Red Tees

1st Gross: Nancy Newton, 100

1st Net: Kathy Kennedy, 71

2nd Net: Bonnie MacQuarrie, 73

Purple Tees

1st Gross: Verl-Lee Ely, 95

1st Net: Sandi Sewchok, 80

2nd Net: Val Montgomery, 84

Birdies: Val Montgomery, Hole #10; Nancy Newton, #11; Kathy Kennedy, #14

Fewest Putts: Nancy Newton, 29

Chip Ins: Tina Kostrzeski, #2; Verl-Lee Ely, #3: Val Montgomery, #7; Nancy Newton, #11; Kathy Kennedy, #14

No KPs

6th Annual Boys & Girls Club Trunk or Treat
Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, starting at 5 p.m.
Location: Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows (Fernley Clubhouse), 695 E. Main St.
Details: Presented by Walmart, featuring decorated trunks, candy, food trucks, and the new “Mad Scientist Plaza.”
Cost: Free.

Living Stones Church Trunk or Treat
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Location: Living Stones Church, 868 Cottonwood Lane.
Details: Candy, games, popcorn, and a photo booth.
Cost: Free.

City of Fernley Spooktacular Safe Trick-or-Treating
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Location: Fernley City Hall, 595 Silver Lace Blvd.
Details: Annual family-friendly safe trick-or-treating event featuring local community booths and decorated displays. Contact Jessica Murdock at 775-784-9850 for more information.
Cost: Free.

The word success is just a bit heady, don’t you think? How about a more down-to-earth term, like maybe “achieved equilibrium?”

While we are “younger older,” perhaps between the ages of 50 and 65, we would do well to realistically consider what may lie ahead and study our options for the future.

An important first step is to consult an expert. While we are dancing through middle age or just beginning our golden years, it makes great sense to talk with a certified professional financial advisor. If you stopped working after 65, either by choice or by circumstance, what kind of retirement income would be possible? How much is Social Security likely to provide? Are there investments that might provide a return? How are the savings accounts, pensions and 401(k)s looking?

Regardless of how frightening this review might be — and for many of us it is downright terrifying — at least we know what we have to work with.

For many, aging in place is the most desirable and affordable option. If our home or condo is paid off, this can seem like a no-brainer. Of course we want to stay in our home, surrounded by familiar things, trusted neighbors and nearby friends and family.

But hold on. Not so fast. How well will this home serve us as things become a little more difficult? In 10 or 20 years, can we expect to safely navigate that flight of stairs to our bedroom or down to the basement where the washing machine is? Are the hallways and doorways wide enough to accommodate a walker or wheelchair if necessary?

Let’s say the home is a one-story ranch style with wider doorways and halls. Modifying it to be more senior-friendly can be a less expensive option than moving to other accommodations.

Maybe remodel a bathroom to include a zero-entry shower rather than that hard-to-climb-over bathtub. Change out the toilet for one raised to comfort height, putting less strain on knees and hips. Install grab bars in the shower and near the toilet. Consider adding a wheelchair ramp at an easily accessible entrance to minimize steps.

To avoid contortions when reaching for something at the back of a cabinet, think about replacing traditional shelving with pull-out shelves.

And declutter as much as possible. Open paths around the home are crucial for preventing falls. Strategically rearrange furniture to create wider walkways. The sooner you begin, the more you can spread the work and expense over time so it doesn’t all hit at once.

Now here’s another important consideration: What happens if we become disabled in some way? What if we can no longer do everything for ourselves? Do we — or will we — have the resources to hire help?

Medicare will cover only so much. Can we supplement that cost? When we were younger, did we purchase and continue paying for long-term care or disability insurance? If we did not, purchasing that kind of coverage later in life may be difficult or expensive.

When thinking about what may be coming, some of us who live near our grown children can also have a false sense of security.

“Surely, little Johnny will help me!” But what if little Johnny isn’t in a position to help? Little Johnny is now a grown man with a full-time job, children and bills of his own.

And, of course, when we reach that stage, many of us discover that the last person we want to burden is our adult child. So we tell them everything is just dandy and suffer in silence.

Before becoming completely defeated, though, remember there are alternatives.

We’ll explore some of those in the next edition of Senior Sense, scheduled for publication the week of Oct. 18, 2026.

Sonia Hedrick is interested in YOU! Like to share your unusual story with our neighbors? Or do you have an interesting topic you would like to explore in Senior Sense? Send Sonia an email at: shedrick-fernley@gmail.com

And then there are truths that can’t be measured.

This weekend, while feeling nostalgic after hearing about the passing of my cousin Ben, I spent quite a while looking for a picture of him and me that was taken the last time I was at his house.

I didn’t find the photo, but looking for it did remind me of a picture he showed me that day. At the time, it had been a few years since I had seen him, and Ben, one of our uncles, another cousin and I were looking through old family photos.

One of them, a picture of Ben with his father, my uncle John, stopped me cold because the geometry of the frame made no sense.

My uncle John passed away when I was in my late teens, and in my memory, he was a giant of a man. Probably because his personality was so big and his presence filled every room he entered, I always pictured him as a large man. I was shocked that day when I realized that Ben, who was about three or four inches shorter than me, was exactly the same height as his dad.

I would have sworn on a Bible that Uncle John was at least 6-foot-4, because that’s the image I’ve had of him since I was a child. Instead, he would have had to stand on his tiptoes to reach 5 feet, 8 inches.

Ben wasn’t loud and bombastic like his father, but despite their stature, he was every bit the giant of a human being his dad was. He didn’t need to shake the walls to make you feel his presence.

He did it with a steady nature that made everyone in his life know he was someone they could depend on, and then he backed that up by going beyond the call whenever he was needed.

He was the type of person who, when asked to watch a neighbor’s or family member’s house while they were gone, would make sure there was a fresh pot of beans and chile ready in the slow cooker when they got home.

While a camera lens or a ruler is a cold, objective thing that can record facts, neither can measure impact. To a kid, a man who laughs loudly and makes you feel entirely safe is always 6-foot-4, even if the ruler says he’s nowhere near that. And anyone lucky enough to know Ben knows that a man who quietly looks out for everyone else occupies that exact same massive space.

That is something I know to be true, even though it can’t be measured.

Robert Perea has covered news and sports in Northern Nevada since 1993. He has published The Fernley Reporter online since 2016, loves music, is a sucker for the pets who have adopted him, and is thrilled to be printing the Reporter.

In the letter nominating Wheeler for the award, LCSO Sgt. Zachary Westbrook wrote that on Sept. 3, Wheeler intervened after observing an inmate attempting suicide inside a jail cell. Westbrook wrote that the inmate had tied a sheet around a metal bunk and his neck.

Wheeler immediately entered the cell and removed the sheet from the inmate’s neck, preventing the attempt from being completed. The inmate was subsequently evaluated by medical staff and received psychiatric care.

Westbrook wrote that in a later interview, the inmate said he waited for deputies to leave the pod after serving lunch and then attempted suicide.

The Boys & Girls Club, serving Fernley, will hold its 6th Annual Trunk or Treat on Thursday, Oct. 29, beginning at 5 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club, 695 E. Main St.

The event will include trunk-or-treating, food trucks and a new feature this year, Mad Scientist Plaza. The event is presented by Walmart and will also recognize Lights On Afterschool, a national celebration highlighting the importance of after-school programs.

Sponsors include CareSource, SilverSummit Healthplan and Nevada Health Link.

Two days later, the City of Fernley will host its 2026 Spooktacular at City Hall, 595 Silver Lace Blvd., on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 4 to 7 p.m.

The community Halloween celebration is open to families, and organizers are inviting residents to volunteer, donate or join in the festivities.

The Spooktacular is also participating in the Teal Pumpkin, Blue Pumpkin and Purple Pumpkin projects, which promote a more inclusive Halloween for children and families with different needs.

For information about the City of Fernley Spooktacular, contact Jessica Murdock at 775-784-9850.

With both events scheduled just days apart, Fernley families will have plenty of opportunities for costumes, candy and community fun before Halloween night.

On August 10, 1850, traveler James William Evans encountered a Native man carrying a tin bucket containing about a gallon of water. “He offered me a drink, but I refused, stating that there were men behind dying for water,” Evans recorded.

The Trails West “Act of Mercy” marker on Truck Inn Way in Fernley preserves this encounter: one man offering water, another thinking of those whose need was greater. The account does not give the Native man’s name, but his kindness and his presence belong in the history of this place.

Imagine how much that water mattered after months on the trail. Your children are with you. Beneath the wagon cover are flour, bedding, cooking pots, tools and the belongings you chose for a new life. The wagon holds what you hope will sustain your family, but getting it through depends on the oxen — and on drinkable water.

St. Louis connected travelers to Missouri River outfitting towns such as Independence and St. Joseph, where they prepared for a journey commonly lasting four to six months. Many wagons used four to six oxen and carried so many necessities that travelers often walked beside them. When a team weakened, possessions might have to be abandoned.

