The Washoe County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to certify all primary election results, after refusing to do so at their last meeting, with two recounts under consideration, with Republican Commissioners Clara Andriola and Mike Clark changing their votes.
The lone no was the soft spoken fellow Republican Jeanne Herman who said “there are hills to climb on and there are hills to die on and this might be one of those.”
Clark said he voted to certify with a “heavy heart,” and knew some of his supporters might be disappointed in him. He explained he was voting to certify under extreme duress of possible criminal prosecution and forfeiture of office if he didn't.
Andriola said she previously had several concerns which gave her pause, but that the action to certify had been clarified as being “ministerial only and required.”
“Our responsibility is to follow the law,” she said.
The previous non certification brought national attention and a petition to the Nevada Supreme Court by state officials for the commissioners to certify the election results.
Commissioner Alexis Hill, a Democrat, started out the long meeting calling for decorum and quoting former First Lady Melania Trump about treating each other as humans with families.
“We will treat others with respect. You will not raise your voice. You will not scream or yell. There will be no personal attacks,” she said, and several times asked commenters not to single out Commissioner Andriola by name, after the Republican had called for this certification redo.
The first public commenter to speak, Gaia Brown, a previous contributor to former Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak, wearing a yellow Certify! strap, spoke in favor of supporting “the democratic process.”
Many others spoke against certification, coming to the podium multiple times, wearing a different array of Stars and Stripes and We the People hats. One woman had a red cap which read Make Elections Fair Again. Since former President Donald Trump lost the presidential election in 2020, there have been calls from the right here and elsewhere for abolishing mail-in ballots, going to hand recounts, and changing ID requirements.
Sahara and GSR Casinos Shower Reno City Council Incumbents with New Contributions
April to end of June contribution and expense reports are in and incumbents running to stay on the Reno City Council, all three of them initially selected to the body as replacements, are being showered with casino cash from Alex Meruelo, the Cuban-American businessman who owns both the Grand Sierra Resort and the Las Vegas-based Sahara, giving $15,000 to each of them.
Frank Perez who squeaked by in second place for the Reno City Council Ward 1 runoff received over $17,000 in the April to June period, including $1,000 from charter school pushing Academica Nevada, and $2,500 from Robert Goldberg and $2,000 from Kenneth Duda.
His November opponent, already a council member following a replacement selection, Kathleen Taylor raked in over $52,000, including $10,000 from Sahara Las Vegas, $5,000 from Grand Sierra Resort, $5,000 from Hamilton Properties, $3,000 from Western NV Supply, $2,500 from Winter Street LLC, $2,5000 from Keystone MF LLC, and $1,000 from outgoing Republican Nevada Senate Minority Leader Heidi Gansert.
In the Ward 5 race, initially selected at-large council member Devon Reese received nearly $38,000, including $5,000 from GSR Holdings, $10,000 from Sahara, $1,000 from Friends of Steve Sisolak, $1,500 from the Reno Fire Fighters Association and $1,000 from the Reno Police Protective Association. His opponent Brian Cassidy received nearly $6,000 including $1,000 from Answerwest and multiple individual donations.
In the Ward 3 race, the also initially selected Miguel Martinez received nearly $58,000, including $10,000 from Sahara, $5,000 from GSR Holdings, $5,000 from Western Nevada Supply Co, $1,500 from Lewis Roca, $1,000 from Friends of Alexis Hill, and other large donations from realtors and developers.
His opponent, Denise Myer, received just $1,300, from four individual donors, including $600 from Peter Neumann.
Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024
Locals Thinking of Going Solar Face Minefields and Confusion
For those pondering going solar for residential energy purposes, what is the best advice? What are the pitfalls to avoid and local companies to recommend or stay away from?
These questions are recurring on local social media.
It’s important as in this sector there have been numerous complaints involving fraud, theft, misleading sales tactics with unfulfilled promises, difficulties in getting permissions to connect to NV Energy, unlicensed contracting, longer than expected loan terms and projects being abandoned even after payments were made.
Some companies outsource their installation and warranty repairs to third party companies, creating additional headaches.
Add to that a bewildering evolution of related technology, making it feel very much like a new Wild Wild West.
Statewide, the Nevada State Contractors Board has even launched a new specialized Solar Investigations Unit to prevent malpractice in solar installation and related scams, often targeting seniors and those who speak little English.
Last month, a solar company operating in Reno and Las Vegas, Solarize LLC, was fined $460,000 and had its license revoked. Three of its contractors were barred from ever working in Nevada as contractors.
One of the customers said the contractors had caused over $20,000 in damages to her home, while placing the wrong inverters on solar panels.
Nevada is ranked as the second-best state for solar energy with an average of 158 clear days per year, and ongoing federal, state and local incentives and rebate programs keep trying to make it enticing for homeowners to go that route.
Reno, a so-called SolSmart Silver community, has been provided no-cost technical assistance to follow best practices to expand solar energy.
More than 800-thousand homes in Nevada are estimated to be already powered by the sun.
For many though who haven’t gone solar yet, the upfront expenses and necessary space are prohibitive, and the recent scandals make it feel like mined territory. Even with all the breaks, any break even point on home solar energy investments is many years away, factoring in repairs and high cost of batteries.
If a homeowner is still tempted, the Nevada State Contractors Board recommends to make sure a salesperson is a licensed contractor. As of late 2023, there were only 19 contractors which had received a c-2g classification strictly for solar.
Consumers can verify a contractor's license by visiting NSCB's website at www.nscb.nv.gov or call 775-688-1141
A solar public watch list is also being worked on.
Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024
Views from Above Reno's University Area and Downtown Development Projects
Downtown construction projects and the University of Reno, Nevada’s ongoing expansion into surrounding neighborhoods have left little room for lower income residents and small businesses, who feel increasingly pushed out by soaring costs.
For the past 15 years, three streets east of UNR’s campus on the corner of Denslowe Dr. and Valley Rd. Valley Market & Liquor has served the local and student populations in the area, but its time might be ticking. Store clerk, Manny, who prefers to withhold his last name, says the neighborhood has changed dramatically in recent years.
As the university expands, the need for student housing intensifies. Down Enterprise, a street north of campus, there are four student housing apartments, one of which was built within the last year. This area is generally perceived as more affordable than the so-called luxury apartments that were recently built up northwest of UNR’s campus. However, the Enterprise apartments are not immune from Reno’s soaring housing costs.
Since 2009 Valley Market & Liquor has been serving the community near UNR’s campus and downtown Reno residents.
“I have seen a lot of regulars come and go since housing costs started rising near campus and the area here is college students and city locals,” Manny said.
During the interview, Manny spoke to a store regular about rising rental prices in the neighborhood. The Valley Market regular told him he was moving to Texas with his girlfriend for cheaper rent after being temporarily homeless due to a lack of affordable living options here in Reno.
“There are a lot more homeless people up here now. If there is one thing you should know its crackheads, homeless, and thugs,” Manny said.
The migration of Reno’s working class and disenfranchised communities to neighborhoods and apartments northeast of UNR’s campus is an observable phenomenon for UNR graduate student Sam Sheridan, who lives in an apartment on Enterprise Rd.
“These apartments are not being developed by locals. These chain, big brand apartment complexes owned by companies in Texas, like my apartment, is kinda annoying because it doesn’t cater to students in this specific area. There’s a lot fewer students living here than there were before,” Sheridan said.
Evans Ave. divides campus and the surrounding neighborhood construction is re-routing traffic to pave campus roads
Down Enterprise, a street north of campus, there are four student housing apartments with one built within the last year.
Further south downtown, the years-long pre-pandemic redevelopment project spearheaded by Jacobs Entertainment, now known as Reno Neon Line is promising a vibrant, entertainment-centric corridor. The Reno-Sparks Tenant Union opposes the project saying it has already removed 582 motel rooms, previously a last resort for many locals in and out of homelessness. Currently, many of the bought out and bulldozed lots remain empty or have been redone as parking lots.
In response to these concerns, Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill emphasized the area’s ongoing efforts to address the affordable housing crisis.
