Scott Schrantz's Blog

I guess the city must have concluded the best time to do road work is during rush hour. That’s the only way to explain why Carson Street was down to one lane at 9:00 this morning as they did some work on the signal heads at Fairview.

This wasn’t just a fast in-n-out job, either. They had cones set up, they had signs all the way back at the ormsby House warning you that the lane was closed, and they had law enforcement out to direct traffic. This was a major effort, planned in advance. I guess they don’t like paying overtime, and that’s why they’re not working at night. which is when sane companies do road work.

This story’s pretty funny. It’s okay for it to be funny, because nobody got hurt (except for a broken arm, which could be argued that he deserved).

A Jeep gets extracted from the mine shaft it was driven into.

And it just reminds everybody to be extra careful in Nevada and Eastern California. You never know where these old mine shafts are going to pop up. They can even open up right underneath you. I remember a few years ago when a forgotten mine shaft in Virginia City caved in right next door to the high school, and swallowed the principal’s car! There’s been enough mining in the area to make the entire landscape of the Great Basin just one big piece of swiss cheese. There used to be a public awareness campaign on TV about it; it featured an open mine shaft with a creepy skeleton standing inside motioning for you to come in. Maybe mine shafts really are doorways to the Land of the Dead. Or maybe they just wanted to creep the hell out of kids and get them to stay away from open shafts.

On the other hand, you have to admire the skill of that driver. That’s a tiny little opening he drove into; if he hit it even a little bit sideways the car just would have lodged in it diagonally. He really had to drive into it square on to get the Jeep to go straight in like that. I’m impressed!

New Building: Bender House

The Bender House is still up for sale. It seems like this thing has been on the market for months, maybe even a year now. I’m not sure why it’s not selling; maybe the price is too high, maybe historic homes come with too much baggage and nobody wants to take it on; maybe it’s really a fixer-upper inside, despite how good it looks outside. But I’ll bet that whoever ends up owning it won’t regret it. I’d love to buy it myself, if it weren’t for the fact that paying the mortgage alone would take about three month’s salary, not to mention taxes, maintenance and upkeep.

If anyone is interested in buying it, it’s only $849,000. Which makes my heart drop into my stomach personally, but after you look at the details it starts to seem like more of a bargain. It’s in probably the best neighborhood in all of Carson City, right across from the Governor’s Mansion and the Bliss Mansion. It’s over 3,000 square feet, the yard takes up fully 3/4 of the block with a garage and other outbuildings, and there’s a huge front porch with an even huger lawn that deer like to hang out in. Plus it’s a historic home, built in 1867, and on the Blue Line tour. If anything, it almost seems underpriced.

With the way I’m going on about it you’d think I was the one selling it. But no, just someone who’s drooling over it. Dickson Realty are the real estate agents; here’s their listing. And if you do buy it, give them my name. Maybe there’s a nice finder’s fee involved.

There’s some pretty ambitious stuff being planned for East Carson, as you can see in this article from the Nevada Appeal. These plans are huge, and I’m not sure where all the money is going to come from, but if it all gets built out it’s going to create a whole new destination for Northern Nevada. It all revolves around “Destination Nevada”, a project proposed by RIDL, a local development company owned by the Hettrick family. Destination Nevada was hinted at back in September, but the full plans didn’t come out until just this week.

The whole thing is built around the new train depot the V&T is planning for the east side of town, near where Highway 50 starts to climb up the hill to Mound House. But rather than just having the depot surrounded by a parking lot and sagebrush, RIDL is proposing a huge 150-acre development. There will be a central retail/office center, a quarter-mile across with underground parking. There will be a hotel/casino. There will be condos, shopping, restaurants, and a movie theater. The tracks for the new V&T will run through the development and end at a new depot on the site. And, at the south end of the parcel will be the Chinese Workers Museum of America.

The Chinese Museum complex will be 250,000 square feet, with a huge central glass tower containing a permanent exhibit and two flanking pagodas with space for changing exhibits. The museum will be devoted to the history of Chinese immigrants who came to America in the 1800s looking for riches, but ended up doing menial labor like laundry and building railroads. Much of the original V&T was built by Chinese labor, and so not only would this museum tie in to the new rail line, it would also end up being a draw for Asian tourists to come to Carson City. At least that’s the plan.

The whole development has been priced at about $900 million, and not much funding has been locked down yet. They’re thinking that investment money could come from China. RIDL also has some unnamed partners that could be chipping in for pieces of the development. But this seems like one of those ideas that looks really good on paper, but for which ground never gets broken. And if you look at the comments on the Appeal article, you’ll see that not everyone in Carson City loves the idea, calling it ugly, pointless and unrealistic. Plus there are the concerns that investors won’t be interested, and that our taxes will end up paying for the project, just like they’re worried that funding for the railroad won’t materialize.

