Letters to the editor

Another suggestion for president

If we are going to have a candidate who travels abroad, puts on a brats and beer rock concert to get out a bunch of people so it looks like people love him ... If we are going to have a candidate who bad mouths the U.S. on foreign soil and apologizes for what he considers our mistakes ... and if we are going to have a candidate, who doesn't like the land who gave him everything he has, then for goodness sake can we elect somebody, who is all those things and a whole lot better looking than Senator Obama, like Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. You go girl!

ED DEUSENBERRY

Carson City

Examples of reckless spending

How about a return to real freedom and the right to live life without government intrusion into every nook and cranny of our lives.

Look all around us at Carson City government and see all the rules and regulations that tear away at our God given rights. Carson City elected officials take what we work hard to earn and waste much of it to fund many local pork programs which are just a plain waste of money.

Would some one please tell me why the Carson City Fire Department needs so many fully loaded full sized Chevrolet Tahoe's and or Ford Excursions? Why can't the fire chief get around in a 4 wheel drive Ford Ranger with a 4 cylinder engine and a manual transmission with little fiberglass shell to keep his cargo dry? Take a drive to the main station and count the number of sub's in the parking lot. Do we really need the fancy two tone paint jobs? Remember Chief it's not your money you're spending.

How about the taxpayers being forced to pay for the V&T railroad project?

Millions of dollars being confiscated by our city and diverted to a project that serves no vital interest.

If you think these spending issues are bad just look a little farther north to the Reno to Washoe Valley freeway extension. If NDOT would have taken the logical approach and just widened the existing roadway with only minimal right of way costs and minimal bridge and interchange construction we could have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. Just another case of government stealing our money with no concern for the Taxpayers of Nevada.

Will the people who are responsible for the above wastes of taxpayer money please respond via the Nevada Appeal.

STEVEN DAVID

Carson City

On board with public transportation

Great article about public transit in Carson City (Sunday, July 27). It reminds me of the saying "Everybody is talking about the weather, but nobody can do anything about the weather." Well everybody is talking about the high cost of gas at the pumps and Carson City knows how to do something about it.

Carson City has a way of solving transportation problems now with resources we don't have to invent in the future. Public transit has been in existence for decades, however our love affair with our cars has clouded our thinking that we have no other way of getting around our communities. I have heard people say "I just won't make as many trips or I don't go there anymore." Well I don't want to be held captive to any object or thing like my car. Thank you Carson City for your great example that public transit works and that you continue to improve service to meet community needs. Your continued efforts to work on efficiency and understanding of the importance of consumer choice for better routes and creating fares that make taking the bus a good alternative to using a car.

The residents of Carson City don't have to become homebound due to gas prices. You have proven that livability is very important to your community. Many people value living in or visiting a community where walking and cycling are safe, pleasant and common. Public transit is an option that allows and promotes all of these forms of community livability.

There is also a consumer benefit for public transit: It improves options that allow consumers to save money, avoid stress and reduce their need to chauffeur non-drivers.

Public transit makes a positive contribution to employment in our communities employers can rely on employees getting to work when an employee's car breaks down or if an employee doesn't have a car.

Thank you for your support in meeting the current needs of your community.

LINDA ADAMS

Dayton

Superintendent issue inspires school bard

"Two" much and not enough

It was not in the Minutes; it was out of the blue.

McKenna says there's one, but the board gave us two,

With the rights and obligations of the superintendent's chair.

Both Pierczynski and Stokes, a quality pair (for two months).

In 2006, was it a great chore?

The board added two months to Mary's standard twenty-four.

The next superintendent would start in September.

In 2008 they'd have to remember.

But for the new superintendent, the board changed its tune,

Since Stokes' HR position ended in June.

Decisions, decisions, and an undisclosed trick.

But better two supers now, than no job for Dick

(for two months).

A little board humor, but it's no laughing matter that the board Minutes do not contain any timely and specific mention of these changes. In March 2006, the board decided to change the superintendent's renewal contract to a nonstandard term. In April 2008, the Board decided to change Stokes' start date to July 1, from its earlier authorized (in the Minutes) start date of Sept. 1. This caused an overlapping contract period, and gave two persons each the same legal rights and obligations for the one office of superintendent.

