Until further notice, the Incline Village/Crystal Bay Community Forum will be conducted the first and third Friday’s of each month at 9am, both in person and online using the meeting app Zoom. The Zoom meeting ID number is 815 3612 1755 and password is 1864.
On Friday morning 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 Committee Member, CERT 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.]
Denise Davis – Moderator
Good morning. I’m Denise Davis, your moderator. Ronda Tycer is our Forum Recap Editor. And Amanda McPhaill is our tech guru today. As a reminder, our meeting is being recorded. Before you begin speaking, please state your name so Ronda can record it. While speaking,-emergency number, they would provide you with the information. Someone will call you back such as myself and we’d say hey, that’s what it is. Because when the media blasts that out, the next thing you know we have a ton of looky-loos. And to be honest with you, we try to keep a lot of those… our special tactics closed to others and as quiet as we can so that we have an advantage if we ever have to use them.
Jack Dalton, MD
Apparently she was pretty close to where the exercise was. So I understand you don’t want to advertise it. But at any rate that was her complaint.
I asked you on the way in here… Ann Nichols has done a really great job for Crystal Bay in terms of monitoring the construction. And her latest information was that there will be 217,000 dump trucks for the excavation of the soil… I’m not asking for a response, but maybe as a follow-up we could have somebody from somewhere explain if that is really true. Because, if that’s true, it will destroy the roads around here. I’m hoping they go the other way into California and not through here, but at any rate it will be a mess.
Joseph Colacurcio
Sir, I understand and I understand your concern with that. I do have a background in dirt work before I was a cop. I did HP operations. So if they are moving that much dirt – they will have to get engineers and have to get it permitted. They will be taking it to NDOT when it comes to permitting.
Jack Dalton, MD
If that’s true, there’s no way it won’t affect traffic patterns through Incline or through Kings Beach or even if they go over Mt Rose Highway. Those highways are going to be destroyed for the length of time the dump trucks are running because for sure they will be 8-wheel trucks.
Joseph Colacurcio
Yes, probably doubles or triples—depending on what they’re hauling, and stuff like that. I understand that’s a big thing. But that’s also something… for most of those roads I’ve been talking about—the main arteries for the truck routes here—Mt. Rose Highway, 28, 50, 89, and all those—they’re all managed by the State. I know we don’t have a representative from the NHP or NDOT to come here. But they’re the ones for roadway complaints.
I do know the NDOT supervisor is already talking about taking care of Mt. Rose Highway—after mid-April—patching and stuff like that.
Kristina Hill – Incline Village Resident, Washoe County Board of Adjustment Member
I just wanted to clarify Jack’s statement. It’s 203,000 cubic yards of fill and excavation, and that would be about 10,000 dump-truck trips-one way. But that’s a lot. And I appreciate giving this information because they don’t have a permit for any project. For all of this excavation to occur is putting the cart before the horse. We don’t even know what the project is. And they’re asking for all this excavation.
Denise Davis
Thanks for clarifying that Kristina. Sergeant, is there anything around town that we citizens can help with?
Joseph Colacurcio
We’re coming into springtime. My biggest thing is if you see something, say something. Call the non-emergency number. Karen works our front desk Monday through Thursday. So if you call the substation number on the weekend, it doesn’t get answered until Monday, it’s just a voicemail that we don’t check. So if you are trying to make a report or have questions please call the non-,emergency number at Dispatch, and they’ll put in a call for service. I, or one of the deputies working up here, will call you to answer your questions as we can. It benefits us and you—both sides.
Janet Pahl – Incline Village Resident
Good morning, and thank you for doing extra patrolling on Lakeshore. I’ve lived there for 22 years. People going to work early in the morning around 8am—truck drivers—really speed. Some I know are going at least 60mph. So thank you for looking out because people walk on that sidewalk path all the time. There are crosswalks all along Lakeshore. I’ve seen cars bolt through those stop signs at the crosswalks.
Joseph Colacurcio
Well that’s one of the things we do. We understand that’s a big—I guess you’d call it—complaint. Traffic in my opinion is one of the biggest issues in Incline Village. And conducting traffic enforcement is one of the major things we handle here.
Janet Pahl
It’s going to get a lot worse this summer because they park everywhere to go to the new East Shore bike trail or the beach. I have to put cones in front of my driveway all summer long so they don’t park over my driveway and I can’t see to get out.
Joseph Colacurcio
And if they do, please call the non-emergency number and let us know and that will get a response from us. I have actually sat down and talked with Judge Tiras myself. I explained that the reason we are issuing these citations for parking is exactly for that reason, because it’s putting the general public’s safety in harm’s way. Parking that close to a driveway, you can’t see out, parking near a fire hydrant, in my opinion, those things become public safety issues. That’s why those laws are there. So my guys and the deputies who work up here will totally enforce them.
