Editor:
Indian Hills residents, you may have noticed an improvement in our parks and streets over the last two months, to the credit of Art Baer who has donated his time to serve his neighbors as district manager at no taxpayer cost. Thank you Art.
Yet your incumbent, Laura Lau, was the single vote against his service.
This continued lack of teamwork and commitment to what is best for the taxpayer is why I decided to run again for the board.
When I left office all that was required was maintenance of this district. Over the past four years, under the incumbent, the streets, and parks have disintegrated.
There has not been any teamwork with other board members, even after $6,000 of your taxes has been spent by this trustee to have a professional counsel and train the board to work as a team.
It has been an air of "my way or my wrath."
I am honest, and willing to serve the district's best interests, not my own interests.
I served as a flight attendant for 20 years so I am trained and accustomed to working as a team, not a queen.
Under my watchful eye I will require financial responsibility and accountability. I would have, and will question more than $2,000 in fuel costs monthly in a 12-mile district.
I will find who supports bogus filings that cost our taxpayers money and staff time. I will not pat myself on the back for my service, I will simply serve.
I will suggest and do what is in my power to keep our water safe and drinkable, and maintain our parks and streets.
Your incumbent raised our sewer rates plus continued efforts to raise your water rates. We now have a pending water rate raise. I will do my best to keep those costs in line.
A trustee is just that, an elected person, a neighbor, whom you can trust.
The incumbent not only has not represented you, the taxpayer, but she has defended others who did not serve the best interests of the district. That is not a person you can trust.
There has not been any improvement in the district since she has been in office.
This is why I am running for Indian Hills General Improvement District.
Dianne Humble Fournier
Sunridge
Editor:
Recent letters to the editor could lead a person to believe that our schools are not in need of certain capital improvements and that the KIDS committee is misleading voters while using scare tactics to push the bond through. This thought process could not be further from the truth.
While we can agree that other entities in the county could use the 10-cent levy to fund their critical needs, each entity has a right to bring their needs before the voters. The 10 cents if not utilized will be distributed between 19 taxing entities that are not at their maximum allowable, distributing $2.7 million per year to entities that may or may not have developed a need for that money, and unless we are mistaken, almost all of them have not voiced their need to the voters.
The schools within this district have demonstrated need, and residents deserve to keep their schools at a level of service that is at or above the standards set forth in Douglas County's master plan. The school district and the KIDS committee are not sitting at the round table looking for ways to spend money. The children in this community deserve more than that from those in positions to make these recommendations to them, their families, and neighbors. The improvements of existing school buildings should be at the forefront of any community's plan for prosperity. If these needs are not met, the community as a whole suffers.
The needs are numerous. The following examples of district-wide needs will provide for a safe and comfortable environment for our children while recognizing the call for energy efficiency.
1) An energy management system encompassing all sites will allow the district to identify when a particular site or area within a site is not being heated/cooled efficiently. Comfort while learning maximizes the benefit.
2) Replacing inefficient windows throughout the schools will increase comfort, while heating/cooling costs are reduced.
3) Replacing inefficient heating/cooling systems, as well as boilers nearing their useful life will increase comfort and reduce costs.
4) Various school buildings have roofs that leak. Replacement of the roofs where band-aids have failed is the most economical solution.
5) Providing new lighting in parking lots and walkways is a safety issue.
6) Providing new locking mechanisms on classroom doors so that they can be locked from the inside is a safety issue.
7) Upgrade and replacement of the electrical system at Gardnerville Elementary School is a safety issue as well as an efficiency issue.
8) A consistently operable fire alarm system at Jacks Valley Elementary is definitely a safety issue.
The improvements noted are well over half of the financial need. Failure to fund these needs is a failure on our part to give our children the best possible environment to learn and succeed. By bringing these needs to the attention of the community we are being good stewards of the investment by the community, not scaring them into submission.
Gary Thurm
KIDS Committee
Gardnerville
Editor:
It is interesting that the last school bond that passed in 1992 was for approximately $29 million and built two new elementary schools, a new middle school, and made significant additions to Douglas High School.
Now we have a new school bond proposal that is for approximately $40 million which does not include the addition of a new school.
With declining enrollment " the district has lost approximately 600 students in the last nine years " it really makes no sense to propose a $40 million bond issue that is dominated by maintenance projects.
That seems particularly true given the state of the economy where businesses and individuals are struggling to survive. This bond proposal should be defeated.
Lynne Michelle
Minden
Editor:
Patricia Young of Minden writes that she thinks voters are being misled by proponents of the school continuation bond. I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.
The flyer she mentions was created earlier this summer, well before enrollment totals were known.
Those flyers have been updated with current enrollment numbers, which show a decline in our student population.
I'm sure our community can appreciate that a decline in enrollment does not diminish the need to maintain and improve our schools. Even with Kingsbury Middle School closed this year, its asset value needs to be maintained with an eye toward selling it in the future when there is a better market. That of course is the prudent, responsible thing for our district to do.
Teachers truly are the most important element to our students' learning; the data shows that convincingly.
