Closed private road near Carson City’s Mexican Dam raises questions

A private road providing access to the Mexican Dam Open Space area has been closed to vehicle traffic.

Residents on Golden Eagle Lane, who maintain their portion of the road, have put up a gate due to increased traffic and vandalism, according to a sign on the gate.

The sign says unauthorized vehicles will be considered as trespassing while hikers, bike riders and horses are welcome to enter by a small side gate.

About three-quarters of a mile from the gate is the Mexican Dam Open Space, 68 acres acquired by the city and used for recreation.

The city recently placed one of its monument signs outside there and another down the road at the Golden Eagle Open Space, another parcel of land bought by the city on Prison Hill.

According to Ann Bollinger, Open Space administrator, residents there say that’s when problems started with increased traffic leading to more noise, dust and dumping.

Bollinger this week took Supervisors Karen Abowd and Brad Bonkowski, who had a few questions, out to see the site.

“Karen and I discussed with Ann the possibility of a pedestrian path from the gate to the open space area to the west of the homes, with a possible parking area for off-roaders coming down from the plateau or from the Prison Hill OHV area,” said Bonkowski. “This is all very preliminary and we have not run these ideas by any stakeholders but this is one possible way to keep all the stakeholders happy. The residents get less traffic and the users of the open space get access.”

The area also can be reached from Silver Saddle Ranch via a 1.5-mile trail, but only by foot or bicycle.

“My biggest concern was if it’s locked and there’s a fire, for people to get out and emergency personnel to get in,” said Abowd.

Currently, the gate doesn’t have a lock on it.

The road is the residents only access out of their enclave of five homes. Part of it is private and the remainder is a public access but not city maintained road, according to the Public Works department.

The city is working on the Golden Eagle Lane Erosion Improvement Project, near the Golden Eagle Open Space.

Last summer, rains created a small gulley on Prison Hill above Golden Eagle Lane, making way for the water to cross the road and drop down a steep incline into the Carson River. The city plans to put in a detention basin on the Prison Hill side of the road, a series of gabions or check dams on the hill to catch sediment, and a pipe to allow the water to reach the river.

Across the road, on the incline to the river, a rip rap or group of boulders, will stem erosion.

The city has been approved for a $75,000 grant from the Carson Water Subconservancy District, $25,000 from the Open Space Advisory Committee and is applying for a $40,000 grant from the Nevada Division of State Lands’ Question 1 program.

The overall project will be $150,000 so the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Department will either do it in phases, cut an element or go back to the open space committee for the additional $10,000.

Bonkowski’s concerns were initially raised about the gate because it might affect the subconservancy grant if the work only served to benefit the residents on the private portion of the road, but he said because the remediation work is all prior to the gate it’s not an issue.