Janet Pahl
Somebody stole my cones. They were missing so I put a note on their window. I had my cones out and they took my cones.
Joseph Colacurcio
Well, I guess they can call us and it’s a 135 or a 315. So it’s their choice on what they violate. We have no problem issuing them a citation for that.
Denise Davis
Do you want to remind everyone what the non-emergency number is?
Joseph Colacurcio
It’s 775 785-9276. That’s 775 785-WCSO. Feel free to give that number a call.
[inaudible]
Joseph Colacurcio
So the question was with the advent of all the new private alarm companies, they usually have a monitoring system that does the same thing as agencies like Burgarello or other alarm companies – that automatically contact our Dispatch. If we go there and it’s a false alarm, we have a system in place so that you actually won’t be fined if you’re wasting resources. It’s called Cry Wolf. That’s the vendor we use as an agency. I believe it’s 1, 2, 3, and then it’s a certain amount of monetary fine that goes out and into the General Fund to get paid. So we do that.
Denise Davis
Thank you Sergeant. It’s always good to see you here. Thank all of your co-workers for all their work.
Kari Ferguson – Incline Village General Improvement District Communication Coordinator
Good morning everyone. Happy Friday. I want to let everyone know that now that Diamond Peak has closed, of course it’s snowing. That’s what happens. So Happy “Sprinter” to everybody—our spring-winter combo. So we cancelled our Easter Egg Hunt planned for tomorrow. Unfortunately it’s not one of those where we count down from 10 and everyone goes at once for a couple of minutes. It’s actually a meander through the golf course. We can’t have people on the greens during the snow because it will ruin the greens that are looking so amazing and getting ready for summer. So unfortunately we had to cancel the event this year. We just don’t have another venue that is comparable to what we planned. So sadly we cancelled that yesterday. It may be sunny. You just never know. If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.
A couple of other things going on…Our IVGID Quarterly for April is out and hopefully you’ve received it. It’s also online, so I’ll put the link in the Chat Box. That edition has all of our summer camp information for youth. So if you have someone coming to visit or kids to sign up for camp, sign-ups have been going on all this week and it’s now open to the public. We do give an IVGID Picture Pass preferred registration date before the public can register. That’s good so you can ensure your spot for camp. That’s still going on, and I’ll put the link in the Chat for that as well.
As you know our driving range is open, weather depending. If it’s snowing, we’ll shut it down. I’m trying to get information from the Golf Course on where they’re posting that information so we can get all on the same page and not have people showing up at the golf course when the driving range is closed.
The other thing I want to mention is the Recreation Center locker-room remodel is starting. That is something that was voted on at the Board meeting. It’s this week starting on Monday. That’s really quick, but we think it’s a good time to do it before the summer to get some of the massive pieces of the puzzle in place. So if you have anything in a locker at the Rec Center, please remove it before Monday. That would be very helpful. Contractors will come in on Monday. We will create a web page on which to show progress on that project. Right now there’s just a little bit of information on our website on the Rec Center page. I’ll post the link for that as well.
One other thing to mention is that the community dog park information is also on our website, so I’ll put the link into the Chat for that. There’s really no update, but I want to let everyone know where the information is posted. I’m still working on the email blast software to keep you updated. We don’t really have an update yet. If Sara Schmitz is online, I’ll have her go through a report of the Board meeting discussion of Ordinance 7. Or maybe even Denise if you want to talk about Ordinance 7 since it’s near and dear to your heart. Any questions?
Ryan Sommers – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief
Good morning. Our chipping program begins May 9th. That’s all I’ve got unless you’ve got any questions. Don’t forget PulsePoint is up and running, so you can download that app and subscribe to NLTFPD on that.
Denise Davis
Yes, the PulsePoint app is available. It’s working. Joe Farrell will be with us next month to talk about that a bit. It has a variety of things included in it, so I urge you to download and check it out and play around with it. Then you’ll have questions for Joe when he’s here in May.
