The price of urbanization
Editor:
Martin slough is quite a treasure for our community. I sure hope the natural habitat is restored post modernization of the trail around the slough. Monarch butterflies are attracted to the milkweed that was growing at the south end of the slough. Attaching video taken this past summer during a walk. I enjoyed knowing about that secret garden and watching the monarchs.
My walk today showed this habitat seems to be destroyed with the upgrading & trail widening around the slough. As many may know, efforts are underway, across the Americas, to help restore the monarch milkweed habitat. Is the county planning on restoring the natural milkweed habitat within the Martin Slough after the upgrades are completed? Having the Martin Slough on the national registry of certified butterfly waystations would be awesome! The NV State Tree Nursery may be able to help restore those milkweed plants and provide other plants to create the waystation.
Gwen Hosey
Gardnerville
Open letter on testing state workers
Editor:
When you ran for governor, you said you would work for all Nevadans. You said that the great state of Nevada and its citizens were your number 1 concern. While I have to say I haven’t agreed with you on much, I did agree with you on those points. When Covid-19 hit, your job became more difficult than you surely anticipated. You wanted to keep the populace safe and slow the spread, so you pushed the vaccine and your mandates, based on the “science”. But now, the “science” has changed, and you haven’t. The “science” says that the vaccine will not prevent a person from contracting COVID-19, and therefore will not prevent a vaccinated person from spreading the virus. Yet, you are mandating that all unvaccinated state workers must test weekly, presumably to “stop the spread”. What this mandate actually does is create 2 groups of workers-the vaxxed and the un-vaxxed. While the unvaccinated get tested, the vaccinated continue the spread, which will then be blamed on the unvaccinated. You have done nothing but create division among the workers with this discriminatory policy, and 2 things are certain. 1)People will be fired for non-compliance of a “mandate” that will NOT slow or stop the spread, causing unnecessary hardship on the people you claim to care about, and 2)the people that bend a knee to your mandate against their will are going to turn into disgruntled employees who care as much for their job as you care about them. Since the “science” proves that this mandate is useless, the only rational reason that I can see for it is that you are punishing the unvaccinated for not “doing as they were told”, like petulant children. Please, stop this before we are divided even more than we are. Lift this ridiculous mandate.
Chris Weatherbee
Minden
Minden Calling
Editor:
Thank you for the article in the Feb 23 edition of The R-C concerning Douglas County’s future improvements to their radio communications infrastructure on Leviathan Peak. The article mentions that the current system has “dead zones” in backcountry areas despite its sophistication.
There is, however, a radio setup already maintained by Sierra Intermountain Emergency Radio Association that covers many of those dead zones. It’s the NV7CV repeater on 147.330MHz, a VHF ham radio frequency.
SIERA installed this repeater over 30 years ago as the club’s first project to cover areas around Carson Valley. Since then, that repeater has assisted local recreational events, such as the Death Ride and the Alta Alpina Bicycle Tour, both of which use highways in Alpine County. The NV7CV repeater is often linked with the Tahoe Amateur Radio Association repeater on 147.240MHz, one of two the club operates. These repeaters not only cover Alpine and Douglas counties, but also reach Lyon and Churchhill County as far as southeast of Fallon. The TARA repeaters reach westward into backcountry areas in California.
Besides recreational activities, hams have been able to use the repeater to rescue people. One instance was when a ham spotted an injured kayaker sitting beside Highway 4 between Markleeville and the Monitor Pass cutoff. The ham was able to contact another ham to call 911. In another rescue, an off-roading ham was stuck south of Yerington and was able to call for help on his radio. SIERA hams coordinated the call to 911 with location and status information. These locations do not have cell phone service.
During last summer’s intense fire season, local hams passed highway conditions, evacuation orders, and other information in support of firefighting organizations for the Tamarack and Caldor fires. Both SIERA and TARA repeaters were in jeopardy of damage during those fires, but they were still operational throughout those events.
Until recently, SIERA and TARA have been able to place repeaters on Forest Service towers free of charge. Recently, the Forest Service has informed these clubs that fees, estimated at over $1,400 per year, will be charged for use of these towers. Such yearly expenses would be onerous to these clubs, which rely completely on membership dues alone. Hams are not allowed by law to charge anyone for their services. Thus the term “amateur radio operator.” The American Radio Relay League is protesting these fees in light of the free service hams render to assist medical and fire response. In the meantime, local hams continue to serve their communities with radio communications. Hopefully, those services won’t disappear due to Forest Service fees.
