OK, Citizens for a Public Say on Every Single Thing, here’s your chance. Maybe you’re feeling a bit put out by Mayor Cashell’s decision to dub your favorite vacant, overgrown, decrepit building as “blighted.” Or maybe you want to pat him on the back for changing the Reno City Council table so that councilfolk are forced to face their constituents instead of distractedly sipping Diet Cokes in the shadowy far reaches of the Council Table for five to eight hours straight on Tuesdays.
Maybe you still have concerns about lawsuits and pipelines and traffic delays and the construction of that unspeakable 2.1-mile Thing that starts with a “t” and rhymes with “stench.” (Yeah, I know. Our support for depressed railways is kind of schizo. Personally, I prefer cheerful, optimistic railways.)
Maybe you want to recommend the immediate wooing of Raelians International, which might be persuaded to build its world headquarters for Clonaid right here in Reno. Cloning could be to our future what quickie divorces and legal whorin’ were to our past. Rich folks would come from around the world to have their DNA duplicated and live forever, forever, forever. We could move the outfit into the Cal-Neva and easily shift a few letters to make it the Clo-Neva.
Or whatever. I don’t know what you’d like to tell our city’s elected officials, but whatever it is, they’re ready to listen. Because it’s town hall meeting time. And almost everyone from Cashell to Sharon Zadra will hang out to answer questions and take comments at a series of six meetings from Jan. 7-21. (The only councilman not participating, it seems, is Pierre Hascheff, who must be at-large.)
The meetings are intended to make you—yes, you sitting there in your faux leather Barcalounger—feel like part of The Process.
“The City Council’s long-term vision for the city includes one in which all residents have the opportunity to participate in community decisions,” says promo material at the city’s Web site, www.cityofreno.com. The council’s priorities for 2002-2003 are streets, law enforcement/animal services, redevelopment, neighborhood plans, seniors and youth. What happened to the homeless, a so-called priority last year? Hmm. If you’re similarly wondering about this, you’d better head down and ask a question or two.
All the meetings start at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Reno City Hall, 490 South Center St., except for the meeting with Aiazzi, which is at the McQueen Fire Station. The chambers meetings will be televised live via SNCAT, Channel 13.
Here’s the line-up.
Jan. 7: Mayor Bob Cashell
Jan. 8: Dwight Dortch, Ward 4
Jan. 9: Dave Aiazzi, Ward 5 at the McQueen Fire Station No. 11, 7105 Mae Anne Ave.
Jan. 13: Sharon Zadra, Ward 2
Jan. 16: Jessica Sferrazza, Ward 3
Jan. 21: Toni Harsh, Ward 1
If you need more details, call Community Liaison Michael Chaump at 334-1206 or e-mail chaumpm@ci.reno.nv.us or check out the city’s Web site. See you there, concerned citizen.