Last week brought two moments of real significance to Fernley, even if most people didn’t see either one. One was the city’s ongoing stretch into something bigger than it used to be, and the other was an athletic accomplishment that couldn’t be more different in scale.
On Wednesday night, Mark IV Capital Vice President Scott Barnes told the Fernley Planning Commission that a power plant being proposed at the company’s Victory Logistics District could bring $48 million per year in franchise fee revenue to the city by 2030, a number big enough to reshape the city’s future.
Three days later in the high school gym, Taylor Tollestrup became the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball, boys or girls, reshaping that program’s history in its own way.
It’s absurd, of course, to compare a high-school scoring record to the multimillion-dollar developments reshaping Fernley, but somehow to me they felt like different parts of the same story, two markers of a city changing, growing and redefining itself even when most people aren’t watching.
Only the few people in attendance at the planning commission meeting or watching online heard Barnes’ presentation, and a smaller than normal crowd was at Saturday’s basketball game, a nonleague contest in which there was no boys’ game afterward.
But that’s civic life in general and Fernley specifically. The big stuff and the small stuff happen at the same time. One moment belongs to a teenager who has grown into a matchup nightmare for almost every opponent her team faces; the other belongs to engineers, planners, and officials who will determine what this place ultimately becomes.
Tollestrup’s record is the easier story to tell. You can see it, measure it, cheer for it. You can point to the nights she took over games, the mismatches she created. Her rise has been steady, visible to anyone who’s wandered into the gym over the past few seasons and watched her grow into her potential right in front of you. And that’s just in basketball. It’s actually softball where her college athletic future lies.
Fernley’s growth, on the other hand, is harder to track. It shows up in traffic patterns, in construction fencing, in complaints of inadequate infrastructure and political friction.
Fernley residents are right to be skeptical about the claims of developers, even ones who have already poured as much money as Mark IV has into its project. It’s a perception Mark IV’s leadership is aware of, and one they’re going to have to overcome if they want to build community support.
The next few months will show whether Fernley can match its own potential with results the way Tollestrup has.
Comment
Comments