The time is now 1 30.

The Washoe County.

Sorry.

This meeting is being recorded.

The time is now 1 30.

The Washoe County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission meeting is now in session.

We'll have a call to order.

Mr.

Roman.

Chris Baker.

Present.

Timothy Dake.

Present.

Miles Gertler.

Present.

Sean Hill.

Present.

Kevin Joel said he would either be here or online.

He's not here yet.

Tracy Kazinski is here.

She's just walking in one moment.

Thank you, sir.

I'll come back to Commissioner Kacinski.

Lisa Rhody, I do not see her online.

And Jennifer Uvera is online.

Could you please unmute?

Present.

Thank you.

Commissioner Kacinski and Commissioner Joel are both here.

I'll have the check-in.

Commissioner Kaczynski.

Present.

Thank you.

Commissioner Joel.

Present.

Thank you.

And uh Commissioner Garcia will not make it today.

And I would just like the chair would like to say something about Commissioner Roadie.

And we do have a quorum.

Yes, thank you.

Lisa Roadie uh has not is not here, and she is not going to be uh involved in re-upping or getting uh elected again for another four-year term.

So I would like to recognize Lisa Roadie for her service to the Open Space and Regional Parks Commission, and I just appreciate all of her time and effort and work towards this very important work on the Parks Commission.

And I am here as well.

And that concludes uh roll call.

The Pledge of Allegiance.

Commissioner Dake, would you please lead us?

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

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

Thank you, Commissioner Dake.

Instructions for providing public comment and Zoom and telephone.

Mr.

Roman.

I'm going to take it today.

So uh Zoom instructions.

This meeting will be held in the County Commission chambers and via Zoom.

To attend this meeting via Zoom, please log into the Zoom webinar using the link found in the agenda.

You can also join the meeting by typing Zoom.us into your computer browser, clicking join a meeting on the Zoom website and entering the meeting ID.

898-2690-0042.

Alternatively, you can join the meeting via telephone only by dialing 1669 9009128, entering the meeting ID 898-2690-0042 and pressing pound.

For those wishing to provide public comment via Zoom, log into the Zoom webinar using the link on the agenda and utilize the raise hand feature during any public comment period to provide public comment via telephone only.

Press star nine to raise hand and star six to mute slash unmute.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comment?

Mr.

Roman.

I have no public comment in chambers.

I have no hands raised on Zoom.

Very well.

Thank you.

Moving ahead.

Item five, approval of draft minutes for the Open Space and Regional Parks Commission meeting held on September 24th, 2025.

This is for possible action.

Please take a moment and review.

Second.

Very well.

The uh draft minutes uh for September 24th has been uh motion has been made to approve.

It has been seconded.

Do we have any public comment?

I have no public comment in chambers.

I have no hands raised on Zoom.

Any further discussion?

Very well.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Oppose.

Motion carries.

Moving on to item six.

Presentation of certification of appreciation to Mr.

Tom Tarrell for dedicated service to Washoe County by Ranger Nick Sauer.

Stewart, sorry.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Good afternoon, commissioners, fellow colleagues, distinguished guests.

It's my pleasure to present to you this afternoon.

Uh for the record, Nick Stoyer, Park Ranger, Davis Creek Regional Park.

Uh today I'd like to introduce you to a gentleman uh by the name of Tim Terrell.

He is a uh local wildlife photographer, carving artist.

He's a benevolent, and he's a friend.

This is a picture of Tim.

I first met Tim six or seven years ago at Davis Creek Regional Park.

He was out taking pictures of birds with his huge long telephoto lens, and I said, I need to get to know this guy.

So we uh became friends, and he was gracious enough to provide images uh of the birds in the park that he took.

Um these are two of the images here, and I used uh a majority of his images to create a bird guide for the park.

So on the right is a page from that bird guide where I used a lot of his images, and then I brought in information from all about birds.org.

So um he's been providing uh wildlife photography pictures for a number of years.

Um he also helped uh one winter to um put on a bluebird box building workshop uh with myself, and uh we invited the community in.

The picture on the left shows Tim uh showing some people how to build these boxes.

He brought in the wood pieces and and the idea was to put the boxes up in the park and be able to take pictures of the bluebirds coming and going uh in in those boxes.

So that was uh the first sort of public uh activity that we've done together, which is much appreciated.

Uh I then I then gave him access to the undeveloped areas behind Bowers Mansion, and he set up some game camera traps and started getting some amazing images of the wildlife we have in the park.

We've got coyote, we've got red fox there on the right, uh a family of bears on the left, northern flicker, all kinds of of great video and uh pictures.

Some of the coolest ones are on this slide here.

The left-hand side uh is a spotted skunk doing a defensive handstand.

This is not something you see every day, and this uh skunk did this right in front of his game camera trap, which was amazing.

In the middle, flying squirrel.

I didn't even realize we had flying squirrels down this far, but I learned we did through his photography.

On the right, we were able to capture a striped skunk walking around with a rubber boa snake wrapped around its neck.

Now we don't know how that interaction started.

The skunk may have started to try and eat the snake and the snake wrapped around its neck to protect itself.

We don't know how that interaction ended, but we did we were able to get that uh observation uh submitted into uh a magazine called Herpetological Review as a anti-predatory behavior of this rubber boa snake.

