center now sits, there were plans for a large hotel/casino resort to anchor the north end of town and provide competition for CVI's customers. All of those projects fell though. The Minden Gateway has some momentum behind it right now, but this pushback from residents might slow it down a bit. Plus, there's the fact that the footings of the new Bully's Sports bar, which was being built next door to the new Arby's, have remained half-poured and neglected for months now, which makes me think even that small project died. Something big like the Minden Gateway might just be another failed project that we talk about five years from now, saying "remember when" as we look out over a weed-strewn empty lot.

Clearing the land for MGC, November 28, 2006.

I found this pretty fantastic picture of sunset over the Carson Valley on Flickr.

And remember, if you're a Flickr member who lives in the area, there is an Around Carson photo pool that's open for anyone to add pictures to.

The good news is that NDOT has a plan in the works to build a six-lane freeway through the Carson Valley, with overpasses, real interchanges, and frontage roads running along either side. The bad news is that it isn't going to be built until the year 2030. So just stick around another 23 years, and all your traffic problems will be over.

Of course the problem with this is that every second that ticks by, the costs of building such a freeway go up. So if you think it would be expensive to build now, just wait 23 years and see what the price tag looks like. So this is probably going to turn into another Carson City freeway fiasco, where it takes 50 years to get built and costs hundreds of times what it would if they had just stopped dithering and built the thing.

But at least we're getting our cable barrier, so that will stopgap everything for the next 23-50 years.

I found this on Flickr, from photographer rundixie.

I found it because it was submitted to the Around Carson photo group at Flickr. If you're a member of Flickr and you take pictures anywhere in Northern Nevada, you're welcome to join the group and submit your own pictures.

I thought this went out with lava lamps and pet rocks, but apparently not. Douglas County this week has been chip sealing Johnson Lane, apparently in a desperate bid to get residents to hate the county road department even more.

If you've never heard of chip sealing, consider yourself among the more fortunate. It's what road departments do when a street needs to be repaved, but they're too cheap and lazy to do it right. It basically involves spraying a layer of oil on the road, then dumping a bunch of little rocks on top of it. The rocks that stick to the oil become the new road surface. The ones that don't end up in your windshield.

Chip sealing is about the cheapest form of resurfacing a road that's out there, and that's why you see it in use so much. Or at least you used to see it. There hasn't been a lot of chip sealing in the area lately that I've been aware of, but now that Johnson Lane has been done I know it's still in use and it's still thought of as a good idea for big projects.

You can see in the picture above the amount of dust that gets kicked up when you're driving on a freshly chip sealed road. Along with that dust there are also loose rocks being thrown everywhere. And even after the road has "cured" and all the loose rocks have been swept away, you still have to deal with the other side effects of chip sealing. It creates just about the ugliest road surface imaginable, a dull grey with millions of little pock marks. It's also one of the noisiest surfaces out there, as your tires run over all those little tiny rocks and their little tiny sharp edges. In the mood for needing new tires?

There are better alternatives, but I guess they were too costly. A fresh layer of asphalt is the best, of course, but also the most expensive so I can see why they wouldn't go that way. But there are a variety of other ways to surface a road, including one of my favorites, slurry sealing, where the rocks are mixed in with the oil to form a kind of chunky peanut butter that is spread over the road. It forms a much smoother, much quieter surface that's actually black (my fault for being a traditionalist and wanting my roads to be black). Plus, the rocks are trapped in the tar, so there's no dust and no flying debris.

But, chip sealing is what they chose, so chip sealing is what we have to live with. I'm just glad I don't drive Johnson Lane very much.

Highway 395 through the Carson Valley is basically a freeway. The fact that the state won't pay the money to build overpasses and make it official doesn't really matter. People use it to commute between Carson City and Minden at high speeds, and there are only a few cross streets that meet up with it. It's a freeway, and people use it like a freeway.

Freeways of course have accidents, because with that many cars traveling at those kinds of speeds it's inevitable that a couple of them are going to smash into each other. And a freeway that's not officially a freeway is going to have even more accidents, just because it doesn't have the built-in safeguards that a real freeway has, like controlled access at the intersections. That's why the stoplight at Stephanie was so important to get built; it's a poor substitute for an overpass at the intersection, but it's better than people darting out into traffic whenever they feel like it.

So collisions at the intersection are one big danger of a highway like 395, but the other big danger has proven to be just as deadly. 395 is a divided highway, but there's nothing stopping cars from crossing the median and ending up facing oncoming traffic. The median is just a big dirt ditch. At the north end of the valley, it's a fairly flat ditch, but the further south you go the more steep the sides get. Almost to the point where, if you hit that ditch down by Muller Lane, it acts as a ramp and launches your car into the air. Then you find yourself dropping onto oncoming traffic from above, instead of just meeting them head-on. Talk about a nasty accident.

Surprisingly, this is one problem that the state has actually decided to tackle. This fall, NDOT will be installing a cable barrier down the middle of the highway, stretching all the way from Muller Lane to Jacks Valley Road. The barrier will catch any cars that do make their way into the median, and stop them from crossing over into the other lanes.