Helen Neff – Incline Village Resident
I would like to compliment Incline Village and Crystal Bay Community and Business Association for their quarterly publication Live Work Play. I brought a copy, which is available in print and on line. The subject of the cover story is the IVCB Justice Court. It’s an excellent explanation of the importance of the court in our community. Judge Tiras does a superb job of managing the court while presiding as the judge. And he treats everyone with incredible dignity. His rulings are thought out, balanced, and fair. Fortunately, I’ve never been a defendant there and hope to never be, but I was a victim in a traffic crash last year, and having the criminal case handled by our easily accessible local court with a local judge who—to quote Judge Tiras himself– “understands the community, the community standards, and the geography” helped immensely. In addition, the staff of the Court is always available to answer questions and provide assistance. I’m not sure that would happen if we had to go down to Reno for matters of justice. I just want to say I never thought I’d be a victim—most people on this call and in this room probably never think that and I certainly hope none of you ever are or I ever am again—
but, you never know. And if you are, believe me, you want a local court and a judge like Justice Tiras. So I just want to thank the IVCBA again for bringing this to the community’s attention. If you haven’t read the article, please read it. And if anything comes up in the future about our Court staying local, please support our Court. Thank you very much.
Linda Offerdahl – Incline Village Crystal Bay Community and Business Association Executive Director
I have a number of things and should probably have a list. I’ll start with the roundabout. Several months ago the original committee that put the roundabout together and put out the public art and sculptures came to IVCBA and asked us to take over maintenance and improvements on the roundabout. So we’re in process of forming a “roundabout beautification committee.” We have a short-term goal of making it look pretty for the summer season. One of our members, Incline Property Management (IPM), has offered to do the cleanup for free. So short term it’s to see what we can do to make it look pretty. A longer-term goal would be to see if we could get some irrigation out there. So we’re looking for volunteers, and let me know if anyone would like to be part of that committee.
Janet Pahl
I’ll announce it at the Board of Realtors meeting Tuesday morning. In the past a lot of the builders were on the cleanup team. So I’ll bring it up again.
Linda Offerdahl
And rather than getting a lot of old people out there again—sorry—IPM will do the professional cleanup. But we do need people to help put this committee together. Second, on Wednesday, the Washoe-Tahoe Community Collaborative Summit met at the Parasol Building. This was sponsored by IVCBA and Parasol. Our service providers, our educators, our family advocacy nonprofits, and our faith-based communities met with the County. Believe it or not, the County said they’ve never been invited up here. How would they be invited up here? There was nobody here to invite them. So we did. It was wonderful. They have prepared a resource guide for Washoe Tahoe that is in the process of being completed. But more importantly, this group of over 60 people looked at the issues, the complex issues facing our community that a single agency cannot resolve. The highlights were—no surprise—workforce housing, employees finding a place, which goes hand in hand with the housing, high gas prices, and communication. So parts of those groups will start meeting again. We’ll have some sort of a summit. We’re not sure we’re ready this year, but this was, I think, a historic meeting because we’re closing that gap with our government down in Washoe County. The WCSO was well represented. Captain Solferino was there and some of the field officers. So that sort of information will be good feedback for another group that met a week ago and that is the Washoe Tahoe Housing Partnership. This is a group that’s under the leadership of the Tahoe Prosperity Center. They are the group that did that big housing study last year. Now it is time for action plans. Again, the key partners—TRPA, Washoe County, IVGID, and major IVCB employers—all came together. Stay tuned. At this time I don’t have much more to report.
Lastly, on a more fun front, the 4th of July Local Heroes Weekend–we all know about the laser sky show, we know there’s going to be a parade, and now we’ve added a community faire and [inaudible] ball. We’re looking for volunteers. There’s a meeting on April 25th at Mountain WorkSpace, which is the building housing IVCBA.
Shirley Appel
Are we actually going to have a community faire on the green?
Linda Offerdahl
It’s sponsored by IVGID. It’s IVGID property. But the community businesses and non-profits, anybody can have a tent out there.
Shirley Appel
Do we know where the parade is going to be?
Linda Offerdahl
We do. The parade will start on Southwood where the IVGID administrative offices are. And right across is Incline Way. That’s where the parade will be staged. Then it will go across Village. It will go by the Bowling Alley. That’s where Kristin Miller will have her parade stand. Then it will go past the Middle School down to the Village Green. The family parade and bikes will all get off on the Village Green side. The rest of the parade goes into the Recreation Center parking lot where the WCSO will have their meet and greet. They will come and show off all their toys.
Shirley Appel
Is that at the College?
Linda Offerdahl
No we’re not going to the College. We’re ending at the Village Green. There will be stuff going on in that whole area. [inaudible] So the meeting is April 25, which is a Monday at 4pm in the Mountain Workspace for the parade and the community fair.
Ray Tulloch – Incline Village Resident, IVGID Audit Committee Member, Candidate for IVGID Trustee
I’ll address this question to you as well. Since you’re looking out for the [inaudible] some bigger “Yield” signs [inaudible]…. several times a day. It’s very interesting to see people accelerate to 40mph trying to cut me off in the middle of the roundabout.
