Supervisors receive lobbyist’s report

Carson City’s legislative lobbyist told the Board of Supervisors on Thursday that an interim study of community colleges won’t change the funding formula.

Mary Walker, during a report of lobbying matters between the 2013 and 2015 Nevada legislative sessions, said the pertinent interim study may change governance matters and take the colleges out from under the Board of Regents, allowing for more local input. The report, however, indicated Western Nevada College and its Carson City campus likely will be stuck with budget cuts that came in the wake of the recession.

Supervisor John McKenna asked Walker to talk about the north-south dynamic in the Legislature. She replied the south seeks more education and transportation money, but added that Northern Nevada officials and lobbyists still have friends in the southern sector. Yet she didn’t sugar-coat her report.

“The power of the south is rising,” she said. “Some of it is going to affect us.”

On other matters, the board heard reports from city departments on the past year’s progress and challenges, took up supplemental budget matters in preparation for next fiscal year’s budget decisions, reviewed a presentation on a pilot project starting a state line-to-state line recreation path along the east side of Lake Tahoe that initially covers Incline Village to Sand Harbor, approved contracts and made purchases.

Among those purchases was authorization for Public Works to buy a Caterpillar 140M2 AWD Motor Grader for a net $202,812 after trading in a Volvo grader and getting a $120,000 trade in allowance. Public Works Director Darren Schulz acknowledged the Volvo grader hadn’t held up well the past several years and that the 2007 purchase, in hindsight, shouldn’t have been made. He said the Volvo had required $40,000 in repairs last year.