IV/CB Community Forum Minutes

December 17, 2021

On Friday, December 17th at 8:55am John Crockett or Amanda McPhaill from the library will start the meeting. Please join before 9am so we start on time.

If you are unable to join the Zoom meeting by computer or cell phone, you may still submit issues to be discussed to Denise Davis (ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com).

Denise Davis – Moderator, Citizen Advisory Board Member, IVGID Ordinance 7 Member

John Crockett and Amanda McPhaill – Washoe County Library Zoom-masters

Ronda Tycer – Recap Editor

• The Chat Box information appears at the end of the recap.

• The link to the recording of the meeting is https://youtu.be/8W8lXQH_1-0. Each recording is available only until the next Forum meeting, at which time it is replaced with the new recording.

Participants (n = 19)

In person:

Denise Davis

Jim Lyons

John Crockett

Joseph Colacurcio

Sara Schmitz

Shirley Appel

On Zoom:

Alexis Hill

Chris Wood

Corey Solferino

David Simon

Doug Flaherty

Indra Winquest

Jon & Beth Davidson

Judith Simon

Julie Malkin-Manning

Kari Ferguson

Kathie Julian

Ronda Tycer

Steve Dolan

Denise Davis – IVCB Forum Moderator, Citizen Advisory Board Member, Ordinance 7 Member

Good morning, Forum! Can everyone hear?

Ronda Tycer – Forum Recap Editor

Good morning Denise. We can hear you.

Denise Davis

Thanks for joining us today. As a reminder, the goal of our Forum is to have a discussion, so please be courteous and respectful. And remember that you can disagree without being disagreeable. I see Kari is on. Do you want to start us out with some announcements?

Kari Ferguson –  Incline Village General Improvement District Communication Coordinator

No, I don’t have anything. Thanks Denise.

Denise Davis

Is the Santa Stop on for Saturday?

Kari Ferguson

Yes, that’s still happening but people need to make a reservation. We were almost full so that’s why I didn’t announce it, because we’re almost full and it is tomorrow night at 4pm. You must have a reservation and also be a community member of IVCB to attend. And Diamond Peak opened yesterday. I sent that information to you earlier in the week.

Kathie Julian – Citizen Advisory Board Member, Prosperity Center Housing Committee

I have a question. What are the rules about mask wearing in the exercise room at the Recreation Center?

Kari Ferguson

I can get that information to you. As far as I know you need to wear a mask getting to your activity, and then once you’re in your activity, you’re fine.

Corey Solferino – Washoe County Sheriff Office Captain

We appreciate everybody’s patience. Obviously, we got dumped on over the weekend with a bunch of snow. It was hard to get anywhere. So we appreciate everyone’s patience in the village… just taking your time. Four-wheel drive doesn’t mean you can go faster in snow; it means that all four tires slide at the same rate on ice. So we encourage everybody to slow down and plan ahead to get where you need to go. Sergeant Colacurcio is in gallery to answer any questions you might have. I have a meeting in Reno and some exciting news. For years we’ve been talking about the mental health of our officers and ensuring they’re mentally prepared for their days. Sheriff Balaam has been making huge strides in that program. So I’m going to pick up Dr. Jenna and bring her up to the community [inaudible] to interview some of our officers. She’s our on-staff mental-health clinician and is going to be working with us moving forward. So we want to welcome her to the area and to the family, and make sure all our officers are taken care of.

Joseph Colacurcio – Washoe County Sheriff Office Sergeant

I have a couple of announcements I’d like to make. We have put it out on Facebook and social media. Anyone who is calling the WCSO substation with a question or something that doesn’t have to be dealt with in an expedient matter, should call the non-emergency number:

775 785-9276 (785-WCSO)

That will actually generate a call for service that will go directly to myself or the Incline deputy depending on who’s able to handle it. If you’re looking to make an appointment for a VIN inspection or things like that, feel free to call and leave a message at the substation. Or if it’s something we can handle, you can try the number [inaudible] and we’ll come and take care of things for you. We’re finding some folks are leaving voice mails and they’re not getting an answer until 4-5-6 days later. We’d like to be able to take care of that a little bit quicker. So if you have anything or need something, please call the non-emergency number with that.

I’d also like to push out the information about red days and green days again. We’re expecting more snow next week. We have gone out and posted to our residents to check in with the phone number for snow removal or check on social media to see if it’s a red or green day for parking for snow removal. We’ve been pretty lenient this go-round for those who have been parking and preventing snow removal. With our social media blast and all the red tagging—red stickers advising people on red days and green days—enforcement will be stepped up. You will be seeing citations and if we can get a tow truck up here, you will see cars towed if they’re in the way of snow removal so they cause a hazard. So enforcement will be stepped up.  