Keeping a family moving required endurance, resourcefulness and courage. Disease, especially cholera, took lives along the trails; accidents and river crossings claimed others. Families carried their hopes west knowing that reaching California together was never assured.

Those who survived to reach Nevada still faced the Forty-Mile Desert, where they crossed from Lovelock and the Humboldt Sink toward the Truckee River at present-day Wadsworth. Near Fernley, deep sand demanded still more from exhausted animals, with the Sierra yet to come.

Helen Carpenter’s September 18, 1857, account, preserved on another local trail marker, describes eight miles of deep sand and dead cattle lining the road. Every failing animal narrowed a family’s chances of reaching the water ahead.

That passage remains written in the ground. The Fernley Swales are long, trough-shaped depressions created by thousands of heavy, iron-bound wagon wheels. The Bureau of Land Management identifies them as the only remaining deep-sand swales on the California National Historic Trail. Beside those hollows, we can picture children walking and parents watching their animals struggle.

The people watching those wagons arrive had children to feed, too.

Northern Paiute families had lived in this region for thousands of years; Pyramid Lake was — and remains — a Paiute homeland. Washoe homelands included Lake Tahoe and neighboring valleys. Seasonal movement connected families with fishing, hunting and gathering places.

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony’s history describes how pioneer newcomers mistook those movements for aimless wandering. They failed to recognize a way of life sustained by generations of knowledge, even as Americans were hearing another story about taking the land.

In 1845, editor John O’Sullivan invoked “manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence.” His language gave expansion the authority of God’s purpose. For families seeking a new beginning, that promise could be compelling. But claiming divine approval did not answer a simple moral question: What right did newcomers have to take another family’s home?

Readers raised on the Good Samaritan and “Thou shalt not steal” will recognize the tension. A Native man offered water to a stranger, while the promise of a continent supposedly allotted to European Americans left little room for his own people’s rights.

As migration and settlement grew, newcomers occupied land and consumed resources that Native families depended on. The Colony’s history describes depleted food supplies and growing hunger, and how resistance to removal and assimilation brought accusations of hostility. Think what that meant for parents who knew where food had always been found but could no longer depend on it to feed their children.

Assumptions of white superiority helped excuse dispossession. Calling it progress did not make the hunger less real or the taking of a homeland less devastating. The emigrants’ courage deserves remembrance, but their suffering cannot excuse the suffering inflicted on people already here.

As Regent of DAR’s Fort Churchill Chapter and Nevada DAR State Historian, I believe preserving history requires hearing the accounts of people whose lives were changed by it. Our chapter carries a fort’s name; that creates an obligation to understand the whole story.

Patriotism and historical honesty are not opposites. We honor our history by looking directly at it, including the harm and the voices too often ignored.

Paiute and Washoe people remain our neighbors, carrying histories that do not end with the arrival of wagons. What changes in our own understanding when we hear their accounts alongside those of the families who came west?

The man who offered a stranger water deserves a place in our memory and in this history. The land newcomers were pouring into was already someone’s home.

Listening to his September interviews with Congressional Representatives Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, I kept coming back to the same thought. All this talk about artificial intelligence and the next technological revolution eventually comes down to location – as we old economic developers say: location, location, location.

Somebody needs land. Somebody needs water. Somebody needs power.

For those of us watching from rural Nevada, that is hardly a new story. What is changing is the speed, the scale and the pressure to get decisions made before communities have had time to understand what is being proposed.

The three members approached these questions differently, but there was a useful thread running through their conversations: development should come with public participation and benefits people can actually identify.

Titus was particularly skeptical about the handling of a proposed Boulder City data center. She questioned transparency, environmental review and whether the promised revenue would hold up once tax abatements entered the calculation.

But she also made an important distinction. She has not called for a moratorium on data centers. She acknowledged that the devices and services we use every day require them.

That moves the discussion into productive territory. We can need the technology and still insist on knowing what a particular project will require from its neighbors.

Shad pressed the other side, raising construction employment, economic activity and potential municipal revenue, topics that must be addressed when rural communities are impacted. A community trying to maintain roads, pay employees and keep services running cannot emotionally dismiss a new revenue source.

Neither should it accept the sales pitch without doing the arithmetic.

Horsford offered perhaps the most practical test: specific, measurable and enforceable community benefits agreements, including local hiring, alongside energy and water plans that protect existing ratepayers.

Enforceable is the word worth focusing on, a promise at a public meeting is one thing. An obligation somebody can enforce after the construction crews leave is another. Communities need to know who pays for infrastructure, how benefits will be measured and what happens if the project fails to deliver.

Horsford also brought rural residents and tribal nations into the discussion. His district reaches well beyond metropolitan Las Vegas, and he described hearing directly from constituents about how development should proceed.

The nuclear question revealed differences among the three.

Titus expressed strong concerns about small reactors accompanying data centers and the prospect of storing their waste on site. Lee was more open to advanced nuclear as part of a broader energy mix, while emphasizing waste management and pointing to geothermal as another opportunity. Horsford withheld a blanket endorsement or rejection, asking for specifics and a meaningful local voice.

Worthy of note, there is no single delegation answer to every energy question.

Water produced another revealing exchange.

Shad asked Horsford whether continued Colorado River trouble could revive the idea of a pipeline carrying eastern Nevada groundwater to Las Vegas.

Horsford said he did not think so. He argued instead for greater conservation elsewhere in the basin and a stronger accounting of how water is used.

For rural Nevada, that answer deserves attention and continued follow-up.

Lee described a different approach: partnerships in which Nevada helps finance water recycling elsewhere and, in exchange, retains water in Lake Mead. Her argument was that cooperation can produce additional supply without simply reaching into another Nevada community’s groundwater.

The details and timelines will be important, but the principle is useful: solve a shared problem by expanding the options.

Artificial intelligence brought the conversations back to speed.

Titus questioned whether Congress could write rules quickly enough to keep pace with technology. Lee wanted faster congressional action and suggested a select committee with a firm deadline. Horsford emphasized training workers and helping small businesses use the tools rather than being displaced by them.

There is a whole Nevada economy inside those three concerns: capable oversight, timely decisions and people prepared to participate.

There was also evidence that cooperation remains possible. Both Horsford and Lee highlighted their support for Mark Amodei’s northern Nevada lands legislation. Lee hoped it could create an opening for southern Nevada provisions as well.

We ought to pay attention when our representatives find common ground on the practical business of the state.

My takeaway from these interviews is that Nevada needs cleaner deals with the industries that want to build here. Show us the water plan. Show us the power plan. Show us the jobs, the revenue and the obligations that survive the ribbon cutting.

Then give the people who live here a real opportunity to weigh it all and trust our elected officials to represent us well.

Nevada has something everybody wants. We ought to understand its value before we make the deal.

Read more regional, rural Nevada news at GreatBasinSun.com 

Those are fair questions. Nevada is the driest state in the nation, and the recent issue with the Colorado River Commission and subsequent lawsuit shows that our state leaders are serious about protecting our limited water resources.

No company, no matter how large or technologically important, should receive a blank check to consume scarce resources or shift its costs onto Nevada ratepayers.

But the debate also needs to be based on facts. Nevada is not ignoring these concerns. State and local leaders, water authorities, regulators and NV Energy are taking steps to ensure that data centers are developed responsibly and that the companies benefiting from them bear the costs they create.

Governor Lombardo recently signed an executive order that requires applicants to pay the Local School Support Tax in full, bear the costs associated with serving their facilities rather than shifting them to other utility customers, meet local water standards and enter into a binding Community Support Commitment. These seem like reasonable requirements.

Modern data centers can be designed very differently from the water-intensive facilities of the past. Closed-loop cooling systems recirculate water rather than continuously consuming new supplies.

Storey County utilizes treated effluent and recycled wastewater — rather than drinking water — to support industrial operations and cooling needs at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. That is actually an efficient reuse of the region’s water resources and improves water quality in the Truckee River.

Air-cooled technology can reduce onsite water use even further. Southern Nevada has already prohibited new evaporative cooling systems, and some recently approved data-center projects are expected to use only a small fraction of the water consumed by older facilities.

Nevada should consider making these modern cooling practices the standard for projects receiving state tax abatements. If a company wants a public incentive, it should be required to demonstrate that it will protect Nevada’s water resources.

The same principle should apply to electricity.

As the governor’s executive order stated, data-center customers must pay upfront for the transmission, distribution and other infrastructure needed to serve their projects. That is an important ratepayer protection.

Some projects are also considering dedicated or behind-the-meter generation, allowing them to provide some or all of their own electricity rather than placing their entire demand on the existing grid. That approach can help protect reliability and existing customers, although Nevada must still examine the fuel source, emissions and long-term consequences of any onsite generation.

These safeguards do not mean Nevada should stop asking questions. On the contrary, every major data-center proposal should disclose its expected electricity demand, water consumption, cooling technology, backup-generation emissions and infrastructure requirements. Developers should explain how many permanent jobs they will create, what taxes they will pay after abatements and what financial guarantees will protect the public if a project is delayed or abandoned.

Accountability is not opposition; it is responsible economic development.

