Sept. 13, 2023, R-C Letters to the Editor

Got the lingo, down

Editor:

I enjoyed reading Ms. Deluca’s letter to the editor (R-C, Aug. 16). I found it very interesting.  She has a wonderful command of the acronyms. (CRT, SEL, DEI) It is my belief, however, that she lacks experience with our wonderful Douglas County Schools.  As a newer resident of our community, I doubt she has had any children in our public schools.  How about grandchildren? Has she even stepped foot in any of our schools?

I however have had 2 successful graduates from Douglas County Schools & currently have 3 grandchildren attending schools here. My husband substitute teaches at the high school & my daughter in-law at the elementary level.  I have been in the classrooms, I have watched & know the hardworking teachers & appreciate the education they provide.  Our teachers teach, not indoctrinate.  They encourage our students to think critically for themselves.  I would not have it any other way.  My children didn’t come home from school complaining that they felt guilty about our nation’s history. 

I also appreciate that our children are encouraged to develop self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.  I for one can’t see any harm in that as not developing those skills can result in disrespect, bullying, & long term bad choices.  

I also don’t think we should exclude people who don’t look like us, live like us, love like us or believe like us. Our children are already aware that we are all different but the same.  They should be encouraged to be kind & respectful to all people & that no one is above or below them. Those are the things that our teachers encourage.  No one should be excluded from the inalienable right of personal freedom. 

In short, I think Ms. DeLuca would be wise to take a break and visit the schools she is so anxious to change to fit her political agenda.  She might just find exactly as I and many families have found having resided in this county for many, many years.  Our schools are tops in our state and don’t need her political views to succeed.  We don’t need politics in our schools.

Donna Theriault

Minden

Support the School Board

Editor:

The School Board is trying to do what we elected them to do - let the teachers teach and keep the “woke” ideology out of our schools. I support the Board fully and thank them for their efforts.

Cathie Lund

Minden

School board overreach

Editor:

Here we go again with more attempts to dominate and control and steal your freedoms. It would be helpful if people who engage in undermining our constitution would stop being afraid of the future. 

The overreach of the school board seems to have no bounds. (Record Courier article 9-9-2023: School Board Proposes Gag Order) I can’t imagine why they think it’s one of the duties of the school board to monitor what people say. This is an attempt to be as obscure and unaccountable as possible. It begs the question, what future actions do they anticipate needing to hide by suppressing freedom of speech? Oppression can’t be prettied up with justification. It’s time to walk this back. Barring that, perhaps the courts need to be involved in what appears to be something highly illegal. 

Joan Costa 

Gardnerville

It’s the bicyclist lobby

Editor:

Safety is not the driving force for reducing Hwy 50 from the current four lanes down to two lanes. I believe this reduction, which will not change the actual width of the highway, is to accommodate cyclists and their powerful cycling associations!”

This is so very wrong for the physical and mental safety of our neighborhoods up here at the Lake. There is for most of these small neighborhoods from Spooner Lake to Stateline only one road in and one road out.

We just can’t become another Maui (Lahaina) or Paradise, Calif., with First Responders not able to save/rescue us, our homes with their memories and our pets. We personally evacuated with the Caldor fire and we are expecting those same scenarios again when they remove access of two lanes (one in both directions) for our First Responders. Those cyclists who visit us with their occasional rallies, only a couple of times a year, should not receive priority with permanent bike lanes over us residents who need these 4 lanes for smooth safer access on a daily basis, in both directions. Medical and natural disaster access is paramount for our neighborhoods! We have very real needs for clear double lanes for our First Responders for our residents and for our visiting tourists. Sardined in to cater to powerful cycling and other agendas is not safe for residents or for tourists.

A permanent single driving lane in both directions is not common sense. 

We can have occasional left-turn lanes. I believe in that safety modification. We are having a signal put in on Warrior Way. That’s common sense for our DC school students. 

AND, we always have this real need for clear double lanes for our First Responders. I can’t say this enough!

Our daily driving styles for working and retired residents and tourists need to be realistically factored. 