“We are updating our housing zoning codes to ensure that more affordable housing can be developed,” Hill wrote back in an email. Jacobs Entertainment did not respond to a request to comment.
An image from above shows the empty lots sitting in the Jacobs Entertainment project.
Upscale housing located behind Enterprise Rd. over ooking Evans Ave.
When Sheridan was asked about all the new student housing apartments and development projects, his voice choked with frustration as he described the affordability in the area.
“The luxury apartments are all new since I’ve been here, and even though you would think it would drive prices of apartments where I live down, it seems they’ve all just decided to go up in price,” Sheridan said.
Reporting and aerial drone photos and video by Jagg Brian and Zoe Cruz shared with Our Town Reno
Mark Hebert, Keeping Half Sane Cultivating a Thriving Midtown Urban Garden
Mark Hebert is hard at work under a morning Reno summer sun at the front of the Stump Tree Urban Farm making compost with donated coffee grounds and chaff in the middle of Midtown.
“It's like clay, but it's not clay, it's worm poop. And this is like the best nutrient in the world for your plants,” he says of his composting results. “Great place to get rid of kitchen scraps and a lot of other organic matter. And then I got some old sleeping bags and put them in free plastic bags I get. And I use that as an insulating layer to keep it from getting too hot. And then when I'm done, I cover the whole thing with burlap. That's it.”
Hebert, 75, now prefers to keep his face out of photos, wanting the focus to be on the 40-foot-by-80-foot teeming frontyard ecosystem of tomatoes, pumpkins, garlic, arugula, sweet white onions, potatoes, strawberries, sunflowers, peppers, Japanese lettuce, basil, cilantro, carrots, bees, a crimson clover meadow, creeping thyme, cucumbers, an odorous and contained mint garden and an aquaponics and bee watering station.
Hebert was a construction laborer for 40 years who retired at 58, got divorced at 64 and then started getting into gardening with a ring of onions and a couple tomato plants. “One of the cliches I've come up with is if it wasn't for this garden, I'd be completely crazy. And because of this garden, I'm only half crazy,” he says.
“I am not a scientific gardener. I'm an emotional gardener. And I know that's a tomato plant, but I have no idea what kind,” he says while giving an extended tour.
He can occasionally get precise though.”This is what they call walking onions, Egyptian walking onions and that’s the bulb. When the bulb falls over on the ground, it sends down roots and they kind of walk across the property that way. This is what I call my mother plant. Anything that grows, I'm happy with it and I can selectively prune it and weeded out if I need to.”
Hebert made his own rainwater capture system and a watering line with an old ski sock tied to the end. “You can buy a pretty aluminum thing for about 12 bucks, but I only had one of these ski socks, so I put it to use,” he explained.
He has no irrigation system though, and hand waters everything twice a day, throughout the year.
“In the winter, there's not much growing. However, the worms and the mycelium and all those microbes, they need water to be healthy,” he says.
He is also working on a circuitous forest pathway with flat logs that came from trees on the property that he cut down. “I’m not an English gardener. I do not want straight borders. It’s all designed to rot. All this stuff is and is rotting as we speak.”
Hebert sold this property on Caliente street to a friend not wanting to be a homeowner and stayed on as a renter gardener. “It was a business deal eight years ago. I just decided I didn't want to be a property owner. I don't want to be part of that system. So we made a deal. I sold him a house under market value and he promised me cheap rent for the rest of my life,” he says.
He trades some of his produce for meals at local restaurants. “I’m a bachelor who doesn't cook, so I this works for me quite well,” he says. He also provides ingredients for a local group which cooks healthy meals for the unhoused.
Pedestrians sometimes stop to chat, while he cut down a six foot fence into his neighbor’s property in half.
“I've handled a lot of food over this half fence, and had there been a six foot fence there, it probably wouldn't happen,” he said.
“If I'm known as the old man down the street who had a great garden, I'm okay with that. But it's the soil that actually let that happen. So the legacy that I'd like to leave is this garden to somebody else who'd like to carry it forward. I'm also going to be composted when I die. And I'd be perfectly okay with being mixed right back into the garden. I don't know the legality of that, but I'd be nutritious, I'm sure,” he concluded, before handing over a bag of fresh and wonderfully flavored produce to go.
Our Town Reno reporting, Summer of 2024
Clara Andriola's Swing Vote Sends Primary Election Results into "Uncharted Water"
Clara Andriola decided to join non certifying county commissioners to vote against approving two primary recounts yesterday, including one in her own race for the Republican nomination for District 4, a post she was selected to as a departure replacement by Governor Joe Lombardo.
The recounts which are mandated to be done in the same way as during the initial count each changed outcomes by just one vote. Efforts to force hand recounts are now being considered in our court system, and off to less than promising starts.
After dozens of heated commenters asked for new elections yesterday before county chambers, Andriola pointed to “concerns of alleged mishaps,” and “hiccups,” saying she believes the vote count “warrants further investigation.”
She gave no specifics. Fellow commissioner Mike Clark has repeatedly pointed to pending lawsuits, Assembly District 40 candidate Drew Ribar left off sample ballots and thousands of ballots sent to wrong addresses.
The county commission’s role has previously been viewed as largely ceremonial in approving election results, with the matter now going to the Nevada Secretary of State and Washoe County Assistant District Attorney Nate Edwards calling it “a little bit of uncharted water.”
Counties are required by law to canvas election results within five business days of the completion of a recount.
Andriola previously certified initial election results before right wing agitator Robert Beadles, who was one of the repeat speakers, paid for the recounts. A post on his Operation Sunlight website had a new post titled “We Won a Battle …”
Another recount was dropped by third place candidate Lily Baran in the Reno Ward 1 race over fears she might face jail or fines for accepting Beadles money to pay for it.
Not certifying results at the county level has been a recent strategy to undermine election results, with a Donald Trump-Joe Biden top of the ticket rematch set for November, with Washoe County as one of the few swing counties in the entire nation, and a Nevada election which could determine the Senate’s balance of power.
In looking at the results now in limbo, two hard charging opponents, Mark Lawson, who is seeking that race’s recount, and Tracey Hilton-Thomas, combined had more votes than Andriola in the Republican primary of District 4, meaning she faced headwinds and an onslaught of negative social media bashing.
Positioning herself as a swing vote on this matter could broaden her electoral base.
In the other recount, in the disputed District G School Board race, Paul White, got over 4,500 votes but was in fourth place and more than 2,000 votes behind Diane Nicolet to face off against Perry Rosenstein in November.
Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024
Former County Employee Speaks out Against Allegedly Toxic Leadership for Homeless Services
A file photo from the entrance to the Nevada Cares Campus, where Emily Elyse helped people trying to get into housing,
Emily Elyse remembers their last day working within the county to help our unhoused neighbors all too well.
It was April, and they had a meeting scheduled with Ryan Gustafson, the Director of the Washoe County Human Services Agency, following their repeated complaints of having to deal with an allegedly toxic workplace.
“I knew that it was sort of like I'm either going to quit or get fired because I have a lot to say. And so I did. And so I went off on them really, and I mean, to a certain extent, you know, it wasn't necessarily professional at the end, but there was just so much really that went down with H.R. in particular in their handling of everything,” Elyse remembers.
After the conversation, which took place during the lunch hour, they say they submitted their letter of resignation with two weeks notice. When they returned from their lunch, they say a box was ready for them in their office and they were told they would be put on administrative leave effective immediately.
Elyse had been recruited from the Bay Area where they had earned a master’s in public administration and had worked during the pandemic with supportive housing programs in the Tenderloin neighborhood.
They were interested in helping shape new efforts in northern Nevada, where they had family ties, but soon became frustrated, describing county leadership as rejecting any type of constructive criticism or new ideas.
Dana Searcy giving a tour to media of the Nevada Cares Campus.
Elyse worked as the so-called Northern Nevada Matchmaker from October 2022 until that fateful day in April 2024, with a role of trying to get the unhoused in a direction toward being housed
In a letter sent to Washoe County commissioners in June, they alleged “workplace bullying” from her then direct supervisor and the current Continuum of Care coordinator Catrina Peters. We emailed county leadership, Peters and communications director Bethany Drysdale about this, but only heard back from Drysdale who wrote: “We can’t comment on personnel matters.”