So amazing photography.

Um then he becomes a carving artist.

And uh this is these are pictures of some carvings that he did out of some wood, and he donated these to Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.

So he did uh a series of owls.

Um it's a bench and some solitary pieces.

He he highlighted all 11 species of owls that have been seen in Nevada.

And um again, just the these are found in the visitor center.

This is a full picture of the bench and one of the solitary pieces.

All of those are labeled to the species, so people can go into the visitor center at Rancho, they can learn about these different species of owls.

So it's a way of interpreting, you know, the wildlife to to the public.

And all of this just donated on his own time on his own dime.

After Rancho San Rafael, he said, Hey, I want to do some more benches.

So he talked to the Rangers at Bartley Ranch.

And uh we have an equestrian-themed park down there with the horse arenas and such.

So he did an equestrian-themed uh bench with you know horseshoe prints and even put some brands uh burned into the sides there of some of the the end pieces.

So that sits in the interpretive center, the Western Heritage Interpretive Center at Bartley Ranch.

Galena Creek, um, we've got a pond up there with fish, we've got bears and other wildlife.

So he uh did this bench, these are the end pieces.

Uh the middle bench, I believe, is in the visitor center at Galena Creek, and then uh the two side uh pieces are at uh the ranger office at this point.

Um he also carved, we have an Eagle Meadow uh interpretive area at Galena Creek Park.

So he carved uh this sort of entry uh eagle meadow um piece for that uh that interpretive area for when we do programming.

And he did some smaller uh ones with lights, solar-powered lights.

It's kind of hard to see on the one on the right, but they line the path that leads into that eagle meadow because uh the ranger up there does uh campfire programs uh in summer.

And so just a beautiful addition to the park.

And and we're always getting people just wowing over this work and asking where where did this come from?

How did this happen?

Uh here's a full picture of the the bench that he did uh for Galena.

So it's got kind of the underwater trout scene and the bears, just extreme talent that we're so appreciative of.

Uh recently he came up to Galena Creek with a group of us rangers and he helped us mill.

We had some trees come down and be taken down by NDF as part of a forest uh health project.

And so he helped us mill uh some of these logs into planks.

And the plan is to uh be rebuilding the Eagle Meadow stage with these planks that came from trees from the park.

And so he brought his Alaskan mill and helped us uh create some planks, uh which was much appreciated.

Uh lazy five, there's a bench up there, and um he's again you it's kind of hard to see the detail on some of the the wood burning there of of the middle image, but um it's got a variety of wildlife on on the right and then on the left, kind of just this sort of imaginary story time, you know, something to kind of uh bring the kids in.

Uh and so that is up at Lazy Five.

Here is a full picture of it.

Um amazing talent.

I'm here's a picture of a group of ladies enjoying that bench.

So all of these carvings, they're just being enjoyed by the community, and we're getting so many positive comments from the community of wow, this is amazing.

Like, how did the you know they're just amazed, as as are we?

Uh at Davis Creek post-fire, he uh has been working at carving some pieces down there.

The middle picture is a picture of some bears climbing up a tree in front of the office building, um, eagle on the left, which is uh placed near the pond, and then a horizontal piece with a family of bears on the on the left there.

So bringing um positive back into the negative situation of this fire.

And his his whole goal is to he said this numerous times is to you know inspire the the the child, the inner child of us adults as well as the younger generation.

Um this is a a horizontal picture of that family of bears, just one of the trees that had to get cut down because of the fire, you know, could have just sat there to Rob, but he said, No, I see a family of bears in there.

I said, Well, let's bring them out.

Here's a picture of some kids enjoying that carving, which he's totally a proponent of.

He wants to see families enjoying enjoying his work.

Um this this guy is so benevolent, he has spent over a thousand hours.

I mean, I don't we don't even know how many, we don't track them, but just thinking of designing drawing, carving, painting, all of these benches that he's done, these carvings down at Davis, the wildlife photography, the hours he's spent managing his camera traps, uh just numerous hours and not a dime has been charged to the county.

This is all on his own time and on his own dime.

We did this year out of gratitude, spend a little bit of money.

It's a uh what we can do at this point to just extend our gratitude to get him some chainsaw fuel and some bar oil and such.

But we wanted to basically present you know to you today what he's been doing in the park, so you have an idea and just give him some honoring uh and and thanks for for this uh immense uh contribution to our parks.

So we we just thank Tim for his generous benevolence.

Uh so without further ado, Tim, please come up.

We have a certificate of appreciation for Tim here framed, so we're gonna give that to him.

Um and we thought we'd do a quick picture with the commissioners and then a quick picture with the Rangers if you guys don't mind.

Let's do it.

So I'll hold on to that.

We'll take a short uh brief recess.

Uh let the record show that Commissioner Garcia uh arrived at 136.

The recording has stopped okay.

This meeting is being recorded time is now one forty-eight.

We are now back in session.

Uh I would uh I I think every commissioner here is in awe of the unbelievably beautiful work that Tim has done.

Um the photographs, uh, the carvings, that is phenomenal, sir.

You have a tremendous, tremendous talent.

And those of us uh in parks, uh whether we serve on this board or serve as rangers, we're indebted to you, sir.

