Argument over trucks on Deer Run Road avoided

A potential quarrel over allowing big, rock-hauling trucks on Deer Run Road was avoided Thursday.

The Carson City Street Department was prepared to ask city supervisors for a two-week window that would allow them to haul rocks from a Bureau of Land Management site in Brunswick Canyon to the Carson City Airport. Supervisors in 1996 banned heavy truck traffic from Deer Run Road after complaints from residents.

However, John Flansberg, street operations manager, said Thursday the street department was contacted by a developer who offered the city some extra rock for the storm drainage project near the airport. The request for the two-week window was no longer necessary, he said.

Flansberg said because the rock for the airport project is closer than the Brunswick Canyon rock, it would be cheaper to haul.

Residents had expressed concerns that if the city allowed one breech in the resolution restricting trucks from Deer Run, it would lead to more trucks.

While resident Tom Quigley noted that most of the residents' concerns became moot after Flansberg's announcement, he was still upset that residents' request for a night meeting to discuss the issue was apparently ignored.

"I know there will be a lot of people who would have loved to be here to discuss their options," Quigley said.

Flansberg has requested that extra material from a Nevada Department of Transportation project next spring on Highway 50 be used on a project on Mexican Dam Road. He said the truck traffic would probably be diverted over Deer Run Road. Flansberg said he would consider the trucks a local delivery and would not ask for a similar exception to the truck ban.

Quigley argued that residents don't want large truck traffic at all.

"It's on the horizon. We'll be back here again next spring to beat this dead horse when they want to bring the grindings trucks through," he said.

-- Supervisors also appointed Steve Reynolds to another two-year term on the Carson City Regional Transportation Commission.

"Carson City has a lot of transportation challenges facing it with the freeway and the metropolitan planning organization," Reynolds said. "We've got a lot of work in front of us. It's going to be a challenging time for the RTC in what we choose to spend our money on and what we don't. I'm excited about the opportunity to put the knowledge I've picked up in the last couple of years to use. I find the RTC to be a very important committee. The decisions we make do make a difference here."

Tom Keeton, a local retiree, Dennis Ritchie, a member of the Public Transportation Advisory Committee, and Michael Zola, a highway engineer with the Nevada Department of Transportation, also applied for the position.