Park Meeting Yields Progress

About 50 neighbors met tonight at Hillside School for fact sharing and public input regarding what is now being called The Peri Family Recreation Trail and Park.

There were several points that stood out: location of the proposed Dog Park; liability insurances; use of available parking; the community promotion of a Public Gardens (how that may affect both users and others); the cost of future park maintenence; the politics of using grant monies already allocated; if another park in this area is germaine; and other issues. A synopsis will be forthcoming; containing review of tonight's input (and other pertinent facts); perhaps to be included in with a coming CGID account mailing.

Deny Dotson, Storey County Community Services Director, opened his presentation with a flat statement that "nothing is set." He made it clear he feels that public input is critical in making this project a success...getting full use by the entire spectrum of age groups represented in the community. Family activities, he said, will be a focal point in the design and setting of priorities.

We learned that there will be continual public input, cumulating with another public meeting sometime in mid-August. At that meeting, it is hoped a final community approval will be realized.

Toward that end, the Lockwood Community Coalition, the primary community conduit on this project, will hold its next meeting May 13th at the Community Center from 3:30 to 5pm. The Coalition will coalesce the many ideas into specific designs and recommendations. Email for particulars.

We learned that funding is already in place. Included is: a Title I allocation to Hillside School, a grant from the National Parks Service, support from several community-based organizations, , and possible donations from individuals, businesses and collective fundraising events.

As this Blog web address was handed out tonight, and several people wanted to know how to contact this blog for possible entry of their ideas and thoughts, the process is simple. Email to the address hypertexed above and in the header to this page, or reply to this Post with a Comment.
Simply click on the word 'Comment' below and fill in the form that appears. You may comment Anonymously.
What you type will come in to our Administrator email address. It will be read. Thought will be given regarding community value and form (no rants, please). It may be added to the Blog in one of two ways; as a Comment to a previous Post, or as a seperate Post. This depending on content and how it directly relates to the Post.

As you will see in review of previous Posts, our intention here is to be open to any input seen as a valid viewpoint... whether we agree, disagree or are ambivalent to it. If you contribute a thought, even Anonymously, and it holds value or real information that the community would want to share, we will publish.

If a person contributes regularly, they may gain the ability to post directly. This is a Team Blog.

In time, through use, this blog may become outdated and may be replaced with a full blown Lockwood Community web site. Let's hope. In the meantime, let's get the dialogue going. Your suggestions will be taken seriously.

Jim Gilliland passes

Long time Rainbow Bend resident, Jim Gilliland died on April 27th following a short illness. He was 83. He was a widower, his wife passing shortly after they moved to Rainbow Bend. He had three daughters. He was retired, after service as a driver for Greyhound Bus for many years.

Jim was a veteran, having served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II. He was said to have joined up at an early age and to have served with distinction.

Jim was always willing to offer suggestions. At the Lockwood Community/Senior Center he was "a regular" and brought to the table his own unique sence of humor. A quiet man, he would measure a situation and present his wisdom in a private way. He carried a knowing smile and bright disposition. He will be missed.

Charlie Bolle: Candidate for Sheriff

Republished from the Virginia City News
By Karen Woodmansee with her photograph
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Charlie Bolle thinks the Storey County Sheriff’s job is mostly management, and he touts his management background as what makes him the best man for the job. “I think all my competitors have law enforcement backgrounds,” he said. “I view sheriff’s position as administration and management and I have over 40 years with state and fed governments.

The Virginia City resident listed as part of his experience a stint with the National Aeronautics and Space Administra tion as a budget analyst and the United States Army Communications Command as a controller.

He has worked for the states of Alaska and South Dakota as a financial utility analyst and the state of Nevada as manager of policy analysis for the state Public Utilities Commission, managing the individuals that advise the commissioners. “As sheriff my job would be administration, management and to set policy, and see that the deputies carry out that policy,” he said.

He said if elected he planned to look at the management of the department, the positions that exist, and what positions are required. “I’d get the most efficiency out of department,” he said. “I would take a close look at the budget and remove what is not necessary.”

He said one problem was so many deputies live outside the county and take cars home with them. “They are driving the vehicles home to Reno, Sparks, Carson, that costs money in gas, wear and tear on the vehicles,” he said, adding that cars should not leave the county unless they are going from one end to another or transporting prisoners or evidence, or for official business.

Bolle said he would review each of the department’s programs and analyze the cost/benefits of those programs. “If I find programs in place that are necessary and cost effective, they will stay in place and if not they will be eliminated. I can’t see paying for something that is not necessary.”

