Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

It is uh 9 a.m.

and we will get started with this meeting of the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the V and T Railway.

Uh, we will start with our agenda.

We will call this meeting to order again on time at 9 a.m.

train our trains run on time.

Sometimes.

We will move on to the second item, which is roll call and determination of quorum.

Brianna, would you take us through that?

Yeah.

Uh Chair Mitchell.

I'm here.

Vice Chair Peterson.

Present.

Treasurer Cruz.

Present.

Secretary Hicks.

Here.

A quorum is present.

Thank you kindly.

Uh from there we'll move on to item number three, which is the Pledge of Allegiance.

If you'd like to join me for that.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right.

We will move on to item number four, which is public comment.

Public comment is.

Welcome at the beginning and the end of this meeting.

And uh we will also take comment during any item that is for action.

Public comment uh no action may be taken on a matter raised under public comment unless the item has been specifically included in the agenda as an item upon which action may be taken.

Um we will limit public comment to three minutes per person.

Is there anyone here that has public comment?

All right, seeing none, we will move on to item number five, which is approval of the minutes of our May 27th, 2026 meeting.

Does anyone on the commission have uh questions or comments about those minutes?

Yeah, I just want to note that there's a numbering issue on the minutes.

It goes to like 10 and then 12 and then back to eleven or something, but that's it.

Nothing in the actual verbiage, just the numbers.

Keep scrolling.

Keep going.

Oh, repeat a repeat of repeat.

Yeah, repeating this.

Alright.

I think it's after item 11 and then yeah, well, we're trying a new numbering system where 12 is the max.

You just you just repeat.

I mean, it's about time.

We've been doing it the other way for so long.

Yeah.

Trying to remember everything above that is just too much work.

Very good.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Uh anything else?

Any public comment on our uh on our minutes from the May 27th meeting?

All right.

Hearing none, I'll take a motion to approve.

I move to approve the minutes of the May 27th, 2026 meeting with the numbering corrections as noted on the record.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

A second.

Motion and a second.

Any final comments?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Uh moving on to item number six, which is for possible action.

That is discussion and possible action regarding the V and T Commission's statement of accounts.

Payable checks paid April 1st through 30th, 2026.

Treasurer Cruz, do you have anything for us on this?

I do not unless there are questions.

Comments?

In terms of Chair, if I may, in terms of the timing, I know Story County closes things up in July.

So are we working to get everything in from all of our vendors for everything through June on time?

So it will all go back against the fiscal year.

Yes, but our vendors have through the first AP week of July.

Yeah, there is a little bit of a cushion.

Yeah.

Cool.

Okay.

Yeah, I just wanted to be sure so we don't have to move stuff between fiscal years if at all possible.

So very cool.

And then is there a lot hanging out there?

Probably just Tom's stuff for the trains, I'm assuming for May and June at this point, right?

Yes.

Well, this big jokes.

In April.

Right.

So next month will we have May and June?

Versus having to go all the way to August, or because then it'll be like after the that'll be pretty far into the or just I don't remember how that all how we're doing.

I know we're on the lag, but then don't we true everything up at the July meeting through June or I can certainly ask.

Okay.

Just so we have a good understanding.

I like where we ended the year with the expenditures.

Yeah, that's great.

Oh, thank you.

Very good.

Further comments, questions?

Alright, hearing none, uh, I'll then say a motion to approve.

Uh I move to approve the payable checks paid April 1st through 30th, 2026 as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion from Treasurer Cruz.

Uh, do we have a second?

I second.

Second from uh Commissioner Hicks.

Any other comments or questions?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Motion passed unanimously.

Thank you all.

Move on to item number seven, which is uh discussion and possible action regarding the adjusted VNT Commission's fiscal year 2025-2026 budget reports.

And again, this is through the period ending April 26th.

Treasurer Cruz, anything to add?

Uh not really.

Just the fiscal picture has improved significantly since February, but otherwise, unless there's questions, I have nothing up.

Very good questions, comments.

I just wanted to ask one question.

Are we still working on combining those two sale of goods to be under polar?

Okay.

Asking about that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Very good.

Other questions or comments?

All right.

Uh hearing none, I'll take a uh a motion to approve.

I move to approve the budget report as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Alright, motion and a second.

Any final conversation on this item?

All right.

Hearing none.

Uh all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

All right.

If it's all right, we um I'm because we're moving pretty quickly, and I think we may have outstripped um some of the people coming for the next item.

Uh, if it's all right, we'll table that one and move on uh through the rest of our business until um until we have the ability to have them here.

So um we will move uh we'll move on to item number nine, which is discussion and possible action regarding a proposed second amendment to the contract fiscal uh fiscal year 25-C001, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.

Um this particular amendment is extending the contract term for an additional year under the same terms and conditions and increase the total contract amount by $95,000, resulting in a new total not to exceed contract amount of two hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars.

Um Sherry, do you have anything to add on this particular item?

Let's keep telling.

