Lifestyle versus Growth

Wells

The County finally admitted stealing our water and has a plan to compensate Callahan Ranch - Mt. Rose area residents retroactively.

Contact Washoe County Water or see:  http://www.washoecounty.us/water/swtmgroundwater 

Fire Service

The Mt Rose area is serviced by the Sierra Fire Protection District (SFPD) and we pay specific taxes to support this. We have been happy with SFPD including that they have paramedics on board as the majority of their calls for service (CFS) are medical and few are fire and a small fraction are structure fires.

The whole fire issue is very complicated. Other areas of the county are served by Reno Fire Dept under contract by the county. The fire union insists on 4 person crews as opposed to Sparks with 3. Most residents prefer three with paramedic. Washoe County is broke and simply can’t afford the high Reno salary & 4 crew costs. The County then gave notice to City and terminated the contract effective June 2012 and opted to stand up the old Truckee Meadows Fire Dept (TM). Many felt it was much more economical to contract with SFPD to provide services countywide (one chief, one admin & command staff, etc.). To complicate matters, the SFPD union apparently reached an impasse and is going to arbitration. I suspect that the plan will be to stand up TM under a lower paid contract with possibly 3 person crews and less loop holds for employees to “game” the system increasing their salaries. Then I suspect SFPD will be merged into TM. Contact us for more info. His is an ongoing situation and thanks to the various county residents that have been so engaged on this (such as Dr Robt Parker, Tom Daly, Betty Hicks).

Reno Finances

Washoe and others are hurting financially but Reno is really broke. I think only North Las Vegas is worse off. That is another story you should look at if curious to see government run amuck. There are various articles on Reno’s financial difficulty, but is it serious. Most deals with the very bad bond decision Reno made (trench, parking garage, event center). Also Reno’s cops and firefighters are by far the highest paid outside of Clark County and Reno just gave them a new generous two year contract with no provision to reopen if things get worse.

Check out the website TransparentNevada and look at Reno salaries and North Vegas. Reno has firefighters making almost $300,000 in salary and benefits but it gets worse. These supervisors took no pay cut under the current salary and the 1,000 pound elephant may be health care. Reno, unlike most other agencies, gives police and fire retirees some form of uncapped lifetime healthcare/ medical care. How do you calculate this giant unfunded liability (google “OPEB”)? With these folks retiring as young as age 46, how can we calculate this unfunded growing Ponzi scheme? It is forced upon future taxpayers and city councils, yet it receives little attention and no one seems to care. The Reno City Council has been totally irresponsible and yet we will continue to re-elect them.

The Forest Area Plan

In spite of overwhelming community opposition, the county approved this area master plan under Washoe County's unique One Map system where developers were able to sneak in zoning changes. It added sprawl and commercial activity along the Mt Rose Scenic Corridor and a 632 cluster home development at the end of Fawn. That developer made great promises about schools, solar, etc. none of which justified such a large development in a rural area of minimum 1 ac parcels. Of course as the economy went sour, he went bankrupt and the promises went away.

When our elected officials get most their campaign money from pro-development sources, the basic tenets of a democracy are threatened. We need to elect neutral officials and to pass ballot measures that protect urban sprawl and such unethical behavior.

As a result of our fight the county finally agree to do away with the re-zoning procedure done with Matera Ridge (One Map system) and move to the system used by almost all of the rest of Nevada.

Beth Honebein and others continue to fight the good fight and keep us informed. We can't do it alone.

Our Forest Service Land

As part of the plan, the now bankrupt Matera Ridge LLC, working hand in hand with county officials, sought to take over our 375 acres of US Forest Service land east of Fawn Ln. Thanks to neighborhood opposition we fought this back. Developers will surely continue to try to take over this land so we must be vigilant and continue to propose alternatives such as a park similar to Rancho San Rafael. Once it is gone, it is lost forever.

Taxes

We also fought to require the county treasurer to accept only full payment of delinquent taxes from developers, consistent with state law, resulting in thousands of past due dollars into county coffers. As of August, 2011, the Matera Ridge property owes over $155,000 is current & past due taxes. Other developers also owe much needed tax money.