Winter snow season adds another congestive dimension for our safety with those massive snowplow vehicles on single lane roads. They and we are going to have a “Dickens of a time” on those single lane roads! Mass congestion!

We have enough laws on our books to enforce speed, DUI’s, and whatever else cause accidents. So enforce what we have instead of trying to add more restrictions to the “books” and to/for our lives!

It is so sad that others with power have clout over us (driving residents and visiting tourists)!  This is not right, not right at all! 

June Shafer

Cave Rock

Two wrongs don’t make it right

Editor:

Your recent opinion piece tying breaking speed limits and drug use to defending VHRs is nonsense. VHRs and short term rentals are breaking established zoning laws for profit at the expense of their neighbors.

Short term rentals of a few days bring these ‘mini motel’ operators much more revenue than a long term local rental thereby exacerbating local housing issues. There is no question that VHRs are businesses, operating in residential neighborhoods, in violation of long established oning regulations. They harm neighborhoods with a constant turnover of strangers (who often disregard local rules), more traffic, overcrowding and higher use of all services.

Communities were blindsided by the impact VHRs would have on residential neighborhoods and their impact on local housing supply and prices.

The very fact that VHR owners have reacted so quickly and aggressively to push back on any attempts to enforce zoning regulations only confirms the fact that these are indeed highly profitable business ventures, being undertaken in residential neighborhoods, that would be illegal under any traditional interpretation.

Enforcement only becomes an issue when loopholes are applied over what were clear regulations. If VHRs are illegal somewhere in the county, they should be illegal everywhere in the county.

Zoning laws have been around for over 100 years and were conceived to assure property buyers their neighborhoods wouldn’t change adversely and to protect their property values. Any VHR owner should have known what single family zoning is before they bought. For VHR owners to try to retroactively impose a zoning change on neighborhoods is wrong.

Douglas County commissioners, you need to stand up for your resident citizens and ban VHRs countywide.

Jim Keck

Zephyr Cove

Tahoe had tourism before VHRs

Editor:

On June 28, Larry Walsh wrote his opinion on VHRs. He claims fees collected exceed $ 1 million. And that VHR’s department employs eight people: a manager, two deputies, two county staff, two code enforcement officers, and a deputy district attorney. By my estimate alone, these employees alone closing in on the $1 million, while not counting the additional costs of the autos needed, fuel, maintenance, insurance, ect. This year alone (2023) county commissioners have had three or more special meetings on VHRs. I performed a five-year search on our Douglas County website (from 2018 to now). The search of the BOCC revealed from 2018 all meeting topics: 14 All Meeting Topics, 13 action items, 1 planning commission,106 Attachments, 97 Full Agenda, public minutes and other. That totals 231 times in five years.

Lets just lean back and use common sense: 231 times discussed in five years or an average of 46 times a year! This is a problem or simply a waste of time and energy. Again, common sense tells me that Commissioner Tarkanian is right, let this go to the voters to decide. 

Mr. Walsh’s statement eludes that the Transient Occupancy Tax collected from VHRs tourists at Lake Tahoe exceeds $5 million annually, but that is inaccurate. I have a real hard time believing $5 million from VHRs tourists alone. Lake Tahoe has had tourists before VHRs and will continue well into the future without the VHRs. 

So, Mr. Walsh, I’m glad you’re so worried about the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority, because we the people of Douglas County had a ‘Successful Referendum’ Ordinance 2016-1456; that the BOCC approved on April 16, 2020, agenda item No. 3; passed unanimous to send this Referendum for the convention center to the Voters. And item No. 4 on April 16, 2020. Larry Walsh, Wesley Rice, and Barry Penzel executed the Tax Increment Pledge Agreement for the Event center with Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority pledging $34.25 million ($1.2 million every year through March 2, 2046. Even when the successful vote of the Douglas County taxpayers was to remove funding of the Convention center. Now you attempt to tell us how successful the convention center is going to be! How could it NOT be successful with this extra funding the BOCC is committed to sending each year??

This is an example of things that county commissioners have done to us in the past, and are continuing to do to us right now, we need to start holding them accountable.

Ted Gaines

Gardnerville