[RED/GREEN DAYS PHONE NUMBER 775 833-5555]

Julie Malkin-Manning – Incline Village Crystal Bay Association

Good morning and thanks for letting me chime in to this meeting. We are excited to be around town and working with the entire community—businesses and residents— to grow the sustainability and cohesiveness of our community, which I think is everybody’s goal. We’re all rocking forward. Just a couple of things from us right now.  You saw us pop up this summer as the 4th of July Parade. And right now we are rolling through our Northern Lights Festival.

All the trees you see lit up along Tahoe Boulevard,—Linda Offerdahl definitely had a hand in making that happen as well as a lot of sponsors that stepped forward in our community to bring in that festivity. So a lot of that information is on our website and I’ll pop that into the Chat for the Northern Lights website. Just a few events left in the season as we wind into the Christmas holiday… Tomorrow, in addition to IVGID’s Santa Stop, there’s a Sip and Shop event at the Country Club Mall. Fumo’s and Austin’s and Cool Mass and Incline Spirits and Happy Tiers Bakery will all be participating. I’m calling it a Sip-and-Yum day because there’s going to be a lot of delicious beverages and treats. So come on out and then step across the street to the Hyatt to see their gingerbread display. IVCBA puts out a weekly newsletter and we’d love to have everyone in the community join us so we’re all sharing information. So I’ll also drop that into the Chat box.  I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know what IVCBA is currently up to. Thank you.

Denise Davis

Thank you, Julie. I’m happy to see our County Commissioner Alexis Hill is with us this morning. First of all, all politics and disagreements aside, we all want to say congratulations on your new baby girl who arrived a little early. We’re marveling that you’re already making it to meetings. I know you were in meetings just a couple of days after she was born. So hats off to you!

Alexis Hill – Washoe County Commissioner, District 1

Thank you, Denise. Yeah, it’s great to see everyone on Zoom. I’m happy to be back at the Forum. I know there are a lot of questions about what’s happening with the Constable’s Office. I want to give a quick update on that and on TTD as well, and I’m happy to address any other questions you all may have. I have a 9:30 so I can’t stay for the full Forum but you guys can also always reach me via email or phone and I’ll put that in the Chat.

At the Tuesday meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, the Chairman had the Constable’s Office for Incline Village put on the agenda. This is something he’s been wanting to do for a long time. It’s my understanding he’s been passionate about making changes to the Courts and consolidating the Courts. It’s not necessarily something I have been aligned on. I have a lot of concerns the community hasn’t been informed. And we haven’t seen a lot of data or plans based on a lot of these changes. So at Tuesday’s meeting I voted against what is essentially an introduction before the 1st reading of the Ordinance change to remove the Constable’s office from Incline Village township, and so did Commissioner Herman. But we were on the losing side of that vote. The other three commissioners voted to move forward with the 1st reading. I understand from the District Attorney’s office that the 1st reading will happen on January 11th. I’ve asked the team if they can put together information for the Incline Village community to understand what this would look like. My understanding is that is underway. I hope there will be opportunity and forums for this discussion moving forward. I don’t have a date on the 2nd reading yet. If the January 11th date changes I will let this group know.

I know there has been a lot of discussion on what are the next steps at the Tahoe Transportation District. It’s looking like the purchase is finalized or about to be finalized in escrow with the Washoe County School District on the Old Elementary School site. As I discussed numerous times throughout this year, we will be working with the Incline Village community. We’re creating a committee, and I’m not sure how many Incline Village residents will be included. We will have an application for you to get involved on choosing our consultant and helping us get community input on whether this location is the best location; what other locations we should be looking at; and what this mobility hub will look like. So that is what 2022 will look like.

Additionally, my understanding is that the Community Services Department is moving forward with my initiative to do a traffic/multi-modal/pedestrian study as well as a beautification study in Incline Village. They have chosen a consultant or are about to choose a consultant. I think that’s going to the Board of County Commissioners. That funding I secured last budget will go toward community outreach. How do we make Highway 28 safer? We’re engaging NDOT on this study. We want to engage the community on what are great ways for you to make sure there are pathways that the County maintains, and ensure that e-bikes have a place where they can be safe but not on pedestrian right-of-ways. So all of that will be moving forward. That will be another opportunity for community outreach. I’m really looking forward to 2022. I think we’ll be doing some really cool things. I’m happy to address any of your questions. Thank you.

Sara Schmitz – Incline Village General Improvement District Trustee, IVCB Community 1st Director

I really appreciate the update you’ve given us here today. My question is what was the decision of the County Commissioners relative to the COVID emergency declaration and COVID restrictions?

Alexis Hill

The County Commission on another 3-2 voted to remove the Declaration of Emergency. I voted against that, but the other Commissioners did vote for that. So Declaration of Emergency has been removed for Washoe County.

Sara Schmitz

Does that remove the mask mandate?

