Karen Abowd seeking second term on Board of Supervisors

Karen Abowd will seek another term as the city supervisor from Ward 1.

Saying she has more to do, the lone woman on Carson City’s Board of Supervisors took the occasion to push for a four-vote majority Thursday by the Board of Supervisors in support of the one-eighth-of-a-penny hike in city sales tax to complete capital projects she said are overdue.

“A lot of cans have been kicked down the road,” Abowd said as part of Tuesday’s announcement. “It’s definitely time. I hate to think that we’re one vote away.”

The latter comment was a reference to that need for four votes from the five-member board to approve the tax-increase part of the capital improvements plan. Mayor Robert Crowell and Supervisor Brad Bonkowski have supported the plans, but supervisors John McKenna and Jim Shirk have yet to give definitive statements on their intentions.

McKenna has said he prefers a vote of the people, but Abowd said Tuesday that it is up to the board. Neither she nor Bonkowski joins McKenna in seeking a ballot question should the fourth vote not materialize.

Abowd voiced support for the multipurpose athletic center, animal shelter and four streetscape improvement projects in the package, as well as other issues she wants to keep working on. Among them are matters handled by the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and Cultural Commission issues. She sits on both the bureau board and the commission. She also cited her community work on the private-sector Greenhouse Project.

Key to her bid for a second term is her view that economic development is crucial to the community and enhancing city revenues.

“The only thing we can really grow is our sales-tax revenue,” she said, noting that only 18 percent of the city’s residents pay property tax.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” she said.

Abowd, who said she knows of no opposition as yet, co-owns Adele’s restaurant and is a professional designer. She didn’t discount the possibility of challengers.

“I’m sure somebody will come out of the woodwork,” she said.

Abowd and her husband, Adele’s co-owner Charlie Abowd, have lived in Carson City since 1980.