Do you want to just briefly for the record um uh discuss what what particular this this amendment or this part of the contract addresses what what services certainly it's it's for the operations of Eastgate Depot, which includes um ticketing at admin, um, the employees for the for the depot, any maintenance.

So, very good, thank you.

All right, uh questions, comments?

Alright, hearing none, uh any public comment on this item?

Alright, hearing none, um I will accept a motion.

I move to recommend that the VNT Commission approve the amendment of the contract as proposed.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

A second.

Motion and a second.

Any final conversation?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Move on to item number 10, which is for possible action, and that is discussion and possible action regarding a proposed third amendment to contract FY24-C003 with Cheryl Bailey.

And that's the contract with the amendment extending the contract term for one year, one additional year, effective July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027, and increasing the total contract amount by 79,200, resulting in a new total not to exceed uh contract amount of 261,200.

Is there a representative from Cheryl Bailey LLC here?

Good morning.

I love me being the topic of conversation.

I did want to give you a little bit of a reasoning for my rate increase.

Um I started back in August of 2023.

Um we have seen growth uh through the VNT.

Not certainly not because of me, but I was an integral part, I feel like.

And checking the bank balances, I wanted to do a little bit comparison.

So I did May because I have the books for May.

Um this past year.

So I went back to May 2023.

Um, we had V and T had 475,000 in uh in the bank.

Today we are and have consistently been sitting around 1.2 million.

Um the other thing is that when I started, we had very few uh regular season special events.

Um we have added every year, and this year we're sitting at seven special events that I'm coordinating.

So again, I I appreciate my position with the VNT.

Um, I'm certainly aware that it's I'm not doing everything, but I think I am I'm helpful in coordinating some of this growth that we've seen.

Very good, thank you.

Uh questions or comments from the commission.

Thank you, is what I would like to say for the work that you're doing on behalf of the commission.

Seriously, uh I agree with you about the new special events and adding themed events, you know, like Father's Day as an example, uh doing something similar to what we do for Mother's Day.

I realize that does take a lot of time and effort and energy, so appreciate the work that you're doing for us, Sherry.

Thank you so much.

Very good.

Other comments or questions?

Sherry, I would uh just uh just just to put it on the record.

What's the what's the amount of the the difference in the amount from last year to this year?

It's uh the increase.

The increase is um $7,200 annually, so 10%.

Very good.

Anyone else have questions or comments on this item?

We're going from.

Oh, never mind.

I was doing the map.

72,000-92s.

Yep.

I just want to make sure.

I mean, we just finished our budget, so did we budget for the increase as far as in our professional services?

Or we okay, yes.

Yes, we have some vertical integration in our budgeting department and our contractual services department.

So there was a little bit of uh coordination and foresight there.

I know.

When you're a big organization, sometimes you have to make sure that everything's coordinated.

Yeah.

Very good.

Alright, uh any public comment on this item, either here in the in the room or online.

All right, hearing none, uh, I'll be happy to accept a motion.

I'll make a motion.

I move to approve the amendment as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

All right, motion and a second.

Any final uh discussion on this item.

Hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sherry.

I'd be grateful that you're not a public official that has to go through the very awkward public flogging that happens every year.

It's painful on both sides of that.

We will move on to item number.

That being said, um, before we move on to the next item, I would open it up.

Uh, you know, traditionally, when there's a kind of a renewal, uh, there's an opportunity to kind of do a little bit of thought about performance or suggestions, goal setting for the future.

So while that's not agendized.

If any members of the commission have ideas, feel free to reach out to me.

Um, and uh happy to discuss that, and and that's something we can discuss with Sherry.

Um I know sometimes it's helpful to have some feedback, otherwise you feel like you're just plugging along, right?

So all right, we will move on to item number 11, uh, which is for discussion and possible action regarding proposed amendment number four to our agreement for legal services with the Carson City District Attorney's Office with the amendment extending the contract for an additional one-year term under the same terms and conditions for an amount not to exceed $25,000 per year.

Um Sherry, do you want to give us an overview of what conversations have happened there?

Not much.

Um, no, not much.

All right.

Lucas, do you accept your punishment as outlined in the agenda?

Uh yeah, we're we're happy to continue.

You know, working with the commission uh as the agenda stated, it's the same terms, same amount as last year.

So very good.

Thank you.

And we appreciate that very much.

Um any questions or comments from the commission?

I would just like to say thank you, Lucas, for being willing to continue on with this amazing commission, the greatest in the state of Nevada's repertoire.

Very nice, thank you.

All right, very good.

Uh if there are no other comments, I'll ask for uh from the commission, I'll ask for public comment.

Any public comment on this item?

All right.

Hearing none, uh, we'll go ahead and entertain a motion if someone feels so inclined.

I move to approve the amendment as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Motion and a second, any final discussion on this item.

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Getting a little bit of whiplash.

We're moving through this agenda too fast.

We might need to take a recess.

Well, we've we might need to anyway, but uh I think we're all just relieved that we'll be able to operate for another year.

So that's that's the good news, right?

Um we will move on to item number 12, which is for discussion only, and this is just some of our monthly non-action items.