Alexis Hill

No, it doesn’t remove the mask mandate – because that is a Nevada State mandate. I had major concerns about that because of confusion. So many people think that the County created the mask mandate. And wanting to ensure there’s still public safety, and people are taking this COVID seriously. The removal of the Declaration of Emergency removes the ability of the County Manager to make purchases without the County Commission approval based on emergency purposes. There are some other provisions that wouldn’t allow the County to act unilaterally for public safety purposes. So that’s where we’re at today on that item.

Chris Wood – Incline Resident, Citizen Advisory Board Member

Thank you Denise and great to see you Alexis. Congratulations heartily. My question is about the Constable position. What information is there about what that position does and how those functions would be replaced? Is somebody collecting information about that… cost? What’s the process to be engaged?

Alexis Hill

Yes, Chris. I think that’s an awesome question and something I’m pushing County staff to look at. I wasn’t comfortable making that broad change to our County Code and removing the Constable’s office without that information—both a staffing plan as well as the budget—so we can make the best policy choice and ensure this is the right policy moving forward. I’m hoping that will come with the 1st reading. You can find information on the Constable’s office in State law. I’ll shoot that in the message here so you guys can look that up. Then in County Code it has provision for Constables. But State law really defines what a Constable is. Essentially it is providing public safety for the Court system.

My understanding is the County is looking forward to the Sheriff’s office doing that. But I don’t have any details for you today. I’m sorry about that. But I’m hoping that we will by that January 11th meeting.

Chris Wood

Then the final decision on the Constable would be at what point—the 2nd reading? Or is there a subsequent hearing?

Alexis Hill

It would be at that 2nd reading. My understanding behind the rush of this is because the Constable’s office is up for election. March is when you would register to run for that office in the November election in 2022. I had asked if we could slow this down, giving the community more information; but the push is they don’t want the situation to be put in place where you could register to run for the office by meeting that March filing deadline.

Chris Wood

Thank you.

Denise Davis

If I could add, the Constable did send two messages through the IVCB Community 1st website. One explains what the Constable does? And the second message concerns what’s going on with our Constable office. So if you want that information, it’s available on the IVCB Community 1st website, which Sara will demonstrate and explain in a few minutes.

Chris Wood

If I may interject here, I read that but I was getting it from the Constable’s position. I’m trying to see if there’s a more balanced view of what’s going on. Not that the Constable’s position isn’t.  Who’s looking at this? Is it a balanced perspective?

Denise Davis

Judge Tiras had planned to be here this morning, but I don’t see him logged in so I don’t know if he’s having technical difficulty. He did have another meeting at 9:30 so maybe something came up. He did want to address everyone.

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For anyone who is interested, the 8-hour Washoe Commissioners meeting is on youtube. John Crockett can put that URL into the Chat and it will be in the meeting recap. The Constable was the last item of the day. So the time stamp on the video for the Constable is 7 hours and 28 minutes.

Kathie Julian

Thanks Alexis. Just by way of a short comment… Really the issue with the Constable thing is the process and the staff report that was devoid of any facts or information. That was disappointing as I’m sure you realize. The question I have is about 947 Tahoe Boulevard’s proposed 40- unit condo development.  Frankly, I think it would be helpful if developers were to come to a CAB meeting just to make a presentation about what they propose there—not for any judgment but just for information. I understand that may not be considered appropriate by the County, so you may have a view on that.  I’ve been in touch with the planner on that project. The planner doesn’t know for sure, but said there could be a neighborhood meeting in the middle of January. We’re trying to ascertain who would be notified. I think that’s something we as a community should be following because it is a large development in our very small community. And it’s good to have the information flowing freely in a timely manner. Do you have any views on that?

Alexis Hill

Yes. First of all on the Constable’s office, I agree with you. And that’s why I had concerns about the item, and the lack of notification and information. Hopefully we’ll get that in that 1st reading.

On the 947 Tahoe Boulevard, I have been copied on an email with the chair of the CAB who has been trying to get the developer to come to the CAB meeting. That is something I’ve been working with the Chair on and hopefully we’ll get that scheduled and the information out to the community about when they will come. So I don’t have a problem with that at all. And then on the neighborhood meeting, my understanding is that noticing around the project will be to owners within 700 feet. I’ve also been in contact with the planner and asked her—once that neighborhood meeting is scheduled—please give me that information so I can get that out to Denise and Sara and all the different ways information is spread through Incline Village. Hopefully we’ll get that information here soon. My understanding is that we are requiring that neighborhood meeting especially because the timeline on the development has moved and given them a bit more time before they go to the Planning Commission.

Steve Dolan – Incline Resident, Friends of Third Creek Director

Regarding Judge Tiras, somewhere I heard that the interim court will be in where the Forest Service is leaving—the Community Center next door to the library. Can anyone clarify that?

