All ready to go.

Um welcome to the this January meeting of the Nevada Commission for the Cons Reconstruction of the VNT Railway.

Uh, we will call this meeting to order.

It is nine seventeen.

Just can't do it like you, Dave.

Sorry.

I'm trying.

Yeah, maybe next time.

All right.

All right.

Uh, without move to item number two, which is our roll call and determination of a quorum.

Yeah.

Chair Mitchell.

I'm here.

Vice Chair Peterson.

Present.

Treasurer Cruz.

Present.

Secretary Hicks.

Here.

A quorum is present.

Very good.

Thank you so much.

Uh those who would like to please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Um, we'll move on to item number four, which is public comment.

The public is invited at this time to comment on and discuss any topic that is relevant to or within the authority of this public body.

And with that, we'll open it up for any public comment.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Line up.

Take your time, slow down.

Great.

Seeing seeing none, we will move on to agenda item number five, which is the approval of the minutes for the November nineteenth, twenty twenty-five meeting.

Any uh questions or comments about those minutes?

All right.

Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion for approval.

I move to approve the minutes of the November nineteenth, twenty twenty-five meeting.

Great.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Fantastic.

Any final comments?

Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Moving on to item number six.

Discussion and possible action regarding the VNT Commission statement of accounts.

Payable checks totaling two hundred and eighty-six thousand five hundred and fifty-five dollars and thirty-five cents.

Treasurer Cruz, do you have any uh light to shed on this item?

Nope.

Great.

Any other uh any other comments or discussion from the board?

I'm gonna pause for just a moment.

Umcas, should I be taking uh public comment under each of these items?

Is that how we're structured?

So that's typically how the cities at least Carson City does it.

Um that is what I would advise is taking up.

Absolutely.

Totally happy to.

Um the fact that I missed doing so on the minutes.

Is that something that I need to rectify?

Okay, thank you.

Um any public comment on item number six.

Hearing none, uh, all those in favor of oh, sorry, we need a motion, don't we?

Yeah, you know.

I'll entertain a motion for approval.

I move to approve the payable checks paid October 1st through 31st and November 1st through 30th of 2025 as presented.

Very good.

Thank you.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Motion and a second, any final discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Move on to item number seven, which is discussion and possible action regarding the VNT Commission's adjusted fiscal year 2526 budget reports for the period of October and November of 2025.

Leah, do you have anything for us on this one?

There's money in there.

What's that?

Excellent.

Where exactly?

I don't I don't think that I don't have the line.

Very good, thank you.

Any uh any discussion, question or discussion from the board.

Hearing none, any public comment on this item.

All right.

Seeing none, uh, I'll uh entertain a motion.

I move to approve the budget reports as presented.

Report as presented.

Excellent, thank you.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Awesome.

We have a motion.

Almost like we've done this before.

Great.

Uh any final discussion on this item.

Hearing none, uh all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

All right, we will move on to item number eight.

Um I will introduce the item and then I have a disclosure to make if that's all right.

Um discussion of possible action regarding a proposed sale of certain undeveloped land owned by the VNT Commission designated in assessor's parcel number APN 02-063-22 and 02-063-24, which is the property, and Story County story for a uh not to exceed amount of $57,000.

And I will uh invite Lara Mather from Story County to come up to uh present on this item.

And before she does, I will just uh make the following uh disclosure.

NRS 281A 42.420 requires me to disclose a conflict of interest and abstain from voting when I have a disqualifying conflict.

This item involves potential sale of VNT property to Story County.

I'm a representative of the commission from Story County and have a non-deminimus pecuniary interest in maintaining my position with Story County, because the judgment of a reasonable person in my position would be material affected by this relationship, materially affected by this relationship.

I have a disqualifying interest and I will not vote on this matter.

However, section three of the same section allows me to participate in the conversation, but not to advocate for the passage and failure.

So I will run it from an administrative perspective and uh and let you deliberate and vote on it.

And Laura, with that, if you'll take us through this item, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good morning.

For the record, Lara Mather, Story County.

Um Story County would like to present a contingent offer for the acquisition of parcels 02-063-22 for $28,500, and 02-063-24 for $28,500.

The addresses are 1440 and 1450 Main Street in Gold Hill, currently owned by the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the V and T Railway.

Um appraisals have been completed on six parcels, including the two owned by the VNT Railway Commission.

And um the contingent offer on those two parcels is based on fair market value.

Um this originated really through two um issues or or things that are going on in Story County.

One is to um replace land that was under cabinet by uh a federal uh and state pass-through grant.

In addition, Story County is doing a comprehensive park study in that area in the entirety of the Comstock area.

Um I'm happy to answer any questions regarding this.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Uh any questions from the commission for Laura.

Thank you.

Um so you said that the Story County is gonna purchase the rest of those parcels as well, or looking to purchase the rest of those parcels as well, or you just did appraisals on them all.

Laura Mather for the record, that's correct.

We're looking at purchasing those as well.

Okay, great.

And this might be a question more for the commission, but um I was trying to do a little bit of research to see, and so we purchased this in was it 2008 or 2009, and I just don't know why.

Like I was trying to research the minutes and any files that we had received, and you know, obviously there was some reason behind it, and I'm assuming it's because you know it it's close to the track in the um the Gold Hill Depot that's there.

But um I didn't I just didn't know if anybody had any further background on why we purchased it then Commissioner Hicks, I find myself asking why on many, many things that we consider in this commission.

Yeah, Tom, come on up to the mic uh if you don't mind, thank you.

Tom Gray BNT Railroad.

Um, there was access was denied to the construction of the uh uh railroad at one time by some of the property owners up there and some of the lease servers in so they felt it prudent to buy that property.

That's that's now the road into there.

And gives it access.

Great.

Okay, when I think that's great background.

So then I guess I would just ask that uh because Story County is our partner in the VNT, would we still be able to utilize that for access if we needed to in the future to the railway, or are there any access issues currently to our portion of track that we would just need to preserve those rights?

That that's a question for Story County and the and the property owners, I think.

Laura Mather for the record.

I can definitely confirm that with Story County, but the whole reason for that park is to connect it to the depot and the railway and keep that as an active um area for both the visitors that come in for the residents in that area.

So the whole goal of that park is that it is a great place to go and play and hang out and either you know get off the train and go play in the park or sit in the park and watch the train.

Um that is the the intent of the park.

I I appreciate that.

Thank you.

And I think I think you know, we've talked a little bit before about some things that could draw people to that area, and then that also would draw them, of course, to the train.

And I think I think this is an ideal opportunity for that.

So thank you.

Agreed.

Laura Mather for the record.

And part of the the um the federal grant requirement is that we have to put an an activity there at the park because it replaces um the the land that it replaces actually had a tennis court on it at one time.

And because the land that it's replacing had an a physical activity for people to do, we have to put that as well.

So it's you know, I imagine it being a pretty cool place to hang out, things for the kids to do to play on and and those kind of things.

And I have a quick question too, kind of along the same sort of similar lines.

Um would there be any future obligations retained by the commission, or is this like a full or just like in terms of let's even go so far as to say like um compliance like inspection costs or anything like that?

Are we out completely?

It's owned fully by Story.

Lara Mather for the for the record, that's correct.

So it would be fully owned by Story County.

We would have covenants that we would require be required to abide by.

Um, but that would be fully the responsibility of Story County.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, please go ahead, Army.

Laura, could could you um talk about the estimates or those fair market appraisals for the other pieces of property?

I'm just curious what each piece came in at relative to the two that we own.

Um Lara Mather for the record.

I don't know if they might be included in this packet.

I off the top of my head I don't remember them, but they were it was all very close, they're all similar um size lots.

Okay.

