Farewell, and thanks to Valley's old guard

Carson Valley will say farewell to more than a century of experience in the operation of its boards and districts this month as term limits take effect.

The most famous case in the Valley is that of the Minden Town Board, which term-limited out to a man, the first time we've ever heard of that happening in the state.

But there are several others who will be saying farewell this month, including longtime Gardnerville Town Board member Tom Cook, School Board member Keith Roman, Minden-Gardnerville Sanitation District's Jerome Etchegoyhen, Gardnerville Ranchos General Improvement District's Al Wagner and several others.

Term limits hit in Nevada for members of legislative boards in 2008. They were approved by voters in 1994 and 1996, when people thought they might actually apply to federal officials. Of course they didn't, so the closest we could come was limiting terms of legislators and of the variety of boards, like Minden, or Gardnerville or Genoa.

The problem is that those boards rely on both the technical know-how of the staff and the experience of their members.

There are many arguments for term limits, but we think the folks serving on the small districts are arguments against.

Godspeed and good luck to those folks who've dedicated so much to serving this community.