Our Town Reno had its own difficult experience with Peters who when she agreed to give us a tour of the safe camp three years ago, cut our visit short after we asked more details about its funding and contract with the Karma Box project. Her LinkedIn describes herself as Homeless Services Coordinator at Washoe County, while her last Transparent Nevada has her in that role already in 2022 earning over $160,000 in pay and benefits.
Peters on the left and Grant Denton from Karma Box in the middle when they gave Our Town Reno a tour of the safe camp, which was cut short by Peters after we asked about the contract to run it.
Elyse, who has since moved out of the county and started working for a non profit, wrote in the letter that superiors within the county structure were aware of ongoing issues but failed to intervene.
After they pursued their first code of conduct complaint against Peters in October 2023 they allege Peters became increasingly more aggressive and undermining.
“Between October to November, she just kind of like got more passive aggressive with me, which is sort of like how she operates and so the actual code of conduct was about me asking for access to training that I needed and her telling me I was behind on my work essentially, and I couldn’t,” they told us in our phone interview.
“And so, they tend to shut people out entirely, including the public. I felt coming into the county that, you know, that something was amiss and I just like got to see over time that there is this really subtle sort of cycle of bullying that happens under Catrina [Peters]. And I just really hate to see folks subjected to that. It was obviously really hard for me to deal with as well,” they told Our Town Reno.
“I know that their behavior is wrong and that there is a profoundly negative impact on the folks who are on the ground doing the work.”
The complaints were also sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development amid a planned audit of Washoe County of the northern Nevada Continuum of Care.
Per the HUD website “The Continuum of Care (CoC) Program is designed to promote communitywide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, and State and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless individuals, families, and communities by homelessness; promote access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families; and optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.”
These responsibilities were shifted from the city of Reno to Washoe County in September 2021, as part of a new post pandemic era with the Cares Campus starting operations.
In both the letter and phone interview, Elyse also pointed out to shortcomings in local homeless services, including the need for better help for those fleeing domestic violence, interacting more with Indigenous communities, discomfort in dealing with racial disparities, failure to properly spend grant money by required deadlines and missed opportunities with the federally-mandated point in time counts, which they were asked to lead in both 2023 and 2024.
One idea they wanted was to include more local registered nurses, to which Elyse writes Peters “passive-aggressively questioned me about whether or not nurses serve the unsheltered population,” and then allegedly failed to provide support for their participation in the motel portion of the count.
“I think nurses being involved is so important. And just the fact that they reached out to us to participate like that is just sort of to me was an obvious yes and yeah, because of their experience and because of the huge overlap that exists, like folks being admitted into our hospitals and emergency rooms at very high rates, who are experiencing homelessness and that kind of like not really getting the care that they need at those places and not having a place to return to,” they explained of their own willingness to include nurses.
Another idea they had was to keep counters out longer into the morning hours, to which they allege all street counters were instructed to return to the PIT command center by 7 a.m. rather the suggested 9 a.m..
“I would say it seems like there is a pressure to manage the numbers,” they said of not keeping the count going a few more hours.
Minutes from a NEVADA INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS SUBCOMMITTEE FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE meeting in September 2023.
“She habitually stifles generative conversation and ideas, not just with her direct reports, but with the Northern Nevada CoC Leadership Council and its subcommittees,” Elyse wrote in more detail in their letter concerning Peters as part of her allegations. “She has been visibly uncomfortable talking about racial equity in the past, and shut down conversations with community members accordingly, essentially cutting public meetings short while making community members feel small. No part of me is ok with this.”
The letter concludes by asking for Peters as well as Dana Searcy to no longer be in positions to oversee the management of the Northern Nevada Continuum of Care. Searcy lists herself on her LinkedIn as Division Director of Housing and Homeless Services for the County.
In her phone interview, Elyse wanted to underline that workers within the local homelessness and recovery sectors show passion and commitment, but that it’s the leadership that has been toxic, stifling and unwilling to improve their conduct.
“It's really such a wellspring that I hate to see stifled,” they said. “There are so many passionate and skilled folks who work there and who are capable of carrying this mission forward. And I hate to implicate them and their work and their passion in all of this, or just want to make it clear that not everyone that is in the county or in that base or even in the office is operating in this way.”
For their part, they are still working to help the unhoused, just in a different part of the country.
Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024
Melissa Gilbert, Taking Local "Pollinator Posse" to the State Level
“You can go to the website https://www.beefriendlynevada.com/ you take the pledge it takes about you know under five minutes and then you find out where to get a sign and you get the free sign and you put it in your yard and hopefully talk to your friends and neighbors about it,” Melissa Gilbert said of the bee friendly signs popping up across the state now. “People who like to garden and who are proud of their gardens are often really excited to get the sign in there.”
Three years after starting the Bee Friendly Reno campaign with a small but mighty “pollinator posse,” Melissa Gilbert with the Reno Food Systems has been working on the state version Bee Friendly Nevada, with a new website, a big campaign kickoff, a press release urging people to sign a pledge and new blue and yellow signs now being sent across the state.
In Gilbert’s own front yard in Midtown, where she’s created a healthy habitat for pollinators, bees happily buzz around.
The campaign sponsored by the Help Save the Bees Foundation supports residents who without any pesticides plant pollinator gardens with water sources for bees and other pollinators.
“This campaign was created to create dialogue between neighbors and says, you know, take the pledge. We have a pledge that says we won't use pesticides. You'll leave water out and you'll plant organic plants,” Gilbert explained.
The new statewide expansion comes after the 2023 passage of AB 162 banning the non-agricultural use of neonicotinoids, making Nevada one of a handful of states to ban outdoor, non-agricultural uses of neurotoxic neonic pesticides.
“There is what is called insect apocalypse and 40% of species are going extinct,” Gilbert said of the importance of attracting bees, who enjoy sweet smelling blue, purple and yellow flowers. “And so by creating a garden in your front yard, you create habitat. And the good news is that insects are really resilient and they respond well. So when you do go down this path of having pollinator plants in your garden, you get the joy of seeing all the insects.”
It’s not just about bees, Gilbert says, but all pollinators, such as flies, butterflies, moths and beetles to name a few. “They pollinate our food. So without pollination, food crops decline and it has a very serious impact. So if all of us get together, it's one of those things that I feel like when people feel helpless about a situation, it's so nice to have a concrete thing that you can do.”
Getting away from lawns is a first step in the process, Gilbert explains. “I was the first house on the block to go woodchip,” she remembers. “I had a lawn when we bought the house and I killed it almost immediately with a good couple of feet of woodchips. Especially in a desert state like Nevada, the sort of a green lawn paradise was, you know, bad for many reasons. A couple of years it just sat like that. I watered it. It kind of turned into beautiful dirt. And then I got to plant plants.”
For those who want to keep some lawn, she says they can start a pollinator patch or switch out their lawn for a clover one, or even just mow less often.
“Nevada is interesting because we actually have 25% of all native bees species. So out of 4000 we have a thousand…The more habitat and the more native plants that we can plant, the better chance we have of creating a safe place for these very important species,” she concluded.
“We think of them as tiny. But the reality is that our fate is completely interconnected with the bees. And I think more and more people are realizing that. And this campaign really tries to support people to do something. You know, we are coming into a time where everybody needs to do their part.”
Our Town Reno reporting, Summer 2024
Make the Road Nevada Applauds New Federal Heat Protection Efforts for Workers
In this photo, local workers are in the trenches of an ongoing construction project this week with temperatures reaching the upper 90s and forecast for the mid 100s starting Saturday.
The non-profit Make the Road Nevada which seeks to elevate the power of working class immigrants is applauding new federal government efforts for national regulations which are being finalized to protect workers facing extreme heat including mandatory water breaks, shaded rest areas, and heat illness prevention.
“The reality for many outdoor workers in Nevada is that they endure intense heat and poor air quality, exacerbating chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and kidney diseases, and diabetes-related illnesses and leading to severe health issues like asthma attacks and heart attacks,” the press release indicated.
“This national action will bring significant relief and security to countless families across Nevada. It means safer working conditions, healthier communities, and a brighter future for our workers,” executive director Leo Murrieta said.
There is no heat-related safety protection for workers in the Silver State, despite recent legislative efforts. Nevada’s OSHA does enforce what is called a “general duty cause,” and a more detailed standard is currently being worked on.
Heat protection laws here and elsewhere often face opposition from construction and development companies as well as from chambers of commerce and business associations, due to what they say is difficult implementation and driving up costs.
Opponents say they intend to challenge the new federal regulations whenever these are finalized and implemented.
Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024
Expansion by Demolition of Housing Authority Hawk View Apartments Causes Stresses, Concerns
A resident of the Reno Housing Authority-run Hawk View Apartments on Steelwood Lane scurries along on a sweltering summer day, confirming he needs to leave his residence soon, as it’s being torn down to be rebuilt much bigger and safer.
The Hawk View location currently has lots of trees, shaded areas, a colorful playground, a convenient picnic spot, all less than a 10 minute walk to a bus stop, a Sonic and a gas station. The RHA says it’s on shaky ground though, and an ability to access private capital has led it to pursue its imminent demolition and double its units with new construction penciled in to be started this fall and completed within two years.
A “relocation plan” was drawn up by the contracted Boston-based HousingtoHome entity last October, but it now feels sudden for residents who haven’t found an alternative just yet, and worrisome for community advocates.
One resident Judith is unimpressed, despite repeated meetings and a unit which was proposed to her as a replacement elsewhere.
“The one unit they gave me to look at was totally not from my preferences I mentioned to them,” she says. “But we went and took a Lyft to check it out but the manager never showed up after waiting there for a half hour by office in this heat. So we get back and mention it to HousingtoHome and they told us we need to look for our own place then. This is supposed to be their job not ours. They want us to move, not us. And what’s really messed up they locked up the 24 hour laundry room the other day so no one can do laundry and with no prior notice either. I don’t think that is fair.”
Judith says a definitive move-out date initially scheduled for the end of June has now been pushed back to the end of July but without the ability to do laundry this uncertain transition phase has becoming increasingly challenging.
She says the pending move is “stressful to say the least,” especially since she suffers from agoraphobia and panic attacks.
Judith says she recently felt threatened to put in an application for new housing, which she finally did at Altitude by Vintage on Sky Valley Dr., without any hope she’ll end up with an apartment there.
She says she suffers from mental disabilities, is on Social Security disability payments, and pays $317 for her unit, or about 30% of her income.
Judith is currently trying to add her mother to her housing application which is complicating the process.
In addition to the help from HousingtoHome, JD Klippenstein, the RHA Director of Development says all costs for each resident’s move is being paid for by the housing authority, including “packing supplies, packing assistance, and then additionally paying for security deposits, the move and moving fees for the new apartments that they are identifying. All of the tenants initially were offered a comparable unit that they can move to,” he said.
Klippenstein said about 24 households have already permanently relocated, 13 already have moving dates pending, and “the vast majority of the remainder have applications and are in the process of attaching the voucher to the unit that they found.”
All will be offered continued rental assistance.
Klippenstein said the RHA is doing a $80 million redevelopment of the Hawk View Apartments due to what he described as “serious foundational issues,” even though it received a City of Reno inspection score of 99 just five years ago.
“The inspection score is related to probably day to day items in terms of things the landlord would be responsible for, for the units, inside the units. So what it reflects is that we did our best to make the property very safe and livable conditions. But it doesn't take into account the underlying structural issues of the building,” Klippenstein said. He says it was built in the early eighties on clay, with shifting foundations since it was constructed.
The late Joyce Cowdin loved the Hawk View Apartments after spending years unhoused and living in motels.
The Director of Development also wanted to make clear in the long run units here will be added in this revamp, going from the current 100 units, to 199, with all of them having attached vouchers or “income targeting.”
“We received funding which really let us leverage the opportunity to reinvest in affordable housing on that site and ensure that those families are taken care of,” he explained. “So it meets this threshold that HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) provides for obsolescence, meaning that essentially it would be more cost effective to demolish and rebuild versus simply rehab and then continue to deal with the foundational issues.”
The displacement of so many vulnerable residents and the imminent tear down of accessible housing has caught the eye of community advocate Ilya Arbatman, a frequent public speaker at local government meetings.
“Generally, the problematic aspect of larger-scale projects like these is when the actual people they are supposed to benefit are kind of an afterthought,” Arbatman wrote to us. “Sure, RHA is excited because they can add some units and put up new public housing. But in the two years between demolition and future move-in (and that's an estimate - we can assume that things will take longer, as they tend to - the original move-out date was end of June and already it’s been pushed to end of July), those units will disappear completely. What if something happens and the new construction gets stalled? The big bureaucracy public housing model is at its weakest when it makes big decisions like these.”
The mechanism used to operate this turnaround is HUD’s so-called Section 18 Demolition and Disposition which also allows getting access to private capital for a refurbish.
“It is being financed through the low income housing tax credit and private activity bonds, which about 95% of all subsidized affordable housing in the country is built using this,” Klippenstein explained. “So there's a tax credit investor who does own through the ownership entity 99.9% of it. They are a silent partner, though, in the day to day management of the property. The housing authority stays in as the managing member of the new ownership entity.”
But private developers Arbatman says “are not accountable to the public in any way… [They] can bail on a project, declare bankruptcy, change their mind, etc. and leave the people they were allegedly serving with no recourse other than litigation, which is costly and trying for any low-income community. Some recent changes to this law are intended to make this public/private collab easier so RHA can use "Section 18 to demolish or dispose of public housing to help PHAs reposition public housing to a more sustainable financial platform and access private capital,”” according to HUD language he researched,
Klippenstein says the current timeline is to have the new units all “leased up starting fall of 2026,” with a 68-unit building, three other 20 to 30 unit building and several townhomes.
“We wanted to offer a variety of unit types so that folks can find a unit that meets their need and the townhomes in particular we're excited about bringing on also, and have a community building as well,” he said of current plans.
“In terms of the exterior, I would say it's much more modern than what it is, but it doesn't look like it was built in the eighties. It's a much more modern design and I would say on par with most market level market properties,” he said.
He sees the transition process as worth the current effort.
“It’s a really worthwhile investment in the community to both increase affordable housing but also ensure that we have high quality, affordable housing available for decades to come while being able to continue to meet the needs of the current residents,” Klippenstein concluded in our phone conversation.
“We're really excited. It was nearing the edge of the end of its usable life without serious investment. And this is the serious investment that we are able to make,” which includes combining different sources of funding and state loan funding.
Arbatman would like to see more proof of the foundational issues leading to this tear down and access to private capital, including from an unbiased party, a full account of all relocated tenants, and whether all of them do end up with satisfactory housing, and how many people who enjoyed living at these units will get to return.
Judith says she’s been living at Hawk View Apartments with her Dad since 2016 and started really liking some of her neighbors, who she says are equally disgruntled by this looming displacement.
“I’ve been a good tenant, never late on my rent never caused problems but I really feel I wont find a place. The lady down below me is in a wheelchair and they have been looking for places that are upstairs, ok come on how is she supposed to get up stairs you know. I’m having a really hard time finding a place in north Reno where I want to stay and it’s hard,” she said.
Our Town Reno reporting, June 2024
Recount Requested in Three Local Primary Races
There will be recount ballot counting at the expense of three candidates: Lily Baran, who finished third by just 15 votes to Frank Perez for second place for the November runoff for Reno Ward 1 City Council against Kathleen Taylor; Mark Lawson who was 1725 votes behind Clara Andriola for the Republican nomination for the Republican leaning County Commission District 4 seat; and Paul White, who was 2317 votes behind Diane Nicolet to face off against Perry Rosenstein for the District G School Trustee position.
