Gardnerville Town Board members Mary Wenner and Lloyd Higuera wrapped up their last meeting in 12 years on Dec. 3. Town staff gave Higuera, who spent this year as chairman, a sash indicating his status as unofficial mayor of Gardnerville.
If January is a month of renewal, then December is a month for farewells.
Gardnerville bade farewell to town board members Lloyd Higuera and Mary Wenner, who have served a dozen years in office.
“This is weird,” said Chairman Higuera in reading the proclamation for his own departure from the Gardnerville Town Board.
Next year will mark 40 years since Higuera brought the Valley’s first radio station, KGVM, to Gardnerville, though thanks to federal red tape it didn’t actually go on the air until 1986.
Higuera sold the station in 2003 and first dipped his toe in politics three years later when he ran for Douglas County commissioner.
In 2012, Higuera was appointed to the Gardnerville Town Board after a previous board member left three years into a term.
A 24-year resident of Chichester Estates, Wenner was elected to the board in 2012. She worked for the county’s treasurer’s office for 26 years before retiring in 2016, the same year she won her second term on the board.
Former Gardnerville town board member and county commissioner Barbara Smallwood will be retaking a seat on the Gardnerville board after serving a dozen years on the Minden Gardnerville Sanitation District board.
On Wednesday, Genoa said farewell to two-term board member Steve Shively.
Leaving the Douglas County School Board of Trustees are Linda Gilkerson and Carey Kangas.
A 32-year resident of the county, Gilkerson was elected in 2016 and served as president of the school board during the pandemic.
Kangas was appointed to the school board in 2017.
Douglas County Commissioner Walt Nowosad’s last official meeting is Dec. 19. Nowosad was elected in 2020.
