Um, uh, uh, uh, yeah.

We'll uh get this meeting started.

Um this is the joint uh meeting between the uh open space advisory committee and the parks and rec commission.

And so we'll call the meeting to order at five thirty.

Uh, start off with roll call.

Uh, starting with open space advisory committee, uh, Chair Wiggins.

Vice Chair Burge.

Member Anderson.

Member Kimbrough, Member Mozingo, Member Norrie.

And Member Schaeffer.

Uh, moving on to uh Parks and Rec, Chair McDermott here, Vice Chair Shooty, Commissioner Baker Roberts, Commissioner Fazer, Commissioner Meyer.

Commissioner Moan.

And Commissioner Walt.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Great.

Um, moving on to item number three for public comment.

Anyone from the public wishing to address, please step on up.

We have a form to fill out and please uh state your name for the record.

Okay.

Thank you.

So I am here just as a resident of Carson City, long-term resident.

I have the good fortune of driving p driving on just about every day, East Fifth Street from the prison uh area to into town, and I get to go right through Lompa Ranch, where all the ranch and outbuildings are on my right, and there's this lovely pasture with a barn and a windmill on the left.

And that parcel, it just dawned on me that uh maybe subject to development like most of the other land of Lompa of the Lopa family and ranch has occurred.

So I am trying to find out how to get started to see if this remaining lovely parcel of open land, open space, can be protected from building on it.

Um I sent an email to all the open space people just to bring you a little bit up to speed.

Um so I don't know if it's considered a wetlands or a wild uh wildlife uh migration thoroughfare.

I see a lot of really cool wildlife in there when I drive by.

Um I do know that it's privately owned by the LOMPA family, and I just have a concern that at some point it might go up for sale to um developers, and I'm very ignorant of this entire process what the open space advisory committee does, but I have seen uh articles and things written about um things in Ash Canyon and Silver Saddle, and I'm hoping that uh something can be done to protect this piece of land.

So I just need some guidance on get where to start, whose cages do I rattle?

Um I know that uh I guess the supervisors need to make a recommendation I think to the open space committee to consider this.

I don't know, so I'm just here saying help, what can I do as a private citizen to get this on the radar of the right people?

That's why I'm here.

Um, okay.

We don't have it on the internet, but probably.

Yes, and um I do want to say thank you, Jennifer Budge and uh Lindsay Boyer have both been really helpful in um me getting emails out to the right people to kind of get started.

So um I guess that's it.

I just wanted to get it on the radar.

Thank you.

Thank you, Monique.

Uh anybody else wishing to take advantage of the public comment.

All righty, moving on to item number four, um, for the approval of minutes.

Um we'll start with the open space.

Has everybody had a chance to review your minutes from the last meeting and is there a motion to approve or any questions?

I need to change.

Sam introduced the horse.

The property it was on last week's item five.

Horse Creek Ranch conservation easement.

Sound about it, that's not a I thought there was just a little bit.

Oh, and then you were standing magnetic, and maybe he did introduce that section.

Well, he no, he did introduce it because you hand you you passed it off to him for that section, I believe.

That was why I had it in there that way.

When when that in when that item was introduced, you gave it to Sam to introduce it.

He actually did introduce the item.

Yeah, that's we got I don't remember.

I mean, yeah, if I can't forget that.

Yeah, I don't I don't know about it.

Yeah, it's got timestamps, I'll go back and review it.

Yeah, and the other core reviews are member of these requirements?

Sorry.

That's it.

All right.

Motion to approve.

Yeah.

Do you want to accept it?

Yeah.

I think so.

Okay.

I move to approve the minutes of the open space advisory committee meeting of 420 2026.

Okay, you're the chair.

I'm the chair.

Yeah, let me make the motion for you.

Oh.

You should introduce it would have been easier if he introduced it's open space.

So we can come up with a question, but you can't get it.

I can't as the chair.

You gave me the gavel.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So now you're asking if you guys are in agreement.

So now I'm I'll make the motion.

Someone second.

I'll second it.

And he's the chair of the meeting.

All right.

Then the open space is approved.

Um the parks and rec side, the commission.

Any vote?

Does the attorney want to weigh in on our procedure?

Yeah.

For both or one at a time.

We can do it one at a time.

Okay.

We want to take a vote for the open space.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

I obtained out of the year.

Perfect.

Out of the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Approval for minutes.

Any questions?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right.

Minutes approved.

Moving on to item number five.

Uh for discussion.

And that's the updates for the friends of the Silver Saddle Ranch.

For Greg uh Brennan.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Greg Bergeren for the record.

Trails coordinator.

So I just want to introduce uh Mike Drews.

He's the new chair of Friends of Service Hattle Ranch.

He's been a member of uh Foster for about 12 years.

Um and he's also the chair of the Historic Resources Commission.

Um so with that I will let Mike tell you about um the many projects and services that Fosser has provided to us over the last year.

Thank you, Greg.

For the record, I'm Mike Druze.

I'm the uh the current president of Friends of Silver Saddle Ranch and a member for about 15 years, I think.

It all runs together.

Umser was incorporated in 2001, just after or somewhat after BLM acquired uh the land.

Um our mission statement is to maintain the historical significance of the ranch as a working farm and ranch and support restoration and conservation of natural and cultural resources, restoration of the river corridor, and provide additional educational interpretive art opportunities.

One of the issues we have is our incorporation um was a result of the the BLM acquisition.

Most of the documentation we have, um, our charter and our agreement with uh BLM is all directed at BLM and not Parks and Rick.

So we're in the process of changing all that now, getting our uh our articles and corporation together and working with with Jan and Lindsay to get us under the uh the city umbrella.

Uh, some of the early projects that Bosser did was uh we replaced two wooden bridges across Mexican ditch at the ranch.

Uh we would annually install bird boxes and uh wood duck boxes along the river, rep trees for beaver protection, and uh we procured funds for the 2011 uh conservation easement and concert or Carson River Planning Area uh master plan update.

Currently one of our members, Dave De Meet Denine owns the Heehaw Haven mules.

You've probably seen them around town if you've been out at the ranch, you know.

Mark's taking rides with us.

And we have three or mule drawn wagons that we use a lot out there.

Um we originally incorporated, we had about 20 members.

Umce we've got the wagons and kind of uh uh updated our profile.

Um we're now up to about uh what is it, 72 members.

I think we have uh uh 10 corporate members, um, and we're doing quite well, and it it's helping us because we can now not only pay for our board insurance and our wagon insurance, but we can start putting money towards projects at the ranch, and that's kind of one of our big goals.

We worked with Lindsay and Greg with the uh the SHIPO uh memorandum of agreement there and things like that.

So things are moving along good.

Um the past three years, around right around uh May Day or uh Cinco de Mayo.

Uh we've been doing uh ranch cleanups.

Last year we had about 15 volunteers who put in 60 hours of work.

We weeded around the red house.

Originally, the red house had a really nice front yard yard, and Gary, the caretaker from BLM, was watering every day.

It was really beautiful.

Um as BLM's interest waned in that property, the grass pretty much went away and just turned into a big weed patch.

Um we also collected dog poop on major trails of the ranch.

Um we took on the effort of weeding and replanting the Red House lawn, and we repaired and replaced some broken windows in the uh chicken coop.

This year, um we only had 11 volunteers come out, but we managed to clean the quonset hut at the old white ranch complex at the entrance to the park.

Um there's a periodic rodent problem there, and we store our wagons and things in that.

So it was important to get that clean.

We weeded and raked around the red house.

We had 10 bags of weeds just from right around the fenced area of the red house.

It's amazing how the weeds just take off there.

And the original outhouse there is that south outhouse uh the south end of the parking lot, that had never been painted.

So we got five gallons of paint and used four gallons of it to soak into that that house.

Um it's in pretty bad condition.

It in the future it's going to need to be resited because it's all it's plywood siding, and it's really it's starting to weather pretty bad.

Um couple years ago, we started partnering with the park rangers.

Um, first out at Silver Saddle Ranch.

Um we provide wagon rides for their historic tours out there.

Um we've been doing the cemetery tours, the Halloween cemetery tours that they do, um, as uh Hank Monk stage.

We take riders around the cemetery a couple nights around Halloween, um, and we've been participating in Kids to Park Day, which is really fun.

It's uh I'll bring it up a little later, but uh the kids really like seeing the animals.

This year when we were out there, we actually one of our members has a donkey.

Um Dave's also got a Norwegian fjord horse, and we had the mules, and we pretty much showed the kids what the uh math is like to produce a mule.

So that was fun.

Um every August we team with uh Mile High Jazz Band in their uh Jazz and Beyond series two week series and do a country music day out at the ranch.

It's a lot of fun, it's one of the biggest events out there.

The wagons there, um, lots of good music, um, good food.

Um October brings two weekends of fall color rides that we do.

We take uh a loop kind of out to the first bridge before you get to the Mexican ditch, but we do a loop along the river, and uh Parks and Rec helps us coordinate that.