Sue Cauhape
Minden
A photo lasts longer
Editor:
I want to encourage people to participate in the Carson Valley Winter Fun photo contest, hosted by the Carson Valley Visitors Authority and partnering entity, Main Street Gardnerville. We all know we live in an Instagram-worthy area, and yet the photos of people actual out doing what they love are few and far between. Prizes are awarded for the top three submissions and the contest runs through March 3. Anyone can enter, so send in your photos to discover@visitcarsonvalley.org!
Also, I want to thank the community for welcoming me into a new position last June with the Visitors Authority. Having come from one of the smallest towns in the state, Carson Valley has been the first place where I have found a similar sense of community to the one I grew up in. The people here are as hardworking as they are kind, and I think the world could use a little more of that today.
Withanee Milligan
Gardnerville
More high-risk behavior
Editor:
Recently there has been an increase in the number of burglaries across Northern Nevada. Most recently the officer involved shooting in Carson City on Feb. 21. The individual involved in this incident was highly agitated and attempted to harm a bystander during the incident. Since the shutdown in 2020 we have seen an increase in mental health needs and high-risk behaviors.
This has led to an elevation in crimes across the board. While we are seeing a spike in thefts and burglaries, I felt it was a good time to remind everyone to keep your valuables out of sight, park your cars in well lit areas when you are out late at night or in an unfamiliar area, lock your doors and garages at night, and ask your neighbors to keep an eye on your property if you are out of town. Be safe out there.
Daria Winslow
Minden
Farmer off base on Trump
Editor:
Mr. Farmer, I don’t know if I am one of your critics that you “love to hear from,” but I wish I didn’t have to be anymore.
It is too much like trying to show a blind man something he just won’t ever see. Sometimes I wonder if you’re not just playing the devil’s advocate.
In Saturday’s Commentary you only looked “backward” at various old repetitious events with the same tired old, debunked conclusions, as the reason we should hope for a “forward-looking GOP party” to “dump Trump.”
Anyone with even one good eye can plainly see just how far “forward” President Trump took this nation, by simply looking how far and quickly everything went “backward” in his absence. If you’re not seeing and hearing what’s to his credit, then it’s time to question where you are looking and listening.
Mere observation of the man’s status in life should tell you he doesn’t need anything “for himself.” Certainly not the persecution … why be President?
Why indeed - to help prosper protect and preserve everything he and we love and made America the greatest nation in the free world.
He has always and only been “about what’s best for the country going forward,” sir, and not as you say, “fighting an old war lost,” but fighting to stay “focused on our future!” And we had better hope he doesn’t “rule himself out of the (2024) race.”
Joy Uhart
Minden
Biden not too old
Editor:
In spite of efforts to paint President Biden as “too old to be President” and having “a faulting demeanor.” During a recent press conference for almost two hours, the President answered across-the-board questions from a broad spectrum of the media, putting to rest criticism about the President’s age and mental abilities.
Biden’s accomplishments during his first year is extensive:
The American Rescue Plan
The American Rescue Plan included money for vaccine distribution, $1,400 direct payments to Americans, bolstered unemployment benefits expanded the child tax credit and provided billions of dollars to help schools, colleges and universities reopen.
Health insurance is now more affordable than ever thanks to the American Rescue Plan. Americans who buy their coverage through the Affordable Care Act have lower premiums, saving families an average of $40 per person per month.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - $163 Billion
This bill will make a record investment in rebuilding America by modernizing our transit systems, roads, bridges, highways, ports, airports, delivering clean drinking water, a renewed electric grid and high-speed broadband to all Americans in our urban, rural and suburban communities.
The Economy
A record 6.4 million jobs were created in 2021. According to the Employment Cost Index, wages grew at the fastest pace of increase since the Index started two decades ago. Unemployment dropped to 3.9 percent in December. Child poverty dropped by 40 percent – the biggest drop ever in American history. New business applications grew by 30 percent – the largest increase ever.
COVID-19
When Biden came into office, less than one percent of the population was fully vaccinated. Today, eighty-one percent of adults have had at least one dose.
