Three urban planners from the Project for Public Spaces wrapped up a three-day fact-finding trip of Churchill County and Fallon this week in an effort to inventory and assess local gathering spots and points of interest around town.

This is the second trip for the PPS team, a non-profit organization that helps cities create and cultivate public places to enhance a sense of community.

Phil Myrick, vice president of PPS, and Elena Madison, assistant vice president, presented a list of sites they felt could be better utilized in Fallon. The team, which also included farmers market expert David O'Neil, toured downtown and the county and polled local residents on needed changes or additions to bring people together and to the downtown area.

Local sites that topped their list of places mentioned by locals to capitalize on included the Carson River, area nature trails, Rattlesnake Hill, Indian Lakes, Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge, Lake Lahontan, Soda Lake, Grimes Point, Sand Mountain, Fallon Naval Air Station, Top Gun Raceway and Churchill Vineyards.

Access to the river was discussed with the steering committee Thursday afternoon, which was a small crowd consisting of Eric Grimes and Frank Woodliff from the Fallon Chamber of Commerce and Paula Keep-Hanger from the Churchill Economic Development Authority.

The PPS group shared ideas they received from local residents about how to ramp up activity at Rattlesnake Hill and Lake Lahontan.

"Fallon is a regional hub for all kinds of outdoor activity," Madison said. She and Myrick proposed an idea of providing visitors an inclusive map to area attractions.

The topic of agri-tourism was brought up, but the group noted a lack of manpower to coordinate the tours as an obstacle to overcome.

Woodliff suggested a tour that incorporated drag races, ranch tours and the Cantaloupe Festival to draw overnight visitors to Fallon.

He also suggested a motorsports week in Fallon with a car show downtown in conjunction with the drag races and Rattlesnake Raceway.

"This region has a lot of gear nuts," he said.

In the downtown area, the PPS team proposed establishing two strong anchors where gathering places, like plazas, could be established to bring residents together. The group suggested using Millennium Park as the first anchor and either the old Kent's grocery store on the corner of Center and Maine streets or the library as the second anchor site.

"Libraries can be really great partners for public spaces," Myrick said. "They're strong anchors and are pretty visible."

The group visited the Fallon Farmers Market Tuesday evening, and a merchants breakfast was held Wednesday morning at the Frazzini Building. They also took a short mule-wagon tour of the V-Line Canal and met with Ernie Schank, president of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, who explained the history of the irrigation project and the limitations of using canals alongside private property.

"They said they couldn't believe how beautiful Fallon is," Keep-Hanger said. "We really scoured Fallon, we took them everywhere."

The PPS team will return to New York and flesh out proposals for each site they've identified. The group first came to Fallon in March to meet with local officials and business groups. They will return in the fall to meet with local partners and those affected by their proposals. They plan a fourth trip to present actual architectural sketches for a new vision of downtown sometime in the future.