Douglas may lose Lake district

MINDEN - Douglas County officials have whittled from six to three county commission seat re-districting options that will be presented to Stateline residents Thursday.

Members of the Gardnerville Ranchos General Improvement District board are scheduled to discuss redistricting at their meeting on Wednesday.

With Douglas County's growth over the past decade centered in the Carson Valley, commissioners will be forced to change voting districts, combining the Lake Tahoe district with some Valley and Topaz area precincts.

District 4 - which includes Glenbrook, Skyland, Zephyr Cove, Round Hill, Edgewood, Kingsbury and Dagget - falls about 1,600 residents short of what the county needs to meet the threshold for equal voter representation.

By law, each of the five districts must be within a 10 percent margin of the ideal district population. The figure, 8,252, residents in each district, is based on 2000 census figures.

During the Nov. 1 county commission meeting, leaders agreed to focus on the final three of six available options that would come closest to meeting the threshold. Commission seats are held by Steve Weissinger, District 1; Jacques Etchegoyhen, District 2; Bernie Curtis, District 3; Don Miner, District 4 and Kelly Kite, District 5.

The three options commissioners are contemplating allow for the possibility of having one commissioner residing at Tahoe or no commissioners residing at Tahoe.

They require four commissioners to reside in Carson Valley or the Topaz area, with the possibility of having all five commissioners residing in the Carson Valley or Topaz area.

Map options are available for viewing on the county's Web site:

http://cltr.co.douglas.nv.us