That was very, very high quality work that you've done.

Thank you very, very much.

I'd like to um moving on.

Uh item seven presentation, discussion, and possible recommendation to Board of County Commissioners to approve an easement deed between Washoe County Grant Tour and the Trukee Meadows Water Authority Grantee, a joint powers authority entity created pursuant to a cooperative agreement among the cities of Reno, uh Sparks and Washoe County, pursuant to NRS Chapter two two seven to support the installation of a ten-inch water main to eliminate the existing dead end distribution system and create a looped system per Navada Administrative Code 445A.6712 via a permanent water facilities easement totaling plus or minus 1933 square feet on assessor parcel number zero eight three-zero two four-zero six, part of Lazy Five Regional Park for no charge pursuant to NRS two seven seven point zero five three.

The project will benefit Lazy5 Regional Park by creating a looped water system for redundancy during maintenance or emergency work.

This is for possible action.

Great.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

For the record, my name is Fray McClare on the park planner with Washer County.

Like stated the item before you is part of our parkland easement application request.

This is a request from Punch Meadows Water Authority, also known as Tunwa over at Lazy Fire Regional Water.

The location of Lazy Five Regional Park itself is within Spanish Springs.

It's at seven or 71,000 permit way.

The park itself is an 85-acre site.

And just to give an overview of the proposal, again, it's Tumwall requesting a 10-inch water main within an easement about approximately 20 feet width and 20 feet in a length.

The proposal for this easement is for the creation of a looped water system.

Currently, there's two dead end systems, one within Lazy 5 Regional Park and one within the adjacent subdivision to the north.

In January 2010, Washer County, Chucky Meadows, or excuse me, Washer County and Chucky Meadows Water Authority began the agreement to merge what was the former Washa County Department of Water Resources Water Utility into Tumwa.

That was finalized in 2014 through resolution.

Approving the consolidation of Washa County Water Utility into Tumwa.

And then shortly after that, in December of 2014, a number of easements were provided to Tumwa that were formerly within Washa County Water Utilities purview.

Some of those easements are also in Lazy Five Regional Park, one of the ones that we're looking at today, and many other Washa County properties.

So the request itself from Tumwa is a 20-foot wide, or excuse me, a 10-foot 10-inch water main request with an a 20-foot easement.

This is to address state or Nevada state legislation for Tunwa's dead-end water systems to eliminate those dead-end systems.

So both Lazy 5 Regional Park and the subdivision north, Tierra del Sol, that consists of about 107 homes, has two dead end systems that were identified by Tumwa.

The proposal is to connect these two dead-end systems in order to create a loop system.

And the benefit for this is one redundancy within the water system itself, reliability, and also to address public health and safety concerns regarding power outages or future maintenance needs that might have to happen on the water system itself.

So if you're a visual learner like I am, the green parcel on the left or the image on the left has the green parcel that shows Lazy 5 Regional Park.

Included in the red perimeter is Temwa's easement request.

The blue lines delineate the current existing water systems and facilities.

Most of this easement request is within the upper parking lot location of Lazy5 Regional Park.

It would be within the drainage channel as well, but would not interrupt drainage facilities in order to connect to that.

So a little bit more for photos.

If you want some more visuals on the left-hand uh photo within that cross section, you can kind of see a white faded cross section.

So just want to note too that most of this is within the parking lot for the easement request and within the drainage easement itself.

In terms of alternative alignments, we always try to provide you that information to see what could be possible in order to not impact our parks.

In this case, the two dead end systems are within Lazy Five Regional Park, so any other way to try to connect those two dead dead end systems is not feasible.

Impacts to Lazy5 Regional Park itself, all of this will be underground facilities.

Nothing would be above ground.

Proposed construction dates are within May and April of 2026, with about 10 working days.

There is still access allowed within this area for park use, so nothing would be interrupted as far as being able to use the park itself.

Any disturbed services within the park, especially within the parking lot, would then be repaved and reconstructed at the cost of Tunwa.

Um and anything that would be within the ditch cross section of the easement itself would be buried in place and to make sure it doesn't interfere with the ditch maintenance.

It'll be buried at a sufficient enough elevation to stay away from the ability for us to maintain the ditch itself.

Regarding fiscal impacts to Washa County, there are none.

And as far as the value proposition that we'd be uh receiving from Washa or from Tumwa, uh per Nevada revised statute, it authorizes Board of County Commissioners to convey an easement to another political subdivision, in this case Tumwa, without charge if the property is to be used for a public purpose.

Again, the public purpose for this is to eliminate the two dead end systems, create a loop system that would only not only benefit Lazy Five Regional Park in the future for any future maintenance or emergency services, but also Tierra del Seul, the subdivision to the north of Lazy Five Regional Park.

We are recommending uh approval of this action item, and if commissions agree, I do have a recommendation before you.

It is a mouthful.

Um, and with that, do you have any questions?

I do have representatives from Tamwa with me, uh, Amanda and Kelly.

So if you have any questions for the applicant, they're here as well.

Thank you very much.

An excellent presentation.

Uh, do we have any questions or comments from the commissioners?

This commissioner day is will there be a construction easement outside of this permanent easement or uh same uh for access construction and so forth.