Linda Offerdahl
You want a “Yield” sign coming into Incline from the west side?
Ray Tulloch
A very large “Yield” sign and one after that which says, “Yes, that means you.”
Linda Offerdahl
You mean on Mt. Rose highway as they’re approaching the roundabout?
Ray Tulloch
Coming in from the west side, from California. That seems to be the biggest problem.
[?]
They use it as a straightaway through the roundabout.
Linda Offerdahl
There were actually 2 lanes in the roundabout, because people didn’t get it.
Ray Tulloch
They still don’t.
Linda Offerdahl
I talk to NDOT people regularly, so I’ll put in a word. They don’t move fast.
Amanda McPhaill – Washoe County Library Librarian
[Inaudible] going on here during that first hour of our Summer Reading Program. We have our Explore magazines here on the countertop and in the room that lists all of our programs through May both here in Incline and all of our other branch locations. For those of you online you can find the “Explore” magazine at washoecountylibrary.us.
This week we had the Incline High School Advanced Placement (AP) art students’ artwork in the library. We held a reception for them a week or so ago. We had 6 talented AP art students. Those of you in the room can see some of their art. It’s in the meeting room here and throughout the library. There are ceramic mediums, acrylics, graphite on paper—so a lot of great stuff. Incline High School is doing great stuff in their art program. If it ever comes up that they need some support, I highly recommend you support them. The kids came and talked about their art –extremely eloquent speakers. These teenagers are amazing. If you know artists, you know a lot of emotion goes into the art. These kids explained how they created their art and the emotion behind it. We have great teenagers in this area. So I’m just going to prop them up for a second. Sometimes it seems like they get a lot of negativity. But we have some really good students here. So if you’re in the library, check out their art.
Denise Davis
We are joined today by our former County Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler. Apparently she has flunked retirement, and started working on a new project. She asked to speak to us today. So we’ll give you 5 minutes.
Marsha Berkbigler – Former Washoe County Commissioner, District 1
I want to talk about a water project that I’d like to title as “Be Prepared for Fire Season.” We have a super, super fire department here. You guys know that. But more water would be beneficial. Currently, what comes out of Lake Tahoe to provide all services to this area is a pipe that goes into Burnt Cedar and it’s 18 inches. The average size of a water pipe is 6 feet. The Oroville pipe that services homes and fire protection is 30 feet. There is a massive difference between that and our 18” pipe.
We actually have a second pipe here that comes out of the old Crystal Bay water site. And it’s ready to go except it needs to be reconnected, and maybe brought up to date a little bit. But the pipes are in the ground, so there’s no environmental problem to turn it on for a second source of water protection. Ryan, I know has talked to you guys about water protection, and I’m not saying in any way anything negative about this Fire District. It is outstanding and Ryan is doing a superb job. But one of their problems they have is their backup system is in California. Although it’s a great backup system, the truth of the matter is that’s where the fire will likely come from, and burn all of us if we don’t have enough water to protect us. So insufficient water for wildfires is of grave concern.
You saw what happened last year with the fire over on South Shore. I’m sure you saw what happened with the fire up in Greenville, which is up in the Susanville area in the mountains up there around Chester. I have friends who live in Yuba. Literally, the fire came through in 7 minutes and burned the entire town. Everything burned down. I have friends who owned a rustic upgraded hotel and a store downtown that sold jewelry, antiques, and all stuff like that. It’s all gone. It no longer exists. And here’s the problem. You can’t get insurance. Almost all residents are underinsured with few exceptions.
We who have been looking at this project have concerns about what happens if we have another fire and we don’t have a ready source of water to add to the source of water we already have.
We came forward with a proposal basically asking to allow us to put the money in to open up the Crystal Bay water site. We would pump Tahoe water out of it, put it in trucks, and take it down out of the area to be bottled. And it would be sold in the high-service bottled water area.
So there’s actually been some taste-testing done. And the water compares to the best of everything. It’s actually rated higher than Fiji, and some of those types of waters. This is not water you would get at Home Depot or places selling big cases. This would be a specialty water. But the advantage to the community is the people looking to put this together would pay all the costs associated with bringing that system up and running. And then it would be immediately turned over to the community if there were a fire where extra water was needed to ensure you were protecting everybody.
Additionally, as they sold the water, the company would give back a percentage of that water income. None of the details have been worked out, because they haven’t got that far down the road, so I don’t know what the percentage would be, but they’d give back some percentage of that water income to the community for purposes of putting in additional fire protection, doing additional clean breaks around the communities, whatever is needed as it relates to fire work. Truthfully, it could be for whatever is needed.
