IV/CB Community Forum Minutes

September 16, 2022

Denise Davis – Forum Moderator

We don’t have any power at the Library so unless it comes on by 9:30, we have to end at that time. We can barely hear you guys online.

Kathie Julian – Incline Village Resident, Board of Adjustment Member

Hi, Denise. I’m driving up from Los Angeles, can you hear me? [Yes] Well I can hear you guys just fine.

Tia Rancourt – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Information Officer

Hello everyone. I think Chief Sommers is going to talk about the Mosquito Fire. I personally don’t have anything. We’re getting ready for all our school programs for the year. We’re monitoring the fire and pushing out notifications on our social media platforms, as I’m sure you guys have seen. The Chief has been attending the briefings on the fire. That’s all I have at the moment.

Denise Davis

I see “Ryan’s I Phone on Zoom. Is that you Chief?

Ryan Sommers – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief

Yes, everything that Tia stated is correct. We’re keeping an eye on the Mosquito Fire. It’s not a threat to the Basin at this time. The smoke is obviously a different story that we all have to deal with. We’re definitely keeping an eye on it. We’ve got a couple of crews out right now but everybody else is home.

Denise Davis

Thanks, Chief. Does anybody have a quick question for the Chief? Does anyone know why the power is out? [no response] All right. We’re going to carry on. Sergeant Cola, did you have anything to announce?

Joseph Colacurcio – Washoe County Sheriff Office Sergeant

No current announcements at this time. We’re obviously just watching and being in touch with the Fire Department talking about the Mosquito Fire and all that. If you guys have any questions, please pay attention to our social media and we’ll keep you guys updated.

Denise Davis

Pamela, I see you online. Did you want to say anything?

Pamela Straley – Incline Village Resident

Good morning, everybody. I usually don’t show up physically at this meeting. I just want to bring up the issue of the importance of regulating e-bikes, especially on bike trails. I was taken out on a bike trail by an e-bike head-on while riding my own bike between Alpine Meadows and Tahoe City on the bike path. I’ve got 10 fractures, my left arm hangs loose—I can’t move it. I have a broken hip. I’m a wreck. I want you to be aware that there are no regulations. You cannot stop e-bikes from going anywhere they want to go, wherever they want to go including into the backcountry where they’re tearing it up. I was with my husband. He called the ambulance. Caltrans would not respond because it was on the bike path, not on the highway 20 feet away. A Fire Department finally sent out an ambulance for me, and the guy that hit me. I blacked out for over 20 minutes, so I don’t remember any of it. I have a very deep wound in my arm that went down to the bone that was bleeding quite a bit. All the paramedics that came with the ambulance came to me, except one who went to the other guy who did not black out or lose consciousness. The point is… I would call this a catastrophic injury. Caltrans wouldn’t respond. Placer County Sheriff Office would not respond. No officer came, so we have no incident report. I don’t know anything about the guy who hit me. To find out what happened, we have to hire a lawyer. This is ridiculous. We need regulations for these motorcycles that are on bike paths. This was a single track. It’s one lane—single file on each side. You probably already know this is quite narrow. There should not be any e-bikes on that trail. This was a big one with a throttle and everything. So my point is e-bikes need to be regulated. Thank you.

Kathie Julian

Denise, can I add to this as an advocate for Pam? We need our community to write and speak with Alexis Hill and make sure she is able to get the Washoe County staff to take these e-bike regulations seriously. I’ve heard the staff seems to think of this as a nuisance, not as a safety issue. This needs to be brought to Alexis Hill’s attention, and to the other commissioners’ attention so we can get some proper regulation of these e-bikes on our multi use paths in Incline Village. While this happened in California, it could very well happen here in Incline. Thank you.

Denise Davis

Thanks, Kathie. Our folks here at the library can’t see because we don’t have power and no visuals. But for the folks here at the library, Pamela is wearing a neck-brace and has other things going on. 

Pamela Straley

It’s a thoracic brace all the way down to the bottom of my rib cage. I can barely walk with a broken hip. But I can walk.

Denise Davis

Well, we’re happy to see you and we’re not happy to see the condition you’re in. We had heard about your accident, and had been getting the word out about the hazards of e-bikes. So we’re happy to see you. We’re not happy to see how injured you are. We will continue to bring this to the attention of everyone and try to get progress made on it.

Pamela Straley

Thank you so much. I just wanted to bring the issue to a head again.

Denise Davis

I’m told that Linda would like to make an announcement. [pause] I’m sorry to those of you online. We had to move to a different room because of technical issues.

Linda Offerdahl – Incline Village Resident, Incline Village Crystal Bay Community and Business Association Executive Director

I’m holding this microphone in my hand. I have a couple of announcements. If you were going to the Tahoe Forum today at UNR-Lake Tahoe, it has now been moved down to Nightingale Hall on campus in Reno. Fortunately, they have such a venue, because we cannot hold it here today. This is the Richard Branson and Guy Harvey presentation. It’s our legacy from Nancy Siebens-Binz and the former Sierra Nevada College.

The second announcement is there’s probably a cancellation this weekend of the Incline Hospital Auxiliary golf tournament or the Kids in Horses thing. But let me just point out that they still need our support even if they can’t have their fundraisers. IVCBA has an artist reception for Joann Lippert. She used to live here off Tyner. She with her husband Bill have a business called Wildlife Encounters. They take those adventure photographs of lions and elephants and other creatures in the wild, which you wish you would have if you went on one of those trips. They’re just amazing. So the entire building of Mountain Workspace is filled with their art. That office is open from 9-5. But the reception is Thursday September 22 at 4:30.

