Gardnerville Water Co. settles in to new home

With controversy still brewing about the troubled water systems operated by Douglas County, the Gardnerville Water Co.'s 2,300 residential and commercial customers can rest easy knowing that no customer-paid funds were used to build the company's new state-of-the-art facility off Virginia Ranch Road.

Rather, long-term capital improvement planning, developer hook-up and annexation fees, and water right sales paid for the nearly $1 million, 3,921-square-foot office which opened for business Feb. 2.

And the new headquarters is four times bigger than the "little house" in downtown Gardnerville where they used to work, said company manager Mark Gonzales.

"It's nice maneuvering around," Gonzales said from his new office on Friday. "This was built for our needs now, but also for our future needs."

Walking under the front pediment and entering a high-ceilinged lobby with thick wood trusses, customers will find that the interior still smells new. On the west side is a large conference room where board meetings take place for the nonprofit, user-owned company. On the east side are the new offices, a plan review area, a map storage closet, and the "brain room," which houses an automated computer system that monitors the new fill station outside.

In the lobby, customers may notice a monitor on the front wall displaying wattage. Looking through the back windows, they'll see some of the 120 photovoltaic outdoor solar panels which are generating the power, even on a cloudy day.

Minden's Gimli Ironworks forged the racks and Gardnerville's High Desert Electric installed the panels on the $180,000, 20-kilowatt system, though half the cost was funded by NV Energy's solar rebates program.

"We generate power that goes into NV Energy's grid. We pull power as necessary and build credits that rollover into the winter," Gonzales explained. "In February, our bill was $9."

But solar panels are only part of the equation. A dozen Solatubes in the office ceiling provide bright, natural lighting.

"I'm really sold on them," Gonzales said. "Natural light is better for you."

Outside, between the office and two large storage tanks, patrons will find a drive-through payment box and a fully automated, key-punch fill station, which allows contractors, the Nevada Department of Transportation and the Town of Gardnerville around-the-clock access to bulk water.

Unlike the company's old manual fill station downtown, the new double-check valve, two electrically activated clay valves, and a set of pressuring-monitoring pilot valves decrease customer's fill time while preventing "water hammer."

"It use to take a truck 20 minutes to fill up, but it takes five minutes," said the company's senior operator Mark Lovelady. "This system protects customers from water hammer and low pressure. Trucks are secondary, customers are first."

Lovelady, who's worked for the company for more than two decades, said such improvements have been possible through smart planning. He said the first water system in Gardnerville was created in 1911 and has been run by Douglas County, the Brockliss family and others before becoming the Gardnerville Water Co. in 1978.

"It started in a little house where a person drilled a well, and then the brother across the street wanted to connect to the service," Lovelady said. "When I first came on 23 years ago, we had 3-4 leaks a week. We had galvanized cast-iron piping, but have gradually switched out to other materials. Most everything now is plastic."

Gonzales said the company's board has been very progressive in its capital improvement planning.

"We've had a system that's grown to take care of Gardnerville only," he said. "We don't have arsenic, we don't have to chlorinate, and as the town has grown, it's stayed at a pace with all the improvements."

Gonzales said the water company, which has five employees and seven production wells, works closely with the town of Gardnerville.

"We come out ahead of their road projects," he said. "We get their capital improvement plan and so plan ahead. We have that real good coordination between the two entities."

In the conference room of the new building hangs a water rights master plan that shows the company's existing service area, from the Minden boundary to the Carson Valley Medical Center. The map also delineates future expansion areas northeast of Virginia Ranch and Stodick Park.

"Renewal of water rights are based on the master plan and future usage," Gonzales said. "It shows where we go with existing rights."

Presently, most of the company's residential customers pay a $26 bi-monthly base fee for up to 8,000 gallons of water, and $1.18 per thousand gallons for everything over. Rates were increased last spring, but only after a nearly five-year period without adjustments.

"We're very sustainable," Gonzales said. "What we do, what every water company should do, is once a year analyze expenses and revenues coming in and make sure everything is stable."

The Gardnerville Water Co.'s new facility is located at 1579 Virginia Ranch Road. For more information, call 782-2339 or visit www.gardnervillewater.org.