The nice thing about this would be a constant source of income to the community. Right now, they are doing a great job pulling grants. But as you know grants are usually issued for a limited time. You always have to reapply for them every year. They are not an ongoing continuous source. And what we’re talking about would be an ongoing continuous source of money that would be available to the community, and then having the water available too.
So basically that’s what we’re talking about. We’re looking for consistent funding, and something that will benefit Incline Village. It’s true that there have been a couple of questions that came up. Isn’t this commercializing our water? Yes, Tahoe water is already commercialized. Tahoe Blue Vodka is sold all over the country and in other parts of the world. I just bought some down in Mexico when I was there a while ago. There’s a beer company that makes beer here in Incline Village and sells the beer here and in Reno. So one of the things that someone said was, “Yes, we commercialize the water, but only for use in this community.” That isn’t true. It’s commercialized and sold everywhere. IVGID already has commercial use of Tahoe water. They sell water to the company that makes beer in Incline Village. They sell “grey-water” to a golf course and a ranch down on Highway 50. Even if it’s grey water it’s still Lake Tahoe water.
At this point, we would propose using 2 million gallons of water a month. It would be pumped out into trucks. That would be maybe 8-10 trucks a day. It would be pumped then go up over the mountain down to the California area. I don’t really know the number of the highways.
It really is a project that is extremely beneficial to this community for a lot of reasons. It was my idea to bring it to you guys because we heard there had been some negatives discussed about it and I suspect you’ve heard them also. But this is not about making money. By the way, I’m not getting paid to do this. It’s true I’m not very good at retiring. I’m so not good at retiring that I volunteer to do stuff. I am not getting paid to do this.
But this is a project … I have looked at this before to make sure we have extra water, more water out of Lake Tahoe to protect this community, because, frankly, this community is much too beautiful to leave it to the damage that happened to my dear friends in Greenville. This project was brought to my attention after I was a Commissioner and I did a lot of due diligence to see if it was workable, and I couldn’t find a downside to it. I’ll be happy to answer any questions any of you might have. But I put it out there for your consideration and your discussion.
Denise Davis
Chief Ryan, did you have any comments?
Ryan Sommers
So, Marsha I appreciate the kudos about the Fire Department. Obviously we’ve been working very hard to keep the community safe. But I have to be honest about questions on the water supply. If we have an emergency need for the Crystal Bay water pump, we can do that.
And the presentation to the IVGID Board caught me off guard. I was blindsided big time because of statements that were made there that we wouldn’t be able to survive a fire without your company. And that’s just simply not the case. I had a problem with that part of it. And then again I think it’s going to be an uphill battle for you to carry out this plan just with the negative comments you’ve heard. I can appreciate your time trying to keep this going. I believe the IVGID Board isn’t in favor of it currently, but Boards change. So I just want to go on record by saying that if we need that pump station to be in service we can do that on our own if need be. Everybody needs to keep in mind that—yeah, it might be a small intake pipe—but we’ve got millions and millions of gallons—I can get the figure from IVGID—in the storage tanks above all the communities. So there is a lot of water for Incline. Don’t forget we received an ISO rating of One—the best rating you can get from the Insurance Commission for our fire-fighting efforts, which included our current water supply.
Marsha Berkbigler
May I respond to him? [Yes.] It’s true they do a fabulous job and nobody is denying that. It is also true they could pay to open the Crystal Bay system back up. What we’re offering is free money to IVCB. You don’t have to pay for any of this and you get extra money. This is an opportunity for exporting something of great value. I don’t recall who made the statement—it certainly wasn’t me—who made the statement at the presentation that the community couldn’t survive without it. But I do know that someone met with Chief Ryan before, so he has been aware of the project – and even Chief Ryan said “More water is always an advantage in a wildfire.”
So the problem isn’t that we shouldn’t reopen that and make the water available or that it couldn’t happen. This is an outside company—they actually live here in Crystal Bay—this is a company offering you free money for additional water. How often do you get a representative of a company—or even an unpaid representative of a company—standing before you saying this is free money? So this is an opportunity for you to be pre-prepared and to have this other money. Yeah, there are issues. A lot of those issues would have to be worked out in the management contract with IVGID if it were to go forward. But just talking to IVGID –knowing this community as well as I do— seemed not right to me because I believe the citizens should be the ones to have the ability to go ask IVGID, “Why don’t we have extra money?”
Denise Davis
Chief Ryan, do you have any further comments?