At the same time, Nevadans should be aware that not every alarming claim circulating online comes from a neighbor acting in good faith.

In June, OpenAI disclosed that it had disrupted a covert influence campaign operated by accounts likely originating in China. The campaign — dubbed “Data Center Bandwagon” — used artificial intelligence to create posts, comments and cartoons criticizing American data centers and claiming that they were driving up electricity costs for ordinary families.

The operators posed as Americans from different walks of life and used legitimate news stories to make their manufactured personas appear credible. According to OpenAI, the operation was likely connected to a private Chinese technology company that performed work for Chinese provincial-government clients.

More recently, X announced that it had identified a large network of suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts, including accounts attempting to manipulate the American debate over AI, data centers and energy policy.

Why would China care whether Nevada and other states build data centers?

Because data centers are the physical backbone of artificial intelligence. The nation with the greatest computing capacity will have an enormous advantage in commerce, medicine, national defense, research and virtually every other field. China has made no secret of its desire to surpass the United States in artificial intelligence. Slowing America’s ability to build the infrastructure that supports AI would serve China’s strategic interests.

This does not mean every person questioning a data center is spreading Chinese propaganda. Most concerns expressed by Nevada residents are genuine. It would be unfair — and counterproductive — to dismiss legitimate local opposition as the work of foreign agents.

China-linked operatives did not invent an entirely fictional issue. They attempted to take real concerns, remove important context, amplify fear and turn Americans against one another. That is how modern influence operations frequently work.

Nevadans should refuse to be manipulated from either direction. We should not accept unsupported claims from data-center companies, and we should not automatically believe frightening social-media posts designed to generate outrage.

Nevada has an opportunity to help lead America’s technological future while protecting the resources that make our state livable. We can also reap economic benefits that will help our cities, counties and schools prosper. That is one reason the Clark County Education Association recently announced its strong support for data centers. The association sees them as a way to better fund education in Nevada.

Nevada should welcome the technology of the future — but only on terms that protect Nevada’s water, Nevada’s power system, Nevada’s people and Nevada’s economy.

Randi Thompson is a political and public relations consultant in Reno. 

The SBDC provides free one-on-one business advising to existing and prospective Nevada small-business owners.

That can include help with business planning, market research, financing, accounting and record keeping, feasibility analysis, marketing, loan preparation, technology development and regulatory or environmental questions.

And rural businesses don't have to drive to Reno to get it.

The Nevada SBDC maintains rural centers through the Churchill Entrepreneur Development Association in Fallon, Great Basin College in Elko and an office in Ely, in addition to resources available statewide.

In Fallon, SBDC services are provided through CEDA at 290 W. Williams Ave. The local team includes Agriculture & Food Systems Business Advisor Kelli Kelly and Business Development Specialist Sara Beebe-Wolken. The office provides free one-on-one advising as well as workshops and assistance with marketing, feasibility analysis, credit management and business planning.

The Great Basin College SBDC in Elko serves northeastern Nevada businesses and offers assistance with business plans, financing, loan packaging, marketing and record keeping, with no charge for its management and technical assistance.

The Ely office similarly provides market research, accounting assistance, capital formation, startup advising, technology assistance and economic and business-data analysis.

The connection to Made in Nevada is intentional.

Made in Nevada is powered by the Nevada SBDC, allowing members of the statewide marketing program to connect directly with educational opportunities and free one-on-one advising.

That means a rural entrepreneur doesn't necessarily have to figure out every step alone.

Someone considering turning a hobby into a business, expanding a farm product, applying for financing, reaching a new market or determining whether an idea can actually make money can sit down with an adviser before committing significant capital.

For small rural businesses, where a bad investment can be difficult to absorb, getting that advice before spending the money may be the most valuable service of all.

Learn more: Nevada SBDC provides information about services and appointments through its statewide website.

Nevada Small Business Development Center 

Lunch is served Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For those 60 and older, the suggested donation is $2. For those under 60, the fee is $7.

Monday, Oct. 12
Chicken nuggets, green beans, sweet potato fries, ranch dressing, black bean salad, and 100% juice.

Tuesday, Oct. 13
Hamburger, mixed grain bun, baked beans, lettuce and tomato salad, grapefruit, and orange.

Wednesday, Oct. 14
Baked yogurt chicken, potatoes and herbs, bean combo, tossed salad, creamy Italian dressing, and peaches.

Thursday, Oct. 15
Parmesan garlic fish, whole wheat penne, whole wheat bread, coleslaw, fruit of the day, and 100% juice.

Friday, Oct. 16
Pork and beans, tater tots, California blend veggies, applesauce, and 100% juice.

K9 Blady placed second in the agility competition, and K9 Ares placed second in narcotics detection. LCSO also entered K9s Linda and Kilo in the regional event, which brought together K9 teams from multiple agencies across Northern Nevada for skill and discipline demonstrations centered on the duties they perform in the field.

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office hosted the challenge, which highlights the training and teamwork between handlers and their K9 partners. Agencies, volunteers and community members supported the event.

Next year’s competition is scheduled to be held in Virginia City.

The application would temporarily change the place and manner of use of a portion of an existing water right now used for irrigation in Lyon County.

County Manager Andrew Haskin told commissioners the water would be used as temporary construction water for the Mineral County project, likely for purposes such as dust suppression.

The transfer would last for one year. After that, the water right would revert to its existing irrigation use.

Walker River Irrigation District General Manager Bert Bryan told commissioners the application involves only primary groundwater rights and does not include supplemental groundwater tied to surface-water rights.

Bryan said the amount involved is relatively small and would be metered and monitored by state water officials to ensure the permitted amount is not exceeded.

He also told the board that the State Engineer, not Lyon County, will make the final decision on the application. The county’s recommendation is advisory.

Several members of the public urged commissioners to oppose or delay the transfer, raising concerns about exporting water out of Lyon County, possible effects on existing water rights and environmental impacts.

One commissioner said he did not want to oppose the transfer because the Mineral County project was already affecting people in Mason Valley and he wanted the project completed as soon as possible.

The board voted 4-0 to recommend approval of the transfer to the State Engineer.

The application was filed under water-rights application 95277T and involves a portion of Permit 13879, Certificate 5074.

Add in a dispute over the Planning Commission, competing interpretations of City code and questions about who is supposed to pay for fire protection, and it gets complicated quickly.

Underneath all of it, though, is a fairly simple question: How does Fernley accommodate a large industrial development while making sure the public infrastructure needed to serve it is built, funded and operated?

That is what is really at stake as the City works through two closely related issues: creation of the proposed Fernley Power District and CUP26005, the conditional use permit for a power-generation facility associated with the Victory Logistics development.

Both could have long-term consequences for the city.

Why Victory matters

Victory Logistics is intended to bring large-scale industrial development to the area north of Interstate 80.

The proposed power plant is important to that development because large industrial users need large amounts of reliable electricity. Victory representatives say obtaining enough power through the existing utility system, on the timetable prospective users require, has become a major constraint on development.

Their proposed solution is a generation facility and a municipal electric utility — the Fernley Power District — capable of serving large electrical loads within the Victory area.

The financial implications could be substantial.

A fiscal impact analysis prepared for the 324-megawatt power project estimates approximately $43 million in City franchise-fee revenue over 20 years at a 1% rate. The analysis also projects about $10.5 million in property and sales tax revenue to North Lyon County Fire Protection District during that period.

Those are projections, not guaranteed revenue, but the assumptions behind them help explain why this is about more than one developer or one power plant.

The proposed development represents new taxable property, potential utility revenue and the possibility of additional industrial investment in Fernley.

Victory representative Rick Nelson has described the power plant alone as an approximately $600 million investment.

Then comes the fire station

Large industrial development also creates new demands on public services.

Station 63 is being constructed in the Victory Logistics area to provide fire and emergency response closer to the development.

And this is where much of the current disagreement begins.

Victory’s position is that the existing development agreement assigns the developer responsibility for constructing the station, while the City is responsible for providing — or causing to be provided — fire protection from it.

North Lyon Fire would provide that service.

Fire Chief Brian Bunn has said his district cannot simply absorb the ongoing cost of staffing and operating another station from its existing revenue base.

The district has asked the City to establish a long-term funding mechanism for firefighters, apparatus, equipment, training and the other operating costs associated with Station 63 and the industrial area it would serve.

At this point, there appears to be much less disagreement about the desired result than about how to pay for it.

A staffed and equipped fire station needs to be operating before the proposed power plant begins commercial operation.

The argument is over how that happens and who pays the recurring bill.

North Lyon Fire has sought a portion of revenues generated by the proposed Power District and has also suggested a long-term fire-services agreement with the operator of the generation facility.

Victory has maintained that construction costs and ongoing operating expenses are separate obligations and that long-term fire service ultimately must be worked out between the City and Fire District.

Development fees and similar tools can help build public facilities. They do not necessarily solve the harder problem of paying firefighter salaries and operating expenses year after year.

Who gets to decide the CUP?

