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Hi *****,
Thanks for reading washoevalley.org and taking the time to respond to the article and your views are appreciated. I'll post them anonymously as a counter-point to the article but I have to list it under "Responses From People Not Living Next Door To This". As with the Rocking LJ Arena, I'm expecting the owners to get all kinds of testimony on what a great asset this business will be and expect the immediate neighbors to "take one for the team" as our recently deposed Miss Nevada USA said about Yucca Mountain. (ed.)

Rick,

For the past year, I have viewed your web site as a tremendous service to the residents of Washoe Valley. It is on my list of favorites and I visit it on a regular basis for valley news and pictures. But I am confused about your bias on the new Twisted Sisters arena. The arena is there legally, approved by the county and built to code. It conforms to the land use and zoning prevalent here in the valley, as you have mentioned. I expect it to remain despite the outcome of a special use permit. This looks to be a class facility. But you paint a doom and gloom picture regarding health issues, dust, noise, and odor. If the arena is approved as a commercial enterprise, the county could actually dictate more stringent requirements than if it were private. Look around the valley. How many horses are out there? Do you think everyone cleans their corrals daily and hauls out their manure once a week? NOT! Yet it is county code. Why pick on Twisted Sisters before you even know how they intend to operate. If they are private, they can bring in as many horses as they want without approval from the county and no one could stop them. How is 15 horses on a 10-acre lot more detrimental to the aquifer than 3 horses each on 5 one-acre lots? A boarding facility will use shavings that absorb urine and a disposal bin. The same with manure. Much more sanitary than most of the horse properties here in the valley. This valley is famous for dust when the wind blows, whether there are horses upwind or not. We get a lot of sand blowing from the lake's beaches, yet no one says do away with the lake. It's part of the environment. We live with it. It has never been proved that horses are the main contributing factor to nitrates in our wells. They occur more from natural causes and septic systems. I have 6 horses, not all mine, living within 300 feet of my well and it has never tested positive for nitrates. Of those 6 horses, 3 corrals are cleaned on a daily basis, 2 are cleaned weekly, and 1 has never been cleaned in 4 years. That one is not mine, nor on my property. Yet my well continues to remain clean. The corrals that are cleaned every day have just as many flies as the one that is never cleaned. If you are outdoors, you have flies. Again, a fact of life. My corrals are as odor-free as can be made possible. A health inspector once told me they were cleaner than my neighbor's kitchen. Why don't you call or email me and come for a visit? I will be glad to show you my barn and facility with 3 horses and you can judge it against the property behind me with one horse. Then tell me which you would rather live next to. You can get an idea of what is necessary to maintain a clean and attractive horse property. The number of horses on a property is not the issue, rather how they are maintained. I am told twisted Sisters has every intention of maintaining, a clean, quiet, low key operation that will have little or no impact on homeowners around them. If the neighbors are concerned with traffic noise, why aren't they complaining about the numerous illegal dirt bikes and loud stereos going by each day? My tractor makes much less noise than many of the trucks that roar up and down every day. I live within 5 houses from the arena. I just got my new tax assessment and I can guarantee this building did not decrease my property value. Again, contact me if you are willing to look at this issue from a horseman's perspective.

sincerely,

*************

Thanks for the words of support for the website and I hope that will continue! My bias comes from being one of those who is two houses from a huge, ugly, steel warehouse surrounded by houses. Apparently from what you say, what is going to go on there is way out of proportion to the building. Your points on horse effects, care, private versus commercial are well taken. Assuming that the effects of the operation of the commercial stable will be minimal, we are left with the building. But this is New Washoe City, after all, and some of us start to take a little too much pride in it. The beautiful backdrop of mountains, sky and lake deludes us into thinking we really live in a nice place and we come to expect a little too much.

When my wife and I first drove into the valley several years ago, she was "put-off" by the various "yard collections", "projects in progress", creative choices of house color, style and type of dwelling throughout the neighborhood. My reaction was a little different. I thought, "Cool! If I want a bunch of unfinished projects, a car collection, wild colors, barking dogs and farm animals, I could do it too!" (Even my giant silver mine replica is still on the drawing board for the "lower 40".) We have to keep in mind that is the real "beauty" of New Washoe City.

We have also come to respect the various ways everyone else indulges their whims, hobbies and lifestyles. It really isn't fair to have your mini ranch and criticize those whose interest is loud trucks and stereos (and vice versa). To each his own, right? Anyway, everything has its limits and to the neighbors immediately surrounding the "steel monolith" such a big building is over the top especially for someone's business.

It really doesn't matter that the building is for horses, a noble and honorable undertaking for sure. No one is against horses or horsepeople. The building could be for a factory, auto repair, warehouse, swap meet- any type of business at all, really. So if we are going to allow that kind of a building, why not just let any business in? If you can put up the building, who are we to dictate what you can do inside it? That's not a bad idea actually, with gas prices always going up. Many of us could work and shop right here. We could be an industrial park with houses.

Sounds far-fetched but we never thought we would see a huge commercial warehouse next door either.

I would have liked to have "checked my facts" but there was never any public forum or source of information leading up to the actual building of the building that I am aware of. The property never even had a "For Sale" sign on it. I appreciate the information that is now coming in, though.

The "back fence" neighbors can't seem to win as far as complaining either. Without information, and with such a huge building, it is normal to fear the worst but I don't like to complain without knowing the whole story either. On the other hand, at the August 3, 2006 Board of Adjustment Meeting which included the neighbors complaint about the Rocking LJ commercial stable on Lakeshore, board member Philip Horan "noted that none of the opponents present objected initially to the building of the arena", which I take to mean he didn't think their subsequent complaints were valid.

by the editor, Jan 3, 2006