Carson Column: New Year is a time for goodbyes

People think of the New Year as a time to say hello, but it is also a time to say goodbye.

That's what they were doing down at Sen. Richard Bryan's office in Carson City on Friday.

The official last day is Tuesday, but office manager Jude Greytak and intern Hunter Atherton were cleaning out the office in preparation.

I was looking for Tom Baker, Sen. Richard Bryan's point man in rural Nevada, but Jude said they had already turned off the cell phones.

She really didn't want to talk about the move. I could tell she was sad about it.

Tom was busy doing what Tom does. He was down in Gardnerville to dedicate a bridge across the Carson River, he presented a Purple Heart and helped set up the bell at Carson City Hall.

Just another day, right up to the end.

A roast will be held for Tom on Jan. 27 featuring 10 roasters. Craig Swope called it a job fair. Tom's fellow Kiwanian, Justice of the Peace Robey Willis, will officiate in robes, according to Swope, who will emcee.

I was 3 years old and living in North Las Vegas when Richard Bryan went to work in the Clark County District Attorney's Office.

Over the past 36 years, the senator has had many jobs, and on a few occasions his path and mine have crossed.

In 1986, when he was running for re-election as governor and I was a college student working for the UNLV newspaper, I called him up and, dizzy at the idea I was talking to the state's governor, I asked him "the big question."

Was he planning on making a run at the U.S. Senate in 1988 when Chic Hecht's term was up?

It was my first "big question" as a reporter, and the governor dodged it with grace. He did end up running and winning the seat.

Later, it was Bryan who shook my hand as I crossed the podium and received my degree.

The senator's last visit to the Appeal was in August. Geoff Dornan and I sat down with Bryan and Tom Baker and we talked about all kinds of things.

Geoff and I asked the "big question" together that day.

"What are your plans?"

The senator said he was looking forward to coming home and teaching a class at the university.

But what he was really looking forward to was watching his grandchildren grow up.

"When I saw my grandson for the first time it was like a tidal wave of emotion," he said. "I just couldn't get enough of the little guy."

One federal employee looking forward to retirement is U.S. Geological Survey district chief Jon Nowlin.

Jon was rolling boxes out of his office on Thursday.

At 58, he said he plans to use Carson City as a base for travel. Visits to his children are the first destinations.

Son Scott is a captain in the U.S. Air Force and an instructor at the academy in Colorado Springs. His other son, Mark, is a graphic designer at the Seattle Times. Both are Carson High School grads.

Jon said he never expected to make a career with the Survey, much less spend it in Nevada. It all began while he was attending college at Michigan State.

"It started out as a student job," he said. "But I liked the work, liked the people, so I decided to make it a career."

When Jon took the job, he and his wife, Janet, headed for Nevada.

"We came out with the idea of moving west," he said. "Once we got here we fell in love with the state."

Jon's first project on his arrival in 1975 was to work with the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection on a groundwater monitoring program and to find sources of contamination at Topaz Lake.

He wrote or co-wrote water quality studies for the Truckee and Carson rivers. He was named district chief in 1991.

Janet retired as Fritsch Elementary School librarian in October. The office is planning a Jan. 10 sendoff for Jon.

There I was just minding my own business, trying to get a New Year's Eve wrap going for Diversions when I got the call that the New Year's Black & White Ball at Red's Old 395 was canceled.

The ball was to be a benefit for the Carson Advocates for Cancer Care. I'd called Gale Thompson to find out if there were still tickets and how much they were, for my story. Then she called back to tell me it was canceled.

Sunset Rotarian Gail Crandall said Red's decided to cancel the event when only 30 tickets had been confirmed sold. She didn't blame Red's for the decision. After all, New Year's Eve is a very busy night for a restaurant to be tied up.

The next day, though, I got a call from Pam Graber, who said she'd heard people talking around town about the cancellation.

She pointed out that Jack Sterling and Tom Metcalf have been generous and that it is unfair to blame them in this affair.

"I have worked with these guys," she said. "I just want you to know that they are community oriented guys. That needs to not be forgotten."

It is ironic that in this city of museums, there is no museum for the city.

Genoa has a museum, Dayton has a museum, Gardnerville has a museum, Minden has Gardnerville's museum, but there is no place dedicated solely to Carson City's history.

Carson City Library Director Sally Edwards brought the topic up while we were talking about the bell for the USS Carson City.

She pointed out rightly that the bell has not been hiding in a closet for eight years, but has been on display in the public reading room.

"The children loved it," she said. "They were always touching it and ringing it."

I could make the case that if the bell were still in the library, I could go look at it on a Saturday or Sunday, when City Hall is closed.

Sally said she thinks the bell belongs in City Hall.

"A lot of stuff comes to us because we don't have a local history museum," she said. "I have to turn some of it down and tell them to go to the state museum."

Kurt Hildebrand is assistant managing editor at the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 881-1215 or e-mail him at Kurt@Tahoe.com