November 13, 2017 – The Nevada Irrigation District (NID) has scheduled a special Board of Directors meeting to discuss concerns and alternatives regarding the Scotts Flat Spillway gate at 9 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 17.
NID staff members met on Wednesday, Nov. 8 and have identified an immediate alternative plan to keep the gate open until a permanent solution is reached with community involvement. The Board will discuss and consider an action on a Scotts Flat gate plan at the special Friday meeting.
Also, on Tuesday, Nov. 14, staff will update the Water & Hydroelectric Operations Committee (WHO) on an alternative plan to the Scotts Flat Spillway gate closure, taking into consideration NID’s regulatory and health and safety concerns.
Continuing forward, NID will work with community members in a long-term, permanent solution.
It’s about time the NID staff and board address the situation they created at Scotts Flat. Since September, dozens of residents have attended NID board meetings and asked the board and staff to take action to remedy the situation they have created when they locked the gate. Board members and staff have listened politely and taken no actions to resolve the issue. Citizens including representatives of llocal biking organizations, NU mountain bike team members and faculty advisers and local land trust representatives have offered to work on the solution including, if necessary, building a new trail.
So it’s nice to see movement toward a resolution. But the question lingers: why does it take NID staff so long to resolve issues like this and the implementation of live streaming their meetings. It took more than a year to get live streaming and archiving in place. Let’s hope the local residents, walkers and bikers don’t have to wait that long at Scotts Flat.