Letters to the Editor

Beautiful inside and out

Editor:

Regarding the local ladies that donated their hair to Locks of Love on Tuesday: Bravo, girls! You all look beautiful.

Martin Wallace

Gardnerville



Wilderness proposal alarming

Editor:

Wellington's Phil Tucker is correct in being alarmed about the proposed land bills being presented by Sens. Reid and Ensign that will tie up hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties as congressionally designated "wilderness areas." Few, if any, of these lands meet the test of the criteria established by Congress in 1964 and most of them were rejected by both the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service as not being acceptable for wilderness area designation.

For years now Nevada's congressional delegation, primarily Reid and Ensign, have been riding through the rural counties of Nevada (read: the least populated and least able to defend themselves) passing these federal land bills that purport to be beneficial to the respective counties when the true reason for the bills has either been to designate massive amounts of land as wilderness areas or to rob the counties of water for Las Vegas.

Now Congressman Dean Heller has jumped on the bandwagon that goes through our smallest communities touting their plans they tell us will "help" us po' folk.

It is insulting that these legislators think that Nevadans living in the rural sectors of the state are so stupid they can't see through this thinly veiled plan of theirs. Contrary to what they must believe, we do read the newspapers and we do have contact with our sister counties that have already endured these types of land grabs.

Be wary, Nevada! The next county they come after may be yours. Check out www.wildnevada.org. (They already have portions of Washoe, Pershing and Churchill counties slated for future actions.)

Sue Silver

Hawthorne



Wilderness designation will reduce access

Editor:

This is an open letter to Sens. John Ensign, Harry Reid, Mike McGinness, Congressman Dean Heller, Assemblymen James Settelmeyer, Tom Grady and U.S. Forest Service personnel:

We, The Smith Valley Park and Recreation Board Members and Friends of Dressler Park, are writing to express our concern with respect to the Lyon/Mineral county lands bill, as well as the Esmeralda County wilderness issue, that is being supported by lobbists for the Nevada Wilderness Project. Our concern is that if this bill should become law, vast amounts of public land in Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties will be designated wilderness areas.

A wilderness designation will almost terminate public recreational access to fishing, equestrian activities, camping, hunting, off-roading, wood cutting, bird watching and make livestock usage so difficult as to be, for all intents and purposes, impossible.

We fear that our families and our children will not ever be able to enjoy the wonders of discovering the beautiful country that first drew us to the area.

A large amount of our local population is a retirement community who will also have to say goodbye to enjoying our spectacular surrounding mountains because they are not physically capable to walk and or hike into the areas they are so accustomed to enjoying. The financial losses to individual businesses, ultimately, to Nevada counties,will be devastating.

We understand that you may be in support of this legislation in the Senate. We hope that you realize that the Nevada Wilderness Project has made no effort to contact the community members that this proposal will affect or the park and recreation board on this issue.

We are concerned with the fact that the Nevada Wilderness Project had no local community members on their board. In fact, it consists of members from outside of our community, three members from Las Vegas; one from Reno; one from Huntington Beach, Calif.; one from Durango, Colo.; and one from Incline village who has lived there less than four years.

We, the board members and local residents, request your assistance in opposing this ill-advised legislation.

Jerry Rosse, Chairman

and The Smith Valley Park and Board Members, Parks & Recreation and Friends of Dressler Park

Wellington



A small start

Editor:

I saw the picture on the front page of the March 12 edition of The R-C and couldn't help but notice what a nice building Piñon Aero is going to build. However, what really caught my mind and probably the minds of most Carson Valley residents was that little plane that the artist included flying above the building. Now, imagine that being a jet, multiply that one by many more, enough to fill approximately 100 hangers, some of which could accommodate 737s, and you start to get the picture of what our beautiful valley is in for in the future.

