Shelly Aldean

Dennis Oliver, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's public information officer, has died after a brain illness. He was 47.

Oliver was admitted to the hospital about three weeks ago, according to TRPA External Affairs Director Julie Regan. He died overnight Wednesday at Carson Tahoe Hospital of an apparent brain virus which attacks the meylin around the nerve cells, said friend Michael Carr.

"TRPA is deeply saddened to share the news with the community of the loss of Dennis Oliver, who was an extremely valued employee of the Agency over the last three and a half years," said TRPA Executive Director Joanne Marchetta. Click here to read the obituary.

At the Carson City Board of Supervisor meeting going on right now, Office of Business Development Director Joe McCarthy announced that a new Olive Garden restaurant will be going into the Southgate Center on South Carson Street.

Olive Garden has agreed to a land lease, conditioned upon the developer of the shopping center filling the other empty stores. On that point, the new Big Lots store will open next month, and Big 5 Sports will be moving into the other space from their current, smaller location on North Carson Street.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors voted to delay a decision on funding the downtown ice rink to give staff the time to work out details for having the funding come from redevelopment funds instead of the general fund.

At today's Board meeting, Supervisor Shelly Aldean made the motion to send the issue back to staff, commenting earlier that, "It gives me heartburn to fund this out of the general fund."

In a decision that may affect future development plans at Lake Tahoe, a federal district court judge on Thursday overturned a plan to allow the addition of new piers, boat ramps, buoys and other boat facilities along the lake’s shoreline.

Carson City Manager Larry Werner told the Board of Supervisors today that they are hoping to wrap up work on cost estimates for the city's portion of the Nugget Project by the end of the day.

Werner said that these cost estimates would determine if they had a feasible project or not, compared with the funding that would be provided by a 1/8 cent sales tax increase and tax increment financing.

He told the board that the results would be presented to the citizen's committee, whose next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 27.

The September/October issue of VIA Magazine put out by AAA has a wonderful cover story on Trains in the West and features, among 11 iron horses, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.

Carson City leaders agreed this morning to apply for a $240,000 HUD grant that would help in preliminary design work for narrowing Carson Street between John and Stewart streets from four to two lanes.

If the city were to get the grant, it would have to kick down about $60,000 in matching grants which would come from the city's redevelopment agency and the regional transportation commission. Money for the matching grants would be available because it has already been set aside in their budgets.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors turned down a request by Supervisor Pete Livermore to put a question tied to the Nugget Project on November's ballot.

All of Livermore's fellow supervisors voted against putting an advisory question on the ballot concerning the 1/8th cent sales tax increase that would be needed to fund the yet-to-be-approved Carson City Center/Nugget Project.

Supervisor Molly Walt called the question premature since they will not know if the project is feasible until the project developer comes back with a proposal this summer.

I sent an email to all of the members of the Carson City Board of Supervisors for their reaction to the initiative petition filed on Friday to put the Nugget Project to a vote in 2012.

We now have responses from the four supervisors, and I just added Mayor Bob Crowell's comment below.

The Carson City Chamber of Commerce presents a Small Business Roundtable at City Cafe Bakery, on Tuesday, June 1, at 4 p.m.

An action item about an agreement involving the Nugget Project was pulled from the agenda at today's Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting, delaying a decision for two weeks.

The item calls for the city to contribute $75,000 to help fund the development planning for the Nugget redevelopment project. The Hop and Mae Adams Foundation will contribute $75,000, and the Carson City Library will pitch in $16,000.

Shelly Aldean discusses Tahoe Regional Planning Agency issues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b6NKmbWclk

Carson City Supervisor Shelly Aldean talks about recent budget cuts made by the city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2YI3M1kSc8

Mayor Bob Crowell
Supervisors:
Molly Walt
Shelly Aldean
Pete Livermore
Robin Williamson