While those negotiations have been underway, another dispute has emerged over who should decide the power plant’s conditional use permit.

The Planning Commission heard CUP26005 Sept. 9 but tabled the application rather than approving or denying it.

North Lyon Fire and Planning Commissioner Cody Wagner have argued that means the application belongs back before the Planning Commission.

Wagner formally objected to the City Council taking up the permit, arguing that Fernley delegated authority over conditional use permits to the Planning Commission and that the Council generally becomes involved after a Planning Commission decision is appealed.

Victory reads the City code differently.

Fernley’s general appeal provisions refer to City Council review of a Planning Commission “action or decision.” Victory argues that the vote to table the permit was itself an action and therefore can be reviewed by the Council.

That may sound like semantics, but it is not.

Fernley’s development rules give the Planning Commission a formal decision-making role in conditional use permits. Other provisions give the City Council authority to review certain Planning Commission actions and decisions. City procedures also allow a hearing body to continue an application rather than decide it.

The question is how those provisions work together when the Planning Commission tables an application rather than granting or denying it.

A separate fairness argument

Victory has raised another issue as well.

Nelson has said the company does not believe it can receive a fair hearing if the CUP returns to the current Planning Commission, citing statements and actions by Wagner that Victory believes show he has prejudged the application.

Wagner has declined to recuse himself and has sought review of his conduct by state ethics authorities.

Victory argues that an applicant in a quasi-judicial land-use proceeding is entitled to an impartial decision-maker.

That claim has not been adjudicated, and an allegation of bias is not the same thing as a formal finding of wrongdoing. But the dispute helps explain why Victory has pushed for City Council review instead of simply returning to the Planning Commission.

Three institutions, three jobs

Part of what makes this so difficult to follow is that three different public bodies are involved.

The Planning Commission administers portions of Fernley’s land-use process and considers applications such as conditional use permits.

The City Council writes City law, makes broader policy decisions and hears certain land-use appeals or reviews.

The North Lyon County Fire Protection District is a separate governmental entity responsible for providing fire and emergency medical services.

Those institutions have different legal authority, different responsibilities and different sources of revenue.

The current conflict is partly the result of those responsibilities colliding.

The Planning Commission is dealing with land use. The Fire District is dealing with whether it can safely and financially serve the development. The City Council has to consider City policy, infrastructure and finances. Victory is trying to obtain the governmental approvals necessary to proceed with a major private investment.

None of those interests disappears simply because the process has become difficult.

The larger question for Fernley

There are legitimate public-safety questions here, along with legitimate procedural questions. And there are legitimate economic-development consequences when major projects face long delays while public agencies sort out responsibilities that ideally would have been clear much earlier.

The useful question for Fernley is probably not which side wins the argument.

It is whether the City’s institutions can produce a clear, predictable answer.

Editor’s note: The Fernley City Council considered matters related to the Fernley Power District and CUP26005 Wednesday night, after this edition went to press. Updated coverage of the meeting is available at the Fernley Reporter website.

The Lyon County Board of Commissioners introduced the proposed ordinance Oct. 1 in response to Assembly Bill 241, approved by the Nevada Legislature in 2025.

Community Development Director Gavin Henderson told commissioners the law requires local governments to allow qualifying multifamily housing or mixed-use development with a residential component on property zoned for commercial use.

Industrial property is excluded, along with certain airport-related property and land governed by the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact.

For Lyon County, the practical effect would be to make multifamily housing a permitted use in several commercial zoning districts where it previously was not automatically allowed. County code defines multifamily housing as three or more units.

Henderson said the change could speed the development process. Projects that might previously have required a conditional-use permit and a public hearing before a board could instead be handled administratively if they meet county standards.

Commissioner Rob Jacobsen asked whether the change would create additional work for developers.

“No,” Henderson said, explaining that the legislation was intended to expedite multifamily development by making it a permitted use rather than requiring a board-level decision.

“So this should speed it up,” Jacobsen said.

“Yes,” Henderson replied. Jacobsen also questioned how the law would affect utility providers such as the Silver Springs General Improvement District and whether those systems would be required to accept new developments.

Henderson said they would not. A utility provider could still determine that it does not have capacity to serve a proposed development, he said. Developers would also be responsible for the cost of utility connections and infrastructure improvements.

The county’s proposed ordinance would require new multifamily developments to be served by public water and sewer. Projects adjacent to existing service areas would have to seek annexation into those systems and comply with the requirements of the utility provider.

Commissioner Scott Keller raised broader concerns about how the statewide law could affect rural communities, particularly Silver Springs.

“In my opinion, it’s probably one of the stupidest laws that they enacted,” Keller said.

He pointed to commercial property along Highway 50 in Silver Springs, saying some highway frontage had been placed in commercial zoning partly because of concerns about residential development in flood-prone areas.

Keller also questioned whether allowing residential development on commercially zoned land could create problems for families living near major highways or reduce land available for future commercial development.

He asked what restrictions Lyon County could still place on qualifying developments, including setbacks, sound walls and density limits.

Henderson said existing setbacks would remain in effect and the county could consider additional development standards.

Lyon County currently allows up to 18 multifamily units per acre in its multifamily residential zoning district, he said, and commissioners could consider establishing a lower density limit for multifamily projects on commercially zoned property.

However, Henderson cautioned that the county cannot adopt standards that conflict with the state law.

“The hard part about this Assembly bill is to have that provision that anything that would go against it would automatically be void,” Henderson said.

He said most jurisdictions have taken a relatively simple approach by changing their land-use tables, while Lyon County is proposing an additional public water and sewer requirement.

Keller said the law illustrates the importance of counties following legislation as it moves through the Nevada Legislature.

“I understand why Clark County, Vegas, Reno and Carson would want to do that, but I don’t know any other county that’s happy with this,” he said.

The county’s proposed ordinance would change its development tables to allow qualifying multifamily and mixed-use residential developments on commercially zoned property while requiring new multifamily projects to have public water and sewer service.

Developers would remain responsible for applicable utility connection, capacity and infrastructure costs.

The Oct. 1 action introduced the ordinance as Lyon County begins the process of bringing its development code into compliance with the state law.

Instead, we have newspapers to get out.

Here we are, using all the volunteer help we can get, asking too much of our paid staff, and making it work with white knuckles and elbow grease. We keep going because our communities want local news and they support it.

That support has never been more important, especially this year, as our country marks 250 years of independence.

Long before Americans could argue in the comments section, they argued in newspapers. Printers put ideas into circulation that helped people question British rule and consider governing themselves. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was a pamphlet, and newspapers helped carry the debate it stirred. Apparently, Americans have never needed much encouragement to have an opinion.

Later, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay made their case for the Constitution in the essays we know as the “Federalist Papers.” Those arguments reached readers through New York newspapers.

I went looking to see whether they had anything to say about news itself.

It was Federalist No. 84, where Hamilton considered how people living far from the seat of government could know what their representatives were doing. Newspapers, he wrote, would be “expeditious messengers of intelligence” reaching even the most remote Americans.

Around here, we call that getting the paper out. If the people are supposed to govern themselves, they need some way to find out what is being done in their name.

The name Fourth Estate comes from Britain, where the Lords Spiritual, Lords Temporal, and Commons were the traditional three estates represented in Parliament. The press became known as a fourth force because reporters could tell the public what powerful people were doing and hold them accountable.

Here in America, the idea fits pretty well. We have three branches of government, and the press keeps an eye on all of them. It has no seat at the cabinet table and no vote in Congress. It can, however, ask what happened to the money.

That question seldom improves the mood in the room, and throughout history, newspapers have given Americans information powerful people would sometimes rather keep to themselves.

Frederick Douglass founded The North Star to fight slavery and argue for equal rights. Nellie Bly, reporting for the New York World, went inside a women’s asylum and exposed the conditions there.

In 1892, after Ida B. Wells challenged lynching in the Memphis Free Speech, her newspaper office was destroyed, and her life was threatened. She kept investigating and writing. Her work reminds us that telling the truth can demand much more than putting up with an unpleasant phone call.

Decades later, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein at The Washington Post kept digging into Watergate, helping expose wrongdoing that reached into the Nixon administration.

Those are famous names attached to famous stories. But much of this country’s reporting happens in small newsrooms, where someone reads a budget packet, sits through a meeting, or asks a question nobody particularly wants to answer.

That work needs doing here, too, and it doesn’t always earn us a warm welcome.

Someone once asked why they should support us: “Why would we support a paper that’s critical of us?”

My answer is pretty simple. If you don’t want stories about you doing stupid things, don’t do stupid things.

Of course, we have responsibilities, too. Check the facts. Give people a chance to explain. Correct mistakes.

But supporting a newspaper cannot mean buying its silence. You should be able to disagree with us and still want someone asking questions.

There are national efforts underway to save local news, with foundations, nonprofits, and big money. Press Forward launched with a goal of mobilizing half a billion dollars over five years. I hope those efforts succeed.

I also hope they remember the people already in the trenches.

Our volunteers give their time because they care. Our paid staff carries more work than it should. Our readers and advertisers help pay the bills. Together, they make another week possible.