A message from Candee Ramos in the communications team for Washoe County sent to commissioners and forwarded to Our Town Reno today confirmed this.
"There are three races from the most recent primary election that have had demands for a recount: Mark Lawson for County Commission District 4, Paul White for School Board Trustee District G, and Lily Baran for Reno City Council Ward 1," the email indicated.
"Per NRS 293.405(3) and NAC 293.365, the recount must commence within 5 days of the demand, it must be completed within 5 days after commencing, and it must be canvassed within 5 working days of completion. Our interim ROV, Cari-Ann Burgess, has indicated her intention is to begin the recount this Friday and finish over the weekend.
The canvass for the recount has been scheduled to take place on Tuesday, July 2 at 8 a.m. in Chambers."
It remains unclear how much the recounts will cost for each candidate, which they need to pay for and then only get reimbursed if the result is reversed.
In an email forwarded to media County Commissioner Mike Clark asked several questions: "Is it possible to watch the recount? And if so – when can that be done over a weekend – how do people enter the county complex. I attended a recount back in 2014 and we all sat around and watched in a designated area.
Also, why is this meeting not listed on the Commission Agenda portal, I looked about an hour ago.
Why have this before the fire board and not after, are we attempting to make this the most difficult as possible for residents to show up?"
Our Town Reno reporting, June 2024
Outrage Reigns at Washoe County School Board, while Trustee Kicked out of County GOP
The statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Silver State Equality said two of its representatives who spoke at a Washoe County School Board meeting to oppose book bans had to leave the meeting due “to safety concerns after being harassed — blocked from returning to their seats, and subjected to derogatory comments, with one person even laying hands on them under the guise of praying.”
The group called behavior at the meeting in which speakers read from passages in books available at some local schools they deemed unacceptable “abhorrent and inexcusable.”
A speaker was forcefully escorted from the podium after he declined to stop reading a passage as asked, leading to chants from others taking part in a heated public comment session.
The meeting went into recess twice, including when North Carolina pastor John Amanchukwu, a regular at these types of meetings across the country, started reading passages from "American Psycho."
“Many Washoe County parents support the First Amendment and believe that diverse representation in literature fosters acceptance and a love of learning. In addition, they also support Washoe County School District’s existing parental choice program, which allows parents to monitor and restrict specific titles, genres, and themes. This support was evident in the approximately 40 public comments submitted via email, none of which supported book bans. Banning books effectively bans the people and communities they represent, echoing historical dark periods that should not be repeated,” Silver State Equality wrote in a statement sent out this morning.
It concluded by urging the Washoe County School District “to keep books in school libraries, ensuring they remain safe spaces for learning, exploration, and representation.”
In other school board related news, elected District B Trustee, whose term expires in 2027, Coleen Westlake, was censured and “removed” from the Washoe County Republican Party by its central committee at a meeting earlier this week at Boomtown casino.
A resolution indicated she allegedly “hurt the Republican brand, Republican values, Republicans as a whole, the community in general and, in particular and of most concern, all Washoe County students and their parents.”
The Washoe County branch has also recently kicked out County Commissioner Clara Andriola, for not being “Republican enough,” and voting too often with Democrats, even though both Andriola and Westlake remain Republicans.
Our Town Reno reporting, June 2024
Laurie, Dealing with Loss, while Paying to Sleep in her Tent
Laurie says the encampment she stays at in Reno charges people to sleep there, but she still prefers it to the Nevada Cares Campus, which is why she says she panhandles. She says she recently lost both her dad and husband, and is trying to reconnect with several of her children who live in northern Nevada and work at Tesla. Interview and photo by Andrew Maples.
“My name is Laurie.
This dog is my service dog.
My dad recently passed away in California.
With my husband we were thinking of taking his ashes to Arkansas, but on the way our motorhome broke down.
I was trying to replace the engine, but then the motorhome got stolen, and then my husband passed away in Utah, from heat exhaustion, a really bad heat stroke.
I’ve been here a few weeks now. My older children live here, they work at Tesla.
I'm just trying to reconnect with them.
I'm just out here trying to make some money so that I could pay this lady some money so I don't have to move my tent because … I can't like stay there for free. “
Our Town Reno reporting by Andrew Maples
Lily Baran Seeks Money for Recount in Reno Ward 1 Race
Voting on June 11th at the downtown library.
While first place finisher in the Reno Ward 1 Council primary race Kathleen Taylor is sending new text messages to would be November voters, and locals on social media are calling on voters to choose second place finisher Frank Perez to oust an incumbent who was initially selected to become a seat holder, the third place finisher in the race by just 15 votes Lily Baran is preparing to officially ask for a hand recount, trying to finish up getting money for the effort she needs to pay for herself, expected to be in the five figure territory.
The deadline to ask for such a recount is Wednesday.
“This is a rare instance where a hand recount is something you would want to do,” Baran said today. “ We should do our due diligence to count everybody who voted at all. At this point, all the votes are in the building. Let’s just count them all,” she said.
Final released tallies in percentages had Taylor at 29.13%, Perez at 24.10% and Baran at 23.67%.
Baran is hoping this race and others will get Nevada to eventually join two dozen other states and Washington D.C. in automatically triggering recounts for razor thin margins. She sees it as a disadvantage to grassroots candidates as herself, also pointing out that Black women candidates as a demographic have the biggest challenges in receiving fundraising support.
According to Ballotpedia, “Nevada allows any candidate defeated at any election to request a recount…The deadline to request a recount is no later than three business days after the canvass of the vote. Each recount must begin within five days after the request and must be completed no later than five days after its start. The requester is responsible for costs associated with the recount unless the recount changes the election outcome in his or her favor, in which case the requester is refunded any costs paid. If the recount does not change the election outcome, the requester may receive a refund if the costs paid were greater than the cost of the recount.”
We asked the county’s communications director Bethany Drysdale to confirm this and the exact price point to which she responded “the cost is based on the number of ballots to be recounted. So a recount for a statewide office – senator, for example – would cost a lot more than a recount for a local and small-district office. For example, Joey Gilbert requested a recount for the gubernatorial primary in 2022 at a cost of $84,000. The Registrar of Voters would need to look at how many ballots were cast in Reno Ward 1, and then provide an estimate based on that. “
Baran said she’s heard from several people that even though they thought they had voted accurately, when they checked, their ballots had not been counted.
In one instance she says two friends voted at the same time for her, and made a video, dropping their ballots at the same time on June 8th, and only one of the two had their vote counted.
Baran also said mail-in voting is great, but that with voter rolls slow to update, many renters who move never get that option. She’s asking for people who did vote to check if their vote was counted and let her know if it wasn’t.
Our Town Reno reporting, June 2024
What makes you want to gamble? An Audio Story
In a city known for casinos attracting tourists, what do Reno locals think about gambling? Aimee Arellano went to a well known casino, the Grand Sierra Resort, to get a feel of what goes through the mind of Reno gamblers when wagering money. Audio feature here with script below:
Walking around local casinos, machines beep and light up.
The heavy smell of smoke can be overwhelming at first but when having fun and getting free drinks the smell slowly become less intrusive.
When no one is playing a machine, these always seem to be making noises related to promising payouts. But when the losing begins, what do people start to think?
“When you’re losing you want to believe it is rigged but I think it's all about luck at the end of the day,” Rizzo a Reno local says of his own gambling abilities.
“The most I lost was like $1400 at a blackjack table at the Peppermill,” he remembers, that big loss still etched in his brain.
Recently, Rizzo has turned to sports betting, which has become year-round, and increasingly within each game, with play by play possibilities.
“The most I have won on sports betting in a day is like $2000,” he says.
Another Reno local, Allen Palomino, also enjoys sports betting and likes to bet on his favorite teams, even though he says it may not be the best strategy with emotions getting in the way.
“I think it's the adrenaline, the feeling you can get when you can win a small amount of money,” he says of what keeps him returning to sports betting.
When does a fun hobby become an addiction though?
When you are on a long losing streak, trying to win lost money back, Rizzo said, can be a slippery slope.