I'll refer to the advocate on that, but I believe both the construction easement, the temporary construction easement and the permanent easement overlaps within that 20 by 20 foot easement.

Is that correct?

Okay.

Okay, and and second on that, is this gonna restrict access into the park?

I'm sorry, Steve.

Is this gonna restrict it?

Looks like this kind of ties in uh right in the middle of the access road coming into the park.

So is there a work around there for so we don't restrict access?

Yes, during the temporary uh construction time there is a work around.

You can go around that construction area to the south.

You'll be more towards that pavilion, the Cottonwood Pavilion.

So you're still able to come into the park.

You just can't go straight.

You'd have to go right during those 10 days instead.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chair, uh Commissioner Baker.

Um, I just wanted to confirm that there's not gonna be a requirement for an all-weather surface to go over the top of this uh future waterline.

Is it it's just gonna go back to its its native or I guess engineered um state?

It should go back to existing state as it is currently.

Uh Commissioner Joel uh with a question is that easement between the homes a like a pedestrian access into the park.

Um I don't know if it's pedestrian access to the park.

I'd have to look, but it is a connection from that subdivision into the park.

Like for vehicles or no, no, it's just for pedestrian and bike.

There's ballards in the way that restrict having vehicles come through.

Okay, because if it wasn't, I was gonna see if we could figure out how to make that happen so that that neighborhood could get to the park, but it it already is.

Yes, it is very good.

Any more questions, comments from the commissioners.

Very well.

I will entertain a motion.

This is uh Commissioner Joel.

I'll uh I'll give this one a shot.

Uh I move to recommend that the Board of County Commissioners approve an easement deed between Washoe County, the Grant Tour, and Truckee Meadows Water Authority, Tomwa, the grantee, to support the installation of a 10-inch water main to eliminate the existing dead-end distribution system and create a loop system per NAC 445A dot 6712 via a permanent water facilities easement totaling plus or minus 1,933 square feet on assessor parcel number APN 083-024-06, part of Lazy5 Regional Park for no charge pursuant to NRS 277.053.

The project will benefit Lazy Five Regional Park by creating a looped water system for redundancy during maintenance or emergency work.

This is Commissioner Gertler all second.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Motion has been made and uh seconded.

Uh, do we have any public comment?

I have no public comment in chambers.

I have no public comment on Zoom.

Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, say goodbye by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Oppose.

Motion carries.

Moving on to uh item eight, park program of the month presentation on the May Museum, including uh most recent and upcoming exhibitions and future plans by curator Wes John.

Good afternoon.

I'd like to start by also extending my appreciation for artist Tim Terrell.

Uh I get every day to see how many people enjoy the decorative uh decorative owl bench that Tim has donated to Rancho San Rafael.

It's enjoyed by many.

And even as I was leaving today, there was a little girl who was enamored with, as she called it the Howells.

So thank you very much, Tim.

My name is Wes John, and I'm curator of the Wilbur Dean May Museum at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.

Uh I'm a Reno native who started with Washoe County in 2021 as a seasonal, uh managing Hawkins Amphitheater and having a lot of opportunity post-COVID to serve different roles in the county.

I started temping at the museum in 2022 before working my way up to assisting curator in now my current role.

I'm here before you today to kind of give you an update on where the museum is at and to highlight some of the things we've been working on in the past couple years.

The Wilbur D.

May Museum is 40 years old this year and was created alongside the Arboretum as an educational experience for our community.

More specifically to give the children of Reno an opportunity to experience parts and cultures of the world that they might not otherwise be able to, something that was an important value to Wilbur May.

Of course, I found that to be a little different today when I asked our field trips where the farthest they've ever been is and discovered that most of the 10-year-olds of Reno are infinitely more well-traveled than myself.

Still, the museum is such a unique gem of Reno that has so much to offer our community, and I'm most heavily reminded of that daily just by talking with park goers who've been enjoying the May Museum for generations.

As we organize an archive backrooms that haven't been touched in years, we're finding and adding new antique items to the collection, accessing them one piece at a time.

These additions have been a nice surprise for a long time.

Museum goers, uh, and this work has helped improve stakeholder relations by demonstrating that we have an active agency towards preserving and presenting the May Foundation's family history.

One of the big projects I'm working on is a mask wall.

In storage, we currently have a collection of about a hundred Polynesian masks and carving carvings that have never been exhibited.

Working with Washoe County Carpenters, this new project would see the masks on permanent display in the museum collection atrium.

Not only is this a new collection in itself, it will give visitors who've already visited a reason to return and see what is new.

Working with tech services and utilizing county geographic information services, we've also recently been working on pinpointing the exact location of Wilbur D.

May's Double Diamond Ranch as it existed in South Reno.

Using funding we've been granted, we're working on a new interpretive display that would highlight the ranch alongside a present-day overlay.

Visitors have been excited, particularly folks who've just moved to South Reno and who are looking to learn more about their new home.

A goal for me since starting has been to fill the May Museum art gallery with something new every month.

Following COVID 19, when I started here, few community art connections were left, and frankly, I wasn't quite sure where to start seeking new talent.

I'd hope that if I just spent enough time engaging with visiting artists and saying yes enough times that it would build momentum and open doors for connecting with more local artists, and I'm happy to report that it has.

