Carson City seeks names for open spaces

Carson City is seeking suggestions from the public for names of several open space properties.

Parks, Recreation and Open Space in the next week or so will post on the city website an online survey similar to the one that helped the department chose names for the Schulz Ranch park and new disc golf site.

The survey will include a line to type in a name as well as options to choose other names already suggested.

The department invited the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California to submit ideas and, Monday, two representatives from the tribe presented their names to the Open Space Advisory Committee.

Those names include Tahnu Leweh, or the people’s place, for the Horse Creek Ranch off Highway 50 west; Gumalonga Trail, after a Washoe leader, for a trail in the Timberline area; and Tashu Aushgu, or behind the cottonwoods, for property between Silver Saddle Ranch and Morgan Mill Preserve. The tribe’s proposed names will all be included on the survey.

When completed, the results of the survey will be presented to the committee, which will recommend names to the Board of Supervisors.

The recreation department is also working on launching a couple new events at Silver Saddle Ranch.

“Silver Saddle Ranch is a unique property. We got together with the Friends of Silver Saddle Ranch and came up with some ideas, but these are mostly in the brainstorming phase,” said Dan Earp, recreation superintendent.

Homestead Holidays would be the second weekend in December. The three-day event would take place each evening and feature extensive holiday lighting and some festivities, such as music, and crafts, authentic to the mid 20th century when the ranch was operating.

Another idea is for an adventure triathlon featuring mountain biking, trail running, and kayaking on the Carson River.

The department is contacting private race organizers to discuss the possibility of launching a race by the spring of 2020.

The committee also recommended to the supervisors the work plan and budget for open space for fiscal year 2019-2020.

The division is requesting bumping up the trails coordinator position from part-time to full-time, and adding a third park ranger.

Staff is also recommending adding money back to professional services to do the Silver Saddle Ranch master plan and, if the city undertakes a city master plan update, to work in conjunction on an open space master plan update.