We are partnering with the Incline Village Crystal Bay Community Forum to put on an IVGID candidate town hall. So IVCBA’s platform is called “Inclined to meet.” We are helping the City of Incline Village, Todd Lowe and Kevin Lyons to come make a presentation to the public. It’s at the Chateau at 6pm on Tuesday September 27.  We’re really excited about this community platform and partnering with the Community Forum because I believe we should have more community meetings for discussion on timely topics.

Then I have an announcement about the Washoe Tahoe Housing Partnership. They have reconvened. They’ve hired consultants to move forward with action plans. Those of you who know me well know that I am not a bureaucrat. But in order to make things happen at higher levels within the County and within TRPA, it takes that regional organization. And I apologize that it is slow-moving. I hope to have actual action plans to share with you in the next couple of months.

Denise Davis

Thanks, Linda. In the interest of time, I’m going to zip through the things I know about, starting off with road construction. Road construction is back on Mt. Rose highway. The paving occurs from Sunday at 8pm through Saturday at 5pm through the month of September. I do know that people are getting stuck, so add extra time if you’re headed over Mt. Rose. That will go on through September weather permitting.

Our Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) academy begins October 13th. You can find out more information on line. Please join us. We’re a small but busy group.

We have a lot of links to things that are going on relative to the Mosquito Fire. There’s also the Air Now “Fire and Air Quality” map available on line. There are several air quality locations online. But I do have a URL for that. There is a Mosquito Fire relief fund, which is held at the Placer Community Foundation. If you want to contribute, contact the Parasol Foundation.

IVGID has a lot of venue closures and modified operations listed on their homepage on their website. Please check that before you’re headed out for any activity. Also, they have a lot of links to fire information on that same page.

TRPA has fire info. Also, in regard to TRPA I found an important update that they have. It’s called Tahoe in Brief. It gives a lot of upcoming meetings and kind of where TRPA is headed. So I urge you to look into that. TRPA did have a meeting on the 14th of the Advisory Planning Commission. They had an aquatic invasive species update and they also discussed public-safety facilities, which are mostly piers for Sheriff and Fire boats. That’s an ongoing process. They just gave an update on it.

The Board of Washoe County Commissioners will meet on September 20.

Our battery is running low on the computer, so we may be falling off soon. 

The TTD has a special meeting today at 10am. If you have power, you may want to tune in.

As Linda mentioned, on September 27 IVCBA is sponsoring a meeting with Todd Lowe about the City of Incline.

[23:14 POWER FAILS AND THE RECORDING ENDS]

Cliff Dobler – Incline Village Resident, IVGID Audit Committee Past Member

On Wednesday, the Board of Trustees missed a golden opportunity to construct a much-needed multiuse gym at the Recreation Center. The gym was a major planned addition based on the 2018 Master Plan.

In January, David and Cheryl Duffield delivered an indication of interest to provide a grant to construct a multi use gym, a gymnastics room, a youth center, and other items at the Recreation Center. No dollar amount was ever provided.

In February, IVGID entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Duffields.

In April, IVGID proceeded forward with concept designs. The initial design estimated cost was almost $30 million.

In June, contracts of over $2 million were issued to proceed with 100% design based on the original intent of the Duffields.

Sometime between June and last Wednesday, a design was completed, which eliminated the much-needed multi use gym in order to bring costs down to $25 million, which was a limit set by the Duffields. The Board of Trustees was never informed of this reduction and further was never given an opportunity to contribute the extra $5 million to complete the gym. All negotiations were conducted by Indra Winquest alone. And we will never know what occurred in the back room.

On Wednesday, the plan without the gym was portrayed as a “take-it-or-leave-it” proposition, and the Board voted 4 to 1 to take it.

The District has been holding over $14 million in excess funds, over and above Board policy, generated by the success of Diamond Peak over the past 6 years.

Along with Trustee Schmitz, I feel it was essential that the Board should have had a discussion with the Duffields for IVGID to contribute the necessary funds to complete the gym.

Now we will not obtain economies-of-scale for the much-needed gym. And if and when constructed, the costs based on the Master Plan design will be somewhere between $7 and $10 million. We believe that a golden opportunity was missed and this Board failed to properly engage the Duffields.

I do appreciate the Duffields’ grant. IVGID will not receive a gymnastics gym and youth center. I wish everyone involved success in completing the project.

Denise Davis

General Manager Indra Winquest is here. Do you have anything to add?

Indra Winquest – Incline Village General Improvement District General Manager

No, I won’t respond to Cliff’s input other than to say it was not completely accurate.

Tia Rancourt

I encourage everyone to sign up for Code Red.

Joe Farrell

How do we do that?

Tia Rancourt

I’ll put that in the Chat Box. Every County has a different platform. It will be on the Washoe County Emergency Management site.

[MEETING ENDED AT 9:30 DUE TO LACK OF POWER]

Participants

Amy Cummings

Andrew Whyman

Barbara Whyman

Carolyn Usinger

Cliff Dobler

Corey Solferino

Denise Davis

Doug Flaherty

Edie Farrell

Greg Juhl

Heather Segale

Helen Neff

Jack Dalton

Joe Farrell

John Crockett

Joseph Colacurcio

Judith Simon

Kathie Julian

Linda Offerdahl

Miranda Jacobson

Naseem Moeel

Natalie Villegas

Pam Straley

Ray Tulloch

Ronda Tycer

Ryan Sommers

Sara Schmitz

Sherry Butler

Shirley Appel

Steve Dolan

Steve Price

Tia Rancourt

Yolanda Knaak

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