Around the Arch Blog

Thanks to a partnership with the City of Reno, Charter Communications, Carson City, and Access Carson City, area residents will be able to watch live hearings of the Nevada Legislature starting Monday, February 7.

The live coverage of Assembly and Senate sessions, as well as various committee hearings, will be broadcast on public access channel 216 on Charter Communications. A re-airing of some hearings will also occur during the evening hours.

Residents will be able to track the City of Reno’s progress towards decreasing its carbon footprint with a new interactive website.

The Green Energy Dashboard, http://greenenergy.reno.gov, provides detailed information on 11 solar and wind turbine systems that have been installed on City facilities, with new sites to be added in the coming months. In several formats, the Dashboard displays the energy generated by the City’s solar and wind systems, allowing users to select custom date ranges as well as export the data. Residents will also be able to use the data to better predict what they could expect from installing similar systems at their homes or businesses.

In June and September of 2009, the Reno City Council approved a series of energy-efficient projects. The projects encompass solar photovoltaic systems, a wind turbine demonstration program, solar thermal heating systems, lighting retrofits, control systems, and a variety of HVAC upgrades. These projects make up the City of Reno’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Initiative, representing an investment of $19,067,678 in projects. The entire program is funded through a combination of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, Clean and Renewable Energy Bonds, Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds, Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds, and RenewableGenerations rebates, offered by the local utility, NV Energy. Energy savings, projected at $996,903, will be used to pay off the bonds, making no impact on the City’s general fund.

When all the projects are on-line, the City will save 6,800,000 kilowatt hours and 225,000 therms per year and will lower its carbon footprint by 17,200,000 pounds of CO2 each and every year. The energy projects financed through all of the above mechanisms will be installed and commissioned through April 2012.

Check out the wind turbines on top of City Hall to see how much energy they are creating. The City launched its new web tool “Green Energy Dashboard” that gives current information on how much energy is generated from its solar and wind projects throughout Reno.

We just started archiving our City Council meetings on our YouTube channel. We normally try to keep our videos short and sweet, but our special government channel allows us to upload long videos as well. We think this will be a nice format to archive these meetings.

As with any YouTube video, viewers can jump to any spot in the Council Meeting they want to see. We have a Council Meeting archive page set up on our website – check it out.

Acting Reno Police Chief Steve Pitts updated the Reno City Council on ideas he is pursuing to enhance efforts to clean up graffiti.

 The Reno Rink on the River will close after skating ends on Super Bowl Sunday(February 6th).  It was scheduled to operate until President’s Day, Monday, February 21st. Private rentals and group reservations scheduled through Sunday 2/6 will not be impacted, nor will skating lessons since they will be done by then. 

The decision to close early is a financial decision meant to minimize costs to the City.  Declining attendance revenues that no longer cover operating costs and the recent warm weather that increased energy costs to keep the ice frozen make it a reasonable time to end Rink operations for the season.  By closing two weeks early expenses will be reduced roughly $15,000.  

The ice rink is located at City Plaza, located at the corner of First and Virginia Streets in Downtown Reno along the Truckee River.  A detailed schedule of skating times and a list of admission fees for the remainder of the season can be found online.

City of Reno staff and volunteers organized a local Project Homeless Connect, which is similar to events going on in more than 200 other communities in the United States.

Host Sharon Spangler interviews Nevada’s new Governor Brian Sandoval about his optimism and how local government could be affected by his plans to deal with the shortfall in the State’s budget.

The Reno Police Department led a sweep of the Crest Inn in downtown Reno to investigate criminal and quality of life issues. The teams that went door-to-door at the motel or checked the building included, Reno code enforcement officers and firefighters, Washoe County Health Department staff, OSHA investigators and others.

The Family Shelter is about to lose one family. Resident Thomas Glozer and his three young boys are about to move in to their own place thanks to a federal grant. Glozer worked with service providers to secure this grant and other programs, including funds to go to college.