They do we do our reservations through them, split the prof profits with them, and it's it's really great because people call in, they get their times aside, assigned, and they show up and and do the wagon rides.

Um the Christmas open house is a big hit.

It started with Parks and Wreck doing it out there until one winter when we pretty much got rained and snowed out, and I think the lights were up for almost six months after that before we could get to them.

But Friends of Silver Saddle Ranch goes out every Christmas and we decorate the house, decorate around the house, and we do uh two weekends, two Saturdays with uh Santa and an open house and bring kids out for that.

Um one of the things we noticed at the uh the kids to park day and things is that uh well let me get some of the things we'd like to see happen out there.

I was looking at uh the work plan for for Silver Saddle and when I think you guys saw last meeting, and basically a lot of the things we want to do overlap with what your goals um we want to the original sighting on the red actually the the sighting on the red house now is OSB or uh T 11.

It's warping, it's falling apart.

The old sighting is underneath it.

Looks like it's in pretty good shape.

Um when we did a condition assessment out there a few years ago, um we thought there's a real good possibility of taking the old new siding off would reveal a lot of of old siding that was in good repair and we could uh kind of restore that.

Um there's roofs that need different amounts of repair.

Uh the foreman's house and tool shed are both kind of leaning.

I don't think there's foundations under either of them.

Um now that we have the uh lawn at the red house, we'd like to put in something a little more permanent irrigation system, maybe something that we could, you know, just uh blow out every winter.

Nothing really fancy right now.

We're just using ho hoses and a couple of sprinklers to keep that going.

Um and the red house plumbing and septic system definitely needs work.

Um of the encouraging things is we did uh Carson Pride, the wagon was out of Carson Pride last weekend, and the person from Pay It Forward Foundation approached us and said we would really like to help you on your ranch projects, so it's something that hopefully we could bring to you.

We got a grant for that 2011 uh conservation plan, and if we could bring money to the table to help you guys with that, throw some of our money into that'd be great.

Um, the kids to park day really show that there's a need for more outdoor education and exposure to agriculture in Carson City.

You know, a lot of the rural communities, people have acreage or they have uh community horse parks, things like that.

Um the kids really enjoyed.

We had one kid who I think spent most of the day cleaning hooves on the mules.

He just thought it was it was great, and we haven't they come out and they can groom and let them sit on it.

Um there's an opportunity at Silver Saddle with FA FFA or 4H.

We've got stalls and uh and barns out there, and one of the things the the board is kicking around is can we partner with them so that kids can can actually raise animals?

There's it's a it's a complex issue because somebody's gonna have to be out there every day to make sure those kids are taking care of animals and things like that, but it'd be a great opportunity.

Right now with mixed cows and stuff, it it's you get the the agricultural feel in the ranch atmosphere, but if we could have some uh some other animals in those pens, historically there were sheep and pigs on the ranch, and uh we could probably do that.

Um in 2015 the merchant family left the front or gave the Friends of Silver Saddle Ranch uh water rights to about uh one and a half acres just south of Carson River Park, right where the ranch and the park kind of meet.

We've always thought about doing a community garden there, um maybe partnering with the greenhouse project or something and getting some kind of garden going there.

Um Dave Denine's really interested.

His mules know how to work farm equipment, and we could actually do demonstrations and and do plowing and and some ranching activities with the mules and horse drawn implements out there.

Um in the pollinator garden, right now the uh the grass area is planted with yaro uh clover and a cellum as well as uh uh fescue, I think.

Um there's a lot of areas around the the red house.

There's a little area in front that's that's barren and just collects cheap grass, and the ditch around uh or the bank around Mexican Ditch is the same thing, it just gets cheap grass every year and we mow it and try to keep it down.

But a pollinator garden would be really easy to maintain there.

You could do water uh or zero c kind of a zero landscape, get some plants in there and attract pollinators.

So that's kind of what we're thinking where we're going, and uh really appreciate the help that open space and parks and rec uh gives us and the communication.

It's historically it was a little bit patchy, especially after the transition between BLM and to the city, but we've worked a lot of stuff out.

We're working with Jen on uh our use agreement and uh things are going really good.

So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Start over here.

Go ahead.

Um, thank you, and thank you for the presentation.

Um you mentioned about getting students or kids out there, and so Carson High has a CTE program with the Ogre Court.

Do you partner with them or th those are partnerships we want to look into, Molly?

I mean, the FA The FFA chapter?

Yeah, Dave Denine does uh the pumpkin patch out at Sealinger every year and FA FFA helps them with that, and they'd be really happy to come out.

The community garden, any of that other work, they'd be really happy to come out and uh and work with us on that.

It's just the logistics of all that are just really tough.

How do we get animals out there?

What you know?

How do we make it work?

Um, okay, or yeah, so my role on the school board is I am the school board trustee liaison to the so if there's any way that uh I can help you, you know, get in with the school or whatever, please reach out.

Um most definitely, you know, trying to get the students out there from FFA, sure.

But also if there's opportunities that you have activities going on and would like um to offer it.

I know we reach that we did we mentioned like last year with the park rangers and they've been doing really well, but also with the um I would encourage you if you can at the um open houses at the beginning of the school year or the back to school nights, they do offer um they have stem nights as well during the the school year, but um there's different opportunities to maybe have a table of some sort, letting them the different schools know what you're doing.

Okay.

So if there's anything that um you want, I can help you get that.

We'll qu I'll coordinate with you on that.

Yeah.

And the rangers have been great doing it too.

They've you know, keep us included whenever they're doing great kid events out there.

All right, great, thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

All right, thank you.

Um I have a question about the community garden.

I'm really interested in hearing a little bit more about that.

Are you and I'm trying to picture where that's at, south of Car Carson River Park.

Are you thinking that whole ranch area there?

There's if you go from the red house, there's the trail that goes down towards Carpenter Park.

Right at the end of that trail, there's an area that uh that we have water rights for.

Okay, great.

So it's all it's all sagebrush right now.

I think it used to be pasture, but it's it's unplu it's just past the uh irrigated pastures.

Okay.

And just gives a little like half moon shape right in there.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Good job.

Hey, uh right off the bat, you need to be recognized for all this stuff he's just talked about is on his own time.

You so he's taken on a responsibility, and I I go all the way back to when John Singlob from BLM was talking about buying that parcel.

Yeah, and myself and Juan went on field trips to Jackson.

Good ski town, Jackson Hole, I guess.

Yeah.

And then we went down to Arizona to see these nonprofits that run, because there's this real concern that the family branch in this country is fading slowly away as the next generation is doing that.

So you got you've carried that ball and you've done this for free.

He's done reports for us.

He's Mr.

History.

Uh uh here.

You are the source of vast amount of knowledge of this community and what goes on.

So you uh you need to be given accolades for what you're have done for this community.

It it's my community.

So I know well, and you keep trudging along doing stuff and becoming more successful at each little piece both.

And uh it is still a traditional looking ranch house and nothing has changed um about that, and you protected that for several years now.

So uh I think it's great.

So I'm gonna make sure you get credit for that from everybody to understand.

Uh volunteer extraordinaire, what I would say.

And uh I the programs are great that you're doing and expanding and doing all that.

So and I was glad when you said you advanced the membership to 70 people, so um, that's even better.

I sent a little note to you guys last time.

You need a another box to check that asks me for more money.

So you were supposed to be thinking about that.

If you give me a chance for ten bucks, oh yeah, I'll do that to you.

Make me think about it a little bit.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks, Mike.

I like to commend you as well.

I mean, what you're doing out there is so amazing and it's so important.

And I was curious, it sounds like all of your funding is through membership.

And you did get a grant.

Are you trying to apply for another one?

We haven't since the 2011 grant was the the it was the National Park Service grant that we got.

Um we could certainly look into that, but yeah, all of our funding is from uh membership, we and corporate sponsors.

Um we've been really fortunate this year.

Downtown Business Association has hired the wagon for the wine walk, and they pay us for that, and brewery arts center is using us for most of their big events.

We were at a Carson Pride last weekend, we're doing Mark Twain.

Um and we just do a lot with them.

And Jazz and Beyond's the same way.

It's it's the they want us out there doing it.

So and it's great, it's bringing in money and finally helping to pay for things.

Yeah, that's wonderful.

And I was also wondering, do you have any fundraisers planned?

We do uh Christmas and uh Christmas open houses uh it's a so that's like a fundraiser, some of those events.

Yeah, I mean, we every time the wagon is out, there's a tip jar.

Okay, and uh it's little things like that.

It's it's origin or years ago we used to do a pancake breakfast and things out there.

Working with the health department's easy, but it's it's a whole nother struggle.

And it's just easier to try to there's a lot of businesses, Bensons, uh tractor supply people like that who support us with the wagon and the animals, and are more than happy to sponsor.

RCI is one of our big sponsors, and it's uh it's it's it's turning around.