So I guess there’s not enough to go on yet other than a few drawings and a lot of talk. We’ll have to wait and see if something more comes out of it, or if Destination Nevada just collects dust on a shelf in the Planning Department.

New Then And Now:
#12 Central School (2)

If you’re in Reno and looking for a new puppy, the Comstock Corgi Rescue right now has two litters that are looking for good homes. It seems that two mothers got knocked up by the same local neighborhood stud at the same time, and both gave birth within days of each other. The little guys are five weeks old right now, and they’ll be ready to go home right around the first of April. There are twelve puppies all together, but as of Friday there were only five left without homes. The other seven have already been adopted. We’re getting one of the puppies ourselves, so if you go down to visit them, keep your hands off our Baxter!

There is an adoption fee of $250 to take home one of the puppies, but this isn’t a puppy mill. They’re not in it to make a profit, they just need to charge money to cover the costs of raising these pups until they’re ready to go home. Any money that’s left over will go towards future rescue operations.

As you can probably tell by the name “Comstock Corgi Rescue”, these are corgi puppies. Actually the mothers are both corgis, and the father was a border collie, so all the puppies are mix of black, white and brown, with short stubby legs and thick coats.

Comstock Corgi Rescue is a part of the K-9 Fitness Center in south Reno. It’s located near where McCarran meets Longley, at 5325 Louie Lane #10. (Map it!) The phone number is (775)448-9900, so you can call ahead and make sure the last of these adorable little guys hasn’t been adopted yet.

And if you do get one, drop me an e-mail or post in the comments so we can share pictures and keep track of where the various siblings end up going! I've got a bunch more pictures from our Friday visit here.

Around Carson got listed on About.com’s Reno/Tahoe section along with a bunch of other Northern Nevada Bloggers (many of which are linked to from this site too, in the right column). Myrna the Minx takes credit for getting us all linked on there, and the list does share a striking similarity to her blogroll. The page is called Blogs for Everyone in Reno and Lake Tahoe, and it brings up the same thing that I’ve discovered: over the last twelve months, there have been a lot of new Reno blogs popping up. Which, seriously, it’s about time, you know? I’ve been doing this for four years over at The Computer Vet, and for most of the time I’ve been so lonely. I know that geography is meaningless on the Internet, but it’s still good to find people who are writing about local stuff that you’ve seen and experienced yourself. But now there’s an actual community that seems to be popping up, and it’s great. Still not too many from Carson City (at least not that I’ve found...send me links!), but a good slice of Northern Nevada nonetheless.

Of course, the article says that Around Carson is mostly full of “press type releases”, which I choose to take as a critque on my writing style. Noted.

The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension is putting on an Earth Day celebration in Carson City next month, and they not only want you to attend, they want you to participate!

Who: Carson City and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension
What: Earth Day Fair
When: April 22 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where: Capitol Mall (between the State Legislature and State Capitol), Carson City
Why: Celebrate, protect, and enjoy Carson City’s natural resources

The event organizers invite you or your organization to participate by either setting up a table or station with display information or hosting an activity. All participants must provide their own table and chairs. There will be a scavenger hunt for attendees to complete. Cooperative Extension has booth ideas if anyone needs help coming up with something. They are also trying to put together live music and food vendors, and suggestions are welcome. Please RSVP to (775)887-2252 as soon as possible.

Here is a registration form (in PDF format) that you can download, fill out, and fax to (775)887-2065.

I won’t be there, because I’ll be out of town (at a Wiggles concert in L.A., actually). But that shouldn’t stop all of you from showing up and having a good time!

The Virginia and Truckee Railroad that’s been running up in Virginia City for the last 30 years has two steam locomotives. At first they only had one, Locomotive #29, a 1916 Baldwin. But then, I’m not sure exactly what year, they acquired Engine #8. And it’s a good thing for them to have two because when one breaks down or has to be overhauled, they can always use the other one.

At least, that’s the way it was during the 1990s. In 2003, both engines were in bad need of repair at the same time. So the railroad managed to get its hands on a surplus diesel yard switcher, and used that to pull the trains while the steam engines were rebuilt. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but it was only going to be a temporary situation. The overhaul of engine #8 was supposed to take a few months, and #29 “about a year”. Here we are in 2006, and the railroad is still running solely on the diesel engine.

At least, that is, until this summer! The news just came out today that #29 is out of its overhaul and ready to run the rails again starting in May. This is some good news, first of all because there will be a steam engine running again after four years, and second of all because #29 is the one that gets to come out of rehab first. It’s my favorite of the two. So to mark the occasion, I pulled out this picture I took for a college class. I think it’s still one of my best.

And here’s a few from a snowy day in 1995 when I went up to ride the rails.

It’ll be good to have #29 back.