This last year we hosted more events than ever, something to the tune of 87 plus, and saw double the number of reciprocal use by both UNR and other Washoe County departments, such as libraries, human resources, and tech services.

As you can see on the graph above, our most commonly held events are weddings.

Uh but like most of Washoe County's facilities, we host all kinds of events.

I can't tell you how grateful people in our community are to parks to have such a beautiful affordable space where they don't have to go into debt just to celebrate a birthday or just to pay the respects to a family member or get married.

I have a joke that no one helps our couples' honeymoon funds more than Washoe County Parks, and they are very grateful for that.

Something that I'm proud of is that our staff don't just limit their knowledge and hospitality to the museum.

Uh, we also tour and provide information for the Arboretum's garden rentals, the ranch house, and often other park facilities at large that contribute to general fund.

We always push to help people find the best event for their uh best fit for their event possible, and the ease with which the county allows people to do that is greatly appreciated by our community.

As I've mentioned, we've successfully organized a whole wing of museum backrooms, but other projects include restoration of original museum signage, the transformation of a whole office into an archival area where in-house researchers and interns have a space to work, and an update to our indoor garden court.

Supplementary lighting has been restored, security systems updated, coiffish ponds have been repopulated, some plants have been moved to better support growth, and any remaining artificial plants have been replaced, leaving us with 100% live greenery attended to weekly.

This helps us meet our commitments towards parks' key performance indicators, such as natural vegetation rehab, park amenity condition safety, and it makes for an awfully nice looking wedding.

One of the things I take the most pride in is the role our museum plays in the community, such as the buffing of our intern programming at the museum.

As of now, we take on two students every semester through UNR, two teens through Nevada's vocational rehabilitation program every summer, and even independent interns and volunteers who are interested.

Student interns are given opportunity to actually utilize the archival and museum study skills they are learning, alongside practical work experiences and through crash courses and lighting, photography, critique, resume buffing, and mock interviews.

With students returning both as grateful volunteers or enthusiastic seasonal staff.

In addition to our internship program, the museum is a voting site.

We engage in local philanthropy both through food and toy drives thanks to organizations such as Food Bank of Northern Nevada and Toys for Tots.

We contribute to the school fundraisers, and we act as a resource for simply connecting people to what they're looking for.

On that note, in recent years, the museum has evolved into becoming an information center for the park, and I've encouraged our staff to lean into that and learn as much as they can towards that end.

As the largest building in the park, as a park hub, we're able to put interested parties in touch with our park rangers towards the goals of programming.

We're able to take a greater role in addressing park needs and serving our community and peers, and that can look like assisting visitors wishing to sign up for membership or donate to the arboretum, the tours I've already mentioned, and providing direct direction and information about all park events.

I'm incredibly I'm incredibly grateful that we enjoy such a good working relationship between everyone at Rancho San Rafael Park, between the Arboretum, our park rangers, recreation, aquatics, and the museum, we help each other out daily in our unified and our organizational and personal goals, and the people I work with are truly one of the things I value most about working for Washoe County.

All that in one great gift shop.

It's a fantastic mix of local artists and fair trade goods, and I'm always getting in new treasures.

Uh and following some very gratefully expressed community needs, we now also have snacks and drinks available for visitors who found that their small walk in this 580-acre park has turned into a large hike.

I appreciate your time today, and I hope you'll come visit us soon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Wes.

That was uh excellent presentation, and I'm most impressed by the community.

Uh the 87 events and 8,000, almost 9,000 total attendance.

This is something that this is what parks are about, getting the community involved.

And I I just absolutely love looking at the fact that we are getting the community involved, and we're not just a hood ornament, so to speak, just sitting out there that the community is getting involved.

I just want to thank you very, very much.

Excellent.

If anybody else, any other commissioners have any comments?

Questions, too, I'm told I should take.

Hearing none.

Uh thank you, Wes.

Much appreciated.

Thank you.

Excellent presentation.

Moving on.

Item nine, update on the pros consulting work to develop a service plan for the possible creation of a park district.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for the record, Eric Crump with Washville County's Community Services Department.

So this is our standing item that we have that I can provide updates and our journey towards a potential park district and the service plan.

So uh so this goes all the way back to 2017 when the Nevada State Legislature uh they packed uh they passed the Nevada Parks Trails Open Space Um District Act, which basically enabled park districts, uh the formation of park districts across the state of Nevada.

Uh in 2022, I believe, during a concurrent meeting uh uh between City of Reno, City of Sparks, and Washoe County's respective park commissions, uh and then again in 2023, uh there were various presentations um to each of those agencies, and there was a lot of interest and engagement in this process.

So um back in May of 2023, this commission uh recommended that the county commission adopt a resolution to initiate the steps that are outlined in that in that legislation.

Uh in June of 2025, uh we took an item to our Board of County Commissioners uh where they actually adopted a resolution to initiate the proceedings uh pursuant to the legislation, directed staff to develop uh a service plan and actually authorized um an interlocal agreement with the City of Reno uh to hire a consultant, otherwise now known as pros consultant, uh, to to conduct a feasibility study for a potential park district and develop the service plan as outlined in uh NRS.

Um so we now have pros consulting, City of Reno has pros consulting uh under agreement.

Uh City of Reno, City of Sparks, and Washoe County.