We finally got people on the board who who want to hustle and and get things going.

All right, thank you.

Good job again.

Hi, Charles Norris for the record.

Um, any time we can put young people or young people, people, period, together with animals for almost any reason.

I think there's absolutely no downside.

It is just the some of the best experiences I've ever had.

And it we're not just talking about muck and stalls, we're talking about getting up close in personal, so whatever I would I'll commit right now.

If you need volunteers for staffing, I'd be happy to put some time in on that.

And of course, uh the community garden, you can't have enough of them as far as I'm concerned.

But yeah, yeah, whatever we can do to get uh young people together with animals for any reason um is a good idea, and uh I'll support it.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks again for your uh commitment to the community.

It's uh sounds like a heavy lift uh out there, but many hours, but uh I can tell you you're pretty passionate about it.

So you all the self is right at the top.

Excellent.

Thank you for coming in.

It's very enlightening.

I appreciate it.

Um I always seem to be a broken record.

I'm the father of two young ones, so very excited to get them engaged, and I think it's a great opportunity.

Um I'd be curious about the pollinator garden.

I know that's been something that's talked about with within uh open space and parks, right?

That'd be super interesting.

My question would be like allocation of water for that, how would that work?

Um, but I just I have no knowledge there, so it'd be there there's water at the Red Ranch, and I think it that's all allocated to the Red Ranch complex itself.

And the pollen, I mean, the the the Yarrow and things that we have right now really don't take much.

I mean, it's sprinkling once a week, and it's fine.

And that's where that irrigation system would help you if we could just get something in there so we could set it and leave it, it uh should take off.

Absolutely, that's excellent.

Thank you.

Great presentation, thank you.

Uh, just a couple uh questions.

So, how much does it cost to be a member?

Our membership is really cheap.

It's ten dollars per person, twenty-five per family, and a hundred and fifty for corporate.

Okay.

And then how often do you all uh get together for your meetings?

We do we our meetings vary by charter, we're supposed to do it once a month.

Um we've kind of backed off and do it every other month or as needed.

Um, just because there was you put a lot of time in and to sit around at a meeting flapping your gums and doing nothing is kind of non-productive.

So we kind of we try to do our meetings when we need them and and really focus on it.

But um there's an annual membership uh general membership meeting where we do elections and things like that.

With our increased membership now, we're getting a lot more support.

Okay, interests.

And then um, how do we get notified are you guys on Facebook?

Do you have one?

Yeah, we're on Facebook, Friends of Silver Saddle Ranch.

Um trying to remember what our I think our website is Friends of Silver Ranch Silver Friends of Silversaddle Ranch dot org.

And I can't remember what the email address is right now, but um come out any time there's an event out of the ranch or if you catch us in town or something, we should have flighters.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Well, thank you, Mike, for your presentation.

Appreciate it.

Moving on to item 5B, the presentation from the Nevada Department of Outdoor Recreation on the Nevada Starry Skies program.

And welcome, Greg, and yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh for the record, Greg Bergern Trails Coordinator.

And I'd like to introduce Chelsea Kinchlow.

She is the program officer for at the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation.

And among the many hats that she wears down there, one of them is she chairs or she's in charge of the Dark Sky program first in Nevada.

And we we hope to be able to get dark sky designation for Silver Saddle Ranch and Prison Hill area and perhaps Carson River Canyon.

So we're excited about it.

There was those, there was a great, great dark areas.

So we're very proud of.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Chelsea.

Oh, this button.

Let's see.

Oh, there we go.

It did it.

It was very fluid.

For the record, my name is Chelsea Kinchlow.

I'm a program officer with the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation.

And as Greg said, I am here to talk to you guys about the Nevada Starry Sky certification program through our division.

I believe you guys have had presentations from uh us before, but just in case, I just wanted to do a quick recap.

So we were founded in 2019 with the mission to advance and promote sustainable world-class outdoor recreation opportunities throughout Nevada.

We're a little bit older now, so we do that in quite a few different ways.

So we do offer strategic planning, so outdoor recreation planning efforts for all communities across Nevada.

And we also are transforming how we run our grant program.

So we have the Nevada outdoor education and recreation grants that used to be like the education-based grant.

So we are creating that as like an umbrella now.

And we are focusing on three distinct grant programs for our division to offer across the state.

So that NOAA grant, which was that education grant, is now the youth outdoors growth and innovation.

And like any government agency, it has to be in acronym, so YOGI for that grant, and then the uh community outdoor recreation and revitalation uh core grant, and then Cosmos Across Nevada, which is a grant that I would be overseeing, and that's just the CAN grant.

Um we also have our Nevada Trail Finder, which is our one-stop shop for all outdoor recreation.

So anyway you guys recreate, there's a way for you guys to find the different trails that you guys can go and recreate on and plan your trips.

And we have the Nevada Off-Highway Vehicles, which is a grant program through OHB registrations in the state of Nevada.

Um, our most recent grant round just closed, and they offer a little over 1.5 million dollars each year to community uh federal, state, and local entities as well.

And then the Nevada Study Sky certification program.

So we are the first state in the uh nation to offer a certification at a state level.

So it was established in 2021 through Senate Bill 52 with a mission to promote, preserve, protect, and enhance Nevada's dark sky resources.

And it specifically designates the division of outdoor recreation to oversee the certification.

So we are working on uh working with unincorporated communities, homeowners associations, tribal governments, parks, open spaces, businesses, and schools, and that includes public and private K-12 schools and higher education uh or programs as well.

So this uh bill that brought us SB 52 that brought us uh the certification, is because we have a disappearing resource here in the state of Nevada, one that is highly valuable and one that we promote a lot and try to get people to go out and look at our night skies.

So we know that 80% of the world experiences artificial light at night.

Um that's Alon.

And we know that those pesky lights are just shining directly into people's eyes.

I get a lot of calls from the public about their neighbors' lights.

I can't do anything about the neighbor lights, but I can work with uh the designated entities to try and reduce overall light pollution and think consciously about how we address lighting within our communities.

Uh, we know that light pollution impacts human health and wildlife, so we now have you and our who are starting to do these studies, and they looked at Sparrow chicks and Reno and Sparks, and then they found that in high-density lighting uh the chicks are lighter in color and have reduced survival rates.

So we are starting to see these really negative impacts from overlighting within our communities.

And we also know that the night sky is disappearing at a rate of 10% every year.

This is globally.

Future generations have a high risk of not being able to see the Milky Way, which was really, you know, 75 years ago, you could step out your back door, and there it was.

So the good news is that Nevada is we're doing something about it, not only through the certification program, but Friends of Nevada Wilderness has really stepped up and taken on this challenge of getting the word out there about our dark skies.

We have three dark sky designations.

So we have Great Basin National Park out in Baker, Nevada, Death Valley down in southern Nevada, and then the third one is Massacre Rim, which is very remote and very hard to get to, but very worth visiting.

We have this amazing license plate.

So if you guys go out and look at my car, it's on the back of there.

So those funds provide a certain percent to Dark Skies initiatives across the state through Friends of Nevada Wilderness.

We also have star parties requested by the public and private entities.

Silver Saddle Ranch that we're here to talk about sees, I think two galaxy talks each year that have high attendance, and that's done through WNC with Thomas Herring.

And I know those are always well attended.

State Park sees high amounts of people out for star parties, and then the Astronaut Society of Nevada and the Astronomy Group in Southern Nevada also get a lot of requests for star parties.

So people want to see our night skies.

Carson has been instrumental.

You guys have passed Dark Sky's lighting ordinances, but we also have a lot of other communities that have done this as well.

So that's really encouraging to see.

And then we are working on establishing a Nevada Dark Sky chapter, which would embolden us to really take charge on advocacy efforts here in the state to further promote this resource that we have.

So a big part of this is simply just talking about lighting, which is not always super fun to talk about, but there's five principles that you generally want to abide by when we start looking at lighting in an area.

So these are provided by Dark Sky International.

So you want your lighting to be useful, targeted, low-level controlled, and warm colored.

So when we're starting to think about lighting out at Silver Saddle Ranch, we kind of want to start implementing these ideas out there.

So why Silver Saddle Ranch?

Well, I just happened to be scrolling Facebook a week ago, and I came across this photo.

So I don't know who Roy Chavez is, but Roy took an amazing photo out at Silver Saddle Ranch, and this was on June 10th.

And so you can see the Milky Way out there.

And if you look at the red house, you do see a fair amount of what we call like light glare coming off of there.

So this is these are things that we'd want to address.

We'd want to kind of like point those lights down, make them a little bit warmer tones, and make sure we're protecting like any wildlife that might be in those trees that are trying to sleep or hunt.

You see a lot of the streaks in the sky, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure those are satellites and not meteorites, uh meteoroids.

But this is just a really beautiful photo that was taken out down along that walking path down towards Carson River Park.

