No protests to downtown Carson City assessment

No one came forward to protest an assessment that affects downtown businesses at a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors Wednesday.

A public hearing on the Downtown Neighborhood Improvement District assessments was on the schedule again after a hearing at last week’s regular supervisors’ meeting, at which no complaints were filed either.

The NID was formed to assess businesses downtown for a portion of the ongoing maintenance of the Downtown Streetscape Enhancement Project.

Also on the agenda was a resolution confirming the NID assessment and the first reading of an ordinance to levy the assessment.

The resolution and ordinance reading passed by a vote of 4-1 with Supervisor Jim Shirk voting no on both measures because he voted against the downtown NID and felt it didn’t treat the businesses equitably, he said.

The supervisors also unanimously voted to accept the canvass of the vote for the 2016 primary election last week.

Susan Merriwether, clerk-recorder, said the vote went off largely without incident.

She said there were 11 days of early voting and two polling places — the courthouse and the Carson City Community Center — on June 14.

“We had one unusual event,” she said. “An election ballot came in at 6:10 p.m. and wasn’t noticed until the next day.”

Merriwether said there was a total of five so-called fleeing voters, two on election day and three during early voting.

Fleeing voters are individuals who sign in and receive the card to insert into the voting machine in order to cast a ballot but who, for whatever reason, leave without voting.

Also, Merriwether said there continues to be a problem with voter registrations delivered by organizations conducting voter drives after the deadline, leaving voters who register that way still unregistered.

The deadline for those types of registrations is earlier than it is for individuals. Merriwether said the forms usually include individuals phone numbers so calls can be made to voters, who then have time to register online or in person.

A total of 8,415 votes were cast, comprising 2,710 on election day, 4,763 during early voting and 942 by absentee ballot.