Owners of the Frontier Motel have to fix problems at the lodging property in the next month if they want to keep operating.
The Board of Supervisors on Thursday scheduled a show cause hearing at its May 20 meeting when the board could take away Frontier’s business license if repairs have not been made to make the motel habitable.
“A show cause does not close it down, but gives you time to fix it before then,” Mayor Lori Bagwell told Harbans Handa, one of the motel’s owners who spoke at the supervisors’ meeting. “We hope people can continue to live there.”
During an inspection of the North Carson Street motel on April 12, inspectors found myriad health violations including evidence of rodents, bedbugs, exposed electrical wiring, and rooms without hot water or flushing toilets. The city issued an emergency order requiring all residents to vacate the property by 7 p.m. Thursday.
City officials are working to place the motel’s residents in other housing.
Sheriff Ken Furlong told the board the motel had come to the attention of law enforcement and the health department after several deaths reported there in the last couple of months.
“I’ve been with the city for five years and this is the second time we’ve set a hearing to revoke a business license,” said Hope Sullivan, planning manager, who oversees business licenses. “We don’t take this lightly and we don’t do it until we’re in a bad place.”
Also Thursday, the board revoked a special use permit when it upheld the Planning Commission’s revocation of Tahoe Western Asphalt’s permit to operate at its site.
The vote to uphold the decision was 4-1 with Supervisor Maurice White voting no.
The plant in east Carson City had been on the city’s radar for several years after ongoing complaints from nearby Mound House residents about odors coming from the facility. The issue had been before both the commission and the supervisors and the commission finally held a show cause hearing in February and revoked its special use permit for non-compliance. The business appealed the decision to the board.
The commission made three findings that Tahoe Western had violated its special use permit. All the supervisors agreed that the plant violated its permit because the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection had issued a stop work order for violating its state permit. The NDEP permit is a condition of its special use permit. Tahoe Western is appealing NDEP’s decision.
But, White did not think the other findings — that odor was not being controlled and that the plant was a public nuisance — had been sufficiently proven and he proposed suspending the special use permit rather than revoking it.
“I think letting the special use permit stand may be an incentive to them,” said White.
The plant can reapply for a special use permit.
The board approved roughly $1.9 million in supplemental budget requests from staff after discussing several requested items, including a $12,000 pay raise for an emergency manager and funding for fuels management.
The supervisors approved $11.4 million in capital improvement spending after discussion of its fleet led by White, who thought some vehicles could be salvaged for less money than replacing them.
He proposed a future agenda item to review the city’s fleet manual, which provides criteria for when to replace vehicles.
In other actions, the board approved a commitment agreement with Pala Seek LLP to enable the developer to raise financing for its affordable housing project on city land on Butti Way and a draft license agreement for the city’s rights of way, and decided to interview all four applicants for Carson City treasurer.
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