The R-C Morning Report

Gardnerville and Minden residents may soon be able to subscribe to curbside recycling. A firm called Carson Valley Recycling Co. is seeking the blessing of both towns to establish a voluntary fee-based recycling program. Gardnerville meets at 4:30 p.m. today. The company is appearing at the Minden Town Board at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Also on Gardnerville's agenda, a presentation by the Carson Valley Arts Council on the renovation and use of the Copeland Lumber building at Highway 395 and County Road as a theater. Genoans are meeting at 7 p.m. tonight. They're looking for a fifth board member to replace Jack Petit, who moved out of town after winning re-election to the town board.

National Weather forecasters are sticking to their earlier forecasts that we're looking at a very wet couple of days starting Wednesday afternoon and lasting until Sunday. The first wave could bring several inches of snow to the Sierra above 7,000 feet with rain at lower elevations by late Wednesday. Then forecasters say several waves of heavy precipitation are expected with up to 3 inches of rain possible below 8,000 feet. Forecasters admit that snow levels, the amount of rain and whether flooding will occur are still uncertain and warn residents to keep a weather eye out.

While there may be moisture in the forecast, there sure hasn't been much so far this winter. According to the National Weather Service's monthly precipitation report issued Monday, less than half of average precipitation fell in Minden during January. The total precipitation so far for the water year beginning Oct. 1 has been 2.28 inches or 60 percent of the average and just over a quarter of the total for the year. December, January and February account for most of the average 8.38 inches of precipitation that falls in Carson Valley during the water year. Last year that total was exceeded by the end of December.

More importantly, moisture falling in the Sierra is about half of average and well below last year's total.

Whatever the opposite of a red-letter day, that's what we've got going on at recordcourier.com. We've eliminated the big panicky Breaking News and Web Update lettering that's appeared on our Web site for the past couple of years. Rather we've gone with a format that places Web updates in an obvious place for people to look and see at glance whether we've got something new. We'll be adding additional features to our Web site, including a poll, just as soon as we figure them out.