March 29, 2023, R-C Letters to the Editor

Bringing the MOST

Editor:

Perhaps the only benefit of the worsening staffing shortage at the Douglas County Sheriffs Office has been the opportunity for the Mobile Outreach Safety Team clinicians to ride along with deputies and sergeants over the past few months.

In the past, the team, formed in 2016 to increase outreach to community members experiencing a mental health crisis, has been a dedicated separate unit consisting of an assigned DCSO deputy or sergeant and a mental health clinician funded by either Rural Clinics or Partnership Douglas County.

While the team has been able to expand its days of operation from one to five days per week due to expanded state and federal support recognizing the need for this type of outreach, DCSO has had to adapt its commitment due to chronic minimum staffing.

Undaunted, Sheriff Dan Coverly has encouraged the MOST clinicians to ride along with regular patrol staff as they carry out their official duties, visiting with those MOST clients seen as highest risk as time permits.

This has allowed both clinicians and cops the opportunity to develop a closer working relationship, and to form a deeper appreciation for the interconnected work the two fields conduct with community members in need.

Over the past months, we clinicians have had the first-hand opportunity to observe the dedicated staff of DCSO, East Fork Fire, and Douglas County emergency dispatchers at their daily work.

We have seen deputies become hypothermic while standing in a blizzard directing traffic around vehicle wrecks, sometimes involving their own vehicles; deputies dealing with fatalities and families suffering loss of loved ones in a caring and sensitive manner; deputies interacting with persons suffering acute mental health crises using skills learned through specialized Crisis Intervention Training, sharpened by their own long practice dealing with such persons.

Do you know that DCSO has at least three sergeants who carry scars from gunshot wounds sustained in the line of duty while facing violent aggressors?

Did you know how many DCSO deputies also served previously in the U.S. Armed Forces, or other law enforcement agencies, bringing both talents and the emotional weight, to them and their families, of that service? Did you know that our DCSO staff continue to serve here in Douglas County despite being paid less than other law enforcement entities in surrounding jurisdictions?

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office deputies work hard, in conditions as dangerous and challenging as you can imagine. They deserve the most generous compensation package that Douglas County can afford to pay them.

If we can’t afford it under current funding mechanisms, then we must change those mechanisms. We need to retain these brave and dedicated public servants, and to be able to compete with surrounding jurisdictions to attract new talented individuals to join them. We need to compensate all our emergency service providers—deputies, dispatchers, and fire fighters and paramedics—so that they can afford to live and work here in our own community. We may find, one fateful day or night, that our very lives depended on it.

Lance Crowley

David Kale

MOST Team Clinicians

Airport management changes

Editor:

My company is one of more than 20 aviation businesses at Minden-Tahoe Airport.

I have been on the airport for 18 years. In those early years there were a lot of safety concerns. ABS did a lot of things to improve safety and they kept working on that every day.

With ABS departing in May, I am concerned that rules and regulations at the Minden Tahoe airport will continue to not be followed.

Minden airport has more than the usual mix of aircraft types which makes me concerned.

• Will the new airport management be able to deal with all the different flight activities?

• Will the new management have experience running airports like Minden?

• Will the new management know anything about airport business like the ones on the airport?

• Will the new company be able to bring in all the extra events that the community enjoys and that help our businesses?

• Will the new management be able to work with the FAA to continue to receive Federal grants that are critical to airport maintenance and operations?

I have not always agreed with decisions made by ABS management, but I always knew I could meet with them, without an appointment and discuss my concerns.

I know there is a small group that continues to complain about how ABS ran their operations, but it also seems that this group is only interested in their agenda and doesn’t seem to be unified with other airport business/tenants.

Those individuals are making a lot of noise while the rest of us are just running our businesses and concerned that the future of the airport is in jeopardy.

Alan T. Gangwish

Hutt Aviation

Minden

Troubled by vaccine bill

Editor:

As the parent of a young child in this community, I am deeply troubled by a bill that is currently being considered by the Nevada State Senate. SB172 seeks to allow ALL minor children to consent to certain medicines, vaccines and medical procedures without their parent’s consent or knowledge.

This bill relates primarily to STD and pregnancy prevention and contains no minimum age for consent. If passed, SB172 would expand the of list potentially dangerous medications and medical procedures that children could give their express consent to.

All drugs, even those approved by the FDA, come with some risk and as a parent it is my job to determine whether or not a drug or medical intervention makes sense for my child after carefully assessing the benefits and the risks associated with it.

In partnership with your family physician, it is you, the parent that knows your own child’s medical history best and who can make the best informed medical decision on their behalf.

Every local parent with whom I have spoken about this bill is surprised that this is even being considered, yet most of them were not aware of it until I mentioned it.

If this concerns you as a citizen of Nevada or as a parent or a grandparent, please take the time to learn about this proposed bill and let your state senator know how you feel about it.

There are several nonprofit and grass roots parental rights and health freedom organizations, including HealthFreedomNevada.com who are working to get this bill withdrawn.

They have active campaigns against SB172, which include easy ways for citizens and constituents of the elected legislators to make their voices heard.

Katrin DeBacker

Gardnerville