Alexis Hill

Yes, because the lease is now month-to-month at  the old court location, we are moving forward with the building next to the Library which is owned by the County. The County has been working on planned tenant-improvements with the Judge. Hopefully they’ll be moving into that building soon. I think there will be more opportunity for programming at that building with the Court there. They will help with opening up the building to allow people to use it. My understanding is we have some senior programs going on and we want to continue those.

Jim Lyons – Incline Resident, Incline Veterans Club

I have a question going back to the Constable issue. Do you have any sense of the people who are pushing this—the majority on the Commission pushing to get rid of… or to do the consolidation? Can you shed any light on what the rationale is? Is it just cost-savings or is something else involved in why they want to do this?

Alexis Hill

I want to know as well. I’m assuming cost-savings and maybe even more and better services. I haven’t seen… I’m always the one on the Commission —if anyone watches the meetings—that wants to see things in black and white. I want to read the staff report and understand it. I expect to see the data behind the decision—not just this decision, but any other decisions that come before the Board of County Commissioners. I’m looking forward to seeing that information as soon as it’s disclosed. I’m with you in that I’m speculating there could be cost- savings, but I want to see it as well. I want to see that my District is going to be well represented and that you’ll have the services you need. I think that having a Court presence in Incline Village and having representatives in the community are very important. I lived in Incline and I remember how difficult it is to get down to Reno for various things, or to Carson. So I look forward to seeing that plan whenever it is given to us.

Sara Schmitz

Thank you Denise. I appreciate the opportunity to ask a follow-up question. My concern after talking with Constable Keller is that the wages for Sheriff’s deputies are higher than—I believe he has 3 staff members – so I don’t understand how there would be any cost savings. My other concern is that we’ve had an increased presence of Sheriff’s deputies in Incline Village and Crystal Bay thanks to the generosity of the Duffield Foundation. If those deputies are now going to be asked to fill roles that are administrative—a role that is currently being filled by the Constable and his staff—the Duffield Foundation is going to be funding a completely different role and capacity than when he originally made this generous donation. I’m concerned that it will take deputies away from the wonderful work they’re doing for our community now, and distract them with additional responsibilities that would reduce the level of service for our community.

Alexis Hill

I think that these are all valid points. My understanding is that this will be—if not cost-savings at least cost-neutral. But again I haven’t seen anything. I’ve also been told we won’t be using the grant-funded Sheriff’s deputies from the Duffield Foundation. But I want to see it. I’m hoping we’ll be able to understand all those details. And I’m really hoping there will be opportunities beyond Commission meetings for having some discussion and community input. I was even suggesting to start with poster sessions at the library—opportunities for people to make sure that we understand their concerns. If this is moving forward and the majority of the Commissioners feel this way, we can make sure we address those concerns.

Corey Solferino

I just want to put some of these concerns to rest. We found out about this just recently as well.  I was asked to put a plan together of what that would look like. If the WCSO were to take over those services, it would not impact the Duffield grant at all. For those of you who don’t know, before I was appointed sergeant, a former position of mine was to control the 2nd District Judicial Court down in Washoe Valley. We have 20 deputy bailiffs and 2 rovers that navigate and manage all the courts down in the valley. So I would anticipate that if the Constable’s position were to be removed, that two deputy sheriff bailiffs and an extension of perhaps some contracting security with ESI as we do at the other locations will suffice in covering and actually increasing services up there. One other thing that I want to mention is—politics aside—whatever happens, we’ll be ready to step in and handle that if so called upon as we’ve been working with Judge Tiras on that. I just told him, “Do not worry Judge, regardless of what happens with the Sheriff’s office, in no way will that affect the staffing in Incline Village.” It would only supplement the staffing at the current substation.

Denise Davis

Thanks for that information. It’s about 9:30 and I know our Commissioner has to leave. So thank you for joining us today. And we’ll get on to updates. Does anyone have any updates about the CAB, TTD, or TRPA?

Steve Dolan

There have been some emails going around regarding the bike park. Last week Sheila Leijon pulled together a meeting with quite a few people who toured the park. TRPA was there. It was a very constructive meeting. It looks like there’s some progress going forward. I’m not sure what that looks like. I just want to let everybody know that Sheila was on top of the demand and followed through for us. So IVGID and TRPA and bike park managers and the community at large are watching progress happen. That’s about all I can say. But there is some progress happening.

Indra Winquest – Incline Village General Improvement District General Manager

We opened Diamond Peak yesterday. Conditions are changing daily so it’s hard to say what we have open on the mountain and what we don’t. We’re really thankful that we got a good quantity of snow right before the holiday season. So hopefully the community will take the opportunity to get out and enjoy the mountain especially before we start seeing so many visitors. We’re set up well and we’re expecting more snow in the next week. So we’re really excited about that.

