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Readers write

I agree that gated neighborhoods are against Truckee’s character, but there are some issues that must be looked at before we bring down the gates. First, the roads that exist behind the gates are private roads. This means that the homeowners served by those roads pay for their construction, maintenance, liability insurance, and snow removal. These private roads do not conform to the Town of Truckee’s roadway standards and are not adequate in terms of construction or safety to handle the traffic volumes that public roads are built and designed for.

Is the planning commission suggesting that these private roads be added to the public domain? If so, it would follow that the town would pay for roadway upgrades to bring the roads up to current standards, maintain the roads, assume liability for the road and its design, and become responsible for snow removal. Secondly, there is little actual public benefit to removing the gates; and for this we must limit the discussion to the gated neighborhoods within town limits.

The largest gated neighborhoods in the area (Juniper Hills, Martis Peak, Lahontan, etc.) are not within town limits, and all of those gated areas block access to public lands beyond, or do not provide public access to dedicated open space. The in-town gated neighborhoods are completely land locked by other private property. This means that these gated neighborhoods are not blocking public access to our state and nationally owned lands.



It is apparent that adding existing private roads to the public domