The Minden siren sports a new coat of paint.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
A senate bill aimed directly at silencing the Minden siren carries a $50,000 civil penalty for each instance it’s sounded.
“How are they still ringing that thing?” State Sen. Dallas Harris, D-Las Vegas, asked the Senate Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Harris is sponsoring Senate Bill 391, which would revise a Nevada law approved by the 2021 Legislature.
Wednesday marked the 106th anniversary of Douglas County passing its second sundown siren ordering Native Americans out of the town of Minden and Gardnerville by 6:30 p.m., Washoe Tribal Vice Chairman and Dresslerville Community Council Chairman Patrick Burtt said.
“We have an unwavering and uncompromising position that the Minden siren should be shut down,” Burtt said.
The Dresslerville Council was never onboard with a compromise worked out in July 2021 between Minden Town Manager JD Frisby and Tribal Chairman Serrell Smokey to move the sounding of the siren from 6 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“They decided instead of ringing it at 6 p.m. they would ring it at 5 p.m. and call it good,” Harris said. “I don’t think any legislator in this building regardless of your political spectrum appreciates when the Legislature sends down a clear directive with clear intent and whether be city, county or Joe Johnson and they circumvent it intentionally.”
Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, said he felt the bill was clearly overreaching.
“I’m asking for a little leniency here,” he said. “You’re using a one size fits all solution all because someone ignored it.”
Goicoechea pointed out that sirens sound in small towns across Nevada.
“I can’t go home if the siren doesn’t go off in Eureka,” he said. “You’re reaching into a lot of communities around Nevada.”
Gardnerville resident Jim Degraffenried spoke in opposition to the bill.
“I find it offensive the Legislature is seeking to silence a symbol of the fire services,” he said. “This issue was resolved at the local level. Minden is following the law as passed by the state.”
The bill didn’t pass out of committee on Wednesday pending amendments that would reduce potential loopholes.
That includes including a schedule for testing the siren and changing the language allowing the Attorney General to determine whether to fine the town to requiring the fine.
At its present noon and 5 p.m. schedule, should the law pass, it would cost Minden $100,000 a day to sound the siren.
If the committee’s reaction was any indication of the bill’s future, it will likely pass the Legislature, sending it to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
The new wording for a bill signed into law in 2021 would be to prohibit any county from operating any siren, bell or alarm for any purpose other than alerting people to an emergency, regular testing or to celebrate a legal holiday.
A siren that is sounded during any other time would prompt the civil fine per incident. The bill also prohibits any retaliatory action against any employee who reports an instance.
There was no siren or fire department when the county first approved an ordinance in 1908 ordering Indians out of Gardnerville by sunset.
The ordinance was revised in 1917 to include Minden and set the time at 6:30 p.m. There still wasn't a siren in Minden, but Gardnerville had a siren that could be heard for miles around.
When the Minden volunteer fire department was formed in 1921, it installed its own siren. The Record-Courier reported there was a 6 p.m. siren in 1928.
The ordinances, which were clearly in violation of law and the Constitution, were repealed in 1974 when the county compiled its code.
The siren was silenced for two months in 2006 before being restored after county commissioners passed an ordinance honoring Douglas County volunteer firefighters.
According to a statement issued by the Dresslerville Council after the compromise was announced, the siren is a reminder that the Washoe were removed from their homelands by settlers who arrived in Carson Valley.
“While the siren is argued to have no direct connection to the original sundown ordinance adopted by Douglas County as a whole it cannot be ignored that siren has historical connotations to the sundown ordinance through the historical accounts of those who were oppressed by the ordinance,” the council said.
Smokey told the committee he sought to silence the siren when he took office in 2019. He sent a letter in 2020 to Minden asking the town to turn off the siren.
“The Washoe people suffered trauma for 100 years,” he said. “Their abuse and mistreatment is not to be taken lightly. Those memories are alive and well in the sound of a siren.”
Previous Story
A senate bill scheduled to be heard in the Nevada Senate would fine any county “that sounds a siren, bell or alarm … to a penalty of not more than $50,000 for each violation.”
The revision to state law would close the loophole that allowed Minden Town Manager JD Frisby and Washoe Tribal Chairman Serrell Smokey to agree to change the siren’s sounding from the traditional 6 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The new bill is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Government Affairs Committee, which meets at 3:30 p.m. today.
The new wording for a bill signed into law in 2021 would be to prohibit any county from operating any siren, bell or alarm for any purpose other than alerting people to an emergency, regular testing or to celebrate a legal holiday.
A siren that is sounded during any other time would prompt the civil fine per incident. The bill also prohibits any retaliatory action against any employee who reports an instance.
The bill is fifth on the agenda at https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/82nd2023/Agendas/Senate/GA/Final/715.pdf