The District is in the middle of our annual budgeting process. We kicked that off at the Board of Trustees. The Burnt Cedar pool project is on hold. We put it to bed for the winter. We’re still on track to open the pool on time. We hope for some cooperative weather in the spring. I will be bringing back in January an agenda item to review and revisit the Community Master Plan approved by the Board of Trustees in 2018. We’ll evaluate what we’ve already done, and what we’re currently doing, and what’s on the horizon. For the Master Plan we went through that process for 2 ½ years—community surveying, forums and lots of back and forth with staff and Board. We’re going to try to revisit these things every few years to determine if this is still where we want to go.  The community is changing quite a bit right now. We need to revisit our priorities and make sure that things we might have thought were relevant 2 or 3 years ago are still high priorities for the District.

I know there’s been a lot of discussion about the dog park issue. All I can say about where we are in that process is that we have submitted an application for a Special Use Permit to the US Forest Service. We went through a preliminary process. All the information is in the Community Master Plan including information from our surveys. No surprises—and nothing going on in the background. Nothing anyone should be concerned about. I’ve been tasked by the Board to really aggressively look for a dedicated dog park. Based on our survey and what we heard from the community for the last 20 years, after using a “temporary dog park” they would really like to see a dedicated dog park. So that’s the effort we’re putting forth on that. We’ll keep everyone updated. My goal is by February to have a committee put together. I’ve asked Trustee Schmitz to represent the Board of Trustees on that committee. So if you know anyone who’s interested… Some of the requirements are that I want folks who are reasonable, folks who are willing to compromise, folks who understand the history of this or at least are willing to get up to speed on the history of this issue. We intend to continue moving forward. If we’re not able to secure the USFS parcel across from Incline High School, or another IVGID property somewhere else in the community, until I’m directed by the Board to stop this effort, I will continue to aggressively move forward.

I came in at the end of Mr. Dolan’s update on the bike park. I want to thank Steve for his efforts and his passion for the environment—particularly the stream zones here in our community. We are working on additional BMPs and some things we can do at the Incline Bike Park. So we’ll  [inaudible]. Outside of that, I’m happy to answer any questions?

And if I don’t have a chance to talk to you, I hope you all have a great holiday.

Ronda Tycer – IVCB Forum Recap Editor

I just wanted to ask Indra if there’s a date when the Beach Survey results will be presented to the IVGID Board and we’ll have more information about what those look like. 

Indra Winquest

I assume you’re referring to the recommendations for the Board from the Ordinance 7 committee. We purposely put a pause on that. We had already tried putting together the recommendations we’re going to present to the Trustees.  We put the pause because members of the Committee, the Board, and myself wanted to hire a third-party attorney to bring on board as we go through this process for a lot of different reasons. We want to make sure that the recommendations the Committee is making to the Board all fit within the Beach Deed, the NRS Statutes, and everything else we need to be aware of as we start looking at revising the Ordinance. We also had several issues that have been brought forward by committee, Board, and staff that we’d like a third-party attorney to look at including employee access to the beaches; Policy 16-1.1 which is our recreational policy, commercial operations, and things like that. Just to make sure that everything we’re delivering as recommendations, and then everything that the Board is deliberating over, are legal and within the Beach Deed.

As everybody knows, and I need to say it—because there’s a lot of different info out in the community—as General Manager, my team and I along with our Board completely understand that being in compliance with the Beach Deed is the number 1 most important thing. Despite a lot of things that have been said out there in the community, there is no reason to believe that at this point we haven’t been doing that over the years, but there have been a lot of questions because times have changed. So we feel it is time to look at all issues again and if anything’s changed, we need to make changes to our internal policies and employee policies. Obviously, we will be making changes to Ordinance 7. This will be the right time for changes. So we have formally engaged a third-party attorney we’ll be working with through this process. The expectation—Ronda, to answer your question—is Diane Becker and I will be meeting the attorney here on Monday as kind of a kick-off meeting. She’ll be working with me and taking the lead on this as a member of the Ordinance 7 committee. The goal would be to formalize all the recommendations after we have an opportunity to talk to the attorney about it. Hopefully sometime near the end of January, we’ll schedule a special meeting to deliver recommendations to the Board of Trustees. At that point in time the process will be in the hands of the Board, and staff will be there too. So that’s where we are right now. If anything changes, I’ll update the group. 

Ronda Tycer

Thank you.

Denise Davis

I have a quick update to the Washoe County Board of Commissioners information. The agenda for their last meeting can be found at the washoecounty.gov website which will be in the recap. Agenda Items 15, 16, and 17concern some Tahoe water projects for those who are interested. Also as you know the County recently revamped the purpose of the CABS. County Manager Eric Brown addressed some of those changes during his performance review. You can watch that on the Washoe County website video available on youtube or on their web location; and the timestamp for that is 6hrs 37 minutes where Manager Brown discusses CABs.