Fair enough, thank you.

Yeah, if I if I may chime in just on the on the access issue.

So certainly there is access currently across those parcel.

We have a meeting number followed by pound.

As an access, there's kind of an an informal access across the neighboring lot to the north, um, which is part of this acquisition, and then you see below these lots or to the west is Telegraph Street, which is a paved street, is narrow, but there is access to the area from there.

Um and so it's it's not the meeting number by poundly landlocked if if the access was not maintained through these lots.

Um certainly if access was not maintained, there would not be as much access as there currently is but um but I just thought I would point out that there is road access to the area regardless of what happens with these.

Enter the webinar panelist numeric pathword.

Chair, may I just follow up?

So there's no plan to change any of the roads, dirt paved or otherwise.

That would all remain the the same, or would some of with the park development, will it eat into that, or what what do you envision?

I guess, you know, yeah, Lara Mather for the record.

So I I only envision it getting better.

You know, I it's a dirt, it's a dirt road getting in, it's dirt parking, it's you know, a mess in the winter time and muddy.

Um, and I only envision it getting better.

I I cannot envision there being less parking or less access or it being worse access.

I only envision it getting better.

Thank you.

Great.

Are there other uh other questions or comments from the uh commission?

I already know the answer to this, but I want to put it out there.

Um will this does this sale impact the future VNT like operational or expansion ideas that we've ever had?

Like I just want to put that on the record as to yay or nay, what the board thinks on that yeah.

If I remember correctly, we've had some discussion, uh not not extensive, but kind of strategic discussion about if we thought that these lots would be useful for future operations.

Um and I I think that the board kind of concluded that we didn't have any active uses related directly to the train.

Um I think one of the reasons was uh there there was some discussion of was there value for this as a potential endpoint for the line, and the conversation was that for the most part people want to be able to get all the way to Virginia City as opposed to stopping in Gold Hill and somehow finding some other way to get up to Virginia City.

And so yeah, yeah, thanks for putting that on the record.

So this is where we were trying to figure out that statue, wasn't it?

On one of the corners of one of the okay.

In the that weird spot.

All right.

I thought so.

Okay.

It is, yeah, we had that we had that discussion as well.

I think that's where it came up was the discussion about potentially citing a statue on one of these lots.

Roger that.

Okay, thank you.

Very good.

Further discussion.

If not, I'll open it up for any public comment on this item.

Hearing none, uh I will uh entertain a motion if there is one.

I'm happy to make a motion on this.

Uh I move to approve the sale of property APN numbers 02-063-22 and 02-063-24 as presented for a total not to exceed 57,000 or or 457,000 dollars, I guess, in total.

If that works, I like not to exceed.

Maybe the county will decide to give us a little discount or something.

I mean, just in case.

Come in a little bit uh below.

I mean that'd be nice if them.

Yeah, we wouldn't want to have to bring it back if they don't want to charge us as much.

So we could drag this out for weeks and months.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Okay.

Motion and a second.

Any uh further discussion.

Hearing none, uh, I will call for the call for the question.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

And I will abstain.

So let the record show that it's three votes in favor, zero votes against, and one abstaining on this item.

So the uh motion passes.

Thank you so much, Laura, for being here.

Thank you.

All right.

Um so it looks like it looks like we have Maria on.

Do we know if yeah?

So we'll move on to um item number nine, which is a discussion and presentation regarding the VNT Commission's social media activities for calendar year 2025.

Maria, are you with us?

Do you want to give us a this presentation?

Uh yes.

Welcome, thank you so much.

Okay.

Let me turn my screen.

Okay, so can you see my screen?

It tells us it's coming.

It's it's just running a little slow, give it just a second here.

Maria, can you still hear us?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, great.

So Maria, unfortunately, it appears that the uh the ability to share the screen is not working properly.

We all have a copy of the presentation with us in there.

I believe is a copy by the door for anyone in the audience that would like to follow along.

And so um, so Commissioner, if you just want to make sure you have it in front of you and um Maria, if you don't mind just kind of talking us through when you're moving from one slide to the next, and we will follow on our end.

Okay, it's perfect.

Okay, give us just a moment.

We're getting we're getting settled here in the room and can you share from here?

Right, I don't know.

Okay, yeah.

Maria, give us just another second.

Sherry's gonna share the presentation on the screens here in the room so that it's uh easily visible by everybody.

Very good.

All right, I think we're ready.

Thank you for your patience.

Okay.

Well, so overall, 2025 was a very strong year, a strong year for marketing performance across Instagram and Facebook.

Uh we saw a consistent growth on all key metrics.

Um, for example, on Instagram.

We saw that we gained over 600 followers during this year, and also the counter interactions in Chris, which tell us people were engaging more with the content.

Um can you switch the slide, please?

What helps us with this metrics is the type of content we focus on.

Uh we use historical facts and educational content, which help position VNC Railway as an authority and spark commun conversation.

Also, we use content promoting the special trains and the generalization trains.

Uh clearly connecting social media to ticket sales, and also the experience driving content uh shows real people enjoying the trains.

This feels like actually how is writing with the VMC railway.

So when we were review the performance on Instagram, yeah, that we can see that three of the three of the top performing posters post were reels.

Uh which one has 1531 views.

Um these reels work because they usually show with experience aboard the train.

For example, one is about the tows of the canyon train ride.

The second one is about a general experience about uh aboard the BNT Railway, and the last one was an experience aboard the polar expressed train right.

So we can see that when people see this kind of content, they engage more because they want to have the same experience as the videos.

So can we switch now through Facebook, please?

Okay, well, Facebook was the social media platform where we deliver some of the strongest for souls of the year.

And one important thing as is one million views were organic, which is extremely important because the in other words, uh, the content we made on Facebook help us um go with the algorithm.

And also we make more engagement with new followers.

Uh this role was helped by consistent posting throughout the year.

Also, we start to share content in local Facebook groups, which help us reach new people.

And also we create posts that were interactive, asking questions, um sharing stories and highlighting trouble trips and historical facts.

One important insight here is that many people that share the content were not followers of the page at the beginning.

So when they discover our page, they start to follow us because this is something that maybe they don't used to know, and they feel attract by the experience that VNT Broadway can make.

That means the content itself was compelling enough for people with some of the best performing posts of throughout the year on Facebook were this one.

Can you switch the slide, please?

Well, some of the tasks best performing posts on Facebook were related to the Polar Express train, right?

Uh what we particularly see that works with this post is that we just a visual template, uh consistent visual templates that were aligned to the brand guideline of the Polar Press training, right?

And this allow people to recognize the event in their feed without reading all the information or the details.

So when they see these photos, they instantly think, oh, this is the Florida Press.

I'm going to learn more and grab my and purchase my tickets.

So this kind of content that is aligned to uh brand guideline help us because people uh can identify easily uh which train we are talking about.

So in simple terms, visual consistency help reduce confusion and build recognition.

Can we switch to the last slide, please?

Well, yeah, that's perfect.

Um, in addition to social media, we maintain ongoing public relations is efforts with the social media outlets in Reno and Cartoon City.

We also send multiple email campaigns throughout the year, each one designed with one per post, highlighting and coming trains and events.

Also, in all these emails, we include a clear call to action to purchase tickets or learn more about that train so people can go easily to the website and see all the details.

Uh these efforts support overall visibility and reinforced messaging across platforms, ensuring people were seeing content consistent information throughout multiple touch points.

Overall 2025, um simply maintaining a social presence to using marketing as a strategy tool for visibility, engagement, and conversation.

What worked was consistency, experience driving content, strong visual storytelling, strategic use of videos like reels, and organic organic community sharing.

So these are the elements that deliver results in 2025, and they will be continue to be the foundation as we move forward in 2026.

