The Popcorn Stand: Capitol should be open on weekends

One of our readers, Debbie Lane, came up with the idea to open the Nevada State Capitol building on weekends for tourists who come to Carson City.

Lane, who’s a Capitol tour docent through the Nevada State Museum and gives tours during the week, would like to see our historic building be available to anyone who would like to visit it on the weekends. It’s a stately building that’s not too gaudy, but has plenty of charm.

The Capitol used to be open on weekends but when the recession hit, it was closed on weekends due to budget cuts. But since our guess is the vast majority of tourists who come to the area visit on the weekend, it would only make sense to re-open the Capitol on weekends. If not for just a few hours on Saturdays as Lane suggests.

We have not magic elixir on how to make this happen, but we think there would be enough visitors to the Capitol to re-open it at least for a few hours on Saturdays. We know it’s short notice, but a good start — a pilot program if you will — would be to open the Capitol during the Epic Rides event on June 18 when thousands of visitors are coming to the area.

We think some kind of coalition, non-profit organization or something to the effect could be formed to make re-opening the Capitol at least on Saturdays a permanent thing. Or at least the Legislature should look at how to re-open the Capitol on weekends during its 2017 Legislative session.

The Popcorn Stand is written Tuesday through Saturday by the editorial staff of the Nevada Appeal. It tackles topics of a different nature or topics that make us go “hmm.” We welcome your thoughts and suggestions at editor@nevadaappeal.com.