Piñon Aero states in the article that, "Our interest is in responding to the local market and we will do that." When has our local market ever warranted that many hangers? The article goes on with another statement that, "Providing hangers for Silicon Valley companies is not the primary thrust for development of Piñon Aero." Also, "We have no interest in creating a mammoth jet center and we aren't interested in promoting one group of aviators over another." It seems 100 hangers would make a "mammoth jet center." However, much has been said about the Silicon Valley owners of planes being able to "park" their jets at our airport thus saving them big California tax dollars. In order to lessen the pain of jet noise, pollution and the chance of jets crashing into our homes, maybe the citizen owners of Douglas County's Minden-Tahoe Airport should require a very hefty tax to benefit our county. In reality, the best case scenario would be for this project to just go away.

It really amazes me that there are people living here who want to see this Valley become like so many other areas that have given up so much for so little. Our quality of life as we now know it is at stake. Homes for sale stay that way for longer and longer periods of time. When the housing market finally picks up, how many people will want to relocate here when they learn of higher air traffic in this area? I doubt very seriously that the pilots and/or owners who fly these planes will be the ones who will be buying homes that are for sale here. Hence, the market will stay stagnant and home values will stay down.

This project was shrouded in secrecy by a few in authority and the people of Douglas County were not given a chance to question it in its infancy. How sad for all of us.

Kerry Partridge

Minden



Not all that free

Editor:

In regards to your opinon entitled, "Constitution, free market set path" I wish to agree with you as I believe in a free enterprise system. I however believe parties engaging in a free enterprise system need to follow the same governmental rules and regulations which might be applied to others.

Why has Piñon Aero Center been excluded from the airport master plan? This project, which is intended to take five to seven years to complete, certainly has to be playing an important part in the airport operations.

Why does it seem the project has taken steps to circumvent the need for an enviromental study when Mr. Field has stated Piñon Aero has a philosophy of being a good neighbor in Carson Valley.

Why is it that after a series of "boom" years the decision has been made to go forward in a downward economy in the Valley? The market certainly existed when the county was erecting the T hangers. They were all leased/rented before they were completed.

It seems odd that Piñon Aero has a different view of the market place than an associate of an airport master plan consulting firm with 28 years experience, but that is their opinion and they are entitled to it.

Let's keep in mind that in a free enterprise you have the opportunity to succeed and to fail.

Let's hope the successful future of PIñon Aero does not depend on having the airport or county making special concessions to, or for, them.

Sanford E. Deyo

Minden



DeVore best one for judge

Editor:

Ed and I have known and respected Judge Dave DeVore for the last 10 years. After reading last week's article concerning the upcoming judicial election in Alpine County we felt we wanted to add additional information.

As a judge, he always puts public safety first, and has the life wisdom to make tough decisions when necessary. Dave has an impressive background of 36 years of continual legal work in both the public defenders office and in the district attorney's office at South Lake Tahoe. He was in private practice at Lake Tahoe for over 20 years.

He arrived in 1976, not 1996 like your article stated. He was the first Tahoe attorney to be ranked highest for ethics, integrity, and legal skills by his professional organization. Judge DeVore stands for the community: He works full time and expects his staff to do the same. He has the endorsement of Alpine County Sheriff Johnny Crawford and over 20 respected judges in the surrounding counties. We wish him success in this upcoming election.

Sara and Ed Groenendyke

Foothills



We will be forever grateful

EDITOR:

Thank you so much to everyone who helped bring the ice cream social fundraiser to life. From the baking, decorating, donating - to even smiling, thank you for all of your help. I've come to realize that there is always someone out there who cares. I'm just one of the lucky ones, for I had hundreds of people who wanted to help make my life a little bit easier. You all mean so much to me, and I can't thank you enough. You'll never be forgotten.

Cecilia Ristau

Gardnerville Ranchos



EDITOR:

We were so amazed and humbled by the amount of support we received from the entire community, plus our family and friends for Cecilia's ice cream social. The money raised will help us out immensely. Going to the mailbox isn't quite as terrifying now. We can't thank everyone enough who organized, volunteered and donated. We will be forever grateful.

Carolyn and Guido Landolt

Gardnerville Ranchos