Ryan Sommers
Yes, that statement is correct. I did say that more water is good for fighting a wildfire. There are a lot of different objectives and strategies for wild-land firefighting. I’ll leave it at that. And it’s true that I did meet with Mr. Disaya (sp). He met with me and told me about the company. I just listened. In no way did he ever say he would be using the name North Lake Tahoe Fire so many times in his business plan—which I just could not agree with.
Tia Rancourt – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Public Information Officer
Chief Sommers probably covered the chipping and defensible space starting on May 9th. I do have one more thing. A Blood Drive is coming up Friday May 6.
Denise Davis
Kari, do you have anything to say from IVGID about the water project?
Kari Ferguson
I did put some links in the Chat Box about our water, and current customers and businesses located in Incline. However, the effluent pipeline does flow to Carson City, and that’s where the grey water goes because we have nowhere to put it. I put information about that as well in the Chat. And currently IVGID trustees are not interested in going forward with this project as of the last meeting. Sara might have more information.
Denise Davis
Sara isn’t here today. She let me know last night she wouldn’t be able to make it today. I wouldn’t normally do this, but I have candidates who asked to speak, so I’ll temporarily suspend our discussion about the water project because I know some people have to leave at 10am. So we’ll come back to the water project. Apologies, but we just had a lot to talk about today. Our rule for candidates is that you’re allowed to speak for 3 minutes. I have my timer here. Please come up to the microphone so you can be heard. We have Yolanda and Ray to speak today, and David, I assume you want to speak. We’ll start with Yolanda.
Yolanda Knaak – Incline Village Resident, Candidate for IVGID Board of Trustees
I have set a platform and it’s basically I want to be a representative of the people, so if you have any ideas, you can come talk to me about them. I want to bring people together to solve the long-term problems that affect our environment. Right now it’s the effluent pipeline taking the wastewater or grey water from Sweetwater down to Carson City. That was leaking already several times this year. I want to make sure we upgrade and maintain local venues and infrastructure. Also I believe in transparency and consistent processes in fiscal reporting. I do have a website: electyolandaknaak.com. So let me know if you have any questions. Thank you very much [yolanda4IVGID@gmail.com].
Ray Tulloch
I’ll try not to run over my time. Thank you ladies and gentleman for taking the time to let me introduce myself and give a bit of my background. My wife and I have been full-time residents since 2007. The past 2 years I’ve been a member of the IVGID Audit Committee, and for the last year I was chair. My background—I spent 27 years in the utility industry, everything from operations to mergers and acquisitions. I started at the bottom and soon found myself a little bit further up the pole. I was fortunate enough to play a lot of different roles, probably because I was trying to find something I could actually do. I spent the last 20 years working as a consultant after forming my own company. We worked with various large firms such as Price Waterhouse, [ ?], and IBM. I kept going back to working by myself because I didn’t like bureaucracy in some of the big firms. To give you some examples of my professional work, a couple of years ago I did a Management Audit at the Hawaiian Electric Company on behalf of the Hawaiian Utilities Commission. As a result of that audit, we found a $25 billion savings. The company withdrew a $77 million yearly rate increase. They restructured their business according to my recommendations and changed the CEO. So overall that project was worth over $100 million a year for the customers in savings.
The question was asked, why am I running for the IVGID Board. I’ll be very clear. I’m running as a total Independent. I’ve already heard rumors that somehow I’m a Cliff Dobler lookalike, or I’m running for Mike Abel, or I’m trying to reduce the golf subsidies. None of these are true. But I’m very flattered that people are very concerned about me running. I’m running truly as an Independent. I want to represent all of the community. I believe for too long the community has been denominated by a few special interest groups. I’m not running to increase business for myself. I’m not running to increase development opportunities for my company. I’m running to try to keep IVGID sustainable and affordable for the community. I have a very simple message. My platform is transparency, accountability, and value. Relative to transparency, we need to make sure the numbers that are being shown—and what we’re being told is happening to our money —s actually happening. Having spent 2 years on the Audit Committee trying to clean up the financials, I’ve seen some of the different ways that things are done, and numbers are reported in different ways in successive years, so you cannot see any clear pattern. I want to make sure we’re making investments wisely, and they are properly considered. As far as accountability – [3 minute time limit reached]. I’ll come back next time…I apologize for taking up more time. Thank you for the opportunity. [ray@tulloch4ivgidtrustee.com; tulloch4ivgidtrustee.com]
Greg Juhl, MD – Candidate for State Assembly from District 26
Yes, I’m Dr. Greg Juhl running for NV State Assembly. As I said at the last meeting, I’m just here to listen and learn. Gregjuhl.com. Thank you.