So we also like Silver Saddle Ranch because A, we have photographic evidence that it's a really amazing spot, but we also have scales to kind of help tell us the quality of a night sky.

So we can use the bordel scale, which is a one through nine system, which helps us say like this is kind of where this night sky is.

And that's just simply by looking up at the sky and kind of saying, all right, this is what I can see.

So right now I think we have uh suburban and rural transition, so that's number four out at Silver Saddle Ranch.

If you guys want a number one, you have to go out to Great Basin National Park or after Massacre Rim.

But four is pretty good for Carson City.

So the other way you can determine it is through sky quality meters.

So it's these really fun handheld devices that Greg and I went out about a year ago and took uh night sky measurements, and they're just relatively inexpensive, 138 to 155 dollars, easy to provide, easy to use, and provides pretty quick data.

You have ongoing measurement of the night sky, and it's measured in astronomer units, which are magnitudes per square arc second.

I don't know what that means, but I can tell you that there's a scale of like 16 to 23.

So 16 being high amounts of light pollution in the sky, 23 being pretty darn pristine night skies.

So I did put a QR code on there for you guys if you wanted to learn more about how to take these night sky quality measurements.

So we got um last May.

So what you do when you're trying to take a measurement is you have to wait for the new moon, and you have to make sure that it's pretty cloudless out, and you have to wait for something called uh astronomical twilight.

So it's not something you can see, it's something you have to look up on a chart.

Um, so astronomical twilight is when the sun is 18 degrees below the surface.

So once you look up the time, you have probably about like 20 minutes uh to actually take all the measurements because once you're outside of astronomical twilight, you technically can't use any of that data.

But what we did get within that time is we took six measurements at one spot.

So you toss out the first measurement, and then you do your second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, and then you take the median.

So I meet I bolded the median, which is that 19.97.

So we have relatively clean, pristine uh night skies out at Silver Saddle Ranch, which is very encouraging.

So if we look at the actual lights out there, uh we did a walkabout about a year ago, and you have about 20 individual lights out at the ranch.

So it's actually a really good starting place because it's not gonna be terribly difficult to retrofit or address the lighting out there.

A lot of the lights no longer work, so that's another good place to start, is just to kind of figure out what lights actually are on, which ones are off.

Uh, you have a fair amount of uh what we call like light pole lights out there, and then you obviously have like the exterior lights.

So, for instance, the red house, all that would need would to be retrofitted with a like warm amber tone light and put a shield on it and maybe like dimmers, timers, those types of things on that house.

Uh, and then you also have the interior lights inside the barn as well.

So, uh, I think if I remember correctly, of the 20 lights, 15 were operational.

So, yeah, there's just some out there that just no longer work and can be uh removed.

So, kind of looking at next steps.

Uh, you we need to create a lighting management plan for Silver Silver Saddle Ranch, and that just means identify lights that are no longer needed, so the ones that are burned out or are no longer hooked up.

Uh, we can prioritize those and say, are these necessary or are they not?

Um, and for the ones that we do deem necessary, we replace them with dark sky compliant lighting.

It's not hard to find.

Um, you can go to Lowe's and find dark sky lighting, uh, and then you would install timers and dimmers depending on kind of what the light needs uh where needed, and then hopefully shield the lights as well.

So that's kind of next steps for what we're looking at for Silver Saddle Ranch.

Once all the lights have been retrofitted where we've put on timers, dimmers, those types of things, that's when you would receive the certification, and then you would just have to continue on with like the education component out there.

So yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Chelsea.

Any comments?

We'll start on the slide.

Yeah, great presentation, really clean and sharp and uh level pictures.

I'll have to reach out to Roy and see if he can email me that picture.

Um, one question for you, Chelsea, is uh how does this program help you know anyone that's interested in balance being um dark sky compliant and certified with security if you're you know lowering the um brightness, you know, per se, in layman's terms.

Have you dealt with any security concerns related to that?

So we haven't dealt directly out at Silver Saddle Ranch.

Um, there are several studies out that show intense glare coming off of lights, actually shields like an intruder from behind.

So if you're looking at a glare, you have to kind of hold your hand up to see someone behind it.

So by shielding and pointing the lights down, you're actually able to see uh more visible yeah thank you for uh all the information I had some questions I believe I saw in a report or something long time ago is there tourism figures associated to dark sky programs like I know from personal experience I have friends who go down to um outside alone time.

We do like special camps to to really like engage in that.

Do we have tourism figures on that or we do and we don't um we know that the Ely Star train sells out years in advance um and that train is one that people board in Ely then they go out to a designated location get off and then there's telescopes there and they are able to view the night sky.

Uh we are currently working with uh consultants to put together an economic development plan for astro tourism in the state of Nevada so it's coming we just don't quite have that that data yet um and it's something that just yeah hasn't really been researched or invested in before.

So it's kind of new yeah.

Excellent.

Yeah thank you.

Yeah.

I had a question kind of about the designation of different areas so it's kind of the goal just to you know for people just use Silver Saddle Ranch there.

So you you're kind of working within the confines of that um that area.

So is the goal is just to kind of tackle those things that you had on the slide just kind of addressing the lighting in that particular area because obviously you you're gonna get light spilling over from surrounding areas so um is is that just kind of the the mission and the goal is to focus on what you can control in that that space that environment and not necessarily you know you're kind of just dealing with the surroundings.

Yes so because uh most of your street lights are dark sky compliant in Carson City um that that road out along the Silver Saddle Ranch tends to be pretty dark.

Uh the residents around there actually keep pretty low lighting as well so if you're out there you'll get like some light glare but it's actually pretty decent.

Uh and so yes the with this certification it's to control the lighting within the site.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

We were joking the other day at the bike at the bike event about I saw I saw you you had gurloch on your calendar you need a reason to go on to go to Gurlock.

And it was for the night skies and yeah so thank you for that.

I don't know why we have lights on all I do I look at you know these uh satellite images of Vegas and what I what why what if just turn them on and turn them off a 10.

You can keep them on inside.

But it's just nothing but gratuitous lighting for no particular reason as far as I'm concerned anyway.

Thanks for your effort.

Hi Chelsea um I've been a tag team on what you brought up I live down at the end of 5th Street and I was wondering if you ever conflict plated a program that would start to incorporate the neighborhoods.

I mean our know our neighborhood is pretty dark and that license plate you know you could have like a cool little plaque that people might sign up and say okay I'm gonna change some of the lighting at my house and then get that that plaque, you know you're part of the club if you will to spread that out on both sides of prison hill.

Yeah.

So Dark Sky International already has like a home assessment guide that you then can get a certificate for.

Oh cool.

So we can duplicate it at the state level but they already have something going.

So if you get yeah if you get on dark sky international website.

Okay.

Uh, uh you can definitely look at taking a home assessment, and they help walk you through everything, kind of help guide you through what you're looking for.

Um, so for the certification program, looking at those ordinances is one way to kind of address that.

Uh, but we we cannot uh tell individual homeowners how to light their properties.

Yeah.

I was gonna say, you know, if you want to lose your mind and go door to door with me, then you can.

Yeah.

Thank you.

All right.

I have a couple of questions.

Um, maybe you can answer them, maybe not.

Um, with the the license plate, what do those funds go towards?

Is it mostly like education or outreach or?

I'm gonna get it right.

So there's four pillars.

Um, so there's education outreach, uh, monitoring is one of them.

Uh helping with Dark Side International and with our certification program is also one of the pillars.

And I think uh lighting retrofits is like another pillar that they assist with.

Um so Friends of Nevada Wilderness obviously focuses primarily on wilderness.

We've kind of had some conversation back and forth about it applying to more just general public lands as well for that funding.

Um so that's just kind of ongoing conversations that we're having with them.

Awesome.

And then um with the retrofitting, and in the modern world we live in, um, LED is really like popular, but there's also a lot of evidence of uh major concerns, especially with people, and they basically like flicker really fast that your eye can't catch.

And I'm curious if retrofitting those lights to LED is having a major effect on wildlife and whatnot as well.

Um, yeah, and that's a good question.

Again, that's those are things that have to continue to be studied.

And so you and R has already kind of started to do those things.

Uh I'm not sure if other states or other universities are investing in looking at negative impacts of light.

Um, but that would, yeah, it's definitely something that we need to be looking more into.

And for Silver Saddle Ranch, like not to pick on them, but out of their lights, were they mostly LED or fluorescent?

Do you know?

I think they were still some of like the very old historic light bulbs.

I'm not I'm not quite sure the last time we've we've uh changed out the lights out at Silver Saddle Ranch.

Um I think the house the the red house had some fluorescent bulb bulbs, but I don't remember seeing any LED.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's that's really my biggest concern.

But I'd love I love the program, so it's awesome.

Um I just want to say thank you for what you're doing.

Yeah, I think that's great.

Um I get if I do have a question, I'm curious.

How many communities are you looking at right now and across Nevada to establish similar programs or certification?

