Updated: Carson City Board of Supervisors to take up utility connection fee hikes

Carson City’s Board of Supervisors was scheduled Thursday to ponder hiking utility connection fees, but there is a chance that will be bumped back to Sept. 3.

Thursday’s board meeting is set to begin as usual at 8:30 a.m. in the Sierra Room at the Community Center, 851 E. William St. There is a short agenda and City Hall reports either members will quit by 9:30 a.m. so anyone intending to go to the 11 a.m. memorial service for Carson City Deputy Carl Howell at the Reno Events Center, 400 N. Center St., will be able to attend in Reno.

Howell was killed in the line of duty last weekend in Carson City. Whatever doesn’t get taken up in time would be pushed back until the first Thursday of next month, according to word from City Hall.

Utility connection fees, whenever they do get taken up by the board, would increase about tenfold over several years and return to pre-recession levels if recommendations of the Utility Financial Oversight Committee are followed. That committee’s report is also on the agenda.

The utility committee had more than one crack at the matter. Utility oversight panel members dealt with construction industry representatives and developers, as well as the general public, city staff and consultants, to fashion the recommended hikes that are anticipated to take effect over five years.

The board also will be asked to accept a recommendation from the Open Space Advisory Committee to approve hiring a new, full-time park ranger dedicated to the Parks and Recreation Department Open Space division. In addition, board members will delve into a possible land swap involving city-owned property parcels for 20 acres on the north side of U.S. Highway 50 just east of the Clear Creek intersection. Appraisals would first be needed.

Also on Thursday’s agenda are two items authorizing Mayor Robert Crowell to sign leases that would expand city government’s available water supply. Both would be with the Carson Water Subconservancy District. The first is a five-year pact involving Mud Lake Reservoir water to provide the city with an additional 526 acre-feet; the other involves a one-year pact regarding Lost Lakes water, which would add 50 acre-feet beginning Oct. 1.