Um, I see that we have Melissa online with us.

Melissa, do you have anything you'd like to share with us for a marketing update?

I do.

Uh I'm just gonna give you a quick update on how our uh media performed in May.

And then I'll just I just wanted to go over.

I don't think we've reviewed, I know that we approved the budget, but I don't think we actually reviewed what we have planned for the next fiscal year from July through next June.

So uh just I'm gonna hit on those two things.

So for May deliverables for our paid search, our clicks increased in May.

Sorry about that my phone's on right um our clicks increased 67% in May, meaning that our campaign delivered significantly more traffic without the additional investment so we're happy to see that um the average cost per click dropped 40% which indicates that we improved our efficiency um or shift to lower cost and higher volume keywords uh so that's great because that stretches our budget further our click through rate rose 48% uh which suggests that the creative that we're using and the keyword relevance has improved and that the overall audience pool um becomes a little bit more qualified and then our impressions grew quite a bit well our modestly at 13% meaning that the click and the click through rate gains were driven by better engagement um with the existing inventory not just broader reach so it was we're just not throwing out impressions for the sake of throwing out impressions we're trying to reach that the good leads um excuse me for our display in our uh ctv our impressions declined a little bit nothing that we're concerned about but um through that we noticed that our impressions um that we reached a broader set of individuals like so our unique impressions doubled not just our total impressions so we reached a broader audience of individuals um and users to fight despite the fewer ad exposures again nothing we're concerned about but just something to note that we're at least reaching some new people and then the next part of our campaign is our outdoor we had two four week periods of posters that we ran throughout the Reno area uh one of those flights was April 13th through May 10th for Mother's Day that campaign delivered over 1.3 million impressions and then the next we're actually just came out of the second flight which was May 11th through June 7th and that was just with our general session messaging and we delivered 1.56 million impressions there so um we're happy with our our delivery there and as usual they do a good job for us I think in getting us good locations with our television just as a reminder we ran on KOLO KRNB KTVN we had a total of 299 spots just keep in mind during this uh period that we were running we were in the political window so it's really hard it's just impossible to get bonus spots which is usually what we go for and we usually get them for VNT but they just the stations can't do that during the political window however I want to note that KTBN was a big winner and a big a big partner for us in that they let me buy highly reduced spots and they delivered 76 spots for a dollar a piece so we'll take those um the next part is just radio this is our last channel that we use we just as a reminder we have nine radio stations that we work with and for our May flight we delivered 630 spots across those stations so um both between digital and uh traditional media we felt like we really kind of covered the market pretty well during May with any questions very good thank you questions non-deliberative questions from the board may I just ask a question Melissa this is Dave.

Do you feel like we're gonna run into a similar situation going into the general elections this November like to finish our season or are we okay?

Nope I'm so glad you asked because this is the benefit of us putting together our annual plan all at one time because we will have normally we run in September and October just kind of wrapping up the season um which is the next general uh election political window but because we got our planning done early we're now going to run during July and August so we should we should have this kind of wrapped up before that we even hit that political window which if the primary is in the indicator if we were running during the general nobody's gonna see our ads anyways, because I think as soon as the commercials start running, people are going to change channels.

So that's right um if you if you would like, I can just quickly just pop up.

Uh, can I share this screen?

Um, I can just kind of pop up the media plan so you guys can take a look at it and I'll run through it.

It really doesn't differ much from what we do usually.

It's just that our fighting is a little bit different, which I just mentioned.

Um, uh, let me see if I can do this.

Nope.

Melissa, hang on just a moment.

I just want to check if uh if we have some new information that was not necessarily in the packet, Lucas.

What's our uh what's our procedure or our availability to receive that?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, the new information is fine to come before the commission so long as it's presented to the entire commission at the same time, and it will later be uploaded onto our uh box website as late material.

Um, so as long as Sherry and Melissa can work together to get that uploaded as soon as practical after this meeting, then it can just come in as late material.

I appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Sorry about that, Sherry.

I'll get that over to you as soon as the call is over.

No problem at all.

Thank you, Melissa.

Uh, do you does it look like you have the functionality to go ahead and share that with us?

I think I have the functionality.

I just don't know if I have the technological width.

No, it looks like maybe we don't won't come through.

Why is it not sharing?

It says I'm sharing.

Yeah, unfortunately, we're hearing that on our end.

That's uh that's not a possibility.

You know, this meeting's moving along so so quickly.

If it's something you wanted to email to me, I probably could uh or to Sherry.

Yeah.

I could do that.

Um, all right, I just sent it off to you.

No, I often experience PEPCAC errors.

That stands for problem exists between chair and keyboard.

Pebcac.

It's an acronym that says problem exists between keyboard and chair.

Nice.

I know.

I like to share my jokes with everybody, even though they're bad.

Did that come through to either one of you?

Yes, I'm downloading it right now.

Oh, perfect.

All right, I hope.

Yeah, I think I received it as well, but uh Sherry's better situated actually share it here in the meeting.

What's going on now?

Oh, there we are.