We have been meeting with Pros Consultant on a weekly basis.

Uh prosultant uh conducted something like over 80 uh interviews uh across the three jurisdictions interviewing key stakeholders, uh elected officials, appointed officials such as yourself and key staff.

Uh they've wrapped up those.

There certainly will be more, but that's that's those are the initial surveys, or the initial um interviews.

Uh we are now working on a statistically valid survey that will be going out to the community uh that is set to go out.

We've got almost the final draft done.

Uh and we're working with a national um survey firm uh who does this all over the country.

Uh and that those surveys will be going out uh at the beginning of December.

Uh once that survey kind of wraps up, uh, because that is a statistically valid survey, we'll actually put the same survey out on our websites uh in each of the jurisdictions will work other with our communications team to put information out, uh, encouraging folks to take um to take the survey to kind of gauge the level of um interest by our community in what what a park district might be for this community.

So um we're still, like I said, in the initial phases.

We have a standing item uh on each of uh the meetings that I can provide an update.

But so interviews are done, initial interviews are done, uh, we've got some really good information.

Uh now we're gonna start engaging with the public, uh, get some information and kind of uh gauge level of interest from our community, and that will inform us moving forward.

So I'd be happy to answer any questions, and I will continue to provide information as we move through this.

Well, thank you, Director Crump.

That's very uh informative.

And it it's uh I heard you to say that the survey that's going out in the public is going out at the beginning of December.

That is correct.

Okay.

Uh if I remember uh in my interview with uh Mr.

Younger that he was a little concerned about uh the timing uh being in the holiday season and people might not be uh uh enamored with filling out surveys or anything along those lines.

You are correct.

And so we were actually uh hopeful to get it out before Thanksgiving, but we got close enough to Thanksgiving we want to stay away from that.

I think beginning of December, if for some reason we don't meet the mark.

I think I saw a final cover sheet today.

So we're we're super close.

I'm confident we're gonna get it out at the beginning of December.

If for some reason it doesn't, we won't put it out any later than the very beginning of summer, and we'll wait till the beginning of the year.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions or comments from the commissioners?

Tracy Kazanski, I have a question.

Thank you for your presentation.

That was helpful to get the background again.

Um I just have a question about the survey.

Two two questions actually.

What does it mean to be statistically valid?

And then what questions will be on the survey?

Those are my questions.

Thanks.

Uh two great questions.

Uh I I'm not a statistician.

Um, so uh they'll they'll match the demographics of our community.

Um it will be random but statistically valid based on our population and our demographics.

So that's the answer to question one.

Question number two.

Um I can I can get you that draft survey.

I can get it to all of you for sure.

Is it Commissioner Jewel?

Uh I'm apologize if you said this.

Is this is this a phone survey or mailed out?

This it will be a mailed out survey, and then they incentivize again.

This is a national firm that has done this over the country.

This is all they do.

Uh there's obviously, you know, you can when you fill out the survey, you you stand to get a $500 gift card, you know, something along those lines.

So that's how they incentivize folks to do the survey.

So it is mailed out.

You can respond to it by mailing it back in.

You can also call.

There are lots of options for folks to respond to it.

Okay, thank you.

This is uh um Chair Jones.

Um this is an incredibly important uh project that we are endeavoring to engage in.

Uh if you have any questions at all, any comments or anything at all, uh, this is going to be a big decision come next year.

So if there's anything at all, uh ask away.

Uh this is Commissioner Hill.

I just want to say I appreciate the the regular updates that are baked into the agenda.

I don't have any questions at this time, but I I appreciate just having that as an automatic, so thank you.

Yeah, what uh what I might add is the way the legislation is written, it requires a service plan.

And that service plan, there's some requirements of elements that need to be in that service plan.

And and I've presented those those in the past, but it you know, it talks about funding, it talks about governance, it it you know, so all those things about how this can be formed is really uh predicated on you know the the level of interest from from our community.

Um that that the way the legislation is written, that park district can be as small as I mean, literally uh a few homes or a neighborhood all the way to it could incorporate you know parts of Douglas County, Carson, Washoe County.

Uh right now we envision it as kind of a uh trucky meadows.

So there's gonna be some likely some border in the north that'll be cut off so you know think Spanish Springs, kind of south, stead area, that uh, and then it'll grab Sun Valley, City of Reno, City of Sparks, uh, and then likely will not include Incline Village.

So and uh Commissioner Hill, one more time.

Um ultimately this will change the makeup of this body, right?

I mean, that's where this is headed.

That uh there there will be a um joining of forces and the guard.

Yes, so the way the legislation is written, this will be an entirely new and different entity.

It will have its own elected board, uh, and they'll have one job, deliver parks and recreation and trails for the community.

So yes, that's that is correct.

And Chair Jones, um the there will be a transition period, so a few commissioners will transition into it, but eventually um all the directors or commissioners or whatever title they want will be elected by the people, not from the uh Board of County Commissioners.

Correct.

Very well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Director Crumb.

Moving on.

Item 10, parks reports.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Again, Stephanie DRC, your operation superintendent for parks.

I'd like to use my time as always to highlight some of the amazing things our team has worked on for the last couple of months.

It's really important.

I'm loved that they're here.

A lot of them are here right now, so they can hear these things in person as well.

