Charlene Duque-Jones pins a bee pin on Mayor Bob Crowell in thanks for his contribution to the Carson City Chamber of Commerce's 2019 Leadership Class project, as Chris Gray looks on. Both Duque-Jones and Gray are members of the 2019 class as are James Underwood and Breana Coons, seated.
A Carson City haven for bees will soon be under construction thanks to donations from Mayor Bob Crowell and many others.
The Bee Hotel is the project of the 2019 Carson City Chamber of Commerce Leadership Class.
“One of the easiest things to do is look at what the community is doing. Carson City just became a bee city,” said Chris Gray, a member of the class and an IT systems technician with Carson City, who had the idea of building a home for bees.
Gray said bees touch one in three pieces of food we eat and their populations are rapidly declining.
“I consider bees and the pollination issue a fundamental building block of our environment,” said Crowell. “If I can do something to help then I’m going to do it.”
On Monday, Crowell donated $500 to the cause, and now the class has more than the $5,000 needed to complete the project.
The Bee Hotel is being built this month on the Carson Tahoe Medical campus above the Cancer Center.
It will consist of 4-by-6 foot structure with 51 hexagons. The site will also include an information sign telling visitors about bees and pollination.
Gray said they plan to purchase about 300 bee larva to populate the hotel. The bees will be solitary bees that venture out to pollinate and then return to the hotel.
“The ones we’re promoting are extremely friendly,” said Gray.
The city’s Open Space division is planting a bee garden nearby.
Carson Tahoe provided the property for the project. Southwest Gas donated the work of the contractor to build the structure and Meeks Lumber is donating the materials while Arizona Pipeline is building the pad underneath.
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