Now, the cable barrier is a controversial choice. It was picked instead of the more conventional concrete Jersey barrier because of the cost, I'm sure. Concrete walls can cost 50% more than a cable barrier, and a wall would also affect the drainage in the ditch, something that was pointed out in the article. But cable barriers have plenty of opponents, mostly motorcycle riders, who contend that this kind of barrier can slice you in half, or even thirds, if you hit it just right. There also seem to be some very vocal lawyers who have a bone to pick against cable barriers, although you always have to question a lawyer's motives. Other studies show that cable barriers are safer, because they have some flexibility to them so it's like your car being caught in a net instead of slamming into a wall.

I guess the real test will be when the barriers actually get installed, and people start running into them. Whatever the result, it's got to be more favorable than having those cars jump into the oncoming lanes, doubling the chances for tragedy.

With all the flap that's been going on about Jethro's Casino being built up in the hills across from Wal*Mart, another big casino project has been able to slip by almost unnoticed, until the Nevada Appeal highlighted it today.

The Brownstone GoldTown Hotel and Casino is being planned for the corner of South Sunridge Drive and Hwy 395. If I'm right, this is on the piece of land next to the Silver City RV Park that has been rumored to be getting a casino for about a decade now. Unlike Jethro's, this casino will definitely be down in the Carson Valley, and depending on how tall their 300-room hotel is, it could possibly be seen from all over the valley. Although I'd imagine the same restrictions that Jethro is currently fighting also apply to this Sunridge site, so the owners of GoldTown have probably designed their building to fit within the county guidelines, thereby avoiding all the trouble Jethro's gotten into. That means a short, squat hotel complex, rather than a big tower.

Construction is supposed to start by the end of the year, with Phase One open in 2009.

So this marks the third big casino project for the Indian Hills area. GoldTown will be at the bottom of the south slope, Bodine's will be at the base of the north slope, and Jethro's will be up on top of the hill. One of the commenters at the Appeal brings up the obvious question: "Just where are the patrons for these mega casino's coming from?"

Update: This photo shows where I think the project location is going to be. Just this side of the RV park you can see where the land was cleared away for a casino nearly a decade ago. We'll see if they have any better luck this time.

There's a real concerted effort being organized to oppose Jethro's Beverly Hillbillies Casino, which was recently announced for north Douglas County. The effort isn't being put together by grassroots citizens or residents, though, it's being spearheaded by Big George Ventures, a developer that has plans to build houses right next to where Jethro wants his casino to go. You can imagine them being upset about the plans, because I'm sure a project like this, with a 150-foot hotel tower blocking the views of the mountains, will make their subdivision considerably less desirable.

And so, to drive the opposition to Jethro's, they've launched a website, brilliantly named NoHillbillies.com. That's just about the best domain name they could have gotten, I think. And the site itself is actually pretty professional looking, especially compared to the Jethro's Casino website, which is a hot mess and a half. And even compared to Big George's official website, which is the very definition of minimalist.

One of the stumbling block's still in Jethro's way is the Douglas County Planning Commission, who need to approve the zoning changes and variances that are required to build the casino. So of course a lot of the force of the No Hillbillies movement is being directed at the county. The planning commission met Tuesday night to discuss and vote on the changes, and they came back with a tied vote. So the issue will be continued until the next meeting in July, and voted on again.

The Big George development was approved unanimously.

Again the comments section at the Nevada Appeal is mostly positive towards the casino idea, as are the letters to the editor in the Record Courier here and here. I think probably the reason there is so much support for the project here in the Carson Valley is the same reason there was support for Wal-Mart, and Best Buy, and now Riverwood. All that development exists in a nice little dead zone, on the north slope of Indian Hills, where we get all the tax money but we don't have to see the actual development. Even Jethro's 200-foot oil derrick that some people seem to be against. It won't loom over the Carson Valley, like No Hillbillies says it will. It will loom over Carson City; from the Valley it will nice and invisible. Out of sight, out of mind.

Except for the people who end up living in Georgetown Village. This is what they'll see.

No wonder Big George is upset.

I've been a hermit this weekend, holed up working in either my backyard or my office the whole time. So I ended up missing the two biggest events of early summer, the Carson Valley Days in Minden/Gardnerville and the Carson Rendezvous in Mills Park. I'm sure I'm not the only one who missed one or both of them.

So if there's anyone out there that did make it, and has photos, video, or stories they'd like to share, I'd love to get your stuff on the site to fill in those of us who were stuck elsewhere. So if you have anything you'd like to publish, just send it my way!

The gazebo at Minden Park isn't the only place you'll be able to see concerts this summer. There is also a concert series going on at the Minden Village shopping center, you know, the one just west of the Carson Valley Inn. Nestled in between the Quiznos Subs and the Cold Stone Creamery, the sidewalk of this strip mall will be transformed into a concert venue six times this summer.

June 16 - Beppe Gambetta

July 7 - Michael Powers

July 21 - Michael Gulezian

August 3 - Bob Malone Band

August 18 - Scott Huckabay

September 1 - Duo-Tones

And most remarkably, all of these artists have agreed to play for tips in order to keep the concerts free to the public. So if you come, bring your lawn chairs, grab a sub from Quizno's, and drop a few dollars in the hat after the show. All shows start at 7:00pm, and most of them are on Saturday night, except for Bob Malone which is on Friday.

Also check out the concert series' website for more details.