Carson school board agrees to share parking lot

The Carson City School Board on Friday adopted a resolution and approved a parking lease agreement with civil engineering consulting firm Resource Concepts, Inc. at a yearly rental payment of $4,200.

RCI’s staff to use a lot adjacent to CCSD’s Gleason Professional Development Center at 604 W. Musser St. to develop as a parking lot and use for temporary space.

RCI’s Carson City business offices, based in a historic house built in 1906, at 340 N. Minnesota St., recently experienced significant damage due to a fire and has made the building uninhabitable.

Superintendent Andrew Feuling reported to the trustees during a special meeting Friday RCI is directly adjacent to a development on Musser Street that has an empty backlot and which generates no financial value for the school district.

Staff members, according to CCSD’s reports, say it would take up to two years to repair RCI’s offices. The business’ parking area will be consumed by construction materials, but the PDC site’s gravel lot provides an option for temporary parking.

The agreement for temporary release was reviewed by school district attorney Ryan Russell, who told board members the district remains under a $5,000-per-year threshold to contract with RCI to lease the property. RCI will make monthly payments of $350.

Trustee Don Carine asked if the district would be responsible for snow removal on the lot, and Feuling said this would be RCI’s obligation.

Trustee Mike Walker said the situation was a “win-win” for both parties as RCI has offered to improve the gravel lot and its fencing to allow ingress and egress for trucks to clear congestion to Telegraph Street out of the main PDC lot for CCDC staff.

The motion was approved in a 6-0 vote, with Trustee Joe Cacioppo, a principal civil engineer with RCI, absent from the meeting to avoid conflict of interest.

RCI has provided planning, permitting, civil design, surveying and construction management services to CCSD on four bond initiatives approved by voters and multiple capital projects totaling more than $90 million since 1999.

Bond and capital work has included renovating the Empire Elementary School campus through building additions, parcel mapping, permitting, transportation design and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. At Seeliger Elementary School, RCI provided permitting, construction staking and transportation along with a 3,200-square-foot building addition, school entrance and traffic flow pattern. The firm also made Carson High School track and field improvements and replaced aging baseball and tennis spectator seating areas among other facility needs.

The discussion was held in a special meeting before the school board’s next regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 13 to provide RCI immediate access to the lot if approved. Trustees canceled their Nov. 22 meeting due to the Thanksgiving holiday.