06/06/2026
Happy Friday Yerington community!
With school ending right around the corner it seems likes everyone I know is running in multiple directions right now.
All of our Yerington schools are having their ceremonies next week, so congratulations to all of you with students moving on to their next journey.
Tomorrow night, here in Yerington, will be the annual Walker River Basin Community Foundation dinner. If you've never been, this is a wonderful event that supports one of the most amazing groups you'll ever see. The WRBCF gives so much to the Mason Valley and Smith communities. They are the very definition of community spirit. If you're attending, or if they have room and you'd like to attend, I'll post the flyer with this post. This is a wonderful program to support.
Speaking of great programs, Lyon County Human Services is hosting their Kids' Day in the Park at our very own Mountain View Park on June 16. Some of your City staff will be on site to help in this great time. Again, I'll attach a flyer for you.
We've been very busy for you within the city. At our most recent City Council meeting, your Council approved the changes to business licenses and liquor licenses (they are now annual renewals). They also adopted the Main Street Overlay District and standards for improving standards along Main Street between Goldfield and Bridge Street.
Also approved at the most recent Council meeting was our budget for the 26/27 fiscal year (starts July 1). I'll be the first to tell you, this budget was not ideal. We had to make some cuts that none of wanted. The reality is, many of our revenues has decreased or remained stagnant while our expenses have continued to climb every year. This next year is going to be tight, but your incredible staff in every department is committed to the long term goal and tightening up now while we work to improve our long term outlook.
One area that requires more discussion is our sewer fund and sewer rates. This will be an item for discussion in future meetings as we need to look carefully at this one and assess our needs. My quick glance, is that we need to increase our rates in order to keep up with our expenses. We have been seeking grants and other avenues to help subsidize needed repairs, but I still have concerns that our current fee structure is not supportive of long term health of that program. I don't like sharing bad news, but this is something we need to look at. Our Public Works Director, Paul Shapiro and I are also looking at setting tours of the waste water ponds in case the public would like to be better informed of that process and what exactly we do to process waste and discharge it from the city. Be on the lookout for future announcements.
Our next City Council meeting is this coming Monday, June 8. This is a lighter agenda compared to others, but you can always review it and any supporting materials at our website www.yerington.net .
I mentioned above that many of our school graduations and celebrations will take place next week. With that in mind, it's probably a good time to make you aware of a campaign your Yerington NV Police Department is taking part in. Starting today and through most of June, they will be taking part in impaired driving campaigns to help keep impaired drivers off of the streets. I'm extremely proud of our YPD and the effort they have put in these last 11 months to take part in more and more of these type of campaigns. Not only does it increase awareness (which can lead to deterrence) it increases safety.
Another great thing happening with YPD right now is their fundraising for the K-9 program. I don't want to get too far off track with my update, but please check their page for more information. They have a lot of great things going on.
I've heard some chatter recently about availability of housing, and I'd like to let the public know that City staff is engaged almost daily with different developers about projects to bring more housing to our City. In fact, over the last week, we've had more building permits turned in for new homes, than our City has had in several years ( I don't claim to know the exact time frame, just gauging by my experience).
We currently have 7 new home permits under review and I'm happy to report that even with our small staff, we are much faster than industry standards in turning permits around. In addition to these, we are in discussion with several developers about new projects to bring not only single family homes, but multifamily or worker related housing to our valley. Considering our extremely low vacancy rate (1.4% according to our Master Plan studies) we are very interested in bringing housing to our city. The catch is, it also needs to be responsible. This past week I was fortunate to gather several department heads into one room to help expedite some development plans, while still scrutinizing it with every responsible division with say in the matter. These are some of the steps we are taking to address our housing crunch responsibly, but swiftly.
We had some minor road repairs happen this week around town. Be on the lookout for more pothole repairs etc next week. Again, if you want to be sure an area you see is addressed with pot hole repairs you can send your request to Paul at [email protected]. It may already be on our list, but better safe than sorry.
With that, I need to switch gears to family time. Have a wonderful weekend and I hope to see you at the WRBCF dinner tomorrow!
As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, you can message me directly at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Jerry Bryant
Interim City Manager
(The views expressed in this post are mine alone and not that of the City)