Bolle, 67, said that he was running because “I think its time there is a change and the residents of the county feel safe, protected and comfortable with their sheriff’s department.”

He said there was a big gap between the community and the sheriff’s department. “They go out of their way to pull people over and to give them a DUI if they can,” he said. “I have been pulled over twice and given a warning. They tried to give me a DUI, but it came out .000 when I blew.”

He said once he got a warning for passing on the double yellow line, even though there was no double yellow line on the road he was driving. “The reason he pulled me over was to see if I had been drinking so they could give me a DUI,” he said. “They’re real heavy on DUI. Once I was pulled over in my own driveway.”

Bolle said it’s time for the community to feel comfortable with the sheriff and not be concerned that the sheriff is laying for them. “Every time I go to town, most of the time I don’t drink at all,” he said. “I’ve been drinking coffee, in case they do pull me over. I want to continue blowing .000 for them.”

He said he used to have a beer or two in town, and noticed that fewer people are going out. “A lot of people don’t go to town anymore and have a beer after work because they don’t want the hassle of it,” he said.

He said he would also insist deputies treat citizens with respect, something that he has not always experienced. “Both times I was pulled over, and the deputies were young men in late 20s, here I am 67 years old and they were very disrespectful,” he said. “They were talking to me like I was dirt on the ground. I think that they’ve got to give respect to get respect back from the community. I think the deputies have to remember that they are working for community, their salaries are paid by the community and they should show those residents proper respect.”

He did praise the current sheriff for doing a good job getting tough on drug activity in Virginia City. Bolle now sees the main risk to the public is speeding drivers. “Managing the flow of traffic through Storey County is an issue that sheriff has to be getting involved in,” he said. “People complain about speeding. I know on Mill Street, I watch cars go up the street, some in excess of 50 mph and the speed limit is 20.”

He didn’t cite specific crime control needs of communities, because he said he hasn’t seen evidence of where extra force was needed. “Wherever evidence shows there needs to be a law enforcement presence, there should be a good presence,” he said. “If in areas you have no reason, you don t need it, don’t put it there. Put the law enforcement in those areas that need it.”
“With a shrinking budget, you have to be sure your resources are utilized to the best possible effect,” he said.

Bolle said he would pursue POST certification if elected.

He also said he planned to stay if elected, even though his home is up for sale. “If I’m elected I would sell but rent a place,” he said. “But a good possibility is the house isn’t going to sell with the market the way it is. I figured since I’d be here for awhile, running for sheriff is something I want to do.”

Dave Dykstra: Candidate for Sheriff

Republished from the Virginia City News:
By Karen Woodmansee (with her pohotograph)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Dave Dykstra’s run for Storey County Sheriff started in 1998. After 21 years with the Las Vegas Police Department and seven with the Storey County Sheriff’s office, he decided to seek the top job. But illness in his family forced him to drop out of the race before the primary. Now he is looking to pick up where he left off.

Dykstra, 62, is the fifth candidate in the 2010 race for sheriff. He is running for two reasons, one, he doesn’t like to leave anything undone, and two, he was not enamored with the other candidates.

“There’s always that task that hasn’t been finished,” he said. “And I waited until the second week and wasn’t pleased with the candidates that had filed. I felt I was most qualified and wanted to offer my services to the people.”

He began his career in 1971 in the place where he was born and raised - Las Vegas. After 21 years he retired to Virginia City and was offered a “part-time” position as a deputy. “I was a full-time part-timer,” he said. “The first three or four years I worked between 30 and 60 hours a week.”

Since 1998, after his family member’s health crisis had passed, he worked as a contractor, owning his own business and taking on multi-million projects. He was also project director for Mono County, Calif., Public Works, where he managed a $3.2 million budget. In addition, he is an LPO with the Navy Reserves who was called up in 2001 and spent time in Fallon, overseeing 50 reservists and serving as liaison between them and the active duty staff, he said. Currently, he is a member of the Comstock Historic District board.

Dykstra said more should have been done to prevent the recent layoffs of five patrol deputies. “We have seven supervisors and eight deputies,” he said. “I would have looked at reducing everyone in rank. You might have been able to save a few of those positions.”

He said he doesn’t understand how the sheriff’s department has as many supervisors as they do. “When I was there we had 12 total to patrol the county, and we did pretty well,” he said. “I don’t understand why you need seven supervisors.”

