Letters to the Editor

Minden profiting from water rights

Editor:

A "gunslinger" is being sought in a water fight to defend water "pirating." The Town of Minden was provided the water rights as a public steward. They claimed water in areas well beyond their town limits, beyond their utility service area, beyond their pipes or plans and beyond their ability to manage the groundwater basin. They have misused the proceeds from selling this public trust; profiteering.

Subsidizing trash removal for the few Minden town residents instead of cleaning up the contamination and managing the groundwater as responsible stewards of this critical resource exposes the myopic perspective of the political bunch. Now to invoke the old West idiom reflects their greed, not an ethical high road demanded in governments of the 21st century.

The water is a public resource to be used for public purposes, not paying the trash bills for an elite few. Had they developed and managed the resource responsibly instead of squabbling over control, maybe the challenge by the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe would be moot.

Mitch Dion

Gardnerville

Business tax stinks

Editor:

Please forgive this message, disguised as a letter to the editor. It is really a critical message to the people, especially the voters, of Douglas County.

County staff is currently drafting an ordinance, at the direction of our county commissioners, to implement a new business tax, under the threat of having to cut services.

Never mind that county government gave away millions of dollars, in future tax revenues, to a commercial developer in north county. Never mind they just committed to over $800,000 to purchase a building they can't even occupy for two years.

They say the tax will provide for a $600,000 short fall in the budget. But wait just a darn minute. How can they give away $20-plus million, then purchase a building for over $800,000, if they are short $600,000?

Does the county commission need a paid trip to Oz? Perhaps they could all then receive a brain, except Commissioner Brady. He seems to understand you can't add taxes to fuel largess.

Pass this message along to your neighbors, friends and co-workers.

Every single person residing in Douglas County will be negatively impacted by this new tax. Everything you buy, every service you receive will cost more, just when the economy is encroaching upon recession. This is not the time to be spending like a drunken sailor. It is time for fiscal responsibility.

If you allow this new tax to go through, you are to blame for higher housing, higher food, clothing, medical supplies, utilities, yes even gasoline.

Absolutely everything you pay for will increase. Are you in a position to pay more for just living in Douglas County?

An earlier letter pointed out, the county doesn't know how many businesses there are, how many employees they have, how much money the tax will provide, nor even how much it will cost to enforce this new tax. They just want more money.

Do we need to protest at the county seat, sign a petition to get the county manager dismissed, or can we simply call our commissioners and tell them we can't afford to give away tax revenue, buy buildings we can't afford or occupy, then add new taxes to increase our cost of living? Call those commissioners today at 782-9821.

The wool they are pulling over your eyes is coming from the hind end of the sheep. It stinks.

Rick Campbell

Gardnerville

Manage budget cuts for business

Editor:

Ms. Lucey complains that an 8-percent budget cut will force closure of all WNC campuses except two. That does sound like an astounding negative impact to the school system. Mr. Kale says 679 students, out of 1,500, will have to go elsewhere. That's a tad over 45 percent. I'm sure there's some very logical explanation for these disparities, but the crux of it seems to be that both respondents are clawing their way toward public support for not allowing a cut in "their" budget.

Over the last several years, budgets have been approved without cuts. Unless school administrators are different than the norm, considerable bloat now exists in the system. Why don't these folks let us know what fine managers they are by suggesting they will explore every avenue in their system in order to survive within the requested budget cuts and still maintain the quantity and quality of their responsibilities. That's the way it would be in the private sector.

Kudos to Governor Gibbons for sticking with his "no new taxes" pledge. We are well past time for a tightening of the budget and living within our income.

And, while we're on the subject of reduced spending, rather than just raising taxes, it's time for our county board of commissioners to get on board as well. They should act like a true "Board of Directors," telling the county chief executive officer to get his act together and determine where reasonable cuts can be made. Putting it to the business community is, in the final analysis, putting some out of business and allowing the rest to pass it on the increases to you and me. And we voted "No" the last time Douglas County tried to do this to us.

Dick Young

Gardnerville

Officials need

to find savings

Editor:

These last several weeks our governor's attempt at budget control is being pilloried by vested groups in Nevada - university educators, state bureaucrats and some media folks. Why is this happening?

It seems our new governor is behaving in an unusual way for a recently elected politician. He actually is trying to keep an election promise - No new taxes.

The Dec. 12 R-C edition has two articles about how 679 Nevada citizens won't get a chance to gain more knowledge because the Governor's actions. Sadly this cynical negotiating ploy is typical for entrenched ivory-tower bureaucrats. Closing the Douglas campus would save $84,000 next year. How about dumping one university athletic director and save a salary in excess of $250,000. Or maybe there are some classes that could be eliminated, e.g. - "The Culture of Pizza."

I understand that the university system received an increase of 13 percent and now Gov. Gibbons is asking for 8 percent to be returned. So a 5 percent increase is generating the flood of alligator tears. Chancellor Rogers and his university cronies need a reality check.

Bill Broquist

Carson Valley

Leadership builds community

Editor:

I am Samantha Phillips from Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School. I am in the leadership program this year. We are a group that is trying to build our school into a better community this year. We are trying to get everyone involved with their classmates inside and outside of school. Our school is all about highlighting good character using our traits respect, trustworthiness, caring, citizenship, fairness and responsibility. We are going to be putting on activities and other fun events throughout this year to highlight these traits.

I am here to tell you about the activities we have already put on. We have put on one dance, the Luau Out, and we have another dance, Dec. 30, the Ballroom Blitz.

We participated in the canned food drive, the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. Also, we put on a custodian appreciation, where we helped the custodians clean our school.

We also put on "Friday Night," during tutoring in the cafeteria and we invited all students to come out and watch a movie with us, as well as putting on small activities at school like the character event and other small activities or just free time for the last 15 minutes of school. All of these have been a good success so far.

We will be putting on so many great events of activities this year we plan to make our school the best community possible. We hope you all support our choices to achieve our goals and get your friends of family involved in their school or in ours if they go to Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School.

Samantha Phillips

Gardnerville Ranchos