Scene in Passing: Everyone in mix at Supervisors meeting

There’s something for everybody at Thursday’s Board of Supervisors session.

First, let’s talk north, south and east — the entire city is included later in this article — on the agenda outlining the city’s governing board meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Community Center’s Sierra Room.

At 11 a.m., the board will review and is expected to accept plans for east and north Carson City revitalization, which was crafted by business owners, as well as instruct city staff to follow up and report findings on feasibility. A business-revitalization plan for downtown was accepted by the board previously.

The East William Street/U.S. Highway 50 plan for the east side will be presented by Jonathan Boulware, general manager of the Gold Dust West Casino Hotel. The plan for North Carson Street will be presented by Jaswinder Dhami, CEO and director of operations at Holiday Inn Express & Suites.

Also up for discussion is a plan to hold a Nevada Sesquicentennial Fair next July 30-Aug. 3 at Fuji Park and Fairgrounds at Carson City’s south edge. The proposal calls for a $75,000 city government commitment to be used from the contingency fund as seed money for the fair. A panel studying state fair ideas, headed by Deputy City Manager Marena Works, said it would prove beneficial to Carson City.

Also on the agenda are the next items dealing with capital needs for utilities, paving the way for issuance of $6 million in general obligation water improvement bonds and $24.75 million in sewer improvement bonds secured by pledged revenue. This affects everyone in Carson City and comes on the heels of rate hikes averaging 6 percent for water and 15 percent for sewer users, approved by the board earlier this month.

While we’re on things approved by the board this month, let’s rehash news of the Sept. 19 acceptance of a $248,921 grant award for a Carson City Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program aimed at short-circuiting the revolving door jailing of mentally ill people with substance abuse or related problems.

The program, designed to end recidivism by providing “wraparound” services to help keep the mental ill out of trouble, was called by Sheriff Ken Furlong one of the best things to come along since he has headed city law enforcement. He had to resist the temptation to mention the IHOP shooting tragedy of more than a year ago as he praised the collaborative effort that led to the grant. Why the rehash?

Last Thursday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal carried a front-page article with this headline, “The New Asylums: Jails Swell With Mentally Ill.” Datelined Chicago, it chronicled precisely the problem Furlong, the collaborative effort and the grant are addressing in Carson City.

John Barrette covers Carson City government and business. He can be reached at jbarrette@nevadaappeal.com.