Very good.

Thank you so much, Maria.

Uh, are there any questions from the commission for Maria about this report?

I do have at least one question.

Um this is just something that we ask on the the Virginia City side, so I kind of am curious here.

How does um the Lumont uh like how do how are or or wow?

If I could talk, that would be great.

Um, organic growth and paid or seasonal spikes differentiated.

Like how do we like or can you?

Because sometimes that's tough to do.

Um, but I'm just curious because almost everything we do, we do we always excel during uh PEX, obviously.

Our all of our stuff is mainly focused on that.

But what are we doing?

There are there is some stuff in here, but are is there a differentiation in your office regarding you know just organic growth or just off-season promotional stuff as opposed to just the seasonal promotion?

Does that make sense what I'm saying?

Are you asking for her to differentiate just organic from paid?

Yeah, sort of and take that month by month and just see the differences.

Is that what you're you're wondering?

That and and also with the historical stuff.

I know the historical posts perform really well, um, things like that.

I always am curious what is it the most interesting to people aside from an event.

Like what do people want to see?

Um, because we are we focus on that uh heavily.

Um so this may not even be a question necessarily, but just something I'm curious about for future.

Like what aside from advertising Polar Express, what are people really interested in?

And I know that the numbers show even like this one on here about the historical stuff.

Should we be doing more of that?

Because these posts, these two posts shared um were viewed very heavily, obviously not in comparison to PEX stuff, but like is that something we should be focusing more on?

That kind of thing.

So like I said, might just be more of a comment than a question necessarily, but in a very roundabout way, I got to my point, I think.

But Maria, do you have any thoughts?

And it's okay if you don't, yeah, because Leah's very confusing.

But always.

If if you have any thoughts around um aside from the events and uh and specific calls to action, where things are performing well, do we need to do more of that, or is it a good balance right now?

Yeah, well, uh one thing that we notice is that people um lots when we show well, which experience they're gonna get when they travel aboard the VNT Railway.

So that's why uh with the Polaris, uh, there is like more engagement and maybe more sales because um it's an event that is um it has the same things um like the shows and everything.

So people who know this is waiting for the another year because they know that we only sell those tickets in some specific time.

Uh for example, we did 2026 announcement post we made uh on January about the when the general season starts.

It has also a lot of reactions and shares and everything, because we are telling the people that these days we're going to do this.

So they are prepared for the day, you know, there's everything the train is going to start or everything, and also sharing the details of every event.

Also, we have videos of these events.

Uh, this is special trains, like for example, for the Tosa of the Canyon train, using videos about it help us people know what can they experience aboard.

So uh we're going to continue with this kind of content.

Uh showing the experiences you can live when you travel with a VNC railway.

Perfect.

That being said, then I think we should focus a lot more on um video content as a whole next year and in also just a regular train trip, like just not a special train, not whatever, but we I think that needs to be put out there, what it looks like when you board, when you get off, blah, blah, blah.

So, and I'm sure that's probably in there in the works with them.

But awesome.

Thank you so much.

Very good.

Other questions or comments from the commission?

Very good.

Uh Maria, thank you so much.

There's no action for us to take, but we appreciate you bringing this report to us.

Uh, impressive growth and engagement.

And uh we we thank you for giving us a consistent voice and a consistent presence.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Have a good day.

Thank you, you too.

All right.

That brings us on to uh item number 10, which is another item for discussion only, discussion and presentation regarding the VNT Commission's website.

Excuse me, and I believe that despite technology's best efforts, and uh Mr.

Murphy uh at work, uh we have Ryan Sullivan from KPS3 here with us uh to provide a review of the final phase of the website rebuild for the VNT Railway.

Uh Ryan, are you with us?

Yes, yes, I am.

Thank you, board and uh really everybody for uh dealing, helping me deal with uh getting on here.

You'd think by 2026, I would know how to get onto a WebEx and get it working.

But uh here we are, ready, ready to go.

So uh as you just talked about, um, wanted to share, and I'll be sharing my screen um to go to walk through some of the new updates to the website.

Uh KPS3 was tasked with building uh the new VNT Railway website.

And at that time, we really focused on um more of like the immediate pages that needed to be ready for launch uh in August of 2025, and we're pushing towards that because we knew with uh PEX and the uh Twain Train and a couple other events, there's a lot of big events uh in the fall and winter, and so we wanted to make sure that this was ready to go and at least in a place um that first phase, which was in August of 2026.

And so now I'm gonna kind of walk through a little bit of the website um of like what was added since then because there are new pages, and even some of the discussion uh that you all had mentioned in the previous previous agenda item.

I think there is some content here that can be used for that, so it's kind of goes hand in hand.

So let me share my screen.

So Ryan, uh unfortunately we may be having issues with screen sharing on our end on uh, but I think Sherry, is it possible for us to ask you to bring up the website at least?

And so maybe she can she can uh poke around.

I I know it's not the not the same as uh your presentation, but she may be able to get it on the screens and at least we can look at different elements uh accompanying your uh your narration, if that's okay.

That's perfect.

Yeah, we can definitely do that.

All right.

Hang hang tight just a moment.

Yeah, of course.

That's a great question.

But you know, when when this pops up, Ryan, if you'll let us know if you can see what uh if you can see the website uh coming through coming through from our end.

I I think you may be able to, but we'll um because it it sounded to me like Maria was able to, she was able to see what was there and was asking for for changes.

So give it give it just a second here, and then we should have that up.

Definitely.

And I think I did see uh when you guys were screen sharing Maria's uh report, I did see that on here.

So hoping it works here too.

What I can do is oh well, oh, perfect.

That was perfect timing.

Thank you, Sherry.

This is great.

Um but yes, so we have uh the VNT website um here.

And again, some of the the elements that we had was when it first launched in August of 2026, was this homepage.

Uh, we had also uh the history page, um, the know before you go, and then some of the major and the train excursions that happen throughout the year.

So that includes events and then the regular uh trains and those rides.

And really the goal was to have the website launched then and then have access so then people could work through uh purchasing tickets via Fair Harbor and making this more in an accessible way uh for people to have this.

The next couple phases that we really worked on was well, let's like expand not just what uh VNT Railway has in terms of uh the train excursions, but there's a lot more there besides the history too.

So we have important information such as uh the film VNT Railway page, and that's at Sherry the very top.

You should see it says film VNT Railway.

Perfect.

And so this page uh just takes people through kind of more of how Virginia City uh and especially the railway has been featured.

Um if you scroll a little bit farther down, you'll kind of see some of where it's been featured.

And then we've kind of listed some of the uh bigger uh films.

Um we've also tried to make this uh approachable to uh film studios and to producers and really something so then they can get a little bit more information um about what's what's there.

Um we've also tried to make this uh approachable to uh film studios and to producers and really something so then they can get a little bit more information um about what's what's there so it goes hand in hand and then at the very end we kind of have uh if you scroll to the very bottom of this page perfect right here.

Oh, just a little bit farther up.

Sorry, this right there, perfect.

So what we tried to do kind of at the end, once all that information's here is really make sure that the people um who are in charge of you know looking for these shots and looking for these locations, then have a way to get in contact with you all, but then also kind of have that connection between uh Carson City and Story County and Virginia City.

So it's all it's really cohesive.

Uh, I know that there's a lot of uh film studios, and that's been a bigger push these last couple of years uh for northern Nevada, and so I think really leaning into this is like that connected and almost a new audience.

Um they're a smaller audience, and obviously that's not where most of the traffic's coming from, but we really did want to make sure that this was uh something that's uh unique and and something that's called out for the website.

Um I think the other piece that I want to highlight too is if we um share, if you scroll to the top again, and we'll go to the main uh menu.

