Tag: valleybar

The Valley Bar, which was destroyed by fire about 16 months ago, has been forgotten by most of us. Sometimes we'll drive by the site in Centerville where it used to sit and get a twang of remembrance, but that's about it. The owners had vowed to rebuild back when the fire occurred, but in the months since the county has been tossing piles and piles of cow crap in their direction, refusing to let them rebuild because the land, which had held a commercial building for over 100 years, was not zoned for commercial use. So the Valley Bar rebuild has gotten so bogged down in red tape that it's become irrelevant to most of us.

Now the news comes from the Record Courier that construction could actually start to rebuild the bar as early as next month. So I guess the project is still alive, somehow, and all the red tape finally got cleared out.

Of course it's still just a bar, and I'll probably never set foot inside the place once it's rebuilt. But it still makes for an interesting story because of the fire. Burning down was probably the best thing that could have happened to the Valley Bar.

The Douglas County master plan change for the Valley Bar was approved last week. This is good, because it's not going to set a precedent for spot zoning, as some of the planning commissioners were worried about. All it's doing is fixing a stupid mistake in the master plan, where the land underneath a commercial building was zoned agricultural. That zoning should have never been there in the first place, and this change just fixes a mistake.

Image from www.valleybar.com

In case you've been wondering when the Valley Bar is going to be rebuilt, the answer is not looking good. And it turns out that it's not money problems holding up the rebuild, or issues with the insurance company; it's actually zoning problems that are preventing the owners from rebuilding. It turns out that the tiny little parcel at the corner of Centerville and Hwy 88 has been zoned for agricultural use in the county's Master Plan. How something like that happened when there was a bar sitting on the land, and had been since the turn of the last century, is a mystery of county administration. So when the owner, Julian Larrouy, wanted to rebuild the burnt bar, he ran afoul of the zoning, which said that land could only be used for agricultural purposes. Never mind that the land is barely big enough to plant a vegetable garden; you don't go against the Master Plan.

So, Larrouy had to arrange for a special meeting of the Douglas County Planning Commission this week to amend the Master Plan and get the zoning changed on that land so he could get to work bringing the bar back. In an article from Sunday's Record Courier, he seemed confident that the county would see the inanity of the situation and change the zoning.

He was wrong. The Planning Commission denied it, even though half the valley turned out in support of it. There were 4 votes in favor, but a matter like this needs five. It sounds like the next step is to take the matter to the county commissioners in December, and try to get approval from them.

So they don't have any problems changing zoning to allow hundreds of houses to be built all over the valley, but they can't let this slip through?

I mentioned that the Valley Bar in Centerville (which burned in March) was just waiting for their insurance company to come through so they could start rebuilding. It looks like they finally cut through the red tape.

I drove through Centerville yesterday to find the remnants of the Valley Bar gone. The ground was pristine, like it had just been scooped up by aliens or something. I had just been by the Sunday before, and it was still there, but now it's gone. So that's some quick demolition and clean up work. Let's see if they can rebuild it just as fast.

I did make it down to Centerville today to take some pictures of the Valley Bar. The damage is almost total; a couple of walls are standing, and the Men’s room is almost intact, but the rest of the bar is gone.

A small crew was out clearing away debris, sifting through the rubble for anything that could be saved. There wasn’t much. Slot machines were destroyed, TVs were melted, and the roof caved in on the pool table. But apparently the fridge was still intact, and there was still cold beer inside. So the work crew, which I believe was mostly made up of regular customers and friends of the owners, were able to have one last drink around the bar.

Looking from some angles, you could almost believe that the damage was minor. The fire department did a good job of saving as much of the building as they could. But the fire had a head start on them, and the building was just too old and flammable for them to have a chance. The northwest corner, shown below, was really the only part that wasn’t completely destroyed. But inside those solid walls, most everything is charred, and the parts that aren’t burnt have massive water damage.

But the front door still stands, and an American flag flies proudly over the porch. This is a rough day for a lot of people, but there’s always promise for the future. It seems like the Valley Bar was more about the people than the building; the number of folks hanging around offering support today proved that. So if the bar is rebuilt, it may not have the same charm, but it will still have the same heart.

For a bunch more pictures of the aftermath, check out the Flickr photo set I put together.

The old Valley Bar, on Hwy 88 in the Carson Valley, has burned down. According to the article, a fire started about 5am yesterday morning, and by the time firefighters arrived it was too late to save it. The roof collapsed soon after they got there, and although some of the walls are still standing, the building is pretty much a complete loss. The owners, who bought the place less than a year ago, are unsure yet if they’re going to rebuild.

Image from www.valleybar.com/wst_page6.html

The Valley Bar, at the corner of Hwy 88 and Centerville Road, was one of the last remnants of the town of Centerville, a little oasis of trees in the middle of the valley. Once an independent town along the road to California, Centerville declined when the advent of cars and paved roads made it only a ten-minute drive in to Gardnerville. All that’s left now are about a dozen houses, a few leaning barns and, until yesterday, the Valley Bar. It sounds like there has always been a bar at that particular corner, and the current building was brought down from Virginia City in the 1930s.

The bar was a familiar landmark along Hwy 88. It looked pretty rundown from the outside, with peeling paint and rusting equipment laying around, and at times the dozen or so motorcycles parked out front would be enough to keep a square like me away. But you could say that all that was part of its charm, and it was supposedly one of the friendliest places in the valley. Of all the times I drove by it, it was never empty. Even in a heavy snowstorm there would be one car that had plowed through the drifts, or a set of footprints leading up to the front door. Now that it’s gone it’s a big loss to the character of the valley, and even if they rebuild it it won’t be the same place.

I’m going to try to get down there myself to take some pictures of the aftermath. But if we have any Carson Valley readers with a camera, scoot down there and upload a few shots to the site! I’m always looking for contributions from others, and you’ll be doing your part as citizen journalists.

Update: I have pictures.