Humboldt  County  News
Friday, December 8, 2006

HAZMAT spill on mine road quickly contained and cleaned up

A small amount of diesel fuel was spilled a mine road Saturday afternoon after a trailer became detached and rolled. The incident occurred approximately 11 miles from Golconda.

According to the report generated by Trooper Tony Roth, of the Nevada Highway Patrol, the driver of the truck hauling two trailers of diesel fuel alleged another car entered his travel lane and he had to serve to avoid a head-on collision. Steven Easton, 47, of Carlin, was able to get the truck and the first trailer back onto the road, but the second trailing unit became detached and overturned. Trooper Roth said some diesel fuel was spilled in the incident.

Easton, the driver, is employed by Haycox, out of Carlin, whose HAZMAT team responded to the scene, pumped the remaining diesel fuel, up-righted the overturned trailing unit, and cleaned up the spilled diesel fuel all in about 4.5 hours. Although traffic was slowed on the mine road, the road was not closed and there were no reported injuries.

Easton was cited for failing to obey a traffic control device, which was the lane marker.

Year-long effort results in new recruits for the Sheriff's Office

A year-long effort by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office has resulted in new recruits for that agency, which has long been understaffed. Outgoing Sheriff Gene Hill commented, "We were fortunate enough to have good applicants here lately. It been my goal to fill this agency. When the new sheriff comes in he'll have enough to do."

Sgt. Chris Lininger pointed out that recruiting new deputies has been challenge - one faced by many across the state and country, in part, because law enforcement and the military are competing from the same pool of qualified applicants.

The three new employees were hired to fill vacancies at the Humboldt County Detention Center. Deputy Dale Dyer comes to Winnemucca from Reno and is new to law enforcement. However, his father was the undersheriff in Mineral County where Dyer participated in the cadet program. Dyer said working in law enforcement has been a goal of his.

Dane Olson, who is coming to Winnemucca from Fallon with his family, recently completed six years in the US Navy. While in the Navy, he did get some experience in law enforcement, after the events of Sept. 11, when military personnel were doing increased security. Deputy Olson said he is originally from a small town and wanted his three children to be able to grow up in a small town too. Olson commented, "I'm grateful to the sheriff's office for the opportunity and am looking forward to meeting everyone in town and settling down.

Deputy Randy Close already lives in Winnemucca, but he has been employed for nine years at the Lovelock Correctional Center. He said he is looking forward to working a little closer to home and looking forward to the challenges represented by a position at the Detention Center. Close commented, "I'm very thankful to the Sheriff's Office for giving me this opportunity and I'm looking forward to working with the new sheriff and I'm excited about future training he talked about getting for us."

KWNA News staff welcomes Deputy Olson and Dyer to the community and we would like to wish all three new employees good luck in their new occupations.

Speed Channel featuring cars purchased at auction
 for (Winnemucca's) America's Car Museum

The Speed Channel (cable channel 35), is airing features on some of the cars Ralph Whitworth purchased at the Barret Jackson Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.  The features are being aired now to generate interest for the next Barret Jackson auction in January of 2007 that will also be shown on the Speed Channel.  All of these famous cars will eventually be on display at America's Car Collection in Winnemucca.

The Speed Channel will feature the Ray Allen Car on December 11th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  This car is famous because it was never beat in a drag race.  The car has 64 original miles on it and Whitworth paid over a million dollars for the car.

On Monday, December 18th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time the Speed Channel will feature the car that Elvis purchased while he was in the army and stationed in Germany.  It's a Mercury Lincoln Limo and was Elvis' main car while he traveled across the country.

Monday, January 1, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the featured car will be the Howard Hughes car.  The car was owned by the late and famous Howard Hughes.  It has an air filtration system especially build for Howard Hughes.

Monday, January 14th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the Futurliner is the featured car.  (The car is not one of Whitworth's cars, but he's featured in the episode)  This bus-looking vehicle was bid up to over four million dollars. 

According to Jim Billingsley, who passed along the information on the Speed Channel offerings of interest to Winnemucca, a lot of the footage shown was taken during the 50's Fever event in Winnemucca. 

Johanns reinforces future healthy forest collaboration

 Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is joining with the Department of the Interior, the Western Governor's Association and the National Association of counties in reestablishing their commitment to enhance the health of forests, grasslands and prairies and protect communities from wildland fires.

The original Implementation Plan for the 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy, finalized in 2002, set ambitious goals to prevent and suppress wildland fires, thin forests to reduce hazardous fuels, restore forest and rangeland health and assist communities in protecting themselves and in developing their forest-based economies.  The updated plan reflects lessons learned and adjust process to increase effectiveness.

"We've really opened productive channels of communication with all our cooperaters and accomplished a great deal," said Johanns. "With a record 9.4 million acres burned in 2006, we are reminded that we have more work to do together.  The updated 10-Year Strategy reinforces our goals and updates the tasks to reflect the current environmental and social challenges." 

The newer goals, performance measures and tasks in the updated plan incorporates opportunities created by the Healthy Forest Initiative and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act.  In addition, a summary of helpful practices for applying plan's collaborative framework is provided to assist stakeholders in the process of working together to expedite projects such as Community Wildfire Protection Plans.   Given the growing potential for large, expensive wildfires caused by overly dense forests, drought, disease and insect infestations, and a growing population in the wildland-urban interface, the updated 10-Year Comprehensive provides renewed vigor to ongoing restoration and protection efforts.  

The plan "A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment: 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy Implementation Plan" and the Governors, Counties and Secretaries letter to the Congress can be found at: http://www.fs.fed.us/news/2006/releases/12/10-year-strategy-december-2006pdf

Note from Santa:

Christmas is almost here, slipped up on me before I knew what was happening and I could use your help. Operation Santa is in full swing and there are OPERATION SANTA barrels up all over town and I could use some help filling them for the needy children. There are approximately 800 children that need your generosity. If you are unable to find an OPERATION SANTA barrel, the gifts can be dropped off at Gold County Inn on Winnemucca Blvd. or at the Indigent Office at the Detention Center on Fairgrounds Road. They can be wrapped if marked with gender and age range, or unwrapped.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Santa

If you have any questions, please call Santa's helpers, Lydie or Patricia or at 623-6999 or Anita Paquette at 623-6342.