So Rancho San Rafael Park celebrated the creation of our new playground with a day of play.

So essentially, we invited the community to come enjoy the new playground.

We uh provided a tour of some food trucks, activities by the ruling recreation program uh through City of Reno.

It was a good partnership for us.

Um we were able to partner with High Fives Foundation, achieve Tahoe and the City of Reno's adaptive recreation program.

Uh this playground is made for all children, which we love.

Um it was funded in part by the land water conservation fund grant, and it's uh really created to be inclusive and accessible to all children.

Um there are wheelchair accessible elements, uh sensory zones, um adaptive swings, um every element was really uh selected very carefully.

Um we want to celebrate this space, but we also want to commit to building more like it.

Um inclusion really should be the norm and not the exception, and um I am and the department are dedicated to that.

Let's see.

1500 visitors came out to Rancho for the long-running Meet the Turkeys program on Saturday, November 8th.

Um, if you haven't been to that, it's a great family event full of activities, photo opportunities with live turkeys.

Um, and several partners came out, including Animal Ark, uh Sheriff's Office, a keep trucking meadows beautiful, and the children's entrepreneur market.

Um we hope to see you at next year's event if you didn't join us this year.

Um Washu County Park Rangers will be harvesting trees at the Galena Creek Regional Park as part of the Christmas trees for special families event.

This helps reduce the fire load in our public lands while also providing trees to veterans and foster families.

Uh those trees will be presented to the families at Rancho San Rafael on December 4th between 3 and 7 p.m.

Um we'd love to have you there, and I will send out an invite uh before the end of the week.

If you haven't made it to the May Arboretum to visit Dragon Lights, um I suggest you do so soon.

Um it will be there through the end of the month.

Um it really is such a beautiful display and a great way to highlight our arboretum.

Um so I'd love to love to see you out there.

We uh received a very generous donation of 150 trees from Moana Nursery, and we were able to do a volunteer planting day out at the Davis Creek Regional Park.

Uh this just continues our uh restoration projects out of the park, um, and it was a wonderful way to build some community with those volunteers who really enjoy that park so much.

We have a notice of intent to award um issued to Kimley Horn.

Um, and negotiations are in process to award a contract uh for the lazy five regional mass regional park master plan update.

Uh once this process is complete, we'll move forward with this really important update to that master plan.

Finally, on a personal note, I'm approaching my one-year anniversary of joining this amazing team.

Um I want to use my last few minutes to just really thank the staff uh leadership and all of you for your support, education, and grace you've given me in in this position.

Um, and I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you, uh Superintendent DRC.

Umgratulations.

One year, almost there.

Fantastic.

Um the commissioners.

Uh this is Commissioner Jewel.

Um I have a question on Davis Creek, but I don't know if it it would maybe uh be under the director's report.

Are you planning to speak about an update of well I could ask now?

You can ask and we'll do our best to get you a good answer.

Um so I was wondering if we could have an update on the progress of getting Davis Creek reopened.

Uh well, let me rephrase that the progress of getting the Davis Creek campground reopened since day use has already reopened.

Certainly.

Well, we are um absolutely working on getting that open as soon as possible.

We've got some projects.

Um we can't open the well, it's more difficult to open the campground without the water and power systems.

Um, and that is um currently with our our capital improvements project team.

Um so it's going to be just a little bit uh the last timeline I saw um is that they were hoping to begin construction in the summer.

So unfortunately, that is high camping time.

Um we don't think that we'll make this next season, but we're hoping to be able to move forward very soon.

Um if you'd like, we can bring a full update to um a future meeting if that would be helpful to you.

Um yeah, I think I think that would be good.

I guess my question is because I understand that like the insurance, you guys are still don't have a settlement from the insurance company.

Is that correct?

Um that's a great question.

I will be happy to find out more information from you.

I haven't heard an update in a little bit.

Okay, because I mean I I get that like they had to do their assessment and stuff, and uh, you know, I think that we're past that point, so now it's just negotiating of how much they're willing to reimburse or pay out uh, you know, on the policy.

Uh so uh there shouldn't be restrictions on you know getting work done.

It's just the question of of the payment.

And so does what like I know City of Reno keeps like an emergency reserve to pay for you know emer emergency expenditures that come up.

Does Washoe County maintain an emergency fund?

Uh obviously, uh this is not necessarily a parts question, more of a of a um a director question.

But does Washa County maintain an emergency fund to cover unforeseen expenditures and would um getting Davis Creek back open be eligible for that just so that the we're not waiting for the insurance money that that we can just go ahead and get started on this.

Um I'll let Eric uh answer that specific question about um emergency funds, but uh we are currently in design, so we are moving forward.

Um there's just you know it's an extensive process, as you know, um, but I'll let him answer that specific question.

Okay, thank you.

Uh thank you for the record, uh, Eric Kramp, Wash County Community Service.

Uh certainly, yes, the Wash County does have a contingency fund uh that can be uh tapped.

We also have uh unobligated funds within the CIP.

So there's there's lots of opportunity there.

I don't necessarily think the the insurance is holding up the the project.

Like I said, we're in design, we're moving through design.

Um, you know, the the damage was extensive, especially a lot of its uh interesting like underground, even though it was a fire uh with our water system, our electrical system, that type of thing.

