New bike racks put up at hospital, in community

Muscle Powered installed the second of two bike racks at the Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center on Thursday.

Dr. Colleen Lyons, of Carson City, donated these racks to the hospital and the community. Lyons, Muscle Powered members and the bike rack manufacturer were present at the installation ceremony.

The organization which promotes alternative transportation methods, such as walking and biking, has installed five bike racks in Carson City.

One is at Comma Coffee, two at Western Nevada Community located at Student Services and the Joe Dini Jr. Student Center and two are at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center. Two additional bike racks are scheduled to be installed at the Carson City community and aquatic centers in the near future.

Joe Peltier is the Muscle Powered board member who heads up the bike rack program. The locally made racks are sturdy, yellow powder-coated, and shaped like a bike. The racks cost around $670 to manufacture and install.

The bike racks at WNCC and the community center are donated through a $2,500 grant made by the Helen Close Charitable Foundation of Reno, which provides gifts for education, human services and community improvement in the Northern Nevada area.

State Archivist Guy Rocha was reviewing Nevada election history documents this week after the untimely death of State Controller Kathy Augustine.

Gov. Kenny Guinn's appointment last week of Steve Martin, a candidate seeking to replace Augustine as state controller, not only provides Martin with an edge in the upcoming election - it reminds Rocha of a situation during the 1960s where the intended result of an appointment was not to give someone a leg up over their competitors, he said.

In 1962, Gov. Grant Sawyer appointed a Democratic lieutenant governor to replace a Republican, Lt. Gov. Rex Bell, who died. Maude Frazier was appointed July 13,1962, and served until Paul Laxalt, who won the lieutenant governor's race that year, took office.

Laxalt, a Republican, went on to defeat Sawyer, a Democrat, for governor in 1966.

"Clearly Sawyer was trying to be fair and not give the Democratic candidate an advantage over the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor," Rocha said.

Sawyer had the same intent with his appointment that month to attorney general of Charles Springer on July 16, 1962. He replaced Attorney General Roger Foley, who had been appointed to federal district court in Las Vegas.

"Leaders have done it different ways. Some governors have decided not to make partisan appointments," Rocha also said.

A big congratulations to two Nevada natives. Nathaniel "Spike" Rasner, one of the firefighters in the Waterfall fire had his first baby, Bailey Marie, and Joe Glazner had his second baby girl, Alora Jade.

It's great to see Nevada families growing strong.