Guy W. Farmer: The Nugget Project by any other name

Supporters of the increasingly unpopular Nugget Redevelopment Project are now calling it the City Center Project in a feeble attempt to make it more palatable to skeptical Carson City taxpayers. However, the more we learn about this over-hyped, $80 million project, the less we like it.

Project promoters now say they need time - lots more time - to explain why local taxpayers should pony up $40 million in case their house of cards collapses. That's why I've decided to call it the Nugget Bailout Project.

The most recent PR misstep by project proponents was when they announced that the state would occupy some of the office space they would build downtown as part of a business incubator. Thanks but no thanks, the state responded in a July 21 letter from Gov. Jim Gibbons' deputy chief of staff, Lynn Hettrick, to chief project promoter Mark Lewis, who had claimed that the Governor's Office "concurred" with a private study's recommendations about additional downtown office space and parking.

"I said the facts must demonstrate to the state that a consolidation (of office space) was cost-effective and that there would be adequate parking to address current and future needs," Hettrick wrote. "We are disappointed that the State of Nevada's support for and participation in this project appears to have been overstated." And that's only the tip of the Nugget iceberg.

The aforementioned Mark Lewis is a former Stockton, Calif. city manager who was fired by the City Council in 2006 for spending public funds without Council approval. In fact, the most vocal promoters of this project are from California or Idaho, not Carson City.

Supervisor candidate Rob Joiner, a certified city planner, told me that the Nugget scheme is "one of the poorest designs for an urban center project I've ever seen." He questioned the project's dubious financing and said the promoters' "shared risks and benefits" approach means local taxpayers will be required to bail them out if they default on their financial obligations. We should also keep an eye on how the city's Office of Business Development spends redevelopment funds on the Nugget.

Project proponents keep touting a new and improved library, or "knowledge center," as a downtown centerpiece and "gathering place." Although everyone loves libraries, I'd like to know more about how that recent $600,000 federal stimulus grant is being spent and what's happening to the library's large parking lot, which offers room for expansion.

Bottom line: I don't think we can afford to risk $40 million worth of public funds on the Nugget Bailout Project at the height of an economic recession. How about you?

• Guy W. Farmer is a longtime Carson City resident.