Moving on to some other business, the Forum administration, which is John Crockett, Ronda Tycer, and myself decided it’s more efficient to have notifications sent out through the IVCB Community 1st website. Community 1st has graciously offered to help get out the notices about County events, agency events—anything outside of our Forum announcements letting you about our meetings, and the meeting recap. To communicate with us, the new Forum email is ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com. If you’re trying to get hold of us, that’s the best way to go.

Getting back to our discussion, IVCB Community 1st has offered to help us. So we’ve asked Sara Schmitz to give us an overview of how you can get get to the IVCB Community 1st website and how to sign up for select notifications. You can sign up for everything or just the topics you’re interested in. We just appreciate IVCB Community 1st offering to help us with this.

Sara Schmitz

I am going to share my screen right now. So this is the Home Page. Up across the top are the various categories that we have. The Home Page presents just the most recent posts starting with the most recent by date, and presents the top 20 or so posts. But down below, there’s a statement that describes what we’re here to do. We are community members who volunteer our time to produce the newsletter and to produce an updated website. We share objective factual information about anything relevant to governing our community. That includes IVGID at the local level. But it also includes Washoe County, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Tahoe Transportation District, and so on. So what we’re trying to do through the newsletter and our website is make sure our community members are aware of what’s going on that will affect us.

I want to show you, up at the top, here are the topics: IVCB Community Forum IVGID, NLTFPD, Other Agencies, State Legislation, TTD, TRPA, Washoe County.

Every time we have a Community Forum, the Forum recap is posted here. IVGID meeting highlights are the most updated things. These are all of the different agencies’ information, which you can look at specifically.

So as an example, let’s click on “Washoe County.” As Chris Wood had mentioned, there’s a post that says, “What Does the Office of Constable Do?” And if I click on the READ MORE—you’ll notice that during this meeting—I added the link to the NRS that Commissioner Hill provided in the Chat. I try pretty hard to stay on top of things.

If there are some topics not listed that people want more information about, you can use the contact button to let us know.

So in addition to the Topics, we have this Resources tab. For this tab I need to rearrange it because it still has at the top the Caldor Fire issues, and we’re moving out of fire issues into snowplow issues. But I want to point out that this particular link provides everything. For example, if you have issues and want to contact the Bear League, if you have short-term rental questions or want to file a complaint, here’s the information on how to do that. There’s information on how to contact TTD, and the Tart Connect in-town shuttle service. Here’s IVGID water and sewer phone numbers and email addresses as well as a link to their website. There’s information on who to call and how to address trash issues. There’s the Washoe County non-emergency phone number and the Washoe County non-emergency number that was referenced this morning, and for other questions there’s Washoe 311.

I will be rearranging this particular page to put the road and snow removal information up top where there was fire information. Because here’s the link for Find My Plow, here’s the link for road condition information. Also here are the email addresses and phone numbers for Commissioner Hill, as well as all other contact numbers for the other Washoe County Commissioners, and our County Manager Eric Brown.

If there are things that need to be added to this page, please email us. It’s something we do take seriously. We’re trying to provide a central repository of information so people know who to call and where to go regarding various issues.

Denise mentioned our Calendar of Events. In the newsletter we publish upcoming meetings for the next month. Understand that we don’t have the agendas for agency meetings until 3 days prior (their legally required notification timeframe). We try our best to make sure the community is notified of things of importance. You can use the website to find further information about the meetings.

For example, here on next Tuesday is the Washoe County Board of Commissioners meeting. If I click on this, it will give all the information that was in the newsletter. It gives you a link to the agenda. It identifies the agenda items to be discussed that affect our community. So if ever you miss something—and say “Oh I think I saw that in the newsletter”—it’s always here on our website. If it’s a calendar event, make use of this Calendar. And if it’s Resources, make use of that link. Anything that’s in the newsletter is on the website as a topic.

So if we go back to the Home Page, if people want to subscribe to the newsletter they can do so by clicking on the “Subscribe” link at the top of the page. The other thing you can do—which I think is really valuable with this website—

And I have to thank the generous community members who made donations that allowed us to create this really robust website. Without their donations, this website wouldn’t be possible.

— So over on the right hand side there’s another link to subscribe to the newsletter. And down below it gives you the ability to subscribe to different categories. You can select All Categories.  Or you can click and choose select issues. You can say, “I want to be notified whenever there’s news about CAB issues.” Or, “I want to be notified on STR issues.” And if you click those topics and click “Update Me,” you’ll receive an email anytime a posting is made to the website on those issues.

