Carson supervisors OK Rice Street summer event

A block party for the Nevada Jeep Club slated for July 13 on Rice Street got the green light from the Carson City Board of Supervisors on Thursday.

Supervisors unanimously approved a road closure request presented by the Community Development Department and initiated by Sandra Owens of Rice Street-based The Tap Shack. Rice Street between North Carson Street and Fall Street, an area with businesses and some residential use, will be closed from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. July 13 contingent on the applicant getting signatures from impacted property owners (the majority had signed off on the party by Thursday) and providing the city a refundable $250 deposit.

“The request is to accommodate the Nevada Jeep Club Block Party and the Nevada Four Wheel Drive Association fundraiser,” said Community Development Director Hope Sullivan. “The event is proposed to take place from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. with 200 attendees, and it will have live music, sponsor booths and pop-up tents and food trucks.”

Owens told supervisors the music will stop by 10 p.m.

“We have three bands scheduled that day. They will not be on the street,” said Owens. “It will be in our private parking lot on 1201 N. Carson St. — which we hold events there throughout the year, and we are very respectful. The music will end by 10 o’clock, and I have not had any complaints from my neighbors as far as our noise and sound, either coming from the bar or coming from the parking lot itself.”

Owens added: “The bands (are) facing toward the highway, so they’re not projecting into our neighborhood.”

More information about the Nevada Four Wheel Drive Association is online: https://n4wda.org/.

In other action:

• Supervisors approved $52,500 from the Community Support Services Grants program for local nonprofits, including $7,500 for Friends in Service Helping’s low-income dental program, $20,000 for the Western Nevada College Foundation and $25,000 for Night off the Streets.

Supervisors also approved $163,120 in ongoing grants for Advocates to End Domestic Violence for crisis intervention, the Carson City Senior Citizens Center for Meals on Wheels, CASA for Guardian Ad Litem advocacy for children, the Community Counseling Center for evidence-based addiction treatment, the Ron Wood Family Resource Center for youth services and to Nevada Rural Counties RSVP for senior independent living programs.

Additionally, supervisors approved $120,000 in Quality of Life money — funding authorized by voters in a 1996 ballot initiative — for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Nevada.

Supervisor Stacey Giomi abstained from voting due to his professional involvement with two of the nonprofits, and Supervisor Maurice White voted against the measure, saying some nonprofits not selected this round might see previously funded programs compromised.

Supervisor Curtis Horton urged local nonprofits to talk to each other to avoid duplicative programming. He also maintained grant applications should show what organizations are doing to address needs in the community.

• Supervisors unanimously accepted a Recreational Trails Program grant for $75,302 with a 5 percent local match that will fund amenities in the Prison Hill off-highway vehicle area.

Amenities will include a vault toilet, traffic counters, informational signs and new fencing.

• Supervisors unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance changing some city right of way southeast of the Carson Mall from public zoning to retail commercial zoning to allow a new ATM in the parking lot area not currently allowed under public zoning.

The mall’s owner and operator, Carrington Co., previously told the Appeal a drive-through ATM is planned for the space this year.

Ordinances must go through two public readings before adoption.