Yeah, so Gurlock right now is kind of the the one community I've been super focused on.

So just with my time capacity with uh all my other job responsibilities, I'm trying to focus on three kind of areas, which is Gurlock, Carson City, and then Wild Horse State Recreation Area as well.

Uh thank you for the presentation and the education.

Yeah.

I'm seeing you on the trail.

Where have you where have you been?

Every morning.

Yeah.

Alright, thank you.

Thank you.

Any other last minute?

All right.

Moving on to item 5C, uh discussion and presentation.

Um for updates to Carson River Master Plan and Marina Lovejoy.

All right.

Well, thank you all, Marina Lovejoy for the record, senior natural resource specialist.

We're not quite getting out of the neighborhood of Silver Saddle Ranch, talking about the river now.

So Lindsay Boyer, my supervisor, our open space manager gave this group a similar presentation a year ago at the joint meeting last year in June.

And so I'm here today to give you all another update.

So a little bit of history.

Planning on the Carson River dates back to the early 1990s.

Originally, a board of supervisor member Kay Bennett proposed that Carson City really start strategically planning for the future of the Carson River through Carson City.

This led to a 13-member steering committee with the overarching theme of securing public access to the river.

There was a large workshop held in 1994, over a hundred people attended that, lots of enthusiasm for protecting the river and allowing public access.

So that led the Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution for the creation of the Carson River Advisory Committee.

That was the original volunteer committee concerned with management and stewardship of the Carson River.

That group was in place from 1994 through 2013 when it was later absorbed by the Open Space Advisory Committee.

So continuing on with our history, 1996, Carson City had the amazing foresight to pass the Quality of Life Initiative, which you all should be experts in.

But that quality of life initiative was a ballot measure to seek increasing the sales tax by one quarter of one percent to allocate towards parks, trails, and natural areas.

And thankfully that led to the creation of the open space program.

So capitalizing on that new source of revenue, the open space program went through a period of expansive land acquisitions for the last 25, 26 years or so.

And we have acquired over 7,000 acres of open space in Carson City.

Truly remarkable.

A lot of that was done through purchases, donations, as well as large federal land transfers.

And that land was acquired for the benefits of floodplain protection, agricultural preservation, silver saddle ranch, right, agricultural preservation, our view sheds, wildlife habitat, watershed benefits, and recreation.

And so in 2022, Carson City sought to update the original Carson Rivermaster Plan that was published in 1996, so 30 years ago.

The original goals of that 1996 plan focused heavily on creating public access to the river corridor because back then much of the river corridor was under private ownership.

Respecting private property rights was certainly a major goal of the plan.

And so as a result, acquiring land in the Carson River Corridor was the main priority of that plan as land became available to purchase.

And so today we have about 11 miles of river corridor protected, about 5,000 acres in the river corridor.

Other goals of the plan included identifying wildlife habitat conservation opportunities, balancing recreation with natural and cultural resource protection, minimizing impacts to water quality and river health from development, and creating robust education and interpretation opportunities.

Benefits of the original plan are numerous.

Floodplain protection, of course, that picture kind of in the center, lower center is of Buzzies Ranch, which is just north of Silver Saddle Ranch.

That is floodplain protection for our community because these lands along the river have remained undeveloped, open spaces, in this case at Buzzi's, it's agriculture.

Because it's undeveloped, it allows flood waters to slow down, spread out, and sink in.

There's minimal infrastructure within the floodplain, just our trail system, and so repair costs after a flood are drastically reduced compared to, say, like the downtown Truckee River Corridor, which is pretty sucked in with buildings and asphalt and the like.

So a much different story down here in Carson.

Other benefits of the original 1996 plan were creating areas and opportunities for education, interpretation and outreach, partnering with groups like River Wranglers and Fosser to get kids from local schools out to our sites to learn about the importance of the river corridor.

Lastly, there's been numerous recreational benefits from that 1996 plan.

Carson City has developed the Carson River Trail, which is a five-mile contiguous pathway along the Carson River that allows for mixed-use passive recreation.

We've also worked with adjacent counties to establish the Aquatic Trail, which is a 14-mile water trail with flat water and white water boating opportunities from the Mexican Dam to Dayton.

And now actually earlier this year, with the portage project around the Mexican Dam, people can extend their aquatic trail and safely get around the dam.

And if you guys haven't done used the portage, it's probably too late now in the season, but next year you should really give it a go.

So the Carson River is an enormous benefit for our community, and it's it's incredibly important for the public to have access to the river for hiking and birding, biking, fishing, and just quiet enjoyment.

But it's important that these benefits, these recreational benefits be balanced with resource protection.

And so that is the primary focus of the 2026 update.

So, like I said, in 2022, we started updating, working to update this plan.

The update is going to look at the current condition of the river, of our properties along the river, you know, where could we improve the ecology through restoration, what recreation updates can be made, maybe we should incorporate more signage or you know, different or more public safety messaging.

We want to, of course, ensure private property adjacent to the open spaces in the river corridor is respected, especially as there has been increased recreation through the river corridor.

We want to consider wildlife habitat and capture any significant changes to habitat to that habitat over the years, and we want to emphasize cultural resource protection as well.

So to make this update happen, we partnered with the National Park Service River Trails and Conservation Assistance Program.

That's a federal program and it's a technical assistance grant.

We rather than receiving direct funding from the National Park Service, we have received expert technical assistance from a couple of folks on that team, and they've really helped us strategize and plan and facilitate lots of outreach activities.

It's a really phenomenal program, and we could not have gotten this far or had as comprehensive a document without their help.

We also brought on two other key partners to help us with this project, Carson Water Subconservancy District for their watershed expertise, and then the consulting firm resource concepts to assist with the more technical aspects of the plan and writing and word processing and that sort of thing.

So, like I mentioned, the plan area is focusing on our open spaces adjacent to the river, so it's pretty much county line to county line, the south end of prison hill on up north through Carson River Canyon.

This slide shows a roadmap of kind of where we where we started.

We started in 2022, but in 2024, that's when we really started engaging with different stakeholders and technical experts in the public on through where we are now.

That Red Star kind of this meeting here today.

So we are solidly in the writing phase, editing phase rather, hoping to have a final draft for you all at the next joint meeting.

I do want to touch briefly on just how much um time and attention we have spent on the outreach phase of this of this effort.

We've had a public survey, a survey for um technical experts in the area.

We've had a couple of workshops, we had a public open house, we had a float trip with with members of the planning team.

And so all of all of those um touch points and opportunities to connect with the people who care about the river have enabled us to write this truly comprehensive collaborative plan um and um that document will guide staff through the next few decades of work so like i said we're in the editing phase um the document has compiled all the feedback from all those different different outreach um events that we had over the last year or so um there's gonna be five main themes within the document outdoor recreation natural and cultural resource stewardship um education and outreach water quality and conservation uh and then collaboration and partnerships and so for each theme in the document there's gonna be like a narrative discussion section kind of how those those themes um relate to different topics that we deal with on a daily basis and then there's going to be a series of recommended actions that we um work on over the next several decades um and like I said we're hoping to have a a final draft um before you all at the next joint meeting um but writing a master plan um is a is a big undertaking and it takes a long time and we want to make sure that we do it right um and so um so that is all I have for you all thank you very much.

Thank you.

We'll start with Diane this time any questions.

Thank you for your presentation it was quite easy to follow.

Thank you.

When you do have the master plan done will the master plan include like the first um implementation priorities that you would want to go.

That's a very good question.

So um I believe that we intend to um prioritize tasks um yeah and we also have the the recommended actions kind of organized as what do we currently have ongoing because there's certainly a number of things that were recommended by the public or technical experts that we're already working on and so that'll be captured in that document as well as new ideas that were brought forth those are going to be incorporated as well as well as um uh fiscal um that's our hope yes okay yeah is to include that component and that and a timeline for accomplishing the different tasks yeah all right great thank you um thank you for your presentation um thank you very much I love the Garson River corridor I'm a frequent visitor.

Um I'm wondering are you seeing an uptick at all or have you seen any uptick in user conflicts with the increased recreational use on the river at all.

That might be a question that could better be answered by Greg Bergren if he if he is willing.

Yeah for the for the record Greg Berger and Trails Coordinator so that's I guess the answer is kind of twofold I mean uh yeah there's more use but there's also um you know with some of the opportunities that we provided in the hardened surfaces we've got um we've got you know good solid trailheads we have um a five mile contiguous trail from accessible trail accessible to persons of all ages and abilities from Morgan Mill to the dam so we have we've provided places for people to go so that they don't um create impact elsewhere and for the most part that's working um and I think that you know with like with a with a wider trail that provides more opportunities um people um expect to see more people and so that that kind of a lot of a lot of user conflict is dependent upon expectation and if your expectation is that you're gonna see other people then you're not disappointed um we do um we do have some occasional complaints uh I guess I guess the biggest complaint we typically get and this is everywhere in in throughout our community was parks and everything was typically with dogs um and uh and dog poop um but dogging caneris and dog poop are are high on the list.