So we have uh at the top, you'll see it says train excursions, group experiences history that's been there.

Um we have the train excursions, and if you click on the on the train excursions, you'll see there's a lot more information here besides just uh the the trips in terms of like the the information.

So if you click on uh that first one uh or I'm sorry, Sherry, that plan your trip.

Not gonna go through every single one of these, but what we did do was um, and if you scroll a little bit farther down, we've made uh like itineraries for people for each one of these um train excursions.

So from the Carson City to Virginia City, uh Virginia City to Gold Hill, uh the uh PX, um, and then also Toasts of Your Canyon, each one has a specific uh kind of itinerary, and by no means is this something we're saying, gotta go here, you gotta check this out, but we're just giving suggestions to people, you know, when they're first getting maybe to Carson City, where somewhere where they can go to a local cafe and maybe pick up a coffee, and then when they're in Virginia City, uh where are just some just some places that they can look at uh maybe also like book a tour, and we were working with um we worked with well, we work with Visit Carson City, but we really worked with uh Sherry and Candy as well on this to make sure that you know, hey, does this does this make sense?

Like, does this feel like you know something that's gonna be authentic and get that Virginia City uh experience, but then also really get the most out of their um ride.

So I think that was like one piece uh, like I said, and we've added these itineraries, and these I think in a way can be used.

I know you all were talking, like I said, the previous agenda item about um that social media and email marketing efforts.

I think these are a perfect piece to add these into kind of weave those into the there because people are um these days, they're really looking into itineraries, not so much to tell them what to do, but just give them uh examples like this.

So I think it's definitely something to really look into.

And like I said, you can direct them to this page or the other pages, depending on what the train excursion is, and they'll have something some information here that's really helpful.

The last thing I wanted to highlight, um, because I know you guys are uh have a busy agenda items is if you scroll to the very top again, uh Sherry.

We have uh group experiences.

And if you click on that, you'll see that the this drop down, we have a couple different uh areas.

So I mentioned about the itineraries being something new we've added to the train excursion.

That's to help um that audience get a little bit more information.

They we already had the information of how long the train ride was, uh, how to purchase tickets, um, really those details that a lot of people are asking.

And then we also wanted to make sure that within the group experiences that we highlighted a lot of the other audiences that could be in here.

So that could be uh corporate events, uh private charters, any type of weddings or skill school field trips.

And if you select the school field trips at the very bottom of that menu.

Again, we worked with um the VNT railway team, and we really wanted to make sure that this information and they're all specific to those different audiences.

So you know, we really wanted to make sure that that information's here and it really is something that can be like, well, for example, with this field trip, what's gonna be like some of the main points that um you know a classroom could be able to see what what can they do and kind of map out a little bit of those that information.

So sharing that those information, and then um at the bottom, we have more of the we'll have like a call to action uh down here in this last one, just a little more perfect.

Um, where they can where people can fill out their form.

Um and we have this form for all the events.

It's a group contact form, and then that way we can get a little bit more information.

So when somebody is looking at this, or maybe a corporate event, they will be able to fill out, get a little bit of information beforehand, and then be able to share with you all the information as well.

Um so then that way the VNT railway team kind of look at it, have a little bit of information um beforehand before and really look into it.

So those are probably the main pages.

I again there was uh we really wanted to make sure with this next couple phases that we worked on, and this concluded uh our work on the website uh for right now, but we wanted to make sure that where can we you know get a little bit deeper uh than just like the the information that we have here and really make sure that people are getting as much information as possible so then that way um I know when people are contacting one of the things is they always want to make sure where can I find this, where can I find that, and now it's accessible on the website.

Very good.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Uh commission question questions or comments.

I just wanted to say that I really like the simplicity of the design.

Um what we didn't show was at the footer, how we've been able to basically remove the things that apply to this commission that mean absolutely nothing to an actual visitor or somebody who wants to ride the train.

So I I'd like the way that we've without going to a dot biz site or some something along those lines, um, just put that down in the footer.

I think that keeps it very nice, easy, uh consistent.

So I I think the team did a really good job uh of the way that this is laid out.

I know we still have some things we need to discuss as it relates to once you click off the website and you get into Fair Harbor and how that works, but again, that's not what this group was tasked with.

You know, that's a separate system uh that what we're operating on from a ticket perspective.

Uh we just had ABA, American Bus Association was here first time, 100-year history of this organization.

And one of the three things that I had sent through to the our peers at the Reno Sparse Convention and Visitors Authority when we talk about luxury um experiences, customizable experiences, was this whole group concept, the idea of renting out a train for a motor coach group or tour operator group.

So there's one of three things that uh we had sent through.

And so I'm glad that we have this section up on the website.

Uh we can drive people to it, and you know, obviously Sherry and the team and Candy can take things from there.

But uh I feel like we're positioning ourselves, you know, uh to receive these sorts of requests.

And I will say, just in talking with some of the people who are on the Carson City specific sightsing tour, they were there were a bunch of railroad buffs.

It was it was fantastic, actually.

I mean, uh, you know, so and we do we did take them to the uh railroad museum.

Uh the team there was kind enough to pull the McKean car out, you know, for us a couple weeks ago here, and and that went over really well.

Had a little visit from uh Mr.

Mark Twain himself uh on on that ride.

So a little surprise for these guys, but the railroad piece, the the just that how close things are, right?

Museum to museum to getting onto the East Gate Depot was something that came up uh during the conversations that I had with these folks um at a dinner uh at the Gold Us uh West Casino.

So I think you know, we we have nothing I will say but opportunity on that end of things.

So but um great job, you guys.

I uh I really like the way that this turned out.

Very good.

Other comment?

I um echo everything Dave just said.

I know it's weird, and I agreed with him.

Weird put it in your diary, Dave.

Oh, we need to take a recess.

The record that's on the record.

Um, has there been um a full like pass over to so that staff can do updates to the website?

Has that been handled?

Okay, perfect.

Just so if that we do have any content changes that we need to make, who do we do we start directing those to Sherry now?

I won't be fine.

I don't think it's my main thing.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, um, though that was oh, and are there any remaining invoices that we need to be worried about just from the I need to sometimes put the treasurer hat on?

Are we done there?

As far as we know.

Okay, thank you.

Could I just follow up?

Um, if we are done, then we could move forward with the grant reimbursement for the work that was done, actually.

Not to, you know, but since we're still talking websites, so that's something that we could do because it's complete.

Boom.

Good, cool.

Thank you.

Very good.

Stephanie, anything?

Good, excellent.

Uh great.

Well, um, Ryan, thank you for your work on this.

Uh yeah, I'm um, yeah, I love I love where we are with it.

We have our strategic uh planning retreat coming up in a week and a half or so, and so that will give us an opportunity to maybe come up with uh wish wish list items or other things we may want to um we may want to look at for future phases with the website.

Uh I'm particularly grateful for the the overlay banner at the top, the ability to call people's attention to a particular call to action or or an item of particular interest, so they don't have to go digging for it.

I think that's really valuable.

Is that something that's fairly easy to change uh as we need to?

Yes.

So that is something, you know, if you guys ever have questions too.

I know I shared like a video on how to update that, but luckily, the best thing, and I think you've all echoed this uh a couple of times, but I want to just put a pin in that too, because I think it's such a good point.

Is this a living breathing uh you know, website, and there are going to be changes, but there's also going to be new pages you guys want to add, um, you know, changes to hours, you know, whatever it is.

And so because this is built um on WordPress, I'm gonna not kind of get too jargony, but basically, this is pretty user-friendly uh for the team to be able to make those updates while still making sure it sticks with the style um of the website and to your point um with that banner that's at the top, that's totally customizable in a very easy way.