“It's hard to stop because you're always thinking ‘I'm going to get it back I’m going to get it back’ but it just never comes back,” he warns others who might be thinking of getting into gambling.
Remember, he says, in the end, the house always wins.
Our Town Reno audio reporting by Aimee Arellano
A'Keia Sanders, Bringing Reno Together for Juneteenth
Before lunch time on June 19, 2024, A’Keia Sanders was busy helping several food trucks navigate their way into the Glow Plaza, as a Juneteenth event previously scheduled as a parade on Virginia Street pivoted to the 4th street location for food, music with a local DJ and games.
“This is a pilot event, the first of its kind on the day of here, “ the programming chair for the Northern Nevada Black Cultural Awareness Society explained. Several of the food trucks are run by Black-owned businesses, including Wing King of Reno and the Potluck.
“It’s a good time to hang out. We are asking for a $5 donation, but entry is free. We'll have some of the beverage stations open with free water,” she said.
“We are bringing the community out and together, educating them because I know that this is a new holiday that has been passed in our state as well as nationally, is very controversial and a lot of people don't understand it. So we try to be that middle person to give that education with love as well as unify, unify our community,” she further explained.
The new Nevada state holiday, established last year, recognizes the historic day of June 19th, 1865 when remaining enslaved Black Americans were finally freed in Galveston, Texas, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Sanders, a Georgia native, who served in the U.S. Navy says she celebrates both July 4th and Juneteenth.
“We're not trying to deter from we are Americans and we're not trying to deter from other holidays. I think the big thing is education, because a lot of people just don't know and they're afraid to ask, you know?” she said.
Her last duty station was in Fallon, which then brought her to northern Nevada in Spanish Springs, where she now lives with her husband and two boys.
“We’ve decided to make this community our home and we're invested in making it better,” she says.
Sanders now works as the deputy director of the Nevada Governor's office of Federal Assistance, trying to lift Nevada from its current position of being 48th in the nation in receiving federal funding.
“We want to educate in a friendly environment and bring the community out, have a good time, but still make them aware of some of the things that went on through history that affected us as Black Americans that is American history,” she concluded before going back to getting the important local festivities going.
Our Town Reno reporting, June 19, 2024
Terra Stodtmeister, An Advocate for Surviving Endometriosis
Her husband Kyle has recently been out of town, serving in the army, but he was there to hold their adopted baby several years ago.
Terra Stodtmeister, a Reno photographer well-known in the community, survived stage 4 endometriosis and had a long but ultimately infinitely rewarding experience with becoming a mother, through adoption.
During that process, Stodtmeister became a local advocate for those battling infertility.
“I started pushing really hard to get answers. I started seeing GI doctors, OBGYNs, allergists, like literally anyone who I could see. I even got my bloodwork done,” she says of her own journey to get treatment and understand what was happening with her body.
According to the Endometriosis Treatment Center of America “Stage 4 of endometriosis is considered severe. This stage is characterized by many deep endometrial implants and large cysts on at least one ovary. Thick adhesions appear throughout the pelvic region, causing widespread scar tissue and an increased risk of infertility. ‘
“No one said the word Endo [short for endometriosis],” Stodtmeister said of her initial medical appointments. “The first time I heard the word, Endo, I was sharing my story on Instagram and posting some of the symptoms I was having, and so many women dm’d me saying they thought I had endo,” she remembers of how people on social media came to the rescue.
Part of her journey can be found on her Instagram @redpoppymama
She joined Facebook groups allowing her to avoid unhelpful doctors, leading her to trustworthy doctors to help her with the pain she was enduring.
“There is a file on the Facebook page that shows you excision surgeons that have been kind of vetted, so then you're not going to multiple surgeons and having multiple abrasions, which is essentially just burning the inside of you,” said Stodtmeister.
By actively engaging with online communities and vetted resources, Stodtmeister navigated her path to recovery, finding an excision specialist all the way in Georgia. Her journey to feeling better underscores the importance of support and finding the right doctors.
With 5-10% of women in the 15-49 age range affected by endometriosis, Stodtmeister emphasized the need for more research and awareness.
“Having a buddy to go with you…is the first thing I wish I did,” she says.
Stodtmeister now serves as a resource for other women through her own social media platforms to help those struggling to find answers to understand similar diagnoses to what she endured.
“For me, sharing about endometriosis specifically and infertility, adoption, like so many things on social media have created better relationships, better friendships, and I feel like people can come together in a really beautiful way because they feel like they know you,” said Stodtmeister.
“It's been very affirming and really helpful for my journey and moving forward,” she concluded.
Reporting by Lexi Darcy and Kyra Marangi
The Truckee Meadows Park Foundation Perseveres in Preserving and Restoring Local Wetlands
Heidi Anderson shows off Peavine Pete
Next time you find yourself in the great Reno outdoors, squint your eyes and imagine that there are no buildings, cars, or sidewalks. Picture the Truckee Meadows, free of infrastructure and city noise. There is the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the west, and the Virginia and Pine Nut mountains in the east. If there was no city in between, what do you think you would see?
According to the Truckee Meadows Park Foundation, or TMPF, the state of Nevada has probably lost over 52% of its wetlands since settlers arrived in the West starting in the 1840s. Fortunately for us, TMPF has been working hard to preserve a little piece of the wetland ecosystem that used to thrive in this valley.
The Rosewood Nature Study Area is composed of about 60 acres of marshy beauty, and it’s one of the only remaining wetlands here. The site used to be a golf course, until it was shut down in 2015. Over the next few years, the wetland was neglected, allowing invasive species to take over. In 2018, the city of Reno agreed to let TMPF work on the site, and they quickly got to work restoring the precious land with native species.
In the summer of 2021, TMPF proudly opened Rosewood to the public– with a visitor center full of captivating taxidermy displays, as well as three miles of new trail. Recently, I had the opportunity to walk through the nature center. Less than 15 minutes from my house, I was transported into a world that I didn’t know could exist within our city limits.
Heidi Anderson, Executive Director of TMPF, and Jay Howard, the Trails Program manager, accompanied me as we meandered through the mesmerizing wetlands, with a beautiful view of the Sierra range everywhere we went. On our walk, we spoke about how we’ve found ourselves in this situation, of urgently scrambling to restore spaces like these. “Through channelization, agriculture, through development,” Anderson told me, “we've really just destroyed these wetlands.”
The U.S. loses about 50,000 acres of wetland each year due to these practices, which has much larger consequences than just the loss of pretty scenery. Wetlands have the keen ability to absorb and hold carbon dioxide, or CO2, one of the biggest contributors to the global climate crisis. Wetlands also control erosion– their ecosystem involves plants with strong roots, which hold the ground steady as water streams in from the mountains surrounding us.
Speaking of powerful ecosystems, wetlands here in northern Nevada are also homes to a whole slew of critters and birds. If you visit Rosewood Nature Center, you might just be lucky enough to spot a great blue heron, or a prairie falcon. There’s so much life swimming, flying, and hopping around that you’ll be sure to see something. On our walk, Henderson and Howard kept stopping to point out birds, and a couple of rare fish sightings.
“We’ve identified over 100 different species of birds,” Anderson says with excitement, “and we continue to find more and more pretty much every month.” At Rosewood you also might encounter beavers, muskrats, marmots (check out @rosewoodmarmots!) or a family of weasels, although Anderson says that the weasels are a little shy.
The real star of the show, though, is Peavine Pete. Pete is a rescue desert tortoise, who lives a seemingly comfy life in his little home at the TMPF visitor center. Although Pete isn’t native to northern Nevada, he fits in well amongst the multitude of species that are starting to thrive again at Rosewood.
In the visitor center, alongside a friendly tortoise, you can also check out one of Rosewood’s most recent additions, their David’s chair. This rugged, motorized wheelchair provides a much needed resource to the disabled community. The chair operates in conjunction with a multitude of other tools and programs that TMPF has implemented, in hopes to increase access to the outdoors for all.
Howard explained to me how important outdoor accessibility is at the new nature center: Rosewood also offers adaptive bicycles, and a couple of other wheelchairs equipped for a roll through the wetlands. “I mean you go back five or 10 years, and this stuff didn't exist,” he remarks. Now, “it’s all about the sports world, and not leaving people behind.”
