Commentary by Dr. Eugene Paslov: It's time to move forward on Nugget development project

The city and its leadership should be commended for the care and attention they are devoting to the Nugget development project. Each time I've attended a meeting on this topic, I've been impressed with advisers, city officials, and Nugget development principals asking and answering extremely difficult questions.

Because of the complexity of this project, there are some unknowns, and one must move to the next step to better understand. I believe the leaders are principled and will find the answers.

Unfortunately, there are some who have made up their minds. They don't want this project. When people make up their minds not to do something, they develop excuses, sometimes based on legitimate concerns, sometimes based on fear of change. It's difficult to tell the difference.

The first excuse for decision-makers not doing something new or different is, "We didn't invent it here." This myopic logic is to wrap oneself in the mantel of "If it's not our idea it's not worth doing. We don't trust outsiders and besides, strangers are going to cheat us."

We hear a lot of the "Not Invented Here Syndrome" in regard to the Nugget development project. Even though the Nugget has been around for a long time there seems to be some suspicion about this partnership.

And then we have the endless asking of questions. Years ago, while working for government in other states, when we advanced a new idea (regardless of who supported it) if the fiscal types didn't like it, they would ask questions, and questions, and questions. We could never get to the end of the questions. The idea would die unless a key decision-maker resurrected it. I believe in asking hard questions, but at some point we have to accept good faith answers.

Another method of killing ideas is to claim the idea already exists. I recently read that we didn't need a new knowledge center because we already have three libraries: the college library at WNC (currently mostly used for faculty and students); the state library (which is so badly underfunded it's only open a few hours a couple of days per week and can't afford periodicals); and our current city library which is overburdened to the point of exceeding critical use capabilities. We need a knowledge center which contributes to the intellectual and economic growth of our community.

Stop this nonsense. Ask what we need to do to grow. Get necessary answers and move on. The city has made excellent progress in establishing professional working relationships with the principals. Take responsible action and move on.

• Eugene Paslov is a board member of the Davidson Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno and the former Nevada state superintendent of schools.