Um can take as little as maybe two minutes to be able to write.

And the nice thing is you can put whatever message you want up there, and then you also can have uh just as we have here, like a call to action, so it can take the person directly to whatever page um you want that want them to go to.

That's great, thank you.

All right.

Well, uh, thank you so much for being with us, right?

Taking the time.

Uh we appreciate the the wrap-up on it, and we'll uh we'll see where we go from here.

All right.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Have a great day.

Absolutely.

That concludes item number 10.

We will move on to item number 11, which is a discussion and presentation regarding the Polar Express 2025 season.

We'll invite our polar team, including Carla and uh Tom and Candy, if you'd like to come on up and um let us know how it went.

That's a great question.

Is someone just itching to share something about Polar Express?

Yeah.

I can give you a lot of things.

Sherry, do you want to start out with a quick overview of our numbers and how well we did that me?

Sherry in the other.

Yeah.

So the 2025 um Polar Express saw yet again more growth.

I think we hit a record of our total revenue being 1,11,081.

Our net profit being 322,000.

This is all inclusive of the trip insurance, the photography commission, and the gift shop.

So with the 26 nights of performances, where there was a total of uh 78, excuse me, 78 performances through the season.

And we served.

Oh my gosh, I lost my number.

16,431 passengers this year.

Um having said that, our expenses did go a little higher.

They rose by 11%, whereas our revenue was up by seven.

But we did um, you know, we did spend a little bit extra money this year with banners and our flags, um, a little bit on the outdoor um decorations, the cookies were a little bit more expensive, so it's a smattering of all things, but I think it was all well worth it.

Um let's see.

So some of our successes, um, and Rick with rail events at his site visit did point out some uh of our branding and signage that was much more clear on the route up.

Um was very pleased with the cast performance.

He thought that there was an uh excellent adaptation of the material that fits the venue, and that our cast and staff was were all well rehearsed.

Um another win I was happy about was that our messaging this year addressing alcoholic beverages was successful as we had much less problem this year than last.

So that was that was good.

Um let's see.

We had we didn't have as many um responses on our survey.

I don't know what the problem is on that um because I did actually schedule it through Fair Harbor to send the survey out within 24 hours after they rode the Polar Express, but we only really got about 124 responses.

We had some Google reviews as well, um, but almost all were very positive, and I think our our rating was about 4.8 through our our survey monkey.

But overall, we made some money, people were happy, we served more guests, so it was a successful successful event.

Very good.

Thank you, Sherry.

And anyone else allowed to add some color.

Well, I'll let we'll save the best till later, which would be Carlo.

Candy Duncan VT Railway.

Um so I was of course um doing tickets for our new assigned seating, and um it did have some bugs, but overall I think customers were really happy that they were able to choose their own seats, and it's I think that that is a good thing that we need to continue doing.

Um they had some difficulty understanding our seat maps or even understanding that they could pick their own seats this year, which is just because people those first few days are in such a panic to buy tickets, they're not reading anything, they just push a button and buy a ticket.

So, but once you get that all sorted out, and fortunately it's easy enough to change most things through Fair Harbor.

So once you get that all straightened out, I think everybody was happy with them.

Um the coach seating though was a challenge because every single person it seemed like that I talked to about coach seats wanted to be in the seats that face each other, and they know this from past riding the train, and so that was like their biggest issue, and um I think that we need to maybe work a little bit better on the it if they did read first before they because last this this year they just picked what they knew, so hopefully next year they'll pay a little bit more attention because on the um deluxe coach, the seats we we made in a decision, they were not moving seats, they're too hard to move, so they are the way they are, and I know it caused um Carla's people some trouble trying to move people around and make them happy, and they're there were some unhappy people, but I think we can solve that by just making sure we're a little clear in our literature, and some people did think, and we can talk about this at our retreat that deluxe coach wasn't deluxe.

And some people did think, and we can talk about this at our retreat that deluxe coach wasn't deluxe, they didn't see why they had to pay a couple dollars more, and so maybe we can talk about that a little bit more.

Maybe we just maybe they're all coach, I don't know.

There are some other things we need to kind of iron out that way.

Um, and then another issue that came up a lot this year is we have a lot of parents who bring three, four, five, even six-year-old kids and claim they're lap babies, and um sometimes well.

I I caught a lot of people who just wouldn't even walk up to the podium with these giant children that they were gonna pass up as lap babies and just get their tickets and walk off.

And I knew this is what's gonna happen, and Carla confirmed it is what happens, and I think it happens because we don't sell individual seats, odd numbered families don't want to stick somebody in a bench all by themselves, so they try and squeeze them in the bench that they're in, and um we and the pay parents who pay who pay and do what they're supposed to do, of course are resentful of the ones who don't, and so it it is I don't know.

Uh, the only thing I could come up with is maybe we might want to say that the only individuals that do not have to have a paid ticket are babies 24 months and younger, and any other children have to sit in a seat, and the seat has to be paid for, but I don't know how just pretend we're in the airline, right?

Because they had on Southwest Airlines, you can't stick your teenager on your lap and say so.

I mean, I understand.

I had I have three kids, and I remember it's hard having odd number of families, so I know all that, but we just need to be tougher, I guess.

So something to talk about during the retreat, and um the only other thing uh is the advanced preparation for the assigned seating um took too much time this year, and so I'm been investigating some different ticketing um ideas, and I did yesterday talk to briefly was able to talk to some of the people at um the Durango Silverton because their polar tickets are already on sale, and they do assign seating.

Um, and what they do, and I need to actually speak to to them a little bit more about this, but what they do is when you buy your you pick your seat, you buy it, and it tells you in the confirmation will give you directions on how to print your ticket out and how to and how boarding works.

So the individual, instead of having me write a ticket with their name and their seat numbers, they have a copy of that, and it they can print it out or they can keep it on their phone.

Um, and then from there they still would need to check in with me, get their name checked off the manifest, get the gold ticket and be told where to see sit.

So I'm sure Fair Harbor can do that for us.

Um the Durango Silverton uses e-ticks, um, but there's a lot of ticket place ticketing services out there that can do it too.

But I just think we need to investigate that a little further.

So that's what I'm working on now.

And other than that, it was it was really fun.

It was a very intense, busy year, and I looked ahead in the calendar and see that next year our last big push is going to be seven days long, and so um we all need to be sent to an island retreat after next year.

That's what I did this year, but it was good, it was very good.

I'm very thank you for letting me continue to be involved that I always enjoy it.

Absolutely, thank you.

Any uh specific questions for Candy.

All right.

Real real quick on the on the ticketing front, Candy.

So how was how are the lines?

I know we were trying to fix something in there to write with a different color coded.

Did that go over?

No, okay.

I think that was still an issue.

It's it I think a lot of it is that first of all, people don't listen to me when I tell them when they check in what what they need to do, and then we had those little color coded cards, and they don't pay attention to.

I mean, I think they just they're they get in that room and they figure somebody's gonna sort them out and figure where they go.

There are signs, bigger, we had bigger signs with pictures of the tickets.

I the only thing I can think of is having an actual individual whose job it is is to sort out the boarding area.

They don't go anywhere else, they stay in the boarding area and make sure everybody's in the correct line.

And it could even be I don't know, maybe the conductors could do that.

I don't know.

Um, this is Carla Wilson.

I I we did have those issues, and we needed to add another line that separates the Jersey Lille from the table section to the private room.

We only had four lines, and the uh crew on Tom's side, they want to load the private room first.

Perfectly understandable.

But the problem became that people were not grouping up close enough to be have everyone in the boarding area, and it was very confusing because those two sections are in one line.

And I think those two lines, those two sections need to be separated.