As we walked through the wide gravel trails and talked about adaptive sports, I felt so grateful that such a beautiful part of this land would be accessible for disabled folks. The success of wetland restoration feels sweeter, knowing that it has and will be enjoyed by people with a wide range of abilities. Notably, TMPF has shown a strong commitment to accessibility across all of their programming.
One of TMPF’s projects is the Truckee Meadows Trails Initiative, which Howard is “in charge of, so to speak,” in his words. The initiative is currently working on developing a unified trail system throughout all of Washoe County, which would greatly increase pedestrian accessibility. “There’s a lot going on in the trails community,” Howard tells me, “but not everyone is talking to everyone else. So we are trying to think regionally for our trail system, (and) create connectivity that doesn’t exist” (yet).
If you take a stroll through the Rosewood wetland, you’ll see the results of 14 restoration technicians working Monday-Friday to restore the land to its natural beauty. “We’re trying to remove those invasive species, and plant natives behind them,” Anderson says. “That’s really one of the most effective ways to rehabilitate a space.” Although the invasive plants can be stubborn, now Rosewood is full of cattails and swaying green reeds.
When I asked Howard and Anderson about the history of this place (prior to it being a golf course), they pointed out the importance of Indigenous ties to the wetland. “The Native American history is very important in this area,” Howard tells me, “you know, the people that were here before any of the European Americans showed up on the scene.”
For TMPF, the importance of Native history isn’t brushed aside with simply land acknowledgement lip service. The foundation partnered with local tribes when planning for the future of Rosewood, leading to decisions to plant willow trees, elderberry groves, and other species that are important to Indigenous life and ceremony. These are things that local tribes “continue to have less and less access to,” according to Anderson. “So being able to give that access back to the community is really important.”
By the time we finished our walk through Rosewood, I felt like I gained an entirely new insight on wetlands, and their crucial importance in our battle to sustain the world’s natural beauty and diversity. If you want to learn more about this incredible landscape and the role you play in preserving spaces like these, you can visit the Rosewood Nature Center at 6800 Pembroke Drive. Or, take a look at the Truckee Meadow Park Foundation website (tmparksfoundation.org) to learn more about their programs, projects, and upcoming events.
Our Town Reno reporting and photos by Ray Grosser
Reno Magick, Closing as a Brick and Mortar, but Not Disappearing
Reno Magick, a local favorite for the otherworldly inclined, is closing its brick and mortar store at 1004 S. Wells Ave. with goodbye sales there until June 30th, when it will go exclusively to virtual and select in person events, including a pop up booth at the Riverside Farmers Market.
Its modern witchcraft temple where it had rituals and classes has already stopped operating.
A steadfast community location for over a decade for witches, pagans and the spiritually tuned of northern Nevada, the shop has provided a variety of practice items as well as house-made incense, candles, sage and crystal wares.
A recent nostalgia visit had this reporter greeted with wafts of incense and the sound of soul-reaching music working its way around the building’s hand-painted muraled walls.
Going forward, after the big sale is over at the end of this month, the website renomagicstore.com is where their products will be sold online.
Rent for brick and mortar was getting too high, and the foot traffic that used to be there before the pandemic just doesn’t exist anymore.
Owner Misty Grayknights said that she sees many businesses of the same niche having to shut their doors and convert to a different type of business model.
“We’re going through a weird time.” she said, “It’s not a recession but it’s damn close.”
Grayknights will persevere by setting up at the local farmers markets and getting the word out through social media, but it just won’t be the same in person collective experience as it used to be at Reno Magick.
Reporting by Em Tomeo shared with Our Town Reno
Disappointment over Scope of County’s Investigation while More Accusations Target Grant Denton
A file photo of Grant Denton supervising the River Stewards program, which is now operated by RISE.
Note: update below story with investigator’s findings.
While a narrow Washoe County investigation has started into the controversial conduct of Karma Box executive director Grant Denton, more ex-girlfriends, former colleagues and supervisors are coming forward with new allegations of what they call predatory behavior in multiple relationships and in work environments.
We’ve also found out there’s been recent change in terms of work which had been previously delegated to Karma Box, the River Stewards program, now passed on to another nonprofit active in helping the unhoused, RISE.
Those speaking out recently against Denton want him kept away from all work in recovery and homelessness spaces, including the Cares Campus safe camp where he is still contracted by the County.
In terms of the River Stewards, some of the statements made related to the current investigation and interviews we did previously with the unhoused indicated there were concerns as to who was chosen by Denton to do the river cleanups, and how people were paid.
“The River Stewards Program has not been active for several years until funding was recently provided to RISE this spring,” Kara Steeland from the Truckee Meadows Water Authority wrote to us. “I believe Karma Box did not have the capacity to apply for funding or manage the program any longer. Under Karma Box, there was a gift card system in place to incentivize people to help clean up along the river. RISE will hire individuals on a contract basis who will work as River Stewards and be paid a living wage.”
The county investigation concerning Denton was started after a former girlfriend made public allegations against him at a county meeting on May 28th that he preyed on women in recovery workout programs. At the same public forum, an advocate for women and the unhoused read a statement on behalf of John Opalinski, a staff member with Bristlecone Family Resources and a board member of Reps 4 Recovery, also denouncing Denton for alleged misconduct.
It was then announced a county investigation would be carried out.
In one email shown to Our Town Reno, Mary Kandaras, the Chief Deputy District Attorney, wrote the investigation would “focus primarily” on the county’s contract with Karma Box to run the safe camp.
County Manager Eric Brown then indicated in a May 31st email that an independent investigator had been brought in “to investigate Grant Denton’s interactions with Safe Camp clients. Grant has agreed to not come to the Safe Camp while the investigation is being conducted,” he wrote, saying this matter would be resolved “in a swift and fair manner.”
The latest 990 Karma Box Project form we could find was from 2022, indicating $82,300 in compensation for Denton. Last year, Denton already garnered negative media attention for not filing required tax forms to the IRS and losing nonprofit status temporarily.
At that time, County Commissioner Mike Clark said he had previous discussions with county management about Denton, concerned as to how the contract could be continued under those circumstances.
“Why are we doing business with somebody who for the lack of a better word is not officially licensed? That would be like the county hiring a plumber who wasn't licensed,” he said.
Clark says he’s been receiving new statements against Denton daily, even hourly. “I’ve asked for a fair, independent investigation,” he said. “I don't know if anybody's guilty of anything but I think we need to look a little bit wider than just what was taking place at the Cares Campus.”
New allegations range from threatening, demeaning and bullying behavior with the people he deals with personally and at work, especially women, in several positions he’s held since arriving in Reno, to being told of a sexual assault allegedly committed by Denton.
We emailed Denton Friday about the accusations in the new statements we were cced on, but have yet to receive a response. In previous correspondence with Our Town Reno related to the initial accusations, he said he wasn’t a “perfect man,” but denied any wrongdoing. In an interview with This is Reno, he called the multiplying accusations a “f****** witch hunt”, adding an expletive to a phrase often used by former President Donald Trump.
One former girlfriend and supervisor of Denton’s Stacey Payne is also disappointed the investigation won’t have a bigger scope, but now that she’s made a statement released to media and elected officials, she says she’s resolute in making sure Denton never works in recovery and homelessness spaces again.
“He’s like a volcano always about to erupt. He’s used steroids for years and admits to it,” she said, alleging he was getting these on the internet without a prescription. Side effects of long term steroid use can include irritability and aggression.
In the This is Reno article, Denton, who is in his mid 40s, admitted to partaking in testosterone replacement therapy, which he indicated was a common treatment for middle aged men in recovery with low testosterone.
Payne feels responsible as she says Denton followed her to Reno, where she says she introduced him to many people.
She says she first met Denton in Las Vegas ten years ago, through a men’s in-patient program where she spoke on behalf of the recovery homes she ran called BlueCove Homes.