So uh in design.

Um if if if push comes to shove, we have design done and we haven't figured things out with the insurance company.

Certainly that is a trigger we could pull.

All right.

Thank you.

Any more questions, comments?

Hearing none.

Well, thank you, uh Stephanie.

That was an excellent presentation.

Thank you.

Moving on now to the director's report.

Director Crump.

Thank you again for the record, Eric Crump with Wash County's community services department.

So uh during the Board of County Commissioners' October 21st meeting, uh they approved the grant of trail easement from Tumwa.

This is associated with Riverbend.

That easement came in front of you.

Uh this is an easement that Tumwa granted to us, which is strange, we're usually granting easements, right?

Uh so they own uh a small parcel that's kind of within our riverbend trail uh and park system, uh, and this allows for the continuation of our trail system through their parcel uh and also incorporates the portage uh around the dam structure that's right there that Tumwa owns.

Um they approved that uh during yesterday's county commission meeting.

Uh they approved the uh uh new county managers agreement.

So our new county manager is Kate Thomas.

Um and then uh our county budget cycle has kicked off.

Um so not a lot to share yet.

It it just kicked off uh and we'll be working through uh budgets over the next several months.

Uh we'll have a a more hefty item regarding budgets in our January meeting.

Um but just kind of some highlights, some high notes.

Uh our financial outlook for the county still remains consistent with past years.

Uh we're showing that costs are on trajectory to exceed revenue.

So we kind of have this um this unsustainable imbalance between um our spending and our revenue uh looking forward over the next several years.

Uh so making some what might be difficult decisions now, but smart decisions now will hopefully help us from making very difficult decisions uh in the future.

Uh I have been down that road um and I and I really appreciate the position the county has taken.

I was here during the Great Recession, and I I certainly don't want to be in that position.

So uh if we can make some what will be uncomfortable decisions now, uh it will help us moving forward.

Um fiscal year 25.

Uh so we wrap that up.

That was last fiscal year.

The general fund performance was actually better than anticipated, so that was good news.

Uh the verdict's still out on our current um fiscal year, fiscal year 26, uh, but it's being closely monitored.

So again, that one time money is usually a little bit easier than things like staff that continued, you know, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Certainly we need them.

We're a service service delivery organization.

We rely on our staff to do that.

But uh we'll be working closely um with budget over the next several months, and like I said, we'll we'll present to you uh what uh a better picture of what the future might look like for next fiscal year during January.

So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Uh thank you, Director Crump.

That uh little bit of good news and not so good news.

Um we will be looking very earnestly at the 2026 budget and see where we are.

I believe the 2025 budget was 9.154 million uh long somewhere along those lines.

Um hopefully we'll maintain it and just keep uh a very close eye on it.

Yep.

Any questions, comments from the commissioners.

Hearing none.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

Moving on to item 12, Commissioner request for future agenda items.

Uh as chair, uh the January meeting is coming up obviously in January, and that is typically uh according to our governing documents when we select a new chair and vice chair.

So I'd like to have that agendized for the January meeting.

Other than that, any other uh agenda items, Chair Jones.

This is Commissioner Garcia for the record.

Um, this is not a request for a future agenda item.

I just wanted to make an announcement.

Um I was able to utilize some of the discretionary funds from my district three uh monies that are allocated to us each year on the county commission side of things, and I was able to sponsor a mural to be painted on that very tumwa parcel um that manager Crump was talking about.

And the Tumwa team gave us the green light.

We have an artist identified, Autumn Harry, and she's already begun her work.

Um this will conclude her work will be done before December 1st.

She had several murals in the queue, so thank you to staff for helping get rid of that giant branch that surprised us.

Um and I would like to extend the invitation to all of the park commissioners.

Once that mural is done, I'll work with staff to get an invitation out.

And I would love to see you at River Bend Park.

If you haven't already been out there, it's our newest um park that's come online.

It's beautiful.

And um, we want to help uh mitigate some of the graffiti uh that has taken place on that tomwa wall, and she's um incorporating the design to have the river as the backdrop um into the design.

So I'm really excited to see how it turns out.

So stay tuned for more information.

Thank you.

Commissioner Garcia.

Any more questions, comments?

Uh Commissioner Joel, I have a question.

Uh does anyone recall when the last master plan for Galena Creek Regional Park was and and or if uh how far out in the future a master plan revision for that park is for the record, uh all of our master plans are on our website.

We'll take a look.

I believe there was a we'll we'll call it a a partial man uh partial master plan that was complete when we constructed the Galena Creek Visitor Center.

Uh and um change although that's on four service land, it's obviously adjacent to the park, and we changed uh one of the entrances to the park.

So I believe that was changed.

Um so we'll have we'll have to get back to you on uh any time the a formal one was done, and if we have plans for for the new one.

Okay, thank you.

Any more requests uh just that uh this is Commissioner Hill to make sure that the Davis Krieg update uh that Commissioner Joel requested was yeah, got it.

Thank you very well.

Hearing none.

Uh moving on uh to item 13 public comments.

Mr.

Roman.

No public comment in chambers, no public comment online on Zoom.

Very well.

The time is now 2 35.

Um the Washoe County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission meeting is now adjourned.