The finishing touches on Gardnerville Station include paving the parking lot and landscaping the site. Completion of the project marks a dozen years since the Town of Gardnerville acquired the former Eagle Gas in 2013.
In stark contrast to last year, one of the biggest paving projects in Gardnerville this year will be the parking lot of Gardnerville Station in the S-Curve.
Bids to finish the parking lot and landscaping at Gardnerville Station are in progress, Town Manager Erik Nilssen told county commissioners at their final budget hearing on May 27.
The engineer’s estimate for the work is $479,706, according to a request for bids appearing in today’s legals for The Record-Courier.
The deadline for bidders to pave, landscape and pour concrete at the site is June 23, when bids will be publicly read.
Work on the station cannot start until Aug. 25 and must be done by Oct. 10, according to the bid.
Work on the station has been ongoing since it was taken over by the county after it couldn’t be sold at auction and was transferred to the town a dozen years ago. When the town took over the site, then Town Manager Tom Dallaire said he would seek grants to help pay for its renovation.
More than $500,000 was awarded by 2018, with the project being the single largest draw from Community Development Block Grants funding in the county in the late teens.
The site has been some sort of service station since at least the 1920s.
It serves as a meeting space for Main Street Gardnerville, but what’s more important lies under the parking lot. A retention basin, piping and a pump will reduce flood waters in the S curve allowing them to flow into Martin Slough.
Gardnerville is an unincorporated town with its own tax rate and elected board that is advisory to the county commissioners.
Nilssen told Douglas County commissioners on Tuesday that the town’s general fund revenue will exceed $2.1 million for the first time during the 2025-26 fiscal year that starts July 1. Of that $1.66 million comes from property tax and $402,032 mostly from sales taxes. The town operates a trash service that is expected to raise $2 million but was running at a $70,936 deficit during 2024-25.