The U. S. has gone from “0” at-home COVID tests a year ago to 75 million on the market by the end of January. Additionally, one billion test kits will be delivered to your home over the next several weeks.
Foreign Policy
The U. S. has reaffirmed relationships and returned the U. S to international organizations and agreements like the World Health Organization and Paris Climate Accord.
Judges
Forty federal judges have been confirmed by the Senate since Biden’s inauguration. That’s more than any president in his first year since Ronald Reagan. Seventy-five percent of Biden’s nominees have been women, 65% have been people of color.
Of course, Biden has had his problems since taking office shortly after the January 6 Insurrection. One of the most important factors contributing to the president’s problems, the Republican Party’s continued partisan obstruction of his policy proposals (in addition to disappointing obstruction from a couple of senators from his own party) and the support of many Republican officials continuing to give Trump’s Big Lie about the “stolen election” that continues to further divide the nation. There will be challenges ahead and lots of blame, but there needs to be an end to the partisan politics exacerbated by a narrowly divided Congress and work together for our country.
Elizabeth Mancl
Genoa
A Supreme Court that looks like America
Editor:
The Dred Scott decision (1857) is considered the worst Supreme Court decision ever and has been called the Court’s greatest self-inflicted wound. The Court held that the United States Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for people of African descent, whether they were free or enslaved. This decision has been broadly condemned as overtly racist and it played a pivotal role in the near destruction of this country four years later. After the Civil War, the prewar struggle with the Supreme Court was settled by approving the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments that ended slavery, established citizenship for the freed people, and guaranteed civil and voting rights.
Today, seventy-five percent of the American people say they want to keep the landmark case Roe v. Wade and like millions of Americans, I support access to abortion too. Yet it seems the conservative Court majority may side with the forces most resistant to change in America.
While Republicans and conservatives may be finally getting the decisions they’ve longed for, I hope that the Dred Scott decision informs our newly minted super majority to tread lightly when considering the upending of court decisions that have stood for decades and are considered settled law. Many of their extreme views are out of step with a culturally and demographically changing America.
Alice Meyer
Gardnerville
Putin no one to admire
Editor:
Trump and Republicans are blaming the situation in Ukraine on Biden. Republicans seem to forget that it was them, over the last six plus years that have sent signals to Putin that Ukraine’s sovereignty is not a priority for them. Republicans in 2016, under the direction of Trump and his campaign, weakened their support for Ukraine by changing their position on Ukraine. The original statement in their platform was to support Ukraine by providing lethal defensive weapons, it was changed to providing appropriate assistance. Trump furthered Putin’s perception of our softening position on Ukraine by delaying the sending of weapons that were authorized by Congress to Ukraine. Trump also during his time in office make it clear he did not support NATO and tried to weaken it. Another signal to Putin that there were divisions happening in the West.
But it was Putin who made the decision to invade a sovereign country, it was Putin who is defying international law by invading Ukraine. It is Putin who does not what a functioning democracy on his border, believing a successful democracy on his border is a threat to his regimen. It appears Putin believed the U.S. and NATO were too divided to put up much resistance to his invasion of Ukraine.
Putin is not the genius Trump states, Putin is using the same model that Hitler used in 1939 to invade Poland, i.e. Hitler needed to protect the German speaking people in that country. Putin has stated he needed to go into Ukraine to protect Russian speaking people. Putin is not someone to be admire as former Secretary of State Pompeo stated. How do you admire an autocrat when you are supposed to believe in democracy? Putin is an autocrat who does not allow free elections, who imprisons and/or murders his political opponents. Despite Fox commentator Carlson’s statements, we should care about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. We should be concerned about Putin’s unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country, from a moral standpoint, from an economic standpoint and the fact that war is unpredictable once it starts, one mis-step could lead to untended consequences, i.e. a missile that mis-fires and hits a target in another country, i.e. a NATO country. That could draw us and NATO in the war.
Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine is changing the world order and is potentially putting the world on a path to another world war. We don’t know what Putin will do next if he is successful in Ukraine, will Putin continue on his long held dream of re-constituting the Soviet Union/Empire? Having a united country and a united world is our best hope for stopping any further aggression by Putin.
Irene Rice
Gardnerville
