Humboldt  County  News
Friday, November 24, 2006

"Pace Yourself" campaign this weekend

Those driving through northern Nevada this weekend are seeing a high-than-usual law enforcement presence on the highways - all in an effort to make sure more families travel to and from wherever they're going for Thanksgiving safely.  Nevada Highway Patrole's saturation patrol campaign this weekend was dubbed PACE, an acronym for Prevent Automobile Collisions Everyday.

Trooper Rocky Gonzalez said, "High visibility enforcement of traffic laws combined with high intensity media has been determined to be the most effective way to ensure compliance with safety belt use and laws against impaired driving."  However, said Gonzales, "Law enforcement agencies in Nevada don't always have sufficient manpower to conduct the effective and sustained enforcement needed to reduce traffic crashes and fatalities."

During the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Troopers throughout the area will be enforcing Nevada's safety belt, child restraint, impaired driving and speeding laws using federal grant funds provided by the Department of public Safety / Nevada Office of Traffic Safety.  The motoring public is encouraged to drive sober and alert at all times because, "The life you save just might be your own."

HC District Attorney's Office putting together workshop
 on preventing and dealing with Teen Dating Violence

Nearly 11% of Humboldt County high school students self-reported they'd been injured by a boyfriend or girlfriend when they filled out the last Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  Nearly 15% of high schoolers reported having been forced to have sex against their will.  It's also a shock that nearly 10% of Junior High students reported having been injured by a boyfriend or girlfriend.  

The Humboldt County District Attorney's Office and Victim / Witness Advocate Chelle Robinson are agreed that statistics like that mean action must be taken.  Humboldt County District Attorney - elect, Russell Smith and Robinson are working with others to put on a local workshop on preventing and dealing with Teen Dating Violence.  Smith said, "We're going to use local people to present at the workshop as well as the Nevada Attorney General's ombudsman, Kareen Prentice.  The program may also be brought into the high school.  Details are still coming together, but Smith said grant money will help pay for posters to help publicize the workshop. 

How to get the state to do a local road project:101

Local City and County officials took the State Department of Transportation up on an invitation this week to attend a workshop on how to submit a transportation improvement project to the Nevada Department of Transportation. 

The preliminary work that goes into getting State funding for a road project isn't something most people probably think about; but it's local officials' job to think about those kinds of issues.  The Nevada Department of Transportation has many more transportation projects to do than there is money to do them, so if a local area wants to submit a project on a State road, and ask the State's help to engineer or fund the project, it's essential to know how to proceed. 

County Road Department head, John Russum, City Manager / Engineer Steve West, and Mayor DiAn Willis-Putnam were among those who went to this weeks' Nevada Department of Transportation workshop to learn how to fill out the DOT's Project Submittal Applications, and to interpret the program evaluation criteria.  Several representatives from NDOT's Divisions and District offices made presentations and answered questions on the process.

County and City officials have been quite successful in the past working with the State Department of Transportation on local projects - examples include the work several years ago on the Grass Valley / Haskell Street / Hanson Street intersection and Hanson Street overpass, the project on Haskell Street that took two one-way streets and a messy weed and water-filled culvert and made them into one wide, straight street with underground storm drains.

Along with traditional street projects, the workshop covered application criteria for the transportation enhancement program funding for projects like pedestrian and bicycle paths, landscaping, and historic preservation. 

All project applications are evaluated by a committee consisting of transportation officials from all three districts, along with people from environmental, safety, operations, inter-modal planning, project development and stewardship divisions.  Joint City / County projects are encouraged.

What's it worth to have clean streets?

What's it worth to you to have clean streets?  Winnemucca's City Council approved the purchase of a new street sweeper this past week - no small thing since street sweepers cost $177,000.  The City received only one bid for a street sweeper, but that's not unusual since there are very few sweeper manufacturers and dealers in our region.  The bid was for $177,112 from Metro-Quip, the same company from which the City bought its current street sweeper.  That's good news since parts are interchangeable and the City has received good service from the company in the past.  Service is a big deal with street sweepers because brushes in the sweepers have to be replaced every few weeks and the sweepers require a whole lot of maintenance. 

The bid was actually several thousand dollars lower than the amount budgeted.  The City currently has two street sweepers, one newer, one 8 years old. Since the street sweepers only last about 8 years, the new sweeper, when it arrives, will replace the 8 year-old sweeper. 

And, on the issue of clean streets, the City has had a reciprocal deal with the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) - City does the street sweeping for Winnemucca Boulevard and the Department of Transportation does the striping.  City Public Works Director, Geno Bernardi explained that the City entered into that agreement because "we didn't think they were sweeping it often enough, and we didn't like the way it looked."  Now NDOT is balking at continuing that agreement in its present form.  The paint and labor to stripe the Boulevard is getting expensive and they want the City to back off of sweeping the Boulevard so often and to pay a portion of the painting costs rather than trading with the sweeping.    Bernardi said, "It would really be a shame to go back to the way things used to be; it doesn't look good for the street to be so dirty."

"For the brave": day after Thanksgiving specials

Local stores are offering "day after Thanksgiving" specials for those tough enough to brave the crowds for bargains.  For those not willing to deal with crowds and lines, online retailers are offering bargains as well - all at the touch of a fingertip.  Warehouse workers in places like GSI Commerce and Amazon.com are working round the clock now until after Christmas to take care of the expected 18% increase in on-line shopping this year.  The National Retail Federation forcasts holiday spending will increase by 5% overall, but since on-line shopping is projected to increase by that 18% figure, stores may actually see a decrease in business.