However, even the best teacher can't teach in a classroom with leaking roofs or areas of extreme hot and cold.
Teachers and students need comfortable, safe working and learning environments. Ensuring that safe and secure learning environment is exactly what the bond proposes.
The Douglas County School District performs general maintenance, like painting walls and sealing windows, all the time. Those upkeep projects are not funded with money for capital improvements.
Capital improvements are used for "large ticket items" such as replacing worn out boilers or leaking roofs.
As to scare tactics, Ms. Young, I urge you to attend a meeting where this bond is discussed. Come, hear the facts.
There is a list of necessary "big ticket items" that could close a school for safety reasons such as the gas line that needs replacing at Gardnerville or the boiler at Jacks Valley Elementary that is on its last legs.
You'll all remember when last winter our community watched as Douglas High School was closed after a water heater failed and flooded the main campus building. Items such as this are exactly what this bond will fund.
Every penny of the tax rate is important, and the voters have the responsibility of deciding whether the 10-cent tax rate should continue to support schools or whether it should go to the county or another local government entity. Either way, the tax rate won't increase or decrease.
Old buildings need work; teachers and students need safe, secure facilities with up-to-date fixtures and furnishings. Our teachers, our students, our district needs this bond.
Please vote yes.
Cheri Glockner
Johnson Lane
Editor:
Here they go again, another pitch for higher taxes, this time by the Nevada Association of Counties including Douglas. This time it's in the form of a Bill Draft Request for the 2009 legislature to authorize county commissioners to levy a property tax increase. As usual they say it's "to pay the costs of vital public safety, health and welfare services." Why a tax rate increase now?
In the newspaper they explained they want a cushion of taxing authority available just in case the state might someday shove unfunded mandates for social services onto the counties. There's always a bogeyman.
A cynic might think that if the state legislature knows they already gave a stand-by taxing authority to the counties, they're more likely to pass on such an unfunded mandate.
County managements across the state still chafe they were deprived by the 3 percent and 8 percent property tax caps that folks see on their assessment notices as "abatement."
Local government has been bleating about that limit ever since, how it deprived them of windfall revenues they deserved from the bubble in property prices.
How many times have commissioners mentioned that cap as the source of all budget problems?
Never never do they commiserate with the poor financially stressed homeowners who without that tax cap would have faced gigantic property tax increases due solely to a false (and now we know temporary) surge in house prices caused by the same lack of regulation that has now brought the national financial system to its knees. Government greed has no end.
Yet, only a year ago property taxes collected by Douglas County jumped an awesome 34 percent in one year, not so much from new construction but mostly from using their "rainy day" tax cushion previously provided by the legislature, even though it wasn't raining. At that time housing growth was sizzling, but somehow growth wasn't adding surpluses to the general fund.
They had it, they used it, now they want a new cushion. On top of that, the county has authority to impose 5 percent fees on our utility bills. They used 1 percent in 2007 and will add another 1 percent in 2009.
It's a stretch to trust the county with discretionary taxing authority.
They need to transparently demonstrate a willingness to share the financial pain and suffering of the real world, while still providing the services they signed up for.
Now comes Park Cattle wanting to increase county population by 20 percent.
If growth wasn't good for county coffers before, when previous growth left county managers grasping for more revenue sources, why would existing county citizens want more growth?
Would another 10,000 residents pave over the valley? Maybe not, but it's a start. Does Minden-Gardnerville's celebrated water aquifer have enough water without forcing hundreds of well-owners to drill deeper for their water?
Perhaps another writer was correct in suggesting that approval of that project, which has many flaws, would be cause to recall any commissioner voting for approval.
Jack Van Dien
Gardnerville
Editor:
It appears that the folks at McCain headquarters, upon realizing they were not doing well on the issues have pirouetted to "character assassination mode" without missing a beat. On Saturday (Oct. 4), they unleashed their pet piranha, excuse me, their pet barracuda in Colorado and California where she proclaimed he's (Obama) palling around with terrorists who would target their own country..." which, also without missing a beat, was quickly picked up by the major news media and branded the nonsense (lie?) it really was.
I wonder if the lovely lady from Alaska dons her Cartier rubber booties before sloshing around in the gutter like this.
Isn't it curious that the party billing itself the "Party of the Compassionate Conservative," the "Party of Family Values," the "Party of the Christian Coalition" owns the copyright on this type of vicious and uncivil diatribe?
John O'Neill
Minden
Editor:
The letter in the Oct. 9 edition from Mr. Jeffery Russell complaining about myself and Dick Witzig shows he didn't do his homework.
If Mr. Russell would check sources he would find that Obama's $1.6 million house was paid for by mafia money put up by Chicago hood Tony Rezko.
Obama has also had a long association with Saul Alinsky, an admitted hard core communist, who acted as his mentor. And don't forget Wiliam Ayers.
Mr. Russell doesn't understand that the subprime loan legislation of 1999 was the creation of Bill Clinton who used executive influence on enough Republicans to vote along with democrats and get it passed. The same thing happened when McCain tried to have a bill passed to regulate and it was defeated.
Dan Ballard
Gardnerville