He also suggested keeping part-timers and using reserve deputies when needed. If elected, he said he would emphasize “preventive patrolling by reinstating the resident deputy program in place under former Sheriff Bob Del Carlo. He said more time spent patrolling a community can prevent burglaries, vandalism, gang activity and other crimes. He praised Sheriff Jim Miller for his drug interdiction program, but said the department needed to become more user-friendly.

“You don’t see deputies out and about like we did,” he said. “The whole concept of law enforcement has been very defensive. Guys are taught in the Academy that the public is the enemy. That has to change.”

He would also like to have deputies eventually patrol on bicycles and motorcycles, to be paid for with grants. Dykstra said motorcycle officers would be better received by the public - especially during Street Vibrations. He thought there was too heavy a law enforcement presence a few years ago during that event, though he said it was possible intelligence dictated the situation.

“With motorcycles there is a psychological advantage,” he said. “Bikers like to see cops on bikes. You can temper a situation by having a bike officer respond.”

If elected, Dykstra would first sit down with his deputies, individually and in groups, to see what changes they think would be good for the county. Since they are the ones patrolling, they may have a better idea where the most need is, he said.
He would also rotate deputies in and out of the jail, to break up the monotony.
Dykstra said he felt that the sheriff’s department had been overly aggressive in traffic control. “To indiscriminately stop someone for going two miles over the speed limit is ridiculous,” he said. “I was there to stop people going 50 mph through town.”

He also doesn’t plan to have deputies watch the bars or cook up a reason to stop someone looking for DUIs. “If they haven’t driven erratically or you didn’t see them stumbling to their car, don’t pull them over,” he said.

He said when he was with the sheriff’s department and saw someone drunk heading to a car, he would just take them home.

Dykstra said he doesn’t like the word “proactive” when applied to law enforcement. He thinks a presence is enough to deter crime, and the absence of crime is the goal, not the number of citations given or arrests made. “There are too many heavy-handed tactics,” he said. “In a domestic, if no one is violent, they’re just having an argument, no one has to go to jail. Just see if one can go somewhere else for the night.”

Dykstra said in the possible case of a county official being pulled over or suspected of an offense, he would prefer a deputy call him and let him handle it, taking the onus off the patrol officer.

Dykstra supported creating an Animal Shelter at the Justice Center and having inmates care for the dogs and volunteers try to place unclaimed animals for adoption.

“A lot of this is not that hard,” he said. “I hope people vote for common sense, because that’s what I’m all about.”

Steve Mizelle: Candidate for Sheriff

Taken from Steve Mizelle's web site supporting his candidacy for Sheriff of Storey County:

My Pledge To the Citizens of Storey County:

I am committed to the prevention of crime and the protection of life and property; the preservation of peace, order, and safety; the enforcement of laws and the safeguarding of the citizens of Storey County.

I will nurture public trust by holding all members of the Storey County Sheriff's Office to the highest standards of professionalism, performance and ethics.

I will carefully and judiciously manage the financial resources entrusted to the Sheriffs Office and will focus those resources toward efficiently achieving the goals of the agency.

I will demonstrate respect to the taxpayer by ensuring accountability and transparency to the public of the effective management of the financial resources entrusted to me.

I will serve our citizens with respect, dignity, fairness and compassion.

I will work together with the community to solve problems, form partnerships and strive to improve the quality of life for everyone by working together to make our streets, neighborhoods and schools safe.


For more information, go to Mizelleforsheriff.com
Read Comments below for Steve's reply to specific issues sent him via email.

Meet the Candidates

There will be a Candidate Forum on May 14th from 5:00 pm until 9:00 pm at the Rainbow Bend Community Center. The Virginia City Post is sponsoring the event. Refreshments will be served.

Email from Tom Haynie:

Possible criminal activities in Lockwood Community Corporation (LCC)!
Information about activities known to have happened or that is happening in the operations of LCC need to be made known to my attorneys and myself.

This to include:

• Mortgage fraud
• Any other fraud or misrepresentation causing LCC money expenditure
• Mismanagement or embezzlement of LCC funds (past or present)
• Management or Board members lying to the membership for gain (personal and other)
• Violation of the By-laws and CCR’s by Board Members
• Omissions, favoritism or unaccounted expenditures or use of LCC property
• Membership violations including favoritism in Board actions (including upcoming CCR's changes.

I have been duped because of LCC Board member action and non-action, I have lost my home and its contents (including furniture, kitchen appliances, washer, dryer, stereo, video, and clothing). The culprits are fully aware of the situation and acted against me out of personal spite.

Email and helpful information to: tm_haynie@yahoo.com or make a Comment (anonymous is OK)