Quotations by board members and reports in the Nevada Appeal after the fact cannot substitute for the board's duty to provide, in written Minutes, the substance of all matters proposed, discussed or decided, in accordance with Nevada Revised Statutes 241.035.

Citizens deserve better. We pay the bills. And we vote.

Gloria Jaureguy

Carson City

Capital lacked patriotism on July 4

I was astonished to see the lack of patriotism displayed in our own capital city on the Fourth of July. To think that our men and women are fighting for the very freedom we as Americans enjoy each and every day. The lack of recognition like it was "just another day."

If it hadn't been for the R.S.V.P. Carnival and the fireworks, I never would have known it was the Fourth of July. I did not see too many flags displayed in Carson City, not even in people's homes as in years past. We string banners across our downtown streets touting Kit Carson and the Rendezvous. Well! How about a banner just saying "Happy Birthday America"?

After all, it is our Independence Day. I thank God every day of my 73 years that we have our freedom to come and go as we want. So wake up Carson City and do a better job in "2009."

LORRAINE J. HOGAN

Carson City

Wants more openness from V&T Commission

Sadly, the lack of good governance continues at the V&T Commission. I don't know how they expect Carson City voters to approve $10 million when they can't meet basic legal requirements relating to open records and public meetings.

Over time I have been asking to inspect various project documents. For months most of my verbal requests to see project records have gone unfulfilled. Under NRS 239.010, verbal requests qualify under the Open Records law. My verbal requests were ignored for months. Now my written request also has gone unanswered. At the July 7 meeting I handed an Open Records Request to project attorney Mike Rowe. Under Nevada law a government body must respond within five days, yet I still have no answer.

This is not the only case of the commission ignoring the law. Under Nevada law the commission meetings are supposed to rotate among the five counties represented on the commission. Instead, all meetings are held in Carson City. The law says "the commission shall alternate the location of its meetings."

Washoe County Commissioner Bonnie Weber has repeatedly asked Treasurer Ron Allen to provide written budget reports ahead of the commission meetings. The treasurer has not done that, and Ms. Weber recently said she would no long vote to ratify budgets in the absence of a written report.

Finally, at the last meeting Mayor Marv Teixeira treated Dave Campbell in a surly and condescending manner. Dave Campbell leads the "No on V&T Tax group" and was shut down while asking perfectly legitimate questions.

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, but the commission seems to be withering on the vine under public scrutiny. Government withholding of public records is never a good thing, let's put a stop to it now!

JIM LOHSE

Reno

Writers should subscribe to scientific journals

Kirk Caraway is allowed to print every opinion he has as fact. Global warming, electric cars, wind, solar are great topics if he had facts. He obviously only reads left-wing blogs so as editor why don't you get him a subscription to some scientific journals? Then possibly he could actually have an opinion worth reading and facts to substantiate that opinion.

The city planner (Anne Macquarie) you gave a whole column to is just as bad. Just what cities has she planned? Her grasp of economics is staggering. Tax ourselves out of an oil shortage? Does she understand that European taxes of $5-plus per gallon are passed on to the consumer? The oil companies make the same profit. Coal to liquid technology is not perfected but it is on par with wind and solar. Work on all solutions until one comes up a winner or they all do. Even Al Gore who is making tens of millions off the green craze isn't abandoning proven power sources. Does she even know (or care) that India and China are putting 800 new coal-fired plants on line between 2006 and 2012? These plants by themselves wipe out over five (5) times all Kyoto Accord reductions in greenhouse gasses.

Mass transit works well in large cities. The East Coast has those facilities. Does she really think that Minden, Carson and Reno will be united with subways and light rail? Well, if she planned the cities, maybe. But we'd all be paying $25-50/gallon in her utopia.

Please, Editor, use some common sense. Everybody's got an opinion. Try printing responsible ones!

John Heeran

Carson City