Carson City Redevelopment Authority Citizens Committee prioritizes expenditures for upcoming year

The Redevelopment Authority Citizens Committee hashed out how to spend its undesignated funds for the coming fiscal year in order to make its budget recommendation to the Redevelopment Authority and Board of Supervisors.

The committee also decided to recommend $10,000 from the current year be allocated to a new project proposed by the Carson City Visitors Bureau (CCVB).

The project, called Re-Imagined Space, will fill vacant storefronts throughout the city with temporary art exhibits and special live performances.

The goal is to revitalize dormant zones in retail areas, provide a venue for artists and help building owners make their properties more attractive for lease.

“This is not an art project, it’s a redevelopment project,” said Joel Dunn, executive director, CCVB.

Dunn said the redevelopment money would be used to buy equipment such as lights, easels, and drapes needed to display the art.

CCVB plans to match the redevelopment funds and provide storage for the equipment, advertising, construction of the exhibits and stipends for the artists.

Dunn plans to ask the Cultural Commission to supply volunteer management.

“It’s a collaborative project with benefits spreading throughout the redevelopment area,” Dunn said.

Dunn expects to have some of the first exhibits installed as early as March or April to coincide with some upcoming special events.

For fiscal year 2017-2018, RACC decided to boost the budget for the Facade Improvement Program to $100,000 from $20,000.

The program was launched in 2016-2017 with $200,000 with the idea that the demand would be greatest initially and diminish with time.

“Is there any appetite for increasing facade for next year,” asked Supervisor John Barrette, now the Board of Supervisors appointee to RACC. “There may be more than one project coming down the pike.”

The committee unanimously agreed to bump up spending on it.

With much of the remaining undesignated funds for the year, RACC allocated $50,000 to Telegraph to Spear Streets Alley improvements; $50,000 to hiring an additional code enforcement officer; and $30,000 to entry signs for the historic downtown.

Several other projects were pushed out to subsequent years.

East Spear Street/Children’s Museum Improvements, for example, was allocated $100,000 in 2018-2019 and $200,000 was earmarked for South Carson Street beautification in 2020-2021, after road construction is well underway or completed.

RACC decided not to recommend funding some other ideas that had been discussed, including sunshades for McFadden Plaza, and an ATM, electric car charger and magazine racks for downtown.

The funding recommendations for the Board of Supervisors passed 4-1 with Committeeman Garrett Lepire voting no.

During discussion, Lepire said he believed the code enforcement officer should be funded by the city and not the redevelopment authority.

RACC also granted 180-day extensions to several facade improvement projects, including the buildings occupied by Hanifin’s Art & Antiques, Garibaldi’s restaurant, and Kaleidoscope, and two of the buildings of the former Horseshoe Club now being renovated for restaurant, retail and offices.

The committee voted to make Kris Wickstead its chair and Ronni Hannaman its vice chair.

RACC, which usually meets quarterly, will meet again in March to consider an application for special event funding and another for the facade improvement program.