All right, Melissa, it's up.

Okay.

So as I said, we didn't really change the channels here.

I think that kind of the big difference is, and it doesn't it's not reflected here on my plan.

Um, we were granted more marketing money this year, and Regina and I worked on kind of how to divvy that up and what would be the best strategy for DT Railway to use those funds.

And it really did come down to we both felt like you guys needed more of a social media presence, which falls into her bucket.

So you'll see that my budget hasn't really changed a lot because it we just both felt like that investment into social media is gonna give lift to both of the efforts uh that we're doing.

So you'll see here that I have my outdoor, we're gonna run our first two um uh campaigns starting here June 29th.

We'll start that.

And I did take a little week off there, just a little gap just to try and extend our our fall campaign a little bit longer um to get us out there to August 30th, and then we'll go dark with that uh until April 12th, which will kick off our Mother's Day campaign, and then we'll take a week off, and then we'll continue with our general session that'll take us through June, and then that'll get us right up to the end of the fiscal year.

With television, you'll see here that we have for this fall.

I guess it's still be summer now.

I gotta stop calling it fall.

We usually run so late.

Um we'll still we'll start again up on June 29th, and we're gonna kind of blink on and off.

That way it just kind of makes it feel like we're always there, but we just it just helps extend us our budget a little bit longer to at least get us through to the middle of August.

And then uh you'll notice I have a line in here.

This one is new that Clay had negotiated some trade with KOLO, and we went ahead and applied that trip those trade dollars to run in the opposite weeks that were on with all the with the other stations.

So we took advantage of that, and then we get all the way into next April where we'll do our traditional kickoff two weeks of Mother's Day, and then we'll go into uh running three weeks of our traditional campaign, the general uh session campaign, which again we'll be blinking on and off to just help us extend that budget for the campaign from three weeks to five weeks.

The next section we have is our radio, which we typically do same thing where we're gonna blink on a week off, week on, week, off week to just try to get us all the way from the end of June to the end of August, and then we'll take our time off and come back on uh April 26th to do that two-week kickoff for Mother's Day, and then we go back into our general session starting May 10th.

And then as far as our digital, excuse me, we'll go ahead and run that consistently from July 1st.

So we're just gonna keep it running because we're running right now from July 1st all the way through September 30th, and then we'll go quiet there for four months and then come back on in the beginning of March.

Um, I'm sorry, that's both with search and retargeting.

And then our display ads, same thing, we're just gonna run all the way through July and August.

We are gonna take September off just because we just couldn't make the budget work the whole way, and we're just confident with what Regina has going on her end of social, that it's just gonna keep that message out there.

Then we come back in um with display uh April 26th for Bunner's Day, and we'll just continue uh running starting our general season May 9th and then running that all the way through the end of June.

Uh same thing for our CTV, our online video.

We're just gonna keep running that right now all the way through the end of August, and then we'll go quiet and then we'll come back on in the beginning of April and run Mother's Day and then go to general session, which will take us through the end of the fiscal year.

And with all of that, our total budget is 65,680, and that's it.

Very good.

Thank you, Melissa.

Uh further questions or comments.

All right.

Uh thank you very much for the update.

Uh Melissa, I I just have one.

I mean, uh, you know, uh, and and this is more directly related to the past performance and just looking at the at the significant increases in clicks, click-through rate, cost per click being down.

Uh you I think you mentioned a couple of the things that might be just better targeting in some of that.

I mean, is that all is the improvement all in line, or is there something unique that you're noticing that maybe um is leading to those those significant uh efficiencies that we're seeing.

So I I feel like it's in line just because we go off air for a while and then we come back on, and it just seems like we kind of gain that momentum, and it just gets smarter and smarter on those algorithms, picking things up.

I know one of the things that we've always talked about that is not even close to online is our paid search, and that we typically um, I think paid search usually is about a 13% click through rate when it comes to uh like tourism or event type activities, and we are at 24.66%.

So we're almost, I don't know that there's been a time that we've been lower than 20%, and I think we usually hover around 23, 24 percent.

So yeah, we blow it out of the water with with our paid search campaigns.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, barring any further uh questions or comments, we will move on to uh next item, which is uh Chris is not able to be with us today.

Uh he's gonna give us track maintenance update.

Um I will just report that I've had some conversations with with him.

Um he'd had some um some interactions with a gentleman on the parcel that's uh next to the East Eastgate Depot.

Um a gentleman claiming that he owned owned rights to that parcel, and so we've done a little research.

Thank you, Commissioner Hicks, for helping point me in the right direction there and um confirm that it is a BLM parcel, and uh we are storing some commission uh items on that parcel.

Uh in a conversation with the BLM when with Wood Rogers when we were talking about getting access to do the study on the on the slope issue the last fall, in passing, they mentioned that they had noticed uh road or road access, and I believe it's they're talking about this parcel, and that um that they didn't necessarily have a problem with it, but they had no permit on file, and so that they'd like at some point for us to get a permit in place.