David Noble – Incline Village Resident, Candidate for IVGID Trustee
I spoke at the last meeting. I’m just monitoring this meeting. If anyone needs to reach out, I can be contacted at noble4IVGID@gmail.com. Thank you.
Denise Davis
Thank you. All right. I don’t see any other candidates. You’re always welcome to stay and talk to residents after the meeting.
We will get back to our water project. I just re-watched the presentation that Marsha and Mr. Disaya gave on March 9th to the IVGID Board. Per Mr. Disaya’s project, he’s asking for a maximum of 2 million gallons per month, which is just under 74 acre-feet of water per year. He’d need to be asking to compensate somebody for those water rights. So that’s just one issue. My understanding is that they would take the water at the Crystal Bay station, load it into trucks, and that would be trucked out elsewhere to process and bottle. It would not get processed at the IVGID plant. It would just get loaded into the trucks and taken off for processing.
Marsha Berkbigler
It will be processed at the bottling plant because obviously it will have to be processed [inaudible]. There wouldn’t be a cost associated with IVGID [inaudible]. It’s just taking pure water right out of the lake.
Denise Davis
So it would not go through our facility. That’s just the groundwork. If anyone has any questions, we’ll get back to that.
Greg Juhl
You said 10 tanker trucks a day will go over the Mt. Rose pass [inaudible]?
Marsha Berkbigler
Eight to ten a day, yes. It would only be on Monday through Friday—no weekend or night trucks. It would be 8-10 tanker trucks a day. Those are the smaller tanker trucks because we’re not [inaudible]. It wouldn’t be that. It would be just regular tanker trucks.
Judy Miller – Incline Village Resident, IVCB Citizen Advisory Board Past Chairperson
I just want to know what roads you’d need to use to get from the lake to Highway 28.
Marsha Berkbigler
I believe it’s right where the pumping station comes up to the main road.
Judy Miller
I’m not sure where that is.
Marsha Berkbigler
[Inaudible] I believe it comes right up to Incline Village [inaudible]
Judy Miller
It’s by Gonowabie?
Marsha Berkbigler
No it’s one of the main highways it’s not that smaller road.
Judy Miller
Well it’s down by the lake [inaudible].
Marsha Berkbigler
Have you been to the site where the…[inaudible] it’s right directly behind the casino [inaudible]
Judy Miller
Over by the Fire Station?
Marsha Berkbigler
Over by the Fire Station. It’s not on Summer [inaudible] and not on Gonowabie. [inaudible] Right now where the water comes up… I’m sorry I’ve got the map in my head but…
Judy Miller
If you have one, just post the map.
Marsha Berkbigler
Yes we do have a map. The map is to scale out, so we’ll get it out to everybody.
Denise Davis
And just to recap, of the IVGID Trustees, 3 were not in favor of moving the project along, and 2 were willing to hear more about it but made no commitment yes or no. So 3 have said they’re not for it.
Ray Tulloch
[Inaudible] I was actually at the IVGID meeting where this was discussed. I think the unfortunate part from a marketing perspective, the disappointing part, was that the sponsor of the project spent so much time talking about the [inaudible]. I’ll be honest. It seemed like he was trying to create a feeling of [inaudible].
Marsha Berkbigler
That’s good feedback. Technically, at the meeting, Trustee Michaela Tonking wasn’t there so she didn’t vote one way or the other. Actually they didn’t take a vote.
Ray Tulloch
They didn’t take a vote.
Denise Davis
They just took a voice response. Michaela wasn’t there but at the next meeting it was announced that her opinion was that she was not interested in proceeding.
Ray Tulloch
[Inaudible] I think feedback comments were that the project developer discussed fire danger, which made the community feel threatened. [Inaudible.]
Ronda Tycer – Forum Recap Editor
I couldn’t hear what Ray was saying.
Denise Davis
He thought the project developer spent 95% of the time discussing the fire danger, which made the community feel threatened. He said had the Fire Department been consulted…
Ray Tulloch
Apologies. I’ll come to the microphone. I’m not accustomed to speaking into a mike during my rare excursions into politics and public comment. My concern, and I think the concern of most of the people I spoke to at the meeting, was very much that the focus was entirely on driving the fear-factor. The gentleman quite rightly pointed out that he’d been driven out of his home by wildfires in California. And the whole presentation was trying to plant community fears that, if we don’t do this, something terrible will happen. There was no reference to discussions with the Fire Department. I think it created unnecessary fear in residents as Chief Sommers also referred to. I think it would be much more appreciated by the community if the developer was a bit more up front with what the objectives were, rather than focusing on something that may or may not be a certain outcome.
Denise Davis
Any other questions for Marsha? Well, good luck with your project. If you want to come talk to us some more, feel free to do so.