And then um we occasionally get the um, you know the the the electric moto.

I mean but by that I'm talking about like an electric motorcycle or a real real dirt bike or something, and those are you know, those are calls we get occasionally, really hard to um to uh I guess to police and and handle some of those, but but they're actually relatively few and far between.

So I would say that my answer is no, we're not seeing an increase in in user conflict.

To speak a little bit more on that, there is a section in the document that does talk about user conflict and and we had our um senior park ranger kind of take a look at at that and and write a little bit on that um as well.

So that's definitely a topic that is incorporated in the in the updated plan.

Thank you.

Great work.

Yeah, thank you for your presentation.

Uh question, the boundary lines on the map you have.

I think it's slide eight.

There's what kind of determines those areas, because it looks like Carson City, there's a bunch of areas outside of this plan area.

So just curious, it looks like most of the areas we're covering are obviously open space, but a couple like in the northwest we're covering, and it doesn't show it necessarily as in designated open space.

It just looks like aerial is there an easement or something?

So uh maybe I understand your question.

So this map, um, the pink dashed line, those are just all of our open space parcels along the river.

And that's what we have, you know, open space has control over, and so that specifically is the area of the plan.

Um as far as the parcels in the northwest, are you maybe referring to some of these parcels kind of on the western side of town?

Go ahead and go to the other map.

It's it's kind of hard to see.

I was thinking number two up there.

Oh, number two, okay.

Yeah, so that's see how to the left, it doesn't seem to be open space, it just looks like an aerial picture.

So I'm wondering how is that covered?

Um so number two is Morgan Mill Preserve open space, and then there is um some private property adjacent to that that's not open space that you know we're not responsible for managing that.

Um, so I'll go to part two of my question, and then you'll see where I was going with this.

Is there in in the master plan, are you addressing maybe the expansion to those other areas that the north, the south, and or is maybe one of the goals for us on open space to put the entire river in open space.

Um if those parcels were to become available for purchase, that's definitely something that we would consider.

Um yeah, I mean, that's how we've acquired most of the parcels along the river is as they've come available for sale or l through land transfers.

Um we have certainly encouraged um, you know, folks, other landowners to participate in our in our planning process, invited them to the table.

Um you can see on this map there's other um public land ownerships pointed out.

There's um, you know, Washo Tribe and and BLM land um here, and so we've invited lots of different stakeholders to the table uh to be involved in this.

Um but as far as like actual actionable um directives for open space stop within over the next several years.

Um we're pretty much only considering um activities on open space lands.

Um but of course there's you're there's some actions where we're saying um, you know, collaborate with adjacent landowners on XYZ.

Um perhaps I'm not answering your question, member Wiggins.

No, it's okay.

I I was just thinking as part of the master plan.

Potentially you would consider expanding the river corridor to at least have a goal in mind as part of the master plan to protect the entire river.

Yeah, yeah.

It looks like um it looks like uh Jen Budge might may have a better answer for your question.

Jennifer Veg Parks and Recreation Director.

The river corridor is I think from a staff perspective, probably one of the number one priorities for potential land acquisitions.

So as private land becomes available, um, you know, and as we have funding or grant opportunities or partnership opportunities, we absolutely are open to that.

This plan will likely recommend as those come available that we we acquire.

Um we also are annual, we'll talk about it under the budget, but we're gonna be updating.

We have funding to update our open space plan and our parks and rec master plan.

And from an open space perspective and a parks perspective, we want to talk about citywide.

Are there acquisitions we should consider um for both purposes?

And the Carson River Corridor would we would hopefully prioritize those acquisitions, because right now the former open space plan was very vague.

It just identified anything that was not government owned in the entire city as a potential acquisition.

Well, those don't always make sense, so we want to prioritize those and maybe weight those decisions.

But from my perspective, I think the Carson River Corridor would be one of the top priorities.

I can't do you know you're on it's like somebody with a spotlight zaming your face, but uh okay.

Well then uh I just now that I know that's a reality, then we're okay.

So I will from the beginning when this was all being worked on and the plan to pass the legislation to support this funding, there's two places that were the most high we're highest in the list, the river and the west side.

And the West Side's done a really excellent job of doing their thing too and expanding, and we're actually it's on the agenda tonight for another piece, so or at least discussion.

So the river's always been that important.

And then I always uh when I came on this committee, I had one thing on my mind because I used to be on the Carson River committee, and when they joined open space, I was concerned open space wouldn't spend the time as much as I'd like to see on the river, because to me that was a very high priority.

And Lindsay was grabbed onto that with this grant that I told her it wouldn't be that hard to do this job, but two years later they're still spending tons and tons of hours of time on this plan.

And they have a great partner, the Carson Water subconservative district is a huge part of water management.

So without them as a member, it would have been missing a major player in the game.

So they have been very participatory in helping us through the process and then national parks open too.

So I'm tickled pink that we're moving back towards a plan now that's on the shelf that shows the interest that open space has for the river.

And you guys worked really hard on that, and it was an excellent process, which I've had the privilege to be a part of some of those those meetings and discussions.

So uh, and there's a hope that this plan, Carson Water subconservancy, I said this, would be a model for Lion County and for uh what's Gardenville, uh Douglas County.

So because it's so well put together, uh, it's a masterpiece and Laura's played a big role in that, so you need to get accolades for that because you bring a lot of experience and knowledge of putting these documents together.

So thank you for keeping the the river alive, and then this plan is gonna be well received and a lot of work and it's gonna be protection for many years to come now.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation.

I was just curious if kind of where you're at in the master plan process, if maybe there were some areas that you know shed some light on maybe some things that hadn't been considered, or maybe uh through the consultant process, maybe um some topics that came up, they're like, oh yeah, we we hadn't thought about that or address that as a concern.

So I was just curious if there's any kind of new items that are coming up through this uh update, or or is it just kind of a status quo and just reaffirming kind of the goals that have always uh been down there?

Uh thank you for the question.

Um that that's kind of a fun question.

Um I think a lot of things that have that have come up, um, I mean, most of what's incorporated into the plan are those recommended actions, and most of that is coming from the public and other technical experts in the area, you know, folks from other other agencies in the area.

Um that's the that's the bulk of the plan, really, and then we've built um kind of the narrative around most of those recommended actions.

And so I will certainly say that um staff echo most of the sentiments that are coming from the public and and other stakeholders.

Um, but it was a great place to start.

I mean, it was just a phenomenal process to to spend so much time.

I mean, almost a year, maybe more than a year, doing all of the different outreach phases.

Um, and so um I I think that we should do that with all of our master planning moving forward.

I think it's a really great starting place, yeah.

That pretty much hit my question on the head, but uh have we gotten a lot of engagement from the public at the open houses?

So we have had one open house, um, and there was maybe 40 people in attendance.

Um, and then we um had a public survey, and there was almost 300 responses to that public survey.

Um, and the survey was was quite long.

There was, I mean, 20 or 30 questions on there, and so to get 300 responses, we we thought was great.

Um, and then we had um kind of a technical expert survey, and that was answered by maybe 21 people, so um there's been quite a lot of engagement.

Yeah, that was outstanding.

Thank you.

Um moving on to item 6A, which is the director's report.

Jim Budge.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair Jennifer Budge, Parks and Recreation Director.

Um, a lot of updates tonight.

Uh, you have a few handouts in front of you.

Um first off, um, the blue sheet is just an update from the Board of Supervisors approval of the fiscal year 27 budget, which starts July 1.

I did want to point out a couple things on that budget just to highlight for you.

Um, since we had the dark sky discussion earlier, we are reinvesting in the lighting at Centennial Park.

We recognize there's a lot of light pollution related to that park in particular, and the lighting is not great for the players, so we are financially investing in that an initial capital investment, and then we'll have a few years of payments to pay that off.

But it'll be paid off in full, which is great.

We didn't have to bond that money, we didn't have to do anything like that or get um, you know, any voter-approved items related to that, but it's a significant upgrade.

Um, and then a lot of other, you know, just equipment and reinvesting in our park system, um, as well as open space.

Some other things I just wanted to highlight on there is um the Carson City Municipal Code.

We're gonna try to update 1302 and 1306.

You have another handout, which is the copy of the current code right now.

We have a staff internal committee working on some potential suggestions for updating that.

I know some of you have volunteered to participate in that process.

I just wanted to give you a baseline so you had a good copy of what's currently in code from the 1980s, which is very outdated and not all that helpful to our park rangers.

So, uh they would love to see some updates, and I know our staff would to try to better serve the public and make things very clear.

But there are some financial items in the budget that was approved to help get third party legal support to get that across the finish line.

So that's what's in your budget.

That $10,000 from quality life open space and 10,000 from quality quality of life capital to try to get those projects off the ground.