And there is plenty of work. A community deserves to know how its money is spent and what its officials decide. It also deserves a record of its children, its businesses, its losses, and its accomplishments. Those stories belong to all of us.

For 250 years, Americans have needed information to make decisions about their country. We still need it to make decisions about our hometown.

This National Newspaper Week, we thank everyone helping us keep the lights on. We intend to keep shining them where they’re needed.

Naturally, the way we have chosen to celebrate at RANGE Media Company is by adding another newspaper.

This week marks our first week producing the Eureka County Star, the baby of our dear friend Trina, who started her newspaper in Eureka about the same time we started ours in Fallon.

And now she is tired and wants to retire. I cannot even imagine why.

When Trina asked if we would consider taking over the Star, though, it really was an honor. She has spent years building something important for her community, and she wanted to know it would continue. We don’t take that lightly.

So, here we are. Welcome to the family, Eureka County Star.

Which brings me to one of those sayings I absolutely hate because it is trite and annoying and, unfortunately, true: I wish there were more hours in the day.

I really do. It’s not just a saying. There is just so much fun stuff to do.

There are stories I want to chase. People I want to interview. Columns I want to write. Newspapers I want to build. Pages I want to fuss over. Ideas I want to try. There are books and magazines and videos and newsletters and a bookstore and about 147 other things running around in my head at any given moment.

And now there is Eureka.

The problem is, there remain only 24 hours in a day, no matter how strongly I object.

We are finally getting more help around here, which we desperately need. Really desperately. I’ve absolutely run everyone around me into the ground.

But a funny thing happens when you finally get the help you have been begging for—people start taking things away from you.

This is, of course, the entire point.

You hire good people so they can take responsibility for things. You build systems. You divide the work. You let people become really good at their piece of it. And theoretically, the person who has been running around like her hair is on fire gets to stop doing everything herself.

Except nobody tells you that some of the things they take away are the fun things.

I don’t want to give up the fun things. I like making newspapers.

I like taking a pile of stories and pictures and advertisements and figuring out how they all fit together. I like finding a story nobody else noticed. I like calling somebody and hearing them say, “You know, nobody has ever asked me that before.”

I like watching a newspaper come together on Tuesday when, at 10 in the morning, it appears absolutely impossible that it will be on its way to the printer by 2.

And then somehow it is.

Mostly.

There is something wonderfully satisfying about making a newspaper. At the beginning of the week, there is nothing. Then people go to meetings and ball games and schools and ranches and courthouses. They ask questions. They take pictures. They listen. They write things down.

And by Tuesday afternoon, there it all is, a record of a community’s week.

So I’m learning that growing this company is going to require me to give some of that work away. If we’re going to keep building strong local newspapers across Nevada, I can’t personally do every part of every one of them.

I know this.

I don’t necessarily have to like it.

But there is something even better than getting to make all those newspapers myself: getting to watch really good people make them.

And getting to see communities support them, the part for which I am most grateful.

Every subscription, every advertisement, every public notice, every photograph somebody sends us, every phone call with a story tip, every person who walks into the office because they think we ought to know something — all of it makes this possible.

You allow us to keep doing this, and because you do, we’re able to show up in another community this week.

So, during National Newspaper Week, while everybody else is celebrating newspapers, we’re going to do what we apparently do best.

Make another one. And while we scramble through one more Tuesday trying to get a growing pile of Nevada newspapers headed to Vegas by 2 p.m., we’ll always be right here…

…Keeping you Posted.
Rach

The event will take place at locations on and around campus, with exhibits covering Nevada history, fossils, astronomy, art, natural history and living plants. Visitors can walk through the university’s Museum District, take part in activities and explore collections housed throughout the campus area.

Each stop on the event map will feature a hands-on activity or giveaway. Visitors can collect stamps in an event passport and redeem them for prizes. Photo opportunities with Wolf Pack mascots are also planned.

Participating locations include the Fleischmann Planetarium, W.M. Keck Museum, Museum of Natural History and Lilley Museum of Art. This year’s event will also include food trucks, with the university announcing an expanded lineup of museums and food vendors.

The Keck Museum’s collections focus on Nevada’s geology, paleontology and mining history. The museum has collected and exhibited materials for more than 100 years, preserving specimens and objects related to the state’s natural resources and mining past.

The Museum of Natural History houses research and teaching collections of plants and animals. Its holdings include local and tropical insects, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. The Fleischmann Planetarium serves as a community resource for astronomy, Earth science and space science education. Together, these institutions represent several of the scientific subjects visitors can explore during the event.

Art venues on the participant list include the Lilley Museum of Art, Sheppard Contemporary, McNamara Gallery and Galleries South. Black Rock Press, which focuses on the art of books, will also participate, along with the John Bilbao Basque Library and Special Collections and University Archives.

The university’s outdoor collections will be represented by the University Arboretum and Biggest Little Pollinator Garden. The arboretum includes trees, shrubs, flowers, ornamental plants and native flora in designated areas around campus, extending the district’s collections beyond its museum buildings.

History and cultural participants include the Nevada Historical Society, Museum of People, Place and Time, Shared History Gallery and Great Basin History of Medicine Museum. The event lineup also lists the Nevada State Museum, Stewart Indian School, The Discovery, Legacy Hall and Nevada Seismological Laboratory.

The range of participating museums and collections brings scientific, cultural and historical subjects together during the same six-hour event. Families and other visitors will be able to explore multiple locations during the day, with activities offered along the walking route.

Additional event information will be available during the week of Oct. 17 through the university’s online campus map. The map will identify event stops and help visitors locate participating collections on and around campus.

Event details and a link to the map are available through UNR’s Day at the Museum event page. 

On Sept. 30, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve turned the tables a little, proclaiming the day “Sam Shad Day” in recognition of Shad’s long career in Nevada journalism.

The proclamation recognizes Shad as an entrepreneur, award-winning journalist, longtime Nevada news personality and “a true Nevada newsmaker.”

Shad came to Nevada from England and built a career in television and radio, including years delivering weather reports to Northern Nevada viewers. He founded Sam Shad Productions in 1980 and, in 2002, established Nevada Newsmakers, the statewide public-affairs program that has become a regular stop for elected officials, business leaders and others shaping Nevada.

Over more than 4,600 programs, Shad has interviewed the people making Nevada history as it happened.

The Reno proclamation credits him with “curiosity, journalistic integrity and a rare ability to ask direct questions and then actually listen to the answers.”

That last part may be the most important, and the characteristic we at RANGE Media work to emulate.

I’ve had the privilege of working with Sam and watching him work. What I appreciate most about him is that he remains genuinely curious. He can sit across from people who disagree completely with one another, ask both of them serious questions and give each the room to answer. He isn't trying to become the story. He wants to understand the story. And he wants the community to understand the story.

That sounds simple in practice, but journalism today, is a different animal.

Sam has also spent his career doing something particularly important in a state like Nevada: connecting the different parts of it. Nevada Newsmakers brings conversations taking place in Reno, Las Vegas and Carson City to audiences throughout the state, while bringing rural Nevada voices into conversations that too often happen without them.

There is something else I admire about Sam: after all these years, he still seems interested.

More than 4,600 shows is an extraordinary body of work. Think about the governors, legislators, congressional representatives, business leaders, advocates and ordinary Nevadans who have sat across from him, and the history contained in those conversations.

Shad was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2000.

The Reno proclamation also memorializes another contribution to Nevada culture that should not be overlooked: Shad’s longstanding habit of pairing impeccable suits with tennis shoes, which the city credits with making him a trendsetter “in journalism and footwear alike.”

Mayor Schieve concluded the proclamation by encouraging journalists to emulate Shad’s “independent and fair approach to the news.”

I’ll second that. At a time when trust in journalism has become increasingly difficult to earn, Sam's career is a reminder that there really isn't a shortcut. You show up. You do your homework. You ask fair questions. You listen carefully. And then you come back and do it again.

Four thousand six hundred times, apparently.

Congratulations, Sam. Sam Shad Day is well deserved. 

The Navy is accepting bids for agricultural leases on three parcels at Naval Air Station Fallon, continuing agricultural use of land associated with the installation.

NAVFAC Southwest issued solicitations in September for Parcel 4A02 and Parcels 4A04 and 4A07. Bids are due Oct. 14.

NAS Fallon is the Navy’s premier tactical air warfare training center and includes extensive land and range facilities surrounding Fallon.

Hawthorne Navy site marks 50 years

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport’s Hawthorne Operating Site recently marked 50 years of operations in Mineral County.

The Navy held an anniversary ceremony Sept. 18 recognizing the Hawthorne workforce and the site’s role in supporting fleet readiness. Capt. Brandon Monaghan, commanding officer of NUWC Division Keyport, presented a letter of appreciation to Hawthorne Operating Site Director Tyler Viani.

Lt. Col. Rylie DeLong, commander of Hawthorne Army Depot, also participated in the ceremony.