We also I think you need to look at some additional stanchions and possibly some signage on the roll-up door as they're entering the loading zone.

But yeah, that that was an issue.

Chairman, I just follow up.

When you say the the roll-up door, the one where you're you're facing it before it goes up, like have something no, it's the one between both sections of the building.

There's no door there.

But to keep the door up.

I know.

Yeah, the doors.

But we used to use it as a reveal, and we stopped doing that about five years ago.

So if there's something that could be put up there, and then the stanchions start there.

What I was doing is, and Desiree, we were going in and asking people to please in, you know, move their groups, uh, tighten up their groups, get to know each other so that everybody could see the pre-show.

Well, yeah, uh yeah.

Sorry, for the overall experience.

Yeah, I agree with you.

So the folks that are way out, you're right, you're missing what's happening.

You don't even know hypothetically, right?

So this is Candy Duncan again.

I think also that was kind of a side effect of assigned seating, is people figured, oh, I don't gotta have to go go do that now because I have an assigned seat.

So I'm gonna stay out here in the retail area, and I'm gonna talk to my friends, and I'm gonna let my kids touch everything, and then I'll after that's all over with, then I'll go in there and get on the train.

So that I saw that happen a lot.

Yeah.

Interesting.

I wonder if I I wonder if maybe um I you know we're we're limited in the space that we have, right?

And so I'm wondering if maybe a step in the right direction is expanding the audio out into that that is covering the pre-show pointing out into the retail section.

So at very least, it's a it's an audio cue that things are starting and that they can hear what's happening even if they can't see what's happening, and that may start to kind of gather everyone in as that starts.

There's a two-fold issue with that.

The first part of that is depending on where the speaker is, it can be hard for Candy to hear people checking in.

On the flip side of that, Rick from Rail Events did suggest putting in another speaker in the loading zone because once you get all those bodies in there absorbing the sound and it's echoing, and people love to chatter through everything.

Um it was hard for people to hear.

So he did make that recommendation, right?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah, and and I think it's probably possible for us to improve the sound within the room.

Even a little louder, better coverage, and then have a moderated connection out into the other room where it's not at the same level, but is an extension that's kind of it's it's a it's a fill without necessarily overpowering what's happening in there.

Well, um a thought could be um to add a we still have the standalone speakers that we had on the train previously, and they work kind of as a squawk box also, so you can plug a mic right into them.

And it's possible to have a conductor, and I'd have to get a proof of rail events, but have one of our conductors do something like uh at Disneyland you hear this next train leaving for the North Pole in two minutes or something like that, that it would not encroach on candy, but it would give people the signal you need to get in there.

Yeah, absolutely.

I like that idea.

Yeah, and whether we use those or up, you know.

And whether we use those or you know, I when I took a tour of Fenway Park, they wore a little speaker right around that, right around, you know, just on a lanyard, basically.

And so it just gave them a little bit of amplification.

These ones are when we purchased them, they were designed to be used for both ways.

And so we still have them.

Excellent.

All right.

On to me, I guess.

Yeah.

This is Carla Wilson.

Um overall, I thought we had a really good season.

Yes, we had hiccups with the seating.

We had people, mainly in the deluxe coach, that they didn't pay attention, as Candy reiterated too.

But we my crew was able to sort out most people to make them happy.

And we had a lot of passengers who they saw that there was an issue, and they moved or we went to them, and we did everything we could to put families together.

I would say maybe five to ten percent of the time there was an issue, but the majority of the time we were able to work it out.

Um the polar plague went through the show again this year.

We evaded it last year, but this year it it uh it kind of got us.

But we made it work.

Um we did the last weekend, we did turn or the last five days we turned on the lights.

We didn't use the market lights, and I think that helped with people getting into the right lines because they could see them hanging, but it did kind of take away some of the effect that we were trying to go for.

Um with regards to um we had some people who were upset when the sound went out one night, which we went over.

Um the North Pole, I know they're working on it, but there were in the survey when I went through it, there were a lot of comments on how they wished it was better lit, so on and so forth.

We did uh add dancers to the North Pole, and I think that added to a lot of the activity this year.

Um I was pleased with how everything went.

Um I felt like my staff did a good job resolving anything.

Um with regards to lap babies.

I I don't, I know in previous years some railroads have used a sticker or something to identify a lap baby.

Well, peeling that off's really easy.

Um that might be something we do have to look at, possibly with a particular ticket or something.

I don't know.

I don't know how to resolve that one.

Candy would probably have better ideas on that.

And uh I know we'll talk more at the retreat.

I do have a request that the Polar Express be the last thing to discuss in the retreat if possible.

I was notified um a close friend of mine passed away, and their funeral is a full Catholic Mass at 11 o'clock on Friday.

So, and I have to sing at it.

So I mean, I don't have to, but I I really am obligated.

Um I think my contract is up, so we need to look at that if we're moving forward this year.

And as Candy said, we need to look at dates.

I thought the um, I thought the exterior decoration was wonderful this year.

It really stood out, and like Sherry said, Rick was very pleased with it.

The um I I still think the commission needs to consider having that small building we're using as a green room inspected just because of all the burrowing under the building.

Um I don't know, Tom could probably answer this if and when it was just kind of last checked out.

But all in all, I was very pleased with how everything went.

Very good.

Thank you.

Questions, comments from the commission.

I just want to make an overall comment from my peers in the tourism industry who took the kids, went on uh BEX.

They absolutely loved it.

They really appreciated that it was different than the year before.

So I think keep up the excellent work as far as what you're doing with the production of it and as we keep enhancing the North Pole.

Um people genuinely appreciated that.

And that was the feedback uh that I received from a lot of my my peers that went on.

And then I have the answer to this lap baby situation.

And I think it would be uh potentially a viral uh social media campaign.

I will be placed on the chair's lap.

And we'll have a circle with a that's a no-go.

Uh this is not the type of lap maybe that we're interested in having on the P.

So it's just a thought.

It doesn't have to be me.

Uh my peers can certainly sit on chairs now.

No, and that not no, not for viral social uh media campaigns.

No, anything goes.

Yeah, you want to keep the legal out.

Sorry, Lucas.

Keep the HR out.

Yeah.

So anyway, but I I just great great work, really.

It was a great, a great um and the numbers prove that out.

So I take great pride in it, and I'm always amazed at the talent I get.

The only thing I would if moving forward if my contract goes on, I would request the ability to have Lumont Media set something up to where I can go on Fox 11 or whatever for auditions because a lot of my kids are aging out, and I'm having to go to younger, which isn't always bad, but I'd love to have more adult for the conductors and the hobos.

Um that would be a little better for me, and I think it would overall enhance the production with the age differences.

Very good.

I'm okay with the viral video, Dave, but pacifier and bonnet are a must for you.

So I love it.

Oh I know I've got some ideas.

Think of it as a fippy cup.

Tom thought thoughts, observations.

Tom Bray, Virginia Truckee Railroad.

Um I didn't make a list like I should have, but uh we just took all the seats in the uh classic coach to get them recovered in and new foam, that's 64 seats.

So we keep whittling away the train cars and we have some new uh kind of nice decorations for the VIP car.

Some uh one thing I'm really proud of is uh I didn't realize that uh handle wrote uh joy to the world.

And so I have that score with a big wreath in it.

So that'll be the first thing you see when you get into the uh VIP car, stuff like that.

You know, if it's VIP, it's VIP, you know, it's not uh commercial decorations.

Um this year we had to uh granted uh didn't want to donate the message boards, so we just purchased the one pretty expensive, and unfortunately it was kind of by a sign uh on the uh eastbound lane of 50 getting in, but I think it worked.

I think once enough.