Before we go, I want to remind everyone that the Post Office is still closing for lunchtime from 11 to noon daily. Staff shortages are taking their toll.
I just want to make another plug. There will soon be a Training Academy for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) through the Washoe County Sheriff department. They train you to be prepared for emergencies and situations—earthquakes, fires, small first-aid crises. So you can take the Academy training to be prepared for yourself. We also have a group in town working with WCSO and NLTFPD to take care of things in the community. If we have an event, we can help with that. We often help with traffic and parking at events. If you see us with our little yellow vests on that say CERT on the back, that’s us. There is an Academy coming up the last 2 weekends in April—a Thursday night and Friday night and all-day Saturday program. You do that for 2 weekends. There’s a lot of great information. You can do it so you just have the knowledge for yourself, or you can join our community team. We also help with things down in Reno and other places in the County. If this is of interest to you, please contact me by sending an email through the Forum email. I can send you more information.
It looks like it’s a rather quiet agenda for our Commissioners this Tuesday. They will be discussing budget. So it will probably be a 6-hour meeting instead of a 12-hour meeting. We did just have an IVIGD meeting on Wednesday night. Bruce Townsend and I are both on the Ordinance 7 committee. The committee put forth its recommendations to the Trustees. They will decide any changes to Ordinance 7 at their meeting in May. Also there is an IVGID Utility Rate study meeting coming up on April 27 at 6pm to set rates for our utilities. Since we haven’t had increases for the past few years, we’ll need some pretty steep increases to get caught up.
Kari Ferguson
I put the links in the Chat Box for the IVGID Board meeting and also the streaming video if you want to see what happened at the last meeting. Also I want to publicly say thanks to the CERT folks because they do help us at all of the IVGID events and we really appreciate it. It would be great to have some fresh blood on the CERT team to add to the people who are currently serving… who are awesome. So thank you CERT team!
Denise Davis
And a reminder, we are not meeting on the 5th Friday of this month. We are only meeting on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month.
And with that said I’ll wish everyone a Happy Passover, Happy Good Friday, Happy Easter, and Happy Federal Tax Deposit Day.
See you in 3 weeks…
CHAT BOX
09:26:03 From IVGID Communications : Youth Summer Camp info: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/parks-recreation/programs/day-camps
09:26:41 From IVGID Communications : Locker room info:
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/parks-recreation/rec-center
09:27:35 From IVGID Communications : Spring Golf info:
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/golf-shop-spring-hours
09:28:54 From IVGID Communications : Community Dog Park updates: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/resources/construction-updates/community-dog-park-project
09:30:27 From IVGID Communications : IVGID Quarterly: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/resources/ivgid-quarterly
09:32:50 From IVGID Communications : Ray: you can request this type of signage from Washoe County
09:37:47 From IVGID Communications to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : Sorry. I accidentally got off the meeting.
09:43:09 From IVGID Communications : Current water customers have businesses located in Incline.
09:45:58 From IVGID Communications : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/public-works/water/about-our-water
09:47:14 From IVGID Communications : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/public-works/sewer/about-our-sewer-system
09:48:17 From IVGID Communications : IVGID Board of Trustees is currently not interested in going forward with this project.
09:51:29 From Ryan iPhone XR : Thank you everyone. I have a 10am meeting so I have to log off.
09:52:30 From IVGID Communications : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/resources/construction-updates/effluent-pipeline-project
09:52:43 From IVGID Communications : Effluent Pipeline Project
09:58:05 From Washoe County Libraries : Ray Tulloch: tulloch4ivgidtrustee.com ray@tulloch4ivgidtrustee.com
09:58:42 From Washoe County Libraries : Yolanda Knaak: electyolandaknaak.com yolanda4ivgid@gmail.com
10:08:08 From IVGID Communications : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/board-of-trustees/meetings-and-agendas
10:08:27 From IVGID Communications : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/board-of-trustees/streaming-video
PARTICIPANTS
Amanda McPhaill
Bill Neff
Bruce Townsend
Chris Wood
David Noble
Denise Davis
Diane Becker
Greg Juhl
Heidi Johnson
Helen Neff
Jack Dalton
Janet Pahl
Joan Leutheuser
Jon & Beth Davidson
Joseph Colacurcio (Sergeant Cola)
Judy Miller
Kari Ferguson
Kristina Hill
Linda Offerdahl
Marsha Berkbigler
Mary Danahey
Ray Tulloch
Ronda Tycer
Rutter
Ryan Sommers (Chief Ryan)
Shirley Appel
Svata Trossen
Tia Rancourt
Yolanda Knaak