Nevada Guard trains with Tonga for disaster response

Nevada National Guard members recently participated in Exercise Taufatahi 2026 in Tonga, continuing Nevada’s longstanding State Partnership Program relationship with the Pacific island nation.

The exercise simulated the first 48 hours following a magnitude 8.0 earthquake and tsunami. Nevada Guard members worked alongside Tonga’s military, police, fire, health and emergency-management personnel to practice communications and coordination during a major natural disaster.

The exercise was held in September and included observers and participants from other partner nations.

Elko National Cemetery to serve rural veterans

Nevada’s first Department of Veterans Affairs national cemetery has been dedicated in Elko, providing a closer burial option for veterans and their families across northeastern Nevada.

The 15.37-acre Elko National Cemetery, located at 3602 Jennings Way, will accommodate traditional casket burials, in-ground cremation burials and urn placements in columbarium niches.

Developed through the National Cemetery Administration’s Rural Initiative, the cemetery is expected to serve more than 3,705 veterans and eligible family members living within a 75-mile radius. Members of the Nevada Army National Guard Honor Guard participated in the Sept. 4 dedication.  

The Made in Nevada and Grown in Nevada directories include businesses scattered throughout the Great Basin Sun coverage area — some generations old, some relatively new and some operating in niches most Nevadans may not know exist.

Fallon and Churchill County

ARID Guitars builds custom electric guitars in Fallon. The veteran-owned company produces instruments individually rather than through mass production.

Agriculture accounts for much of Churchill County's representation.

D50 Ranch Honey harvests and bottles raw honey from hives in Churchill County, while Stony Bee's Honey is another Fallon-area producer represented in the Made in Nevada network.

Fisk Farm Herbs grows culinary and medicinal herbs and operates an apiary and cottage apothecary.

Some familiar names are there, too.

Lattin Farms, Dexter Farms and Workman Farms Produce are among Fallon-area agricultural businesses listed in the network, along with Two Ravens Farm.

Together they illustrate the variety hidden inside the term “agriculture” — produce, herbs, honey and other products that can move directly from a local farm to a Nevada consumer.

Winnemucca and Humboldt County

Pictured right: Winnemucca Farms.

At the other end of the scale is Winnemucca Farms, a diversified agricultural operation encompassing approximately 22,500 acres and producing both crops and livestock.

But large acreage isn't a requirement.

2v3 Farm operates a small, certified producer garden specializing in tomatoes and peppers.

rLm Ranch markets locally raised beefalo, beef, pork and poultry along with eggs and seasonal produce.

Lazy P Adventure Farm is also represented among Winnemucca-area members.

The range demonstrates that “local producer” can describe anything from a small specialty garden to a major agricultural operation.

Fernley and Northern Lyon County

Pictured left: Hasting Heritage Farm in Lyon County.

In the Fernley area, Corkscrew Land & Cattle Co. raises Highland cattle and produces beef, alfalfa, honey and honey products.

The diversification is notable: rather than depending upon a single commodity, the operation has several products that can reach different markets.

Hasting Heritage Farm takes another specialized approach, raising heritage and rare-breed livestock.

Eureka County

Pictured right: Miller Bison in Eureka.

In Eureka, Miller Bison has built a business around an animal more often associated with the Great Plains.

The operation raises more than 100 bison on approximately 320 acres and markets USDA-inspected packaged bison meat.

That means the business isn't simply raising livestock. It is taking the product farther along the economic chain before it reaches the customer.

And that is the common thread among many of these businesses.

They are producing things in communities that are often described primarily by what they extract or export: cattle, hay, minerals and other commodities.

But increasingly, rural businesses are putting their own names on the finished product.

A jar of Churchill County honey. A package of Eureka bison. A custom guitar made in Fallon. Vegetables grown outside Winnemucca.

They aren't merely made in Nevada – they’re made here, in Rural Nevada.

Robert

It’s been quite hectic past few days, so it’s just straight to the picks this week…

UCLA (+11 ½) at Oregon: This may be a leap of faith, but I don’t believe UCLA’s 4-0 record is a fluke. The Bruins run the ball like they mean business, and QB Nico Iamaleava is maturing into a leader. I watched a podcast over the weekend featuring UCLA head coach Bob Chesney, and I came away very impressed. As he said in that interview, Oregon has the best team, the best environment and the best coach the Bruins have faced this season, but they had a bye last week and I am confident they will be prepared and be competitive enough in this game with enough success to keep the score close.

Cal (+10) over Virginia Tech: Cal backup QB Jackson Brousseau brought the Bears back from a 24-7 deficit last week before the Rebels responded for the win, so I’m not too concerned whether starter Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele plays or not after he got a concussion in that game. Virginia Tech has to travel across the country after their attempt at a game-winning field goal last week against Pittsburgh caused a viral online debate about whether it was actually good. Now they have to travel across the country and dominate a feisty home team to get the money, and like UCLA, I think Cal can stay close in this one.

West Virginia (+3) over Arizona: Arizona’s win over Cincinnati last week ended past 11 p.m. in Tucson, and now here are the Wildcats playing at 9 a.m. body clock time in Morgantown, and they have to do it without their top three receivers and starting tight end. The scheduling situation is tough enough, the injured players are all key guys and West Virginia runs the ball for 294 yards per game. I’ll take that with a competitive home team almost every time, especially with the other factors thrown in.

Patriots (-3 ½) over Raiders: Maybe I’m stubborn, maybe I’m stupid, but I’m back with another bet against the Raiders. Their all-out effort against a hated rival last week came up short, even though they covered the spread. Meanwhile the Patriots came up big in a backs-to-the-wall spot with their season on the line against the Bills. My guess is the Patriots build off that win, while the Raiders have a tougher time getting back up.

Lions (-5 ½) at Cardinals: The Lions have been burned on defense time and again through the first four games, and now defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard is being questioned about his blitzes that the Panthers exploited those. But the best time to bet on a good team, (and yes, I still believe the Lions are a good team) is when they’re being doubted. The offense hasn’t been the problem, averaging 29.8 points per game and the defense has a chance to silence their critics for at least a week, Even if they don’t completely shut down the Cardinals, they should be able to do enough to get a win by a touchdown.

Giants (+4) over Commanders: I’m going against Tony on this one, especially once I saw the line went up a half point. Even though Jayden Daniels is going to start for the Commanders, I can’t imagine they want him to run much with a brace on his arm, and his running ability keys everything else he does, especially since the offense was nonfunctional with Athan Kaliakmanis after Marcus Mariota hurt his knee. They’re also missing Terry McLaurin and Jacory Croskey-Merritt, and I can’t see them extending a margin if Daniels has to play careful instead of making things happen with his legs.

Last week

College: 2-1

NFL: 1-2

Season

College: 11-7

NFL: 7-5

Tony

Oklahoma vs. Texas (-8.5) at Dallas: Oklahoma was supposed to be the surprise pick to make the CFP. After falling flat on its face against Michigan and Georgia that is not the case.  Arch Manning along with the Texas defense will make life tough for Oklahoma QB John Mateer. Texas 27, Oklahoma 10

Indiana (-7.5) at Nebraska: Indiana is still as good as they have been since the start of last year. Nebraska is knocking on the door of the top 25 but that door gets slammed. The Hoosiers make a statement in Lincoln. Indiana 34, Nebraska 20   

Iowa State (+10.5) at BYU: BYU will be missing its top running back and have a date with Notre Dame coming up. This could be a trap game for the Cougars. Iowa State will keep it close. BYU 27, Iowa State 24

Colts at Steelers (-2.5) The Colts played in London last week and easily beat the Commanders. The NFL decided to put them back on the road to Pittsburgh. A Aron and Steelers can’t be that bad, right? Steelers 27, Colts 21

Bears (-1.5) at Packers: The Packers are at a crossroads, with its season on the line. At what point do you look to go in a different direction? Meanwhile, the Bears have finally found themselves. Will be a long day at Lambeau. Bears 33, Packers 14

Giants at Commanders (-3.5): The Commanders laid an egg in London and look to get back on track. Jayden Daniels returns from an injury. If the offensive line keeps him upright, Washington should be okay. Commanders 20, Giants 14   

Last week

College: 2-1

NFL: 2-1

Season

College: 7-11

NFL: 5-6-1

In Virginia City down on F Street, the Virginia & Truckee Railroad Pumpkin Patch Express leaves the 1870 depot for the Gold Hill pumpkin patch at 11:20 a.m., 1:20 p.m. and 3 p.m. Oct. 10 and 11. Riders hop off at the trackside patch, pick a pumpkin and ride back through the Comstock. Tickets run $8 to $27 and include a pumpkin on most fares. Adults are $27 with a pumpkin or $21 without. Children 5 to 12 are $19, and toddlers with a pumpkin are $8. Children 4 and under ride free in a parent's lap if they skip the pumpkin. Reserve seats at virginiatruckee.com or 775-847-0380.

Swing by downtown Reno and watch Virginia Street turn into Little Italy for the 44th Great Italian Festival at The ROW. It’s running 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, and you won’t pay a penny to get in.