Um I don't know that that's the hardest to make make the turn, you know.

Um two would be better.

Um that's such a dangerous intersection at night, it just scares the heck out of me.

Um I remember one meeting I had uh and dot actually came and they trimmed down that barrier rail.

So uh when you're turning in the lights, you you couldn't see cars coming up on the eastbound, westbound.

So that was really nice.

Um, but you know, that's um yeah.

Uh the parking lot, you know.

We had the um, I don't know if you made any money on the commission guy, but I I um I kind of felt you know I kind of let them do it, but I don't think it's a good idea, it just takes too much room.

I can show you some pictures when when everybody's exiting there in the good weather, it's just too dark, and we we bought an extra light plant this year down there, and this there's no place for people to walk.

They were walking in the roadway, and the kids, you know, and it's just it's a potential for something really dangerous.

That's that's my biggest uh one of my biggest fears down there.

Um the trains seem to go okay.

Uh um I'm having a lot of crew issues, you know.

I'm I've lost a lot of people this year, but we we're doing okay.

Um uh everything seemed to be reliable, but building facilities.

We had some uh 911s on the uh electrics, and uh uh Highland Electric was gonna come back at the end of the year.

know and it's just it it's a potential for something really dangerous that's that's my biggest uh one of my biggest fears down there um the trains seem to go okay uh um I'm having a lot of crew issues you know I'm I've lost a lot of people this year but we we're doing okay um uh everything seemed to be reliable but building facilities we had some uh 911s on the uh electrics and uh uh Highland Electric was gonna come back at the end of the year uh these gals I mean it's so cold in there for these ladies you know they we need to heat them up and uh exercise program maybe jumping jacks and so there's just not enough electrical circuits in there to power all this stuff so um we talked about it and I it's pretty simple uh he was waiting for all the decoration to come down they come back and and add these circuits so it'll make it more robust um the the rainy weather sometimes knocks the lights out so um it is that's always gonna be a challenge with outdoor lighting and the sockets uh we put in uh security cameras I think we have seven now it's a pretty good little system um you know it's an after the fact thing um we had security during the most days during the day and then the night three or four times a night they come by um uh seating's always gonna be a problem when we you know started we started out doing the assigned bench seating and it's it's always a problem if you have an oddball person you know three and it's just it's kind of not fair for the customer you know because they have to either buy an extra seat and uh you know um it's just it's just uh it you know we're putting a square block in a and a round hole and it's not quite fitting but it it works it's the best seating's never going to be perfect people are going to be mad no matter what and they're gonna have children small children in David's age you know and uh like sneaking into the drive-ins in the trunk uh uh what else was there um the hot chocolate ladies do an incredible job in there uh Kelly's incredible uh we we improved that room that was one of the nine one ones to get the circuits better uh unfortunately the electricians before it put uh the lighting circuit on the outlet circuit so um I don't know I think we got that segregated so at least the lights will be on for them if the other stuff goes out so because making that hot chocolate is critical um I found out uh that their urns some of the urns weren't making uh hot water for almost an hour and a half so I ordered three new urns uh but they didn't come in at time so next year that'll be a priority um when the merchandise came in this year there were 16 pallets and they're they're about six to seven feet tall uh we need to have the inventory list uh beforehand so we can uh you know know where to put all the stuff you know there's just all the you know the the pallets and mugs are pretty easy but the merchandise is all you know and that that would be faster one thing that I I really like was that point of sale system that's really simple to use and I think it's a really it'll be a really good asset coming up.

What else was there?

Internet's on a wireless to it so at some point we probably should hardwire the uh point of sale systems you know uh rather than have them go through the wireless that's easy to hack easier to hack um the restrooms did pretty good um we have a great parking lot lady worked harder than anybody I've ever seen um twice as strong as me for sure and uh she cleaned the restrooms and and the uh restroom company came in during the week uh beforehand um so they should have been pretty good I think we pumped them one time this year twice twice okay um so that really wasn't issue the rodent problem and yeah there's definitely a rodent problem in the uh on the green room um um uh you know we only have the train sets you know over the years are kind of different sizes and we have a fixed facilities to load them and so uh when we load the the top VIP car there's a uh there's a a concrete ramp that works pretty good you know except if it's icy or snowy um it it really could be extended with a guardrail uh in case somebody comes off that train because we have a conductor to help them get on and off on the steps because it it is there's a potential for a uh you know fall there and uh hopefully they'll fall on one of the big round jovial conductors uh and bounce back but uh the other cars load up on the loading ramp which you know there's the handicap ramp and then the steps uh so that works pretty good um but it takes a while to load up on the far end of the train so there are some steps down there but it's dark there and there's it's it's a really high step it's okay for the crew maybe to discharge stuff but not for the passengers it's just so and and to build a concrete step there you're right in the middle of where the turn the the guys throw the switch so you have to kind of you know uh fudge something to make something else work so um maybe just loading the train a little bit slower is is the safest kind of easiest way to do it um our engineers I think 82 now uh he's been doing every one and he's hanging in there pretty good uh but um yeah um what else I don't know any questions for us you should really see what do behind the scenes I think you'd be amazed it's uh with everybody's uh it's quite a quite a production to pull it off you know so and nobody got hurt this year too so that was good all right thanks thank you this is Carla Wilson Tom sparked my memory

Uh he's been doing every one and he's hanging in there pretty good.

Uh but um yeah um what else?

I don't know.

Any questions for us?

You should really see what do behind the scenes.

I think you'd be amazed.

It's uh with everybody's uh it's quite a quite a production to pull it off, you know.

So and nobody got hurt this year, too.

So that was good.

All right, thanks.

Thank you.

This is Carla Wilson.

Tom sparked my memory, or not my memory, my thoughts on a few other things.

Um I don't know, Clay, you mentioned something about where the cast parks.

Did we ever get a permit or what I noticed the guy who owns the strip, the landing strip there was running his plane up and down it.

Not at night, of course, but he has been running his plane up and down it.

So I don't know about that.

Yeah, Carla, I called in a favor, got the federal government shut down.

So BLM back about it.

Perfect.

For a little bit.

I imagine they'll call sooner or later.

So shut down.

Yeah, it was back.

They they mentioned it to us right before the shutdown back in October.

So I had a had a meeting with I had a meeting with them uh related to some other work we were doing on the track, and they mentioned that uh they we probably should just get a permit to officialize the access across a BLM parcel that's there.

Okay, so um one thing I remember Rick did mention was about it would be better if we could add a two or three more of the porta potties.

And one day prime example, um, I was coming out of the green room, heading up to the train, and I noticed the a guy come running behind me, and he went around the building really quick, and I'm thinking, what is he doing back there?

It's not safe.

And so I went to follow him to tell him not to go back there, only to realize he was relieving himself as I rounded the corner.

So um, and it wasn't the first time.

Evidently, my cast reported there were several in several incidents of that.

Um with regards to the cookies, um dirty dough stopped making the gluten-free uh midway through the run because they couldn't get them from their uh headquarters.

So uh Kelly pass a what a however you say her last name, Kelly from the hot chocolate room.

Uh she's a cottage baker, and she was baking at least a dozen gluten-free for us every night so that we could have those on hand.

So that's something we need to think about for next year, because we did have several requests for them.

And um I I know we get a lot of requests about or comments about lawn furniture in our Ardell.

Is there any possibility to look into something different?

It's not a huge complaint, but we do get comments back about lawn furniture, not that often.

Just something for the future to think about if we can.

Thank you.

I I had one question on the uh on on the review that we received.

It said something uh, you know, it was talking about the train decorations is nicely decorated as decor is replaced, moved to templated as per the style guide.

Do we know how what what they're talking about, how big a job that is, what would what do we do that?