Um we'll also have funding to hire a third-party consultant to update our Parks and Rec Master Plan and our open space plan as well.

So we'll want all of your participation in that.

We're anxious to get that off the ground.

We'll probably get uh RFP out, you know, in the coming months to get someone on board for that.

So a lot of real exciting projects.

Um are there any questions on the budget before I move on?

Um, so last fall it was brought to my attention.

Um, that I think youth soccer is one of the only recreational sports that does not have lighting.

So at Pete Livermore, when you know fall hits and it starts to get dark at six o'clock, the lights at the softball field turn on, and then these kids who are playing soccer are playing in the dusk.

Is there any desire ever to get lighting at Pete Livermore?

Um, that thank you.

Uh, that was brought up previously as part of our budget discussion, and we added it to the long-term capital improvement plan as a potential item for funding, but it wasn't funded for this next fiscal year.

And I think there's always opportunities to work with the youth sports association, right?

Grants if there's a true desire for that, um, for the capital funding.

But it is very expensive.

And so when you say long term, how long term is that?

Well, we have a twenty-year CIP plan.

Um, but I think we added it within the next ten years.

And then um.

Well, speaking of lights, did we not pay the bill?

Oh.

That's fun.

That's a new one.

Oh.

Okay.

Well, thanks.

I guess it didn't like what I have.

But anyway, um, I would just encourage that it I mean, if there's yeah.

If it if it um, if there's a possibility to do it sooner, um, due to the fact that um, I mean, you know, in the especially in the fall.

I mean, it is those kids are playing in the dark.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Do we need to pause for the transcript?

Should we take maybe a five-minute break?

Yeah.

Five minutes for your figure the power out.

Yeah.

Appreciate the lighting.

Bathroom break.

Um I don't know how long I'm not sure.

Um, yeah.

Back to Molly, we're going to have to.

I don't think what my last statement was so like I asked if it could be um sooner, that would be great.

Um and then, you know, I don't know with the um new fields up at Upper Centennial.

If there's ever, uh chance where the youth would be able to play the soccer up there.

That would be great.

I know that the adults, you know, it's for adult soccer.

Um, and they're enjoying it.

But if there's everyone ability or opportunity that you give these upper centennial to YSA as field designation for youth soccer, that would be wonderful.

Thank you.

Any other questions on the budget before I move on?

I know most of you we've talked about the budget at nauseum, so I'm sure you're probably over it.

Like we are.

So a couple vacant positions that we have right now.

We always have our seasonal positions.

Most of our summer positions are full, but there's still plenty of opportunities.

We're always hiring year round at the pool.

I always encourage people.

One of our park rangers, Alex Berger is going to Washoe County.

We're sorry to lose her, but wish her well.

So we do have a park ranger vacancy, and then uh Nick Wentworth, our park project manager, is starting his own business.

So we do have the park project manager position open.

So we'll update you as we fill those and move forward on those.

The federal lands bill, very good news.

We've been working on this for I've been working on it for eight years, and we made it past the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which is the furthest we've ever gone in this process, which is really exciting.

We've been working with Senator Rosen and Congressman Amade's office on the lands bill.

So we've made it really far, and and thanks to them for getting us this far, and hopefully we get all the way across the finish line.

It will be a real benefit to the open space program.

It has economic development opportunities, and um will give us other flexibility at like Centennial Park for third party partnerships as well.

So hopefully we get that across the finish line.

Um yesterday the Seahill flag was officially dedicated.

Um Congressman Amade was there to officiate that as well.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the donors, the volunteers, the Seahill Foundation, and the Carson City Foundation for Carson City Parks and Recreation for their support of making that happen.

Um over $60,000 was contributed, countless hours from hundreds of volunteers.

So it was a real community effort, and I just wanted to thank everybody on that.

Um Congressman Amade also allocated an appropriation request for a million dollars of improvements at this community center here.

So thank you for that.

And that'll have um indoor and outdoor improvements.

I'm not exactly sure.

We requested three million, so I'm not sure which projects were final on the list, but I'll report back to you on that.

But that's great news.

Um also conserve Nevada selected Carson City to receive 1.2 million dollars for a land acquisition on the west side for Ash Canyon.

We're really excited about that.

Thanks to Greg and Lindsay for working on that grant application.

It really is tremendous.

So we'll be reporting back on our progress for that.

We're gonna be working with Nevada Land Trust to make that happen.

Um I do want to acknowledge two staff that are reaching important milestones.

Dave Navarro is 20 years with Carson City and Patty Liebesbeck is 10 years, and I just wanted to acknowledge them and their hard work and thanks so much.

And I thought since Dave was here, we could embarrass him a little bit.

Um, but they are very special employees and they work so hard for us and for the community, and I just wanted to acknowledge them.

And then I think Marina was gonna provide a just a real brief um sheep update under my report as well because it was the 20th year of our sheep program, which is really tremendous.

First, if I could, I just wanted to mention I'll do Greg Berger and Charles Coordinator for the record, but there's one other person that's reaching the 10 year milestone, and that would be our director, Jennifer.

Oh, you're just looking for a fire, yes.

Okay, back to me.

Marina Lovejoy for the record senior national resource specialist.

Um, yeah, so as um Jen mentioned, it was year 20 of the sheep grazing program here in Carson City.

Um, that started in response to the waterfall fire in 2004.

Um, and so 20 years we've been working with Borderland and Sheep Company to bring his sheep to the hillsides on the west side of town.

Uh, this year there was 2400 sheep, and they graze in two separate bands.

One is behind Greenhouse Garden Center and kind of work their way around Seahill, Kings Canyon area, and then the north Band is kind of behind Western Nevada College, Timberline Lakeview.

So 2400 sheep this year.

Um, we can estimate approximately how much forage they're removing from the landscape.

They're consuming, um, how many pounds of fuels.

Um, so we estimated about 200,000 pounds of fuels that they're consuming.

The um the adults eat five pounds of forage a day, and the the little lands eat.

Two pounds, so lots of math.

Yeah, about about a hundred tons.

Um, and so without the sheep grazing, all that fuel would still be on the landscape, just ready, ready to burn.

And so this is a really really important project.

Tons of partners, Borderlanded Sheep Company, Carson City Fire Department, the U.S.

Forest Service, Washoe Tribe, Nevada Division of Forestry, as well as numerous private landowners, are involved and come to the table each year to make this you know huge huge team effort, huge group project happen.

And so we look forward to um to more years with all this great team.

Awesome.

Any questions, concerns, comments?

Are you gonna talk more?

Okay, I have a question that because it's been laid in the package, so I don't know where to deal with it, but it's a very simple question.

And there may be an answer in the audience.

But on those regulations you just sent us the code, you keep saying the violations in the park.

Do they consider open space a park so that you can enforce all those rules and open space as well as parks?

That's just one question.

That's an amazing question and a great observation.

First of all, the things down to the name of our department are incorrect, down to um what are parks, what are trails, what are open space, what are under the jurisdiction for the parked rangers.

We want to clear that up, and we want to make sure that the park rangers have very clear authority throughout the entire department.

So what we'll probably do as part of this is we'll approve a resolution with our list of open space properties and parks to make it very clear what their jurisdiction is and what the rules are, and we want to be super upfront about that.

It's very confusing.

So we want to clean that up, but yes.

But I won't have any criminal activities.

Okay.

Anything else?

Thanks, Jen.

Uh moving on to item six B, the trail coordinator report.

Um, Greg.

Okay, thank you for the record, Greg Berger and Trails Coordinator.

So the last meeting that we had with each uh with the commission and the committee, um, we went over the annual report.

So you had a you had a full um recap on uh the trails program over the past year.

So I'm gonna keep this really short.

I just had two items I wanted to update you on.

One is um on April 7th, uh the Parks and Rec Commission recommended to the Board of Supervisors that they we name the South uh Carson Pathway in honor of Glenn Lucky, and the Board of Supervisors um approved that on May 7th.

Um Glenn was with Glenn was there when the board did that, and then on May 14th, it was this a gorgeous day.

We um we actually put the sign up and uh Glenn was in attendance uh along with family and friends, and he was super excited to have that happen.

And I remember one of the things he said was I all I want to do is make people smile, and I think he's done a good job of doing that over the many decades that he has been visible within our community.

So um a good honor for him, and so thank you for for approving that and or recommend making that recommendation.

And um, yeah, it was uh it was a it was a it was a good day.

Um the other the other update is I don't know how many of you are familiar with the American Discovery Trail, but it is a 6,800 mile trail that goes from coast to coast, and it's made up of single track trails and and dirt roads and paved roads and all kinds of things to make to make a continuous connection across our country, established in 1991.

So this year, which is the um obviously our 250th anniversary as part of the America 250 celebration, the ADT is planning a nationwide relay event.

Um it will be the largest non-motorized relay relay event in um in the history of the world, and um it will begin at uh the Golden Gate Bridge on July 4th, and it will end on Thanksgiving Day in Delaware on the Atlantic coast.