There’s a sauce cook-off, Italian farmers market, live tunes on two stages, a wine walk and a gelato-eating contest Sunday. The grape stomp starts at noon Saturday, so wear something you don’t mind getting splattered with purple juice.

Still raring to go? Head down to Carson Valley for Corley Ranch’s Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Patch in Gardnerville, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s $12 for a day of fun, and the tiniest cowpokes, age 2 and under, get in free. Sunday is Pups in the Patch, so bring your four-legged buddy for the dog costume contest. Some activities and pumpkins cost a little extra.

Now, if you’re headed out to Fallon, the Back Roads Vintage Market is taking over Rafter 3C Arena at 227 Sheckler Road. You’ll find more than 60 booths packed with antiques, farmhouse treasures and Nevada-made goodies. Hours are 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 9 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 10. Admission is $10 Friday, $5 Saturday, and kids 12 and under get in free. There’s food and live music, too.

Lattin Farms is still going strong with its Fall Festival every Friday and Saturday through Halloween, from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. You’ll find zip lines, a jump pad, a Wild West area, a five-acre corn maze, hayrides and a crafters fair on Saturdays. Admission is $15 online and $18 at the gate.

Up the highway in Battle Mountain, the scene changes for the Lander County Fall Festival, taking over Oct. 10 with pumpkin painting, scarecrow building, fall games, music and great food.

Winnemucca’s got your Saturday morning lined up. Crafters Welcome is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Winnemucca Christian Fellowship, 4380 Grass Valley Road, and it’s free to get in. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the fifth annual Free Community Pumpkin Patch takes over the Sports Complex at 1600 Barker Way. Pumpkins, photo ops and family games are all on tap, and you won’t pay a cent at the gate.

Don’t forget Ely out in White Pine County, where Oct. 10 is loaded with hometown favorites. The Ely Airport Open House at Yelland Field runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the Ely Jet Center and the Nellis Air Force safety crew.

From noon to 6 p.m., White Pine Main Street is throwing Discover Downtown Ely along Aultman Street. A brand-new historic trail map features 22 downtown buildings, along with shop specials, and you can get the Discovery Trail logo printed on a blank shirt at the Main Street office.

The Nevada Northern Railway Pumpkin Patch Caper Train is rolling out again from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Oct. 10 and from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 11. Smokey McCinders and Dirt the Cat will be along for the ride, spinning stories as you chug out to the pumpkin patch at Keystone Gulch. Tickets are $45 for adults, $38 for seniors and $20 for kids 4 to 12. Little ones under 4 ride free, but you’ll still need to grab them a ticket. Book your spot at nnry.com or call 775-289-2085.

May your boots stay dry and your pumpkin make it home safely. Don't forget to double-check times and dates before you roll out; things can change.

Safe travels! 

Behind that simple transaction, however, is an enormous system of power plants, solar fields, geothermal facilities, batteries, transmission lines and substations that has to produce and deliver enough electricity whenever customers need it.

And according to NV Energy’s latest planning documents, Nevada is going to need considerably more of it.

NV Energy filed its newest Integrated Resource Plan with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada in May. The plan, contained in PUCN Docket 26-05007, looks ahead from 2027 through 2046 and describes how the utility expects electricity demand to change and what resources could be needed to meet it.

The increase is substantial.

NV Energy’s 2026 forecast projects that annual electricity use over the 20-year planning period will be 47 percent higher than the forecast the company made just two years ago, driven primarily by large customer projects.

The utility previously expected annual electricity use to grow about 3.2 percent per year. Its current forecast puts that growth at about 5.3 percent. Peak demand, the amount of electricity customers require at the same time, is also expected to grow faster, at 3.8 percent annually compared with the previous 2.5-percent forecast.

Those numbers are specifically important because electricity is unlike many other commodities.

A state can store gasoline in tanks or wheat in grain elevators. The electric grid must continuously balance how much electricity customers are using with how much electricity is available.

And so the role of capacity cannot be understated.

A megawatt, or MW, measures how much power can be produced or used at one moment. A megawatt-hour measures how much energy is used over time. And not every 500-MW generating resource behaves the same way.

A natural-gas turbine can generally be started when electricity is needed. Solar generation depends on sunlight. Batteries can store electricity produced earlier and supply it later, but only until the stored energy is exhausted. Geothermal plants can provide electricity around the clock.

Utility planners therefore must look beyond the simple number of megawatts installed and determine whether enough dependable power will actually be available during the hottest summer afternoon, an equipment failure or another period of unusually high demand.

That is essentially what the NV Energy Integrated Resource Plan attempts to do – forecast future electricity demand, examines possible generating and storage resources, transmission needs and costs, and proposes a combination of investments and contracts to meet that demand. The Public Utilities Commission then reviews the proposal.

What makes the current proceeding particularly important for rural Nevada is where much of the growth is occurring.

In a briefing on the new resource plan, NV Energy said the need for new resources is greater in Northern Nevada than Southern Nevada and that the company expects to add more new resources in the north. The utility also said new thermal generation, generally power plants using fuels such as natural gas could exceed 3,000 MW statewide during the coming decade.

That means Nevada’s changing electric system will not be confined to Reno and Las Vegas.

Transmission projects already under consideration cross Churchill, Lyon, Storey and Washoe counties. Solar and battery projects are being proposed in rural counties. Existing generating sites such as Valmy and Fort Churchill figure into the broader discussion about future resources. The PUC docket also shows a growing number of separate applications involving very large electricity customers, including Amazon and Vantage Data Centers in Northern Nevada.

For rural communities, the questions extend well beyond whether there is enough electricity.

Where will new generating facilities be built? Where will transmission lines run? How much land will they require? How will projects affect county tax bases? Who pays for infrastructure built to serve major new customers? What happens if projected customers do not materialize? And can new generation and transmission be built quickly enough to keep pace with demand?

Those questions will be examined in the coming months.

The PUC has scheduled hearings on NV Energy’s resource plan beginning Oct. 27

Great Basin Sun will follow that proceeding and, in the weeks ahead, explain how Nevada’s electrical system works, where the new demand is coming from, what NV Energy proposes to build and what the changing grid could mean for the rural communities where much of that infrastructure will be located.

The idea may be good. Figuring out what comes next can be considerably harder.

Business plans, financing, regulations, food-safety requirements, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution can quickly become obstacles, particularly for entrepreneurs operating in rural communities without easy access to specialized business services.

Nevada has quietly assembled a network of programs intended to help businesses navigate those steps.

At the center is the Nevada Small Business Development Center, which provides free, confidential one-on-one advising to existing and prospective Nevada business owners. Its services range from business planning and financing assistance to market research, accounting, regulatory questions and loan preparation.

Connected to the SBDC is Made in Nevada, a statewide program designed to identify, promote and connect businesses producing goods in the state.

Membership is free.

Eligible businesses can use the Made in Nevada logo, receive a listing in the statewide business directory, participate in marketing and networking opportunities and connect with educational programs and SBDC advisers.

Businesses do not necessarily have to manufacture every component of a product in Nevada. Products may qualify if they are grown, created or substantially transformed here, with the value after transformation representing at least 50% or more of the individual parts used in production.

Retailers and restaurants can also participate if they regularly sell qualifying Nevada-made products.

Agriculture has its own place within the network.

The longstanding Nevada Grown program has merged with Made in Nevada, with agricultural businesses now participating under the Grown in Nevada designation.

Agricultural products carrying the designation must be grown in Nevada. Processed agricultural products using the Grown in Nevada logo must contain at least 50% Nevada-grown ingredients.

That creates an important bridge between producing an agricultural commodity and developing a consumer product from it.

A rancher might begin with cattle and eventually sell branded packages of Nevada-raised beef. A beekeeper can move from producing honey to bottling, branding and selling it directly. A farmer might turn produce into salsa, jam, pickles or another value-added product.

That next step is where another Nevada program enters the picture.

The Nevada Regional Food Business Center, operated through University of Nevada, Reno Extension, works specifically with farmers, ranchers and food entrepreneurs.

The center helps businesses with planning, financial management, supply chains, food-safety requirements, regulations, market development and value-added processing. It reported working with 170 Nevada food and farm businesses in 2025.

The center is also working on a problem particularly important to rural Nevada: the infrastructure between the farm and the customer.

That includes physical infrastructure such as processing facilities, commercial kitchens, refrigeration, storage, transportation and distribution, as well as what the center calls “soft infrastructure” — relationships among producers, buyers, restaurants, distributors and other businesses.

The idea is not simply to produce more agricultural commodities. It is to help Nevada producers retain more of the economic value created after those commodities leave the farm or ranch.

The programs can work together.

A producer considering a new product can receive business and financial assistance through the Nevada SBDC, specialized food-business assistance through the Nevada Regional Food Business Center and, once eligible, marketing and statewide recognition through Grown in Nevada and Made in Nevada.

There is also a Native American Made in Nevada designation within the Made in Nevada network, providing another way to identify and promote products made by Native American-owned Nevada businesses.

And the SBDC's services extend well beyond agriculture.

