Remembering former commission Chairman Bob Allgeier

Approval of the purchase came two weeks after a May 7 memorial for the man who was chairman when the county agreed to buy 9,900 acres of former Dangberg Land & Livestock Land for $24 million in 1995. The property approved for purchase last week for a new judicial center was part of that land.

That deal wound up collapsing under public pressure and the significant financing challenges, but had it succeeded, the county would have had land for offices, the right of way for Muller Lane Parkway and stripped development rights from the property.

There weren’t many Douglas County residents who’d heard of Allgeier when the Republican filed for the newly formed District 5 seat in the summer of 1992.

Until the year before, District 5 still included a big piece of Lake Tahoe before the 1990 Census resulted in that seat shifting east into northern Douglas County.

Allgeier moved to Alpine View in Douglas County in 1988 after a successful business career, that included dabbling in politics, having served on the Rowland School District Board for four years.

Four years later, he found himself facing off against three other Republicans in the August primary, garnering almost as many votes as his three opponents.

Allgeier ran the same year as Barbara Smallwood and Dave Pumphrey on what was described by their opponents as a slow-growth ticket. 

The new commission majority implemented a number of measures designed to curb the county’s burgeoning growth in the early 1990s, including imposing new growth fees to support schools through development agreements and rejecting subdivisions. 

The board repealed the 2,478-unit Buckeye Creek Subdivision approval proposed for eastern Carson Valley.

But it didn’t fare so well in court, with some major decisions overturned and by 1996, the controversy contributed to both Allgeier and Smallwood losing re-election.

That was not the end of his public service, though.

An Honorary Lifetime Elk, he was named Elk of the Year at the beginning of the century. He was a member of the Tahoe-Douglas Elks Club for 31 years. 

He was an active member of the Alpine View Property Owners Association, which sued to try and stop the Clear Creek project located above the community.

Allgeier returned to political life in 2012 when he won a seat on the Minden-Gardnerville Sanitation District, where he served for two terms.

He was a member of the Capitol City Gun Club, Sierra Philharmonic League, the Carson Valley Kiwanis Club, the Douglas County Historical Society, the Douglas County Library Association, an avid member and walker of DAWG, and a longtime member of the Douglas County Republican Central Committee.

Allgeier died April 1, 2022, at the age of 90. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Donna.