Sharing similar ideas on weed abatement

Experienced gained through the last four years became evident with both incumbents at last Wednesday’s Lahontan Valley News Candidate’s Night between Christy Lattin and Jay Ligenfelter, who are running for re-election for the Churchill County Mosquito, Vector and Noxious Weed Abatement District.

Four candidates are running are running for three seats. Joe Jordan was not present at candidates night and did not submit any comments to be read. Incumbent Mike Spencer submitted his questionnaire to the LVN, but he had a prior engagement last week and could not attend Candidates’ Night.

Lattin, a former reporter for the LVN, said her work history has allowed her to see how the different local boards and councils conduct business. She said while she doesn’t have experience in the abatement of noxious weeds or mosquitoes, she has had experience in facilitating meetings and overseeing budgets, and recently served as the chairperson for the Fallon Chamber of Commerce.

“I have been sitting on this board for close to four years now and that has enlightened me about the challenges facing the district,” Lattin said. “I’m looking forward to continuing the good work the district’s staff and current board is doing.”

Ligenfelter is a construction supervisor at CC Communications and has experience and knowledge in budgets, projects planning and employee management.

“I’ve been on the board for the last three years and some odd months,” Ligenfelter said. “The board is working really well, and we’ve kept our budget tight. I don’t know how to kill mosquitoes, and I kill weeds at my own house. I just run the board and try to spend your money wisely.”

A concern from one of the audience members was the rapid growing puncture vine and how they would be eradicate the nuance weeds.

Both Lattin and Ligenfelter said their team is currently working to rid the county of the weeds, and their team gets notified when hot spots are found.

“Property owners are responsible for eradicating weeds on their property,” Lattin said. “If you have noxious weeds, the district can help you with some chemicals and teach you how to do that and we’re responsible for some road easements but not for weeds on residential property.”

Ligenfelter said when handling complaints about weeds on private property, things become complicated.

West Nile Virus has also affected the county in recent years.

Lattin said when checking for the West Nile Virus, a mosquito pool testing is performed and then sent to a testing lab in Washoe County.

“We haven’t had a positive cases in humans but there was one positive case in a horse that we heard about,” Lattin said. “We heard the horse was from Fallon, but we didn’t have any local veterinarians confirm that. Because it’s been a dry year, it’s been less of a threat than in the years past.”