Advisers work with businesses on feasibility studies, cash flow, financing, marketing, government contracting, technology development, regulatory issues and other challenges involved in starting or expanding a company.

Importantly for rural Nevada, the network isn't confined to Reno and Las Vegas.

The Nevada SBDC maintains rural services through the Churchill Entrepreneur Development Association in Fallon and Great Basin College locations in Elko and Ely, with additional assistance available statewide.

In Fallon, the SBDC office at CEDA includes Agriculture and Food Systems Business Advisor Kelli Kelly and Business Development Specialist Sara Beebe-Wolken. Businesses can receive individual counseling as well as help with feasibility analysis, marketing, credit management and business planning.

The Great Basin College SBDC serves northeastern Nevada businesses with assistance ranging from financing and loan packaging to marketing and record keeping.

For an entrepreneur, none of these programs eliminates the risk of starting or expanding a business. They can, however, make it considerably less likely that someone has to figure everything out alone.

For rural Nevada, that may be the greatest value.

The raw materials and ideas and entrepreneurs already exist here. The question is how many of them can be turned into businesses that create jobs, generate income, and keep more Nevada dollars in Nevada. 

Established in 2026, NEON describes itself as a Nevada-led, nonpartisan initiative. The organization is financially and technically supported by The Carter Center, which currently serves as its fiscal sponsor and is helping oversee training, recruitment and statewide operations. NEON is guided by a cross-partisan advisory board of Nevada leaders with backgrounds in elections, journalism, Tribal communities, philanthropy and civic engagement. The Carter Center has said its long-term goal is for NEON eventually to operate independently.

NEON’s website lists a five-member advisory board: Tarina Elliott, public relations manager for the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe; Michele Forney, former Help America Vote Act administrator for the Nevada Secretary of State and senior elections expert with The Elections Group; Pat Hickey, a journalist and former Nevada legislative leader; DeWayne McCoy, pastor, founder and CEO of The Foundation Christian Center and The After Market; and Janet Quintero, chief strategy and advocacy officer for United Way of Southern Nevada.

The organization’s work includes “protecting human rights, fostering democratic principles, promoting the rule of law and access to information, tackling neglected tropical diseases, and advocating for people facing issues related to mental health and caregiving.” According to The Carter Center, the organization has conducted humanitarian and election observation work in 90 countries around the world.

In recent years, that focus has expanded in the U.S. through support of election observation networks in states including New Mexico and Montana.

Sarah Johnson, one of The Carter Center’s senior associate directors for the Democracy Program, said the central goal of these efforts involves addressing issues with how elections are administered as well as informing the public about how elections work, from the time voters drop off their ballots until the final count is announced.

“In The Carter Center’s work overseas, we assess all parts of the electoral process and work to increase public understanding and to lend transparency to the process,” Johnson said.

She noted that The Carter Center has seen distrust among the American public toward democratic institutions. As a citizen-led initiative, Johnson explained, “nonpartisan election observation networks have the potential to serve as independent and trusted actors in this field.”

Another reason The Carter Center considers nonpartisan election observation in the United States important is that what happens with elections here can affect perceptions overseas.

“We’re considered the vanguard of democracy in the world, and what happens here also impacts many of the countries in which we work overseas and democracy around the world,” Johnson said.

But why Nevada rather than another state?

Johnson said data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data + Science Lab show Nevada ranks among the nation’s leaders in election administration. Behind Minnesota, Nevada ranked second in the country for measures including accessibility to the ballot box, election security and processing, security of election systems and voter registration processes.

“Nevada is a great place for us to learn positive lessons from administrators that can be shared in other states where The Carter Center is supporting nonpartisan observer groups,” Johnson explained.

NEON observers will receive training in “applicable laws, procedures and safeguards, and observer responsibilities so that they’re prepared to document everything accurately,” Johnson said.

Observation will include poll worker training, voting equipment testing and mail-in ballot processing. Observers will use standardized questions and checklists to record what they see objectively and consistently across locations. The data collected will then be compiled and analyzed to “produce a public assessment that’s grounded in evidence.”

Johnson clarified that observers are trained not to interfere with proceedings or “proactively engage with voters.”

“Really, their job is to document the process and provide that impartial, accurate account of what happened,” she said.

Johnson emphasized that election observation efforts will extend across Nevada’s counties, with county coordinators assigned to each. NEON is “focusing our recruitment exclusively within those communities,” she said, adding that “most, if not all, of them will be observing within their own communities.”

The goal of The Carter Center is to continue supporting NEON during future election seasons by helping train community volunteers on state election laws, safeguards and procedures. Eventually, Johnson said, the hope is for NEON to become a separate entity capable of operating independently.

That has already happened with an election observation group The Carter Center supported in Montana, which Johnson said became a nonprofit organization this year.

The Carter Center will evaluate NEON after the midterm elections, Johnson said, asking whether “NEON was largely able to observe the election process from start to finish across the state.”

“It would be amazing to be able to have observation in every state,” Johnson said, adding that “our hope is that we can continue to be expanding this work” through the 2028 presidential election.

Johnson said observation networks provide “an important opportunity for people to get engaged beyond political or party identity.” 

The state can nominate 49 of its 195 eligible census tracts, according to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED). The selections must receive U.S. Treasury certification before becoming designated zones.

The issue is particularly relevant across Great Basin Sun’s coverage area. According to the GOED Opportunity Zones map, Eureka County, parts of Elko County, parts of Lyon County, and Mineral County are eligible. Because Opportunity Zones are designated by census tract rather than by city or county, however, inclusion of a tract does not necessarily mean an entire community is covered.

As of Oct. 4, GOED had not published Nevada's final nominations. The agency's website continued to display its draft nomination list, although the public-comment period has ended. Nevada is listed as having until Oct. 28 to submit its nominations to the U.S. Treasury under an extended federal deadline. Opportunity Zones are intended to encourage long-term investment in low-income and economically distressed areas. Their boundaries follow census tracts, so a designation may cover only part of a community.

The program gives qualifying investors federal capital gains tax benefits when they reinvest profits through Qualified Opportunity Funds, which finance eligible businesses and property within the zones. The money comes from private investors rather than through a direct government grant to the community.

For example, someone who earns a profit selling stock could reinvest that gain through a qualifying fund. Under the new rules, the investor generally can postpone taxes on the reinvested gain for five years, or until the investment is sold if that happens sooner.

Holding the investment for five years reduces the original taxable gain by 10%. For investments through a Qualified Rural Opportunity Fund, that reduction increases to 30%. Investors who hold qualifying investments for at least 10 years can avoid federal capital gains taxes on the investment’s growth.

Rural areas also have a lower threshold for qualifying improvements to existing property. That change can make building rehabilitation projects eligible with a smaller investment than would otherwise be required.

Federal legislation signed in July 2025 made the program permanent and established a new round of designations every 10 years. It also tightened eligibility requirements and added reporting requirements intended to track investment activity and results.

Nevada developed its draft with input from local governments, regional economic development organizations, tribal nations and business and community leaders. However, meeting federal eligibility requirements does not guarantee selection because the state has fewer available nominations than eligible tracts.

Nevada’s original 61 Opportunity Zone tracts, designated in 2018, remain open for investment through Dec. 31, 2028, according to GOED. The old and new maps will overlap during 2027 and 2028.

For rural Nevada, the stakes are somewhat higher than in the previous program. Investments made through Qualified Rural Opportunity Funds receive a 30% reduction in the original taxable gain after five years, compared with 10% for standard Opportunity Zone investments. Rural projects also face a lower threshold for improvements to existing buildings, potentially making rehabilitation of older commercial properties more attractive to investors.

For communities seeking investment, GOED recommends identifying viable projects, preparing information for potential investors and combining the program with other financing tools. A designation offers an incentive, but communities still need projects that investors are willing to finance.

Fernley Planning Commission
Second Wednesday of the month at 5 p.m.
City Hall, 595 Silver Lace Blvd.
Next meeting: Oct. 14.

Fernley Senior Citizen Advisory Committee
Second Friday of even-numbered months at 9 a.m.
City Hall, 595 Silver Lace Blvd.
Next meeting: Oct. 9.

Lyon County Commission
First and third Thursday of the month at 9 a.m.
Lyon County Administrative Complex, 27 S. Main St., Yerington.
Next meeting: Oct. 16.

Lyon County Planning Commission
Second Tuesday of the month at 9 a.m.
Lyon County Administrative Complex, 27 S. Main St., Yerington.
Next meeting: Oct. 13.

Lyon County Library Board of Trustees
Fourth Tuesday of the month at 9:30 a.m.
Locations rotate among the five county libraries.
Next meeting: Oct. 27.

Lyon County School District Board of Trustees
Fourth Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m.
Locations rotate among attendance areas.
Next meeting: Oct. 27.

North Lyon County Fire Protection District Board of Trustees
Second Thursday of the month.
195 E. Main St.
Next meeting: Oct. 15.

Fernley Swimming Pool General Improvement District
Third Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m.
300 Cottonwood Lane.
Next meeting: Oct. 20.