So basically um relay participants who will be they will be walking, running, riding um bicycles and riding horses, um, and it'll be different different relay participants all the way across the country, but they will be carrying a copy of the Declaration of Independence and um so the ADT it actually skirts the very very northern portion of of Carson City it comes down the um Lake View Road and then kind of crosses the South Andwasha Valley and then up into the Virginia range and off across Nevada this year they are gonna bring the participants for this down the Capitol to Tahoe Trail and so they're gonna they will um they will wind up at um on the steps of our Capitol on July 17th we're planning a media event about 9 30 a.m on July 17th so anybody who wants to come in and and join that you're more than welcome to um and then um we are also since we we got them to to use the Capitaho Trail this year we are trying to encourage them to make that a permanent part of the um the ADT going forward so um so that anybody hiking on that trail would wind up at our Capitol building um instead of just skirting the northern part of our community I mean we're the capital city so they should come down the Capitao Trail right.

So that is all I have and if there's any questions I'll take them.

Any questions no sounds awesome all right thank you all right that brings us to item 7A the update from the Carson City School Board liaison Molly.

Thank you yeah so first we wanted to thank um Carson Poole for again doing the third grade swim lessons they were very successful and the students um enjoyed them and so thank you for doing that we that was great.

We had several um students participate as we bring up the agriculture part of it we had set uh several student groups through several different elementary schools participate in the farmers market at the state legislature um in May which was a huge success so we um are excited for that as well as many schools are continuing to um develop their own garden gardening um outside within their schools so they're doing that as well so that is a great opportunity for anybody to participate as well um the end of the year was extremely busy for every school as it is every year but one note is I believe we they said that we had over three million dollars in scholarships to high school seniors that went out um this year we have um several you know students going to um larger schools um but the amount of scholarships was amazing and that night is always a very fun night as well and then the I think the end of the year highlight was Carson High moving to a night graduation it was extremely successful.

I don't know that we have ever had that many um attendees so there was 526 graduates from Carson High Silver campus and adult education all in one graduation but the um entire field the track the bleachers it it was it was just packed and um the lights were great the stage it was just a very um nice evening so we will continue to do a night um graduation so that was great and thank you to BAC for allowing us to rent all of that stage and to hurry up and bring it back over because they had a concert the next weekend so that was great but that was the highlight um and then I would just encourage you know parks and rec as well you know to continue to reach out to coordinate you know any outdoor education you know information on the trails the south right uh safe routes to school you know anything like that because the kids are always w wanting to get outside.

So thanks.

Any questions?

Thank you, Molly.

Um item 7b is the update from the foundation for Carson City Parks liaison.

They emailed us um an update.

And I am going to uh highlight one thing near and dear to my heart is last May, I think it was May 3rd.

We had our disc golf tournament which raises funds for the movers and doers program.

We had fortunately we had uh competition from uh Reno Disc golf, but uh we had 60 players show up.

We ended up raising $2,600 for the movers and doers, and we had over 25 businesses donate uh prizes and raffle donations and things.

So I just want to give a big thank you to everybody who came out and supported and the foundation and also the parks and rec because we work in partnership to make um make all this possible.

So there's a lot of players involved who coordinate everything.

Greg Swift, um Dennis Peterson, and uh Candace Harris, and it was just an awesome day.

There's a couple rattlesnakes out there, which was the first, so but um that's my one to two, so give you that.

Um I guess that brings us to item 8A for the 2026 open space future agenda items.

Anyone have anything?

And parks and rec is are welcome to suggest any agenda items as well.

Anything um well, we had um talked about this.

I think at the previous meeting, but um we uh talked about the urban tree canopy and uh just a presentation on how that's managed.

Thanks.

Thank you.

We will add that.

Anything else?

All righty.

Brings us to number nine.

I have something.

Go ahead.

Um I'd really like to see in one of our next meetings an item where we can get a general update on what Carson City lands they're looking at to possibly purchase and just open it up enough for us to kind of discuss that and dovetail on to what uh Mrs.

Jerome said in the public comment earlier, so we can address issues that the public brings to us.

Absolutely.

We will have that also as part of our open space plan update that will be incorporated.

Well, actually, and in the parks and rec plan update.

Part of that process will be seeking out information from the public and having them engage with us about what their priorities are for acquisitions as we move forward.

On the other side, is there anything we need to dispose of?

Do we have lands that don't make sense?

I can tell you on the park side I would 100% think we have a few a few things that are maintenance intensive and might not um really benefit the park system.

So, as part of those processes, we'll have a really robust conversation regarding acquisitions and disposals.

And what is our timeline again?

Just remind me of like when that discussion might start to take place.

Well, I think that process will probably take um one and a half years overall once we get a consultant on board and we have a good plan for that, but it'll have different components.

We'll have workshops, we'll have a lot of public outreach about natural resource management, about parks and our level of service and you know what all the things that we do um globally as a department, but part of that an important discussion will be acquisitions.

If you want to start that at the next open space advisory committee meeting, we can absolutely start that there.

I think it's important for us to just kind of have that discussion every now and then.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's what I'd like to see on the okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh-huh.

All right.

Do the items not covered automatically move forward?

I think the e-bike, the centennial bike park.

Uh the centennial bike park will probably be ready to bring back to the next meeting.

We have a we've gone, we have a draft agreement.

Muscle Powered's been looking that over.

They got a pro bono attorney to look that as well, and then I think we could talk about that at the next meeting.

And then the e-bike working group, Greg is gonna add that up.

We have volunteers from you all already, and he'll spearhead that effort sort of separately, and then we'll report back.

Okay, next week getting that schedule.

I uh I have open this opportunity to do that.

Let's just go to the numbers announcements, but Jen, uh personally, I want to make sure that I have a lot of years or experience.

Nobody has any way to form your work with these crews, where a lot of that is a job.

Plus parking directly, plus the open plus policy.

It was nice to have employees that you always have to have.

Sorry that I heard this is not so long, but uh, but thanks, Jen, for all your services.

Thank you, Mark.

I appreciate that.

Uh, there's don't always hang around along with the people.

Oh, well, thank you.

I'm starting to be a short timer, so don't say that yet.

I appreciate that, Mark.

Thank you.

Any other items for future meetings?

All right, and that brings us to item nine, uh, public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Denny French, Carson City, Nevada.

I'm sorry I missed the opening statements of all Mike's presentation, and and um, again, I would have just suggested kudos.

Um, and and yeah, I was with all of your suggestions of his hard work and appreciation form, so he deserved every good word and thought you had towards him.

He's a hardworking, very special person.

Anyhow, I'd also like to uh say that I'm sorry I missed the public open meeting information, um, technical issues.

So the deal is that I'm concerned, and I'm looking forward to the fact that there's gonna be some discussion on the actual what terms and what makes a park as opposed to open space.

I think that will be a good agenda item.

And I also am looking forward to uh the canopy considerations that was brought up again tonight.

I did not get to hear the opening statements.

I'd like to add that there's a monarch uh migration situation and and and birds at this time and encourage people to keep their lights as dim as possible because they are affected by our lights, even in this small area, because it is suspected to be an area that they come for their rest and relaxation during those migrations up to the butterflies matters as well.

And so the uh monarch barter flies could use some consideration from open space if there's land come available to consider corridors for them to travel and specific type of planting that would be encouraged, and I'm looking forward to hearing about more of the uh park garden that might be stopped uh starting over at the Ronald Williams uh park.

Um, looking forward to hearing more about that, but that's parks, but in a sense, it is also your nature uh support as far as the plants that you pick on a park.

So if your open space is considering a corridor and you can use some of the park area for some of the plants required for those critters, please mix your suit your superpowers and and your cooperative uh nature to get those areas co-opted.

And while I was a little disturbed by um uh director Budge's uh opening is that she didn't uh you didn't identify she didn't identify yourself other than parks and recreation, and I think she is a big part of open space, and that should be tacked on there, and the connection and the continuity between you needs to be considered more and more, and those areas where I think you're overstepping from parks into open space should be considered as well.

I think there's a lot of what I'd like to coin a word today, is parkinizing.

We're parkingizing some of our open spaces by putting asphalt by building structures that don't fit in with the natural area around it.

I've seen a lot of the new structures, designs in there, they're like anything you could have hauled in on a truck and plop down on any piece of land with no considerations of the surroundings.

And I don't think that's necessary.

Toilet needs to be a toilet, a sink needs to be a sink, but the outside design could consider the outside area around it, and I'd like that to happen more.

Um I don't like using the word parkingization, but I think that parks have uh sort of had a bigger part in things than you all have as your considerations, and thank you.

Any other public comment?

Alrighty.

Now it brings us to the final possible action to adjourn the meeting.

Our next meetings are August 17th for the open space advisory and uh August 18th for the Parks and Recommission.

So uh do we have a motion to adjourn?

I don't know.

Second, perfect.

Thank you and good night.