What we’re intending to do, is when we get from the agencies their 3-day notice, we’ll actually put a post out. Let’s use Washoe County as an example. If we find out 3 days in advance of the meeting that Washoe County’s meeting has an agenda item that impacts IVCB, we will make a post to that effect, and it will be categorized as “Washoe County.” So if you’re subscribed, you’ll get an instantaneous notice. The value of this is that sometimes it takes me days to complete the newsletter, because sometimes they are very detailed. The last one was a huge newsletter. I edit the newsletter for facts and completeness. But if you click on a category, the minute a post is made to the website pertaining to that category, you’ll be notified. You have two opportunities for each notification: one is the newsletter that you’ll receive in your email. But if you’ve subscribed for specific topic notifications, you’ll be instantly notified when a post on that topic is made to the website. All of the content of the newsletter is driven and fed from the website.  So the website is where things are done first prior to the generation of the newsletter.

I hope this has been a helpful overview and not too confusing. I use the site so often and know it so well, I hope I’m not explaining it in a way that isn’t easily understandable. Please ask me any questions you might have and send any helpful feedback. Thank you.

Chris Wood

Sara, this website is really impressive. I find myself reading it often. Thank you for this community service. Can you tell us on average how much time do you spend on it? And how about others? What are the total hours per week it takes you and others to put this together?

Sara Schmitz

I don’t know if I can say. I can tell you that every newsletter probably takes me about 20 hours of editing work. There are other people who provide content. I do not write IVGID highlights. I only edit them to make sure they are objective and factual. To me it’s very important that what’s on this website is factual—or if it’s an opinion—it is clearly labeled that “this is a Message from” whomever…. from the constable… from Judge Tiras… or a County Commissioner, etc. So I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my friends how much time they spend. But it is quite substantial. And it’s completely on a volunteer basis.

I think all of us are blessed to have people like Ronda Tycer and Denise Davis and Kathie Julian and Diane Becker Heirshberg and there are others. I’m glad it’s of value to you. To be honest, sometimes I say I can’t continue to spend this much time on it, but then I hear from community members how valuable it is. So that keeps me going.

Chris Wood

Thank you.

Denise Davis

Are there any other questions?

Jim Lyons – IVCB Veterans Club

I’d like to make a quick announcement because it is too late to get on the calendar. [Denise Davis – Sure.] So from the IVGID Veterans Club, tomorrow’ there’s a national program Reach Across America in all cemeteries across the US. The IVGID Veterans Club volunteered to sponsor the Minden ceremony. The program is to place a wreath on the tombstone or headstone of every veteran. It’s all across the US tomorrow. You’re all welcome to attend. You can participate and place a wreath on a headstone. There’s a short ceremony at the beginning and then everybody places the wreaths. The ceremony starts at 9am and takes about 10 or 15 minutes. They do present the colors. Everyone’s welcome to attend. Scones will be provided by one of the IVGID people and coffee is being donated from Starbucks. Meet at the Minden Cemetery, which is down 395 to the east and about a mile or 2 off the highway.

John Crockett – Washoe County Library, Head Librarian

Folks, we had really nice party with Santa yesterday with 50 families in attendance. We also have a wrapping station here in the library. So if you need to wrap some gifts you can come on by. We’ll be closed next Friday the 24th and Friday the 31st. Our deliveries from Reno were delayed this week. They will be here on Monday weather permitting. They try to make it up at least twice a week, and then once if the weather holds them up. They try when they can. Thanks.

Judy Simon – Incline Resident, Citizen Advisory Board Alternate, TRPA Advisory Planning Commission Member

I just wanted to mention that last Wednesday TRPA addressed a long agenda item regarding the herbicides in Lake Tahoe and the proposed “controlled methods test.” They had Lars Anderson on. And I think when Lars came to the Forum last time, he did not mention he was acting as a consultant to the Tahoe Keys Property Owners Association. That was helpful information for me. He also came to the CAB meeting 2 weeks ago Monday along with Madonna Dunbar. So that’s an issue I continue to follow. The Lahontan Water Board will hear the issue and—I think—approve it on January 12. And they will be taking public comment. Then they’ll go to TRPA and the Advisory Planning Commission a bit later in January. I will try to get information out.

Kathie Julian

Just to follow up on Judy’s comment, it was interesting to hear Lars speaking on behalf of the Tahoe Keys HOA. I did a little research during that CAB meeting and found out that the South Lake Tahoe folks get their water from wells, whereas North Lake Tahoe folks get their water from the lake. I thought that was an interesting fact to highlight. Does anyone have an update on what happened at the TRPA hearing yesterday on the East Shore Express permit?

Ronda Tycer

Yes. What happened was, at the beginning of the meeting, Hearing Officers Bridget Cornell and Andrew Strain announced they were going to continue the agenda item having to do with permit approval for TTD’s use of the OES for the East Shore Express. The reason given was that they have now decided TTD needs to present to them an updated transportation impact statement. They need to do a study that shows the impacts of that use of the school on the surrounding community. So the meeting will now be sometime in February where they bring this back and reconsider TTD’s request. At the moment we are all on hold. I would like to thank dozens and dozens of people who sent in input. I think it has really made a difference. And I wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Thank you. 

Shirley Appel – Incline Resident, HOA President

Thank you, Ronda!

Ronda Tycer

Thank you Shirley!

Denise Davis

Just a quick wrap up. As you know, our “founder” Peter Todoroff retired due to health and medical concerns. Peter is going to be recognized in January for his efforts. As I said before, it’s taken three of us to run the Forum and Sara’s spending lots of hours. I can’t even imagine how many hours Pete used to spend. So if you want to send a message, a greeting, or a brief note of thanks, we’ll compile those for Peter. You can send it to our ivcbcommunityforum@gmail address. That will be happening January 12th at IVGID.

I also want to let everyone know I did print out one of the maps for the 947 Tahoe Boulevard condo project. You can read the information provided on the IVCB Community 1st website.

Sara Schmitz

On the website there is a search bar. So if you look for something in particular like this condo development, you do have the ability to search all articles containing those key words.

Indra Winquest

I also want to comment on that as well. I have met with the developers on that project a few different times to get a better understanding of what that project’s going to look like. And one of the things I both mentioned and suggested to them, and to which they’ve now committed is that they will be putting in their CC&Rs that those units will not be used for STRs. I told them that would be something extremely important to our community. Because they are a new development they be required to get a will-serve rider from the Board. It will need to be approved by the Board. It will be on the agenda either January 12th or our meeting in February to bring that to our Board of Trustees to be approved. So if anyone has any questions about that development… or the other one, which is the new ownership of the Boulder Bay project… I’ve also met with them and I’m really excited about this group. So I have a lot of information so for anyone who wants to reach out and ask any questions about either one of these developments. Thank you Denise for taking over the Forum.

Denise Davis

And thank you for that information. It’s good to know. As John mentioned previously, our next scheduled meeting would have been on December 31st and the library is closed. So our next Forum meeting will be January 7. So have a Happy Holiday. Stay safe. Travel safely. And we’ll see you in 2022.

CHAT BOX

09:02:33 From  Jon & Beth Davidson : Good Morning

09:06:30 From  Washoe County Libraries : 775-785-WCSO (9276) – WCSO Non-emergency number

09:07:20 From  IVGID Communications : Just confirmed that you must wear a mask when you are making your way to your activity in the Rec Center. Then you may go without masks while working out.

09:07:55 From  Washoe County Libraries : Red Days/Green Days phone number: 775 833-5555.

09:09:25 From  Sara Schmitz : The trees along Tahoe Boulevard look beautiful!

09:10:52 From  Julie Malkin-Manning : IVCBA.org – our website and where you can subscribe to our weekly snapshot.   Northernlightstahoe.com

09:12:36 From  Julie Malkin-Manning : Thank you Sara!

09:19:50 From  Washoe County, Alexis Hill : Here’s the NRS info on constables – https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-258.html

09:22:08 From  Washoe County Libraries : BCC meeting 12/14/2021

video is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkcrNROYH30

agenda is at https://www.washoecounty.gov/bcc/board_committees/2021/files/agendas/2021-12-14/BCC%20-%2012.14.21.pdf

agenda items 15, 16, 17 are Tahoe water projects

time stamp 6:37:30  Eric Brown – CABs (agenda item 22)

time stamp 7:28:35  constable (agenda item 33)

staff report regarding constable is downloadable via the agenda (no URL)

09:31:26 From  Washoe County, Alexis Hill : Hi all – I’ve got to run but great to see you all and have a wonderful holiday! Here’s my info ahill@washoecounty.gov and 775.447.3017. And I want to pass on my kudos on this new format of the forum!

09:39:29 From  IVGID Communications : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-parks-rec/20210730_IVGID_Ordinance_7_Survey_Results_-_Cleaned_-_Only_Complete_-_Wi.._.pdf

09:39:55 From  IVGID Communications : Recreation Privileges (Ord 7) survey results

09:41:04 From  IVGID Communications : More info regarding Recreation Privileges (Ord 7) committee: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/general-managers-committee-on-ordinance-7

09:43:23 From  Washoe County Libraries : ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com

09:55:34 From  Jon & Beth Davidson : Thanks, Sara.  The site is really excellent

09:57:42 From  Julie Malkin-Manning : Will the library wrapping station be available next week?

09:57:53 From  Washoe County Libraries : Sure will be Julie

10:02:57 From  Sara Schmitz : Happy holidays everyone!  Enjoy the snow and stay healthy!

10:05:16 From  Washoe County Libraries : The next IV/CB Community Forum meeting will be Friday, January 7 at 9 am.

10:05:47 From  Washoe County Libraries : Happy Holidays!

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Upcoming Events

Calendar of Events

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