Humboldt  County  News
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

'Tis the season

Ah, getting out the Christmas ornaments, untangling the lights and winding them around the tree, unpacking all the seasonal decorations - it's a lot of work.  Now imagine doing that for eight hours a day for three solid weeks with several other family members.  That's what the City of Winnemucca does.  City Public Works Director Geno Bernardi says it takes 3 or 4 members of the City Parks and Recreation crew about three weeks solid, 8 hours a day to put up, and then take down all those Christmas decorations.  We enjoy seeing the decorations around town, but just how they get there isn't something most of us think too much about.  It takes some serious work to put up the miles of twinkling lights on all the trees on the U.S. 95 entrance to town, light up the trees up and down Bridge Street and by the water tanks on Highland Drive, put up the wreaths and greenery and lights wrapped around all the light poles, hoist and attach the painted Santas, snowmen, trees, and stockings.  

The summertime parks and recreation crew works on Christmas decorations this time of year - Frank
 Mastrejuan  (in the interesting hat), Emiliano Alvarex and Mike Godinez are getting ready to put up this
 painted wooden snowman.  Frank said there are 13 of this size of the wooden decorations (more can be seen
 in the photo below in the back of the pickup truck) and then there's the large painted wooden scene that sits
 on top of Ben's Discount Liquor on the intersection of Bridge Street and Winnemucca Boulevard.

Social Work Program now at Great Basin College

Great Basin College has another opportunity for students interested in a challenging and rewarding career in a field where they will be needed and sought after.  In partnership with the University of Nevada, Reno, Great Basin College now offers a Bachelor of Social Work program on its campuses throughout rural Nevada. 

Wendy Charlebois, the program's director, says the experience offers more than the normal "8 to 5" work day, "Social workers are in demand in rural Nevada with jobs available in many State of Nevada agencies."  "But," said Charlebois, "the rewards go beyond landing a job; part of the joy of social work is helping people to realize their full potential."

Those interested in finding out more about a Bachelor's Degree in Social Work are invited to attend an orientation on the new degree program hosted by Great Basin College and the University of Nevada, Reno.  The session is an introduction to the institutions' 3 plus 1 Bachelor's in Social Work Program.  The event will be held next week, Wednesday, December 13th, from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. on the GBC Elko Campus in McMullen Hall Room 101, and will include a light lunch.  For more information contact Charlebois at 775-753-2466 or Marsha Holford at 775-753-2244.

Humboldt County School Board considering changes
 to policy regarding public comment during meetings

Humboldt County School Superintendent Del Jarman will be presenting a new draft policy for School Trustees' consideration at the next School Board meeting.  The policy addresses public participation in School Board meetings. It would require members of the public who want to comment on an agenda item to fill out and sign a request form and identify the agenda item on which they are interested in commenting.

Dr. Jarman said the new policy will answer the question, "How do we allow the public to speak in a way that's reasonable and fair but still keeps the board able to conduct its business." 

In addition to the pre-meeting notification, members of the public may also be limited in the amount of time they may speak.  Permission to speak would be granted by the Board chairman. 

The proposed policy will be discussed at length at the next School Board meeting, but at its first reading last week, Board chairman John Falen said, "I think this [proposed policy] is good; we often have people in the audience who come to speak and this gives them a chance to speak while the item is still in discussion."

Dr. Jarman commented, "The public does have a responsibility to work within the Board's time limit.  This is your meeting and it's a business meeting and you must do the business."

Board member Linda Schrempp wondered whether the proposed policy would limit the public's ability to speak their mind, and said, "But if there are people here, and they're upset, you'd better let them speak."  She added, "People just want to be heard."

Board member Andrew Hillyer wondered if the new policy should include a statement regarding decorum to encourage those who speak to be orderly and respectful of each other and the Board.

Dr. Jarman acknowledged there may be some challenges to be considered regarding the proposed policy, and noted it would be up to the Board whether to make any changes in current protocol or not.

Workforce Housing and Nevada Rural Housing Authority to form partnership

It's a lot like trying to decide which came first, the chicken or the egg.  In a community it can be difficult to determine which comes first - attracting new jobs, or bringing the workers to a community so a company will have the employees it needs, and to do that you also need to have somewhere for those workers to live.  Although those in local real estate say that housing isn't as tight right now as it has been, talk to anyone trying to find housing in a range that's affordable in Winnemucca and you hear that it's still pretty challenging.

 The Workforce Housing Committee, a subcommittee under Humboldt Development Authority is trying to help our local community move through the process of acquiring some federal land near the City limits and developing housing on that land that new community members can afford to get into.  Nevada Rural Housing Authority officials are helping with that effort.  Bill Brewer, of Rural Development has the legal description of the parcel the Committee is interested in and has met with BLM representatives, Jo Simpson and Jim Stobauh.  He said this week he's also consulting with Clark County about their successful effort to acquire federal land for housing.  Skip Canfield, of the State Land Use Planning Office will help the Committee work through the process of acquiring a federal land parcel, through the BLM for affordable housing development.

Humboldt Development Authority successfully applied for a grant to pay for the planning work that has to be done before a proper application can be made to the BLM for the federal land parcel. Part of that work is development of a fairly detailed plan for exactly how the community plans to use the land and what the proposed housing might look like - size of parcels, size and type of homes, etc.

Nevada Rural Housing Authority will partner with the Workforce Housing Committee and Humboldt Development Authority to help with that whole process.  The partnership will be spelled out in a memorandum of understanding. There are a variety of ways Nevada Rural Housing Authority can assist, from researching information and preparing reports to producing the Request for Proposals (for a feasibility study), creating project task lists and timelines, or even acting in a project-planning role.  The Housing Authority charges $75 per hour for the consulting, planning, and research work.  Once the memorandum of understanding is developed, as to what Nevada Rural Housing Authority's involvement will be, Humboldt Development Authority can authorize expenditure of some of the grant money for these services to move affordable workforce housing development forward for Winnemucca. 

Humboldt Development Authority members along with others in the community have been successful in attracting new jobs - now it's time to attract workers and make sure they have somewhere to live when they get here.