The style guide, um, they want it to look like the interior of the movie train, okay.

Um they give us some leeway on that, and Tom's crew has been great at making that more conform to what they want.

Um I'm not sure exactly what more they want us to do.

Have they talked to you at all, Tom?

No, uh that's a good point.

I know we took all the colored lights off, and then when Alison was here, she bought the the Breeze, and then we finished them up with the white lights.

We took all the surprise in the VIP cars, the only one.

Um yeah, I just made a thing where I'm gonna put it in the joy of the world.

That might be wrong for them.

Well, no, that'd be a good car.

Is it and and you know what?

Be honest with you, you know, they get a big check from you guys.

That's what they care about.

The rest of it is, you know, and and every year it's you know, the you know, polar the rail events takes all of our great ideas, you know.

I mean, if we do this, they're gonna, you know, when they go to the different railroads.

Oh, yeah.

Um, yeah, and then they, you know, I mean, yeah.

Though I I do want to make a comment about the North Pole.

It to me it's underwhelming now.

You know, the buildings are less, and it's a lot easier to put up.

Um, I do like the dance stages.

I thought that was a great, that was a great thing that she did this year up there.

But it to me it's getting underwhelming.

And but then again, you know, I have I have a different event in in Virginia City and Gold Hill where I have to knock it out of the park.

So it's way different, you know.

We're still putting decorations away today from that event December.

Um, so it's it's a it's a not apples to apples, but but um it still does work.

So the Santa's do a great job, and that's the main thing, you know.

Santa's makes a contact with each family and each individual because it is Christmas, and you know, Santa Claus is the is the guy.

So my two cents.

Very good.

Thank you.

All right, final comments.

Going, going, gone.

Thank you all for your your efforts on that for a great successful season.

All right, let's move on to item number 12, which is for discussion only.

Um some monthly non-action items.

Sherry, do you have uh anything else you want to talk about an update for us?

Uh treat one high level of the 2025 regular season, so you guys can come up with great ideas so we can double um in November.

Um I did a little bit more of a full on did it come up report of financials and everything, but this um is just boiling things down a little bit.

Um over the whole season, May through October, we ran a total of 47 trains.

Um you will see that diesel has lagging.

We we know that um and steam we run about 68 percent capacity.

Um overall bringing our capacity to 62 percent.

Math-wise, we need to be running at least 50 percent capacities.

We're a little bit over that, but our special events are are carrying a lot of the season where our Mother's Day, our Mark Twain train, our toast of the canyons, they are running at like a hundred, so that counteracts, but those are five events.

Um so I just wanted to to bring that up, and you know, possibly we can brainstorm some ideas to bring diesel up somehow, lowering tickets.

Um, I know we had the last year we had the 10% off Sundays.

When I looked that up out of over 2,000 bookings that we had last year, we had 124 that took advantage of that.

So uh we might want to think of a way to push that a little bit more.

Um the next page is a month by month of of how we went.

Um the spring, you know, May with with Mother's Day is nice, May and June is good.

Um August is our is our slower month.

Um and then we ramp back up in September, October again.

We have a couple of events, so maybe we want to move those around a little bit if we can.

Um but and then the final page is what I did present in November.

So you can see numbers from 24 to 25.

Um, and like I say, brainstorm.

So we're ready on February 6th, and hopefully don't have to rehash 2025.

Let's just plan 2026.

Chair, can we ask a quick question?

Uh no, sorry.

Okay.

Thank you.

No, go ahead.

Thank you, sir.

August.

Is this heat related?

People going back to school related to the case.

I think it it's going back to school.

So that I mean, that we gotta figure out a workaround there for sure.

Because that's not good.

If I mean if if our break even is 50%, so we're operating in the negative for the entire month, basically, then almost, yeah.

Do uh do we run more diesel trains in August?

I don't think so.

Is there a correlation there?

Look.

Yeah, or is that an opportunity to create um uh when we talked about those special event style trains, but something that would make sense um historically or culturally or whatever on on some sort of thematic train, could that help us on one of those weekends to sell out, you know, and do a hundred percent capacity.

I don't know, uh but that's I didn't realize how uh off we are for August.

Well, if we if we don't run a heavy train schedule, uh you know, and that's and that's why I ask about the diesel because if we're only running a couple weekends in August, then there's a greater there's a great variability, right?

And so um, but I do um uh it's it's my desire that we we really and and if if the commission can spend some time thinking about this when we get into the into the planning that we spend some real time thinking about.

I mean, uh I think it's clear where our growth opportunities are internally, right?

We certainly can can we've talked about packaging and other you know external things as well, but uh internally really really put some brain power into strategizing on how to increase our occupancies and get better bang for our buck because most of most of our expenses in the regular season are fixed costs, and so that means we are paying those fixed costs regardless, we're amortizing them over few fewer passengers, and so um if in preparation for that, if you want to think about pricing strategies, if you want to think about um the offering that we have schedule, and then and like you said, Dave, maybe maybe uh additional things or themes or things that we can do to make it more interesting.

So maybe we just do like the French and take the month of August off all of us?

Oh yeah, everyone, five weeks of vacation.

J just decide so sorry.

Oh gosh.

Oh menders exempt.

Great, thank you.

Uh Sherry, anything else for us?

I don't think so.

If you want me to have any ideas that you want me to make sure that we have a the uh retreat, just yeah, please ask if you want backup information or previous information that will help.

Are we starting at 9 at the Adams Hub?

Is that yes, yes, okay.

Great, thank you.

Yeah, well, thanks for jumping the gun, Vice Chair, because uh sub item B is upcoming meetings.

So um I'm just kidding, we're fine.

Yeah, oh, is it on the right?

Oh gotcha.

Um, so so yeah, the um yeah, then it will it will uh just just briefly want to mention so the retreat is uh scheduled for February 6th, it's a Friday.

We have the Adams Hub booked, and we'll start at nine in the morning.

Uh if you if if anyone has restrictions on that day, let us know so we can try to plan it.

We're trying try to try to schedule it in a way where um we can work around people's schedule so that we can get you in, but maybe you don't have to be there the whole day.

I mean, except for us, obviously.

And make sure when you arrive, you don't park in that little alley part because that's short-term parking that right in front of the booth.

Yeah, right in front of the I mean 15 days for all day, $15 for all day parking.

That's what the ticket is.

If we want to go that far, I think that's what you did last year.

In most major metros, yeah.

So I I just flip the license plate every couple of hours.

If you want to walk across the street, you can park in the city hall parking garage.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Except for David.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, and then our next regularly scheduled meeting is February 25th.

Um then I did want to uh just bring to the attention of the commission that the April meeting potentially forms a conflict for several of us.

Uh the date that that we had outlined, I think falls over row roundup.

And so what I would ask is maybe you look at your calendars and look at if we could do it the week before, which would be the fifteenth, I believe, of April.

Um, but get a hold of me.

And and we can talk offline about about rescheduling um to a different day.

So just wanted to make sure that that was on the radar and we're thinking about it.

With that, we'll move on to item number thirteen, which is commissioner comments or announcements and requests for information.

No action will be taken and no discussion among the members or with staff will take place during this item of the agenda.

Do we have commissioner comments, announcements, or requests for information?

Very good.

No.

Very good.

Thank you.

All right, with that, we will uh move on to our final opportunity for public comment.

The public's invited at this time to comment on any matter that's not specifically included in the agenda as an action item.

No action may be taken on matters raised under this item of the agenda.

Any public comment here at the end of the meeting?

Not hearing any, we will move on to item number fifteen, which is to adjourn.

We will call the meeting adjourned at ten fifty six A.

M.

Thank you, everybody so much.