Denton, who had an abusive childhood and then veered into drug addiction as an adult in Las Vegas and repeated legal problems, including for domestic battery, went to live in one of these recovery homes, became a certified personal trainer and then Payne’s boyfriend.
When Payne started the LYFE Recovery sober living home company in northern Nevada in 2016, she says Denton soon came to visit with his two boys.
“I introduced him around to everyone I had been meeting in the recovery community,” Payne wrote. “He started out on his best behavior, but soon, the deception, the females, the lies, the yelling, the threatening, all came right back into my life. July 2017 was the last time I asked him to leave my home and shut the door.”
Despite the definitive breakup, Denton decided to remain in Reno, where he’s since been celebrated by local politicians, media and officials as a hero to help the unhoused, through his Karma Box donation locations, his energetic social media presence and public talks and subsequent outreach efforts and paid positions.
Meanwhile, advocates for the unhoused and several women who have worked alongside him or dated him paint an entirely different picture.
Payne says she used to cling on to hope Denton would become a “better man,” but now feels “a tremendous sadness for all who have suffered, and an anger that he has been able to fool so many… I had so hoped and prayed that during Grant's meteoric rise here in Reno, in the recovery community, that he had found his OWN recovery…That he had finally found some peace from his demons....but in my soul I know now, after hearing the latest accusations, that has not happened.”
In a follow up phone interview with Our Town Reno, Payne said she regretted not writing a statement sooner. Now, she says, she won’t hold back whatever the investigation concludes, with a civil suit as another possible future path.
Payne said in the recovery and homelessness spaces, there is a high correlation with past sexual abuse and that for successful programs it’s not just about having shelter or not using substances anymore, but being “in a safe place with mentors around you that have been through it, that have come through their own traumas and are on the winning side of life again. That you have a predator in the midst of a vulnerable population … it absolutely cannot happen,” she concluded.
Others who sent statements and messaged with Our Town Reno wanted to stay anonymous, for fear of reprisals.
A former coworker in the recovery sector said multiple clients reported Denton as being “emotionally abusive,” forcing himself into “coercive” relationships early into their recovery process.
Several people who have spoken out say they’ve been told repeatedly not to do so by supervisors and others in local government positions, and fear there is internal pressure going on during the current investigation for employees and Safe Camp clients to stay silent.
The ex-girlfriend received a cease and desist letter, while an advocate for the unhoused who has had repeated run-ins with Denton alleges a board member for the Karma Box told her to “keep her mouth shut,” during a phone call, after she made allegations against Denton to others and on social media accusing him of being verbally abusive towards volunteers and the unhoused right outside the Cares Campus.
Other local women who’ve encountered him in support spaces have been writing each other, and commenting on different posts about their own recollections. One wrote of coming across Denton: “He was all pushy bro energy prison shtick. I assumed others would sniff out his ICK; instead he inserted himself in a seat of power.” Another wrote: “I’m another person here that’s been saying all this for years. And I was attacked and shamed by Karma Box and all affiliates.”
A former supervisor who released a statement to elected officials and local media wondered why his recovery workout programs focused on women and not men, insisting on the importance of working with one’s own gender in the recovery space.
“This practice protects very vulnerable people, newly in recovery, from exploitation of their vulnerability,” she wrote in her email, which also included a recollection of being told of an alleged sexual assault.
“I also learned that one of my female staff members at that agency (and later at another agency) reported that Grant threw her against her car in the parking lot and forcibly kissed her. She was very upset and angry at him for assaulting her without any process of consent... Sadly, she was not the only one who came to me with allegations about his sexual advances and feared his presence,” the statement read.
We included this allegation in the email to Denton to which he did not respond.
The former supervisor also grew concerned that Denton was working with women and not men for a local jail recovery program, worries that then grew as Denton’s local role and stature in helping the unhoused kept growing.
“Most have been afraid to come forward,” she wrote of her own ambivalence in sending out her statement. “I too, have felt the sting from speaking out in the past and have been silenced and driven to work behind the scenes to avoid political ugliness and exclusion.”
After Denton started Karma Box, which did outreach during the pandemic, when there were several big encampments around Reno, she says “reports of bullying and rageful behavior began to surface among the community at the Wells encampment in 2020. I … learned that the camp came together to form a petition to ask that Karma Box not be allowed to do outreach in the Wells encampment due to creating hostile relationships with people living there. I was vocal about this with Dana Searcy, Catrina Peters, and Alexis Hill (who was running for office at the time).”
We reached out to the three and Washoe County communications director Bethany Drysdale, who gave the sole response to our query. “This incident happened quite some time ago, and Washoe County investigated it as we investigate all complaints against personnel,” Drysdale wrote back. “It was investigated and resolved at that time. Washoe County doesn’t have legal authority over contractors' personal relationships. There are other legal mechanisms for people who allege harm. By its terms, the Code of Conduct applies to contractors when they are representing Washoe County.”
There have also been recent changes at the county level in terms of who works with the safe camp, with Elizabeth Pope (above) recently moving away from the Cares Campus to replace Kim Schweickert as county coordinator for the Our Place shelter for women and families, which prompted another response.
“Kim is the coordinator over case management at the Cares Campus. Elizabeth Pope is currently coordinating Our Place. Elizabeth did not manage Safe Camp. Staff in the county and HSA often have the opportunity to experience multiple programs. Staff often move within programs to meet the needs of the agency and its clients,” Drysdale wrote back.
“What does that mean?” Commissioner Clark responded as he was also cced. “Sorry to be obtuse but I’m not understanding do employees at the Cares Campus change positions randomly to experience programs? Do titles change? Pay changes?”
Ryan Gustafson, listed as the Director of the county’s Human Services Agency, then stepped into the email thread writing “in regards to your question, employees at WCHSA and the County move around pretty regularly. It’s for program experience as well as for the agency needs. Titles can change, which could impact pay, but that’s not always the case (transfers for example). In this case, there was not a title/pay change.”
Commissioner Clark has been trying to get clearer financial breakdowns on the Cares Campus and safe camp for years as well.
"I am upset with the total lack of transparency. Somebody at the county has the definition of transparency and camouflage confused,” he told us during our recent phone interview.
Whatever the outcome of the investigation is, or the future of the safe camp or the Cares Campus, Payne, who says she’s not a victim, concluded our phone conversation by saying: “I’m not going to be silenced. It’s important that Grant Denton does not have any credibility in the recovery field ever again. I think that it is the government's responsibility to now listen to all of the victims that are willing to come forward.”
Our Town Reno reporting, June 2024
Update: An email forwarded to us had this from Mary Kandaras, Chief Deputy District Attorney, related to multiple accusations of misconduct toward vulnerable women by Karma Box Project executive director Grant Denton:
"Based on the allegations made in public comment, Washoe County hired Sandra Ketner, Esq. to conduct an independent investigation and determine whether these allegations were related to his Karma Box work, particularly at the Safe Camp.
The investigation was limited to ensuring the safety of persons served by the Safe Camp.
Sandra Ketner spoke with participants and employees and found no inappropriate sexual conduct or harassment by Grant Denton.
According to the investigator,
[T]here was no corroborating evidence to support allegations of sexual misconduct by Denton with respect to Safe Camp participants or otherwise on campus. Likewise, there was no evidence to substantiate allegations of derogatory, threatening, or violent conduct by Denton with Safe Camp participants or otherwise on campus. While some witnesses reported that Denton can be hard on and tough with participants (especially when the participants violated the rules), no one reported that Denton crossed the line or acted in a way that violated the Code of Conduct. Moreover, no one reported any credible evidence related to others who may have been threatened, abused, manipulated or taken advantage of by Denton. To the contrary, nearly all witness accounts described Denton as being respectful and professional with Safe Camp participants. Thus, the preponderance of the evidence reflects that Denton’s alleged conduct described by [Witnesses] has not occurred or has not been witnessed or reported at Safe Camp.
Washoe County Management does not have authority to investigate allegations of Grant Denton outside of his role as a contractor. Accordingly, the allegations against him were not discounted, but instead resulted in an investigation of his contracted work to manage the Safe Camp for Washoe County."