Tag: douglas

This is funny because somebody asked me about this just last week. The Record Courier has published the schedule for this summer's Minden Park concert series. They're also looking for sponsors still, so if you're a business owner that would like to sponsor the concerts, get in touch with Sheryl Christian at schristian@co.douglas.nv.us or (775)782-9828.

May 28 - Shane Dwight

June 18 - Beatles Tribute Imagine

July 9 - Trey Stone Band

July 30 - Mumbo Gumbo

Aug. 27 - Big Bad Wolf

As part of their new ownership and remodel project, the Carson Valley Inn will be getting a brand new sign. The new sign is going to be a little bit down the road, instead of right at the entrance like the current sign. And it will include an electronic readerboard that has many residents concerned about light levels.

The new sign will be 26 feet high, the same height as the current sign. But because it's a new sign in a new location, special approval needs to be had from the Town of Minden and from Douglas County to install the sign. Minden approved the new sign this week; the county planning commission reviews the request next week.

It's Christmas time, so that means it's time to bundle up, get in the car, and head out to the Carson Valley. The dancing lights at the Kremer house are back again this year. It's becoming tradition for me to write about this light display every year, just to introduce it to everyone who hasn't seen it and to remind those who already have.

The address is 1176 Chaparral Ct, off Stephanie Way in the Carson Valley. Click here for a Google map.

Their official website is www.nevadachristmas.com, where you can find hours, videos, and more information on how it works. Plus you can read the interview I did with Wayne Kremer in 2006. They're also again this year collecting food and money for the Carson Valley Community Food Closet, so if you come bring a can or two of non-perishable food or a few bucks for the mailbox. The lights run until New Year's, so you better get out there and watch them!

I've been remiss in putting up the yearly schedule for the Concerts in Minden Park summer series. In fact, one concert has already come and gone! Another one is coming up this Friday. Here's the lineup for the rest of the summer.

June 26 - Shane Dwight.

July 17 - Rick Hays & American Steel.

August 7 - The Savannah Blue Southern Rock Revue.

August 28 - Caravanserai.

All concerts are on a Friday night at 6:30pm, except for the final one on August 28th, which starts at 6:00. Get your picnic baskets ready!

They're still working on dismantling the old Mirastar gas station in the Douglas Wal*Mart parking lot. Here are some photos of the progress and the carnage.

Dullard Mush reports that the Reno Gazette Journal is going through a round of layoffs and downsizing. The big impact for us down south here is that the RGJ will be ceasing publication of their Douglas Times paper. The Douglas Times was a free weekly that the RGJ started a year ago or so, after finding success with the similar Carson Times. Both of these papers are published every Friday and can be had for free in locations all over their respective towns. Both are mostly repackaging of the Carson- and Douglas-specific local content they are already creating. This announcement doesn't say if it means they'll be cutting down on their Douglas County coverage, or if it's just a cost-saving measure to not have to print the Douglas Times every week. They're also shutting down a printing plant in Carson City, but as far as I can tell the Carson Times isn't going anywhere.

The Kremer Lights are back, and better than ever! Long-time readers may remember me writing about this light display in the Carson Valley back in 2005 and 2006. The Kremer family has put together one of the best Christmas light displays in the region. Not only is it an elaborate display, with a steel mega tree, several smaller trees, candy canes, cartoon dogs, and new this year an eight-foot wreath, but it's also all animated and set to music. They have a 20-minute show that runs continuously all night, and the lights dance and flash, choreographed in time with the music. And while this kind of thing is easy to do technically (with Light-O-Rama equipment), there is an artistry at work in the Kremer display that is sometimes lacking in other similar shows.

Here's a sample of one song from the 2005 show to give you a taste.

He took 2007 off, but promised to be back in 2008 with a new surprises. And he sure is. This year the new big thing is a video screen, right in the center of the giant wreath. For each of the songs in the show, he has created a music video that plays on the screen while the lights are dancing all around. Sometimes the video is a big part of the show, sometime it just fades into the background. But it's a fantastic addition to something that was already incredible.

Luckily the Kremers live on a cul-de-sac, so when the show is running their whole street turns into a drive-in movie theater. Cars are lined up side-by-side all the way across the street, sometimes two or three rows deep, to watch. Their neighbors probably have a nightmare trying to get out of their driveway, and backing out of there when you're ready to leave can be tricky without hitting anything, but having so many other cars there enhances the feeling that you're in a theater, with an audience, watching a performance. That's not something you usually get just looking at Christmas lights.

Now, the crowds are usually bad enough as it is, but I urge everyone reading this to set aside one night this month to drive out to Stephanie Way, in the Carson Valley, and see the lights. The house is in the Johnson Lane area, and the address is 1176 Chaparral Court. You can find directions here, or just look at the embedded map below.

Their official website is www.nevadachristmas.com, where you can find hours, videos, and more information on how it works. Plus you can read the interview I did with Wayne Kremer in 2006. They're also again this year collecting food and money for the Carson Valley Community Food Closet, so if you come bring a can or two of non-perishable food or a few bucks for the mailbox. The lights run until New Year's, so you better get out there and watch them!

Progress on the Riverwood shopping center. Grading of the site is still going on, and will be for a while. They're slowly working on leveling out the site, or at least building the hill into a series of terraces.

They've also put up a sign at the corner, confirming that the project is, in fact, still called Riverwood. They also have a link to their website, www.riverwoodnv.com. If you go there, make sure to give yourself some time. There's so much to do and see that you could spend a whole afternoon there.

I think they should send their sign back to the sign shop, though. Look at the list of tenants on the left side. Kohl's and Jethro's Casino have already been announced, so those are no big surprise. But this is the first I'm hearing about Circuit City moving into the shopping center. And it will probably be the last, according to the latest news reports.

The heavy equipment is making good progress on the Riverwood shopping center. Already tons of dirt have been brought down from the hill, and parts of the site already are becoming flat.

It looks like work is finally starting on the long-proposed Riverwood shopping center in Douglas County. This center is located at Hwy 395 and Topsy Lane, on the southeast corner. It was first announced back in 2002 or 03 when the Carson Valley Plaza across the street was built, and has had several false starts and stops. The last firm news I heard about it was in May of 2007, when they annouced Kohl's as a tenant and said they would open in October of 2008. Well, they were right about October, but it was the groundbreaking, not the opening, that would be happening then.

Some very large tractors, bulldozers and earthmovers arrived on the scene last week, and started to make quick work of clearing off the sagebrush from the land. This photo above was taken on Saturday, after only about one day of work, and you can see the progress they made in that short time. I went by today to check out their progress again, and they were halfway up the hill.

Now, clearing off the sagebrush isn't all they need to do. This site is on a hill, so they're going to have to flatten things out, just like they did with the Carson Valley Plaza. If I remember right, they spent weeks moving dirt around just to get the site level before they could even think of putting in utilities and grading foundations. So the tractors aren't going anywhere for a while, and I also have to question why they're starting this job in October, when the first snows have already fallen and winter is threatening to hit hard in just a short number of weeks. Maybe they want to get all the earthmoving out of the way now, because that's something they can do in cold weather, then when things start warming up in the spring they'll be set.

This is the same corner where Jethro's Casino is supposed to be built, if they can ever stop arguing about the sign and just get things done. But the casino is going to be built further up the hill. So this work might actually answer a nagging question of mine, exactly where the dividing line between shopping center and casino is going to be. We'll see how far up the hill they go with the bulldozers, and that should settle the question nicely.