So it seems like a good time, and I'll be reaching out to them to discuss what they'd like to see with that parcel, um, and uh and if if our continued usage is appropriate and in line and and make sure that we're we got all our all our Ts crossed and I's dotted.

So um, so that's the only conversation I had with Chris.

He was just concerned that maybe he didn't understand and that we didn't actually own that parcel or have access to to be there that um and so we're trying trying to make sure that we've we've got that buttoned up, whatever the the appropriate usage is um as a result as well.

Um he'd been doing some work for some of the neighbors putting fences on some of the at the lot lines from that if that's public land, people can access it, but kind of indicating that this is the edge of that public land, and and um potentially a fence on our side, and then also for the the neighbor who we cooperate with on his side where that um just just to make it clear that this is where things are.

So all right, um operations and training report.

Candy, do you have something to share with us?

Good morning, Candy Duncan, Virginia Truckee Railroad.

Um we just did our Father's Day special Father's Day last weekend, and while it wasn't sold out, unfortunately, um it was really successful, I think.

We instead of having three passenger cars and the Jersey Lille, we just had two.

We were able to fill the two.

And on Saturday, the Jersey Lill only had two tables occupied, which was kind of sad, but on Sunday we had seven, and um I worked that train and the people were so excited and happy, they loved the experience.

And so I really think I mean at first I thought, well, maybe people don't care about dads like they do about moms, but but I think I don't think that's in dispute.

But Cherry pointed out to me, and I think this is true that moms really like to go somewhere and do something fun on Mother's Day, and dads just want to stay home and barbecue and watch TV, and I suppose that's probably pretty true.

So um, but I still think, judging from the reaction of the people that were on the train and how nice they were and complimentary, that if we'd maybe could do a little bit more advertising ahead of time, I think we we probably would be able to sell more seats to it because and now that people have experienced it, I think they'll go out and tell their friends, and I had a lot of people say they loved it and come back, so so that was good.

Um right now the railroad um in Virginia City is really focusing on the 50th anniversary of the rebirth of the VNT Railroad, so um all the energy is going there for this um next week over the fourth of July weekend.

Um I think a lot of fun things are happening up there, and one of the things that um I was happy to hear Tom has decided to go steam on the third and fourth using the 18, and I think that's or the fourth and fifth using the eighteen, and I think that's good advertising for us actually, because there's our steam engine, and people when they say, Well, I want to ride this again, they'll they'll have to come and write it on our long line.

So I think that's very cool.

I'm glad we're doing that.

Um, this coming up weekend is Steam again, and I've got a hundred and twelve on the books for Saturday, 88 for Sunday, and this is just Wednesday.

So I've noticed this year something different from a lot of years before, two things.

Um more interest in the one way, and um, so I've gotten up to that 20% limit, I think a couple of times now.

And then um the other thing I've noticed is a lot more walk-ups than I'm used to getting, which is really great.

I even had walk-ups for of two big groups actually on um Sunday for the Father's Day train.

So that's good.

I'm glad that we're we're getting that.

I think a lot of people, one of the things we might want to consider, we do have that 72 hour restriction.

So if you cancel after that amount of time, you won't get your money back, and so I think that prevents people from buying tickets because they're worried their schedules might change or something could happen and they're not gonna get their money back.

So we might want to, I don't know, maybe go to twenty-four.

I don't know.

It's something maybe we could discuss later, but that would be a recommendation or at least something I think is why people aren't booking in advance.

Um I think that's really it.

It's just been a great summer.

The depot looks good.

People are happy, trains are running on time almost.

And we all work together pretty good.

Father's Day was a lot of fun.

Sherry did a nice job with all the refreshments and everything, so yeah, we're good.

Very good.

Thank you for that report.

Questions, comments.

Yeah, that's a quick question.

Uh can you tell.

Do people indicate those walk-ups?

Like, hey, we're here for uh a tournament or an event, and they just happen to hear about it and came over, you know, because they're going home afterwards.

Do you get any sense of if it's if they're here for events in the area or anything like that?

No, I don't really, but I I mean I could try and start finding out.

I know lots of times when they come in, it's kind of very hectic because I've got people in line that already have them, and I don't want to hold at the line too long.

But yeah, I'm just curious because we have had a lot of events in April and May.

Some stuff got canceled, but I'm just wondering if there's any impact for people who, you know, they're done Saturday and they're looking to do something Sunday before they head back to California or whatever the case may be.

So, we're trying to encourage people.

You may be here for an event Friday, Saturday, pick train Sunday, right?

Give you something to do, you know, as so long as they don't have a super long drive, I guess, to to get home, but you know, still be home at an early evening, you know, if they're from California, so okay.

Thank you.

And just to kind of piggyback off that conversation, we're noticing a lot up in Virginia City that people are really waiting until the last minute for a lot of things, including event tickets and stuff.

I think we think is it just you know our brilliant minds up there by getting together.

Um no, I think a lot of it is um people are working with limited budgets recently with the economy and and the way things are, and they're waiting until they can verify for sure that A they can do it and they have the time and they have the funds to go do it.

So I think that's a big part of it.

Yes, the 72 hour window might be too long, but either way, I think you're still gonna get those last minutes now.

That's just kind of the nature of everything.

Our events are really seeing that big time.

So, all right, other questions, comments.

Oh, hearing none.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Um Sherry, I'll have you go ahead with your update.

Do you um should we reach out to Jason and see if we can also do all meaning my update?

Let's take a little recess if that's all right.

We'll just recess for um three or four minutes if that's okay.

And um, just want to see where where we're at so that we can get that last item done when it's time.

So uh we'll we'll be back at uh in five minutes.

Um, um, Call the meeting back to order.

It is nine forty four.

And um, and we will uh we'll jump back to item number eight, which is for discussion and a presentation.

This is for discussion only.

Presentation regarding the Water Rogers Incorporated Report regarding the VNT Railway Slope Stabilization Project.

And we will turn it over to Jason to take us through that.

Great.

Thanks for the opportunity.

If you don't mind, just yep, just turn it green and you're good to go.

Okay.

First time I've done that.

Cool.

All good.

Thanks for the opportunity to present our work here today.

It's uh I think it's really helpful, especially for your decision makers such as yourself.

You know, we can get really technical with a lot of the stuff we say, so my intention here is I think I have about 10 minutes, is to spend about five minutes presenting our report.

So then we can have a few minutes for questions and discussion.

I'm also going to gear this towards kind of some decision makers like yourself with the assumption y'all aren't geotechnical engineers and those types of things.

So there's some items I might skip by quickly.

Um but if you do have questions about that, I'm all yours.

So, um, so sorry, Jason.

Would you mind just uh for the record just stating your name?

So we got that on there.

Yes, sir.

Uh, my name's Jason Dale.

I'm a senior engineer with Wood Rogers.

Thank you.

So, um, and just a quick point on that note of our project team.

I'm a senior engineer.

We have our principal engineer, the stamp being engineer for this, Justin at our office.

We also have a lot of other people.

We have a laboratory we work with, VNC construction, they performed our test pits.

We have surveyors that we went out and did this, so a big project team.

So if you direct your eyes to the figure here, this is in our report.

Um, this is the back part of our report, so I'll kind of step through these portions so you all understand what we're showing here.

This is kind of showing our project area, right?

So we have um day into the right, right above mound house, we have where the VNT alignment is, we have that big red polygon that's showing where we flew a survey for topography.

Then we have that green area, which is really zooming in on where this landslide or slope mitigations occurring.

Next page, please.

Great.

So a few things to point out on this figure.

Starting at the very bottom, we have those black lines, that's the topography.

That's the stuff we collected at site.

You can see that when you get to the green area, it gets kind of jagged, it's not nice and flat, right?

So that's a good measured way to say, alright, this is where our issue is.

Um we have those checkerboard boxes, those are called test pits.

That's where we went out there with an excavator, backhoe to dig holes and look in the ground.

And we also have some photos with those blue and that red line is where we did our analysis.

So a big part of our report is we go out to the site and get information to understand what's going on.

What's the topography look like?

What do the soils look like?

What do the water conditions look like?

We take that so we can perform analysis.

Next page, please.

Um, shortly, this is a geologic map.

This helps us understand what's going on.

Basically, the geology here is what we call residual soil, the stuff that gets really weathered, it's kind of clay gravelly, and it quickly becomes bedrock.

As it becomes bedrock, it gets in a weathered state where it's easy to excavate, but then it gets really hard over a few feet.

Next page, please.

Okay.

Um, yeah, you can so maybe just stop for a second here.

I'm not gonna go too detailed, but these are our test pit logs.

So these are kind of, for example, here it shows we had about three feet of that clay gravel over a weather bedrock, which then got so hard we couldn't dig past five feet.

Pretty typical of the site.

Could you scroll forward a few until it looks different?

Oh, keep going, please.

Keep on moving, maybe three more.

Okay, we could stop here for a second.

Um, just very quickly, these are our lab testing.

So we have a soils laboratory where we can do different tests.

What we can do is we can see what type of material it is, whether it's a clay, whether it's a sand.

Here, this is a fairly fine-grained clay material, which is typically a less stable material.

Um, you can go ahead and scroll.

Keep one more, please.

Um, looking here, this is something that you understand the strength of the material with.

So we ran testing to understand how strong is the material or that clay material.

You can continue, please.

Um there's a few photos in our report just showing what the landslide looks like.

There's different parts.

You know, the the body of the landslide is kind of what we'd call hummocky, it has waves to it, and then at the top of it, you have what's called a head scarp where it drops down.

You can scroll forward a few.

Oh, that's okay.

Yeah, if you go one more, we'll probably stay here for a moment.

So, everything I just showed you was really trying to do what we're calling characterizing the site.

We know what the topography is.

We looked at the test pits to understand what's under the ground.

We ran testing on that material to understand from an engineering perspective how it behaves.

We take all that information and we put it into a computer program, which is called like a slope stability analysis.

So what you're seeing here is you have our topography, that red line I showed earlier, where it shows a ground surface, it shows our idealization of what it looks like underground, and you have a water surface.

So what we observed is once we got to the rock, there was water right at that contact.

It went through the clay sand, it hits the rock and it goes down the hill.

There wasn't that much, but if that's expected for a site like this, you have a big hill, the water's got to go somewhere, right?

It snows, it slowly percolates through and it goes somewhere.

But what is a big influence we know from analysis is how much water is in there.

So what we found is that when you have an average condition, the slope's pretty stable.

So we played with how much water it is.

If the water was all the way like from dry to all the way to the surface.

So that's one thing we looked at.

We also considered just how strong that material is.

You know, lab testing, plus or minus accuracy, so we wanted to understand that better.

Could you go forward one more, please?

Uh one more, please.

Okay.

So another thing we considered as well is just earthquakes, right?

So what happens under earthquake?

So there's kind of a lot going on here.

I'm gonna kind of break it down real quick.

So the way that we think about this stuff is a factor of safety.

If you have a factor of safety of one, it's about to fail.

You sneeze on it and it might fail.

A lot of times your goal is to get a 1.5 for a slope in a static condition, 1.1 in an earthquake.

So looking at this top box here, we have the static condition.

So if it's right now, we have a gray line which shows the water, the water levels going from low being dry to high to being at the ground surface.

And what you see is as you go, as you go left to right on that chart, that's showing that the factor of safety decreases as the water goes up, and it's it's fairly responsive.

You know, as the water increases, you're seeing that that slope, a significant slope.

That orange one is just showing the relationship with the strength, showing that if we assume the material is a little bit stronger, the factor of safety increases.

Now, why am I saying this?

This helps us understand potential approaches to resolving this and also understanding what's making the biggest influence.

Is the material really weak?

Is it a material issue, or is it a water issue?

This is telling us it's a water issue.

So what that means is what in a normal time when it's dry, this is probably not an issue.

When we have maybe if we have a super El Niño coming next year, as we keep hearing about, maybe if it's really wet, maybe it maybe there's gonna be a little more movement with that material.

What we also see here for the earthquake on the bottom one, that bottom box is it's showing that right now it's stable for an earthquake when it's generally dry.

If it gets wet and there's an earthquake, it'll probably have some movement.

Now, big question is, right?

How does this affect the rail line?

So what we found in our studies is that this is not a very deep landslide.

It's relatively shallow.

What's happening is that two or three feet of clay gravel on that rock, when it gets wet, it moves.

And that's good.

What would be bad or like harder to deal with is if it was a deep seated, meaning that you had a large mass, which could undermine or move the rail line.

So what our study is indicating is what will likely happen, is there could be times when it's wet and you're gonna see some similar sloughing where some material is gonna fall down, and someone might need to go pick that up and do like they've done in the past.

But we're not thinking that this is one day gonna wipe out the railroad.

Um that's important when we consider mitigations.

You know, this isn't a BNSF rail line that has critical stuff going through every day.

This is a tourist periodic use.

So that is one thing to consider.

It's also just the cost of mitigation.

Um, frankly, if you didn't do anything, maybe you have to pick it up once or twice a year.

I would have to guess.

If you wanted to spend on the order of a hundred thousand dollars, maybe you send a backhoe out there and they dig a trench at the top of this landslide and put in a French terrain and you try to keep the water out of it.

If you want to spend closer to a million dollars, you can go out there and do a lot of grading to regrade the slope and potentially put walls.

Um so when you consider risk of this, I don't see a significant potential of something coming and affecting the the rail line.

Um I think it would be prudent to keep an eye on it, especially after earthquake events and wet events.

Send someone down and as you probably do for the rest of the line.

Just say, hey, does everything look like we would expect?

Um, but I guess just the big takeaway is I'm not seeing something that I I think needs to be immediately addressed.

Um hopefully that broke it down kind of in a sense that works for you all.

Um, I'd like to talk about it more if you have questions.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Uh questions for Mr.

Dale.

I don't necessarily have a question, but I I appreciate the information and the results and just knowing that we don't need to make a sizable investment at this time, you know, to correct something up there and if uh Chris and his team, you know, are up there quarterly, keeping an eye on it.

It sounds like that will help help get us over the the hump, so to speak.

So but I I appreciate the analysis and and uh making sure that that was in fact the case.

So thank you, Jason.

Yeah.

Other comments, other questions?

Good.

Well I've I've made a note to agenda as a future item to pass an ordinance that there's no earthquakes during the the heart of winter when it's wet.

That's uh that should handle the the worst case scenario, right?

Okay.

I know.

These elected officials think they can do anything, huh?

Jeez.

Very good.

Okay.

Appreciate the report.

Thank you kindly.

Any uh any final messages you want to leave with us?

Are we good?

Nope, really appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you also.

Thank you for your time.

Yeah, we appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh we will move on then and move back to our executive assistant update, Sherry Bailey.

Let's see.

Um I had Father's Day on my list.

Candy did a good job of filling you in.

Um while it wasn't sold out like we said, um, in addition to dads wanting to sit around barbecuing, um, we did have an awful lot going on Carson City Reno, the rodeo, the Carson City powwow.

So they had a lot of choices.

But it was a good event.

We uh offered uh bagels, donuts, bloody marries, juice, coffee.

Had little presents for the dads.

Well, for everybody, actually, ended up there.

Yeah.

Um let's see.

I have not had one response on our RFPs, except I do know that story time photography is planning on submitting, but that's the only one I know of so far.

Um, and then just coming up, I have the we have the toast first toast of the canyon July 25th.

Um the second will be August 29th, which we are planning our 250th birthday barbecue to coincide with that.

Um, those are in the plans in the works.

Off the top of my head, I think that's all I have for you right now.

All right, very good.

Questions, comments?

I just asked a question on the 250th.

When you get more information on that, will you can you share that uh out to us?

And I'd like to get that on our events section for visit Carson City.

Sure.

Uh see if I can work that into some of our August marketing PR efforts too.

Because I think that's pretty cool.

So I'd like to get behind that for sure.

Not that I don't like all of the trains, but I think that's a it's a good one for this year because it's unique, one and done.

So great.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay.

Other items.

Um Sherry, have uh what off the top of your head, do you recall uh when when we're closing out uh on the RFPs?

How how much longer we have?

Do we set us set specific dates to close it?

It is.

I I'm pretty sure it's July 8th.

So they have to be turned in.

Um Regina and Maria are helping me with getting some social media out, try and get the word.

So I asked her to run a few more before the 8th.

Okay, very good.

Thank you.

Well, if there's nothing further, we'll go ahead and uh close that item and move on to our next, which is the upcoming meeting.

It sounded like we might have some conflicts on the date the meeting is scheduled.

Um and it might make it tough for us to achieve quorum.

I will be unavailable on the well, I shouldn't say unavailable.

I won't be able to be here.

I may be able, I prefer not to, but I may be able to um call in.

But same on the 29th, but the 29th would probably be a little easier if we did move it, but either way it's still gonna be.

I have something for every Wednesday for six weeks starting on the 22nd.

So, got it.

Um, Dave, if I understand you're out on the 22nd and the 29th, neither of those would be possible for you.

That is correct.

Okay.

Um, Stephanie, what are the are the are those two days uh looking?

I'm available.

Well, I don't know what their problem is.

Give her a perfect attendance award, right?

Um, what about uh what about if if we were to move it up a week before on the 15th?

Does that conflict for people?

I'm I'm good with that, but like I said, I can make the other two work.

Um it would just be I wouldn't be able to be in person, but the fifteenth would be no issues for me.

Understood.

I can do the 15th.

I think the only question I had was on the RFPs.

I think we told them they would be coming to the 22nd, so that kind of shortens the time frame.

Makes it tough for us to turn them around.

Okay.

I'm okay with leaving it on the 22nd.

I just like I said, I as long as everyone's okay with me being on the phone and not in person.

Yeah, unfortunately, I'm I may have a conflict that morning as well.

And so same with the 29th, same thing.

I can definitely be available by phone or web, but not in person.

Does it change anything for either of you if we did like the 21st or 23rd?

And do you know just move it by a day?

You have to probably have a C on the 13th.

Yeah, probably have a commission meeting on the 21st.

I'm open on the 23rd.

Yeah, I could probably make the 23rd work as well.

I think Dave's out on the 23rd.

Yeah.

Don't count on me from the 22nd through the 31st, unfortunately.

Okay.

We'll do fine without me.

We just would have to check availability for here, right?

Yeah.

Does Carson City often have Thursday Thursday meetings?

We can look.

Yeah, not that Thursday.

Not that I think.

Okay.

All right.

Well, um we'll do some checking.

Okay.

And then uh and then as as soon as we can, we'll make it make a decision, lock in a date where we feel comfortably assured that we can have a quorum to conduct business.

Okay.

Perfect.

All right.

Now 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 or the of the agenda.

Are there any commissioner comments or announcements?

Can I just share that painting has begun as of last night?

So I believe Josh was well, he was up there yesterday, but I think he got uh got started with the lift delivery.

So, pretty pretty cool.

And all this just kind of got squared up literally in the last two days.

So maybe we'll be able to show something obviously at the next meeting that I won't be at, but uh, like and maybe take some pictures.

Somebody can get some pictures or whatever, I can get Zach to come up there and do some pictures and drone stuff and share that back because it's a it's a really cool design.

So super super cool.

It's gonna bring some I think really cool color uh to that building.

Other commissioner comments or announcements or requests for information.

Hearing none, we will move on to item number fourteen, which is our final opportunity for public comment.

Public is invited at this time to comment on any matter that's not specifically included in the agenda as action items.

No action may be taken on a matter raised under this item, the agenda.

Any public comment?

All right, hearing none, we will move on to our last item, which is for possible action.

That is adjournment.

We will adjourn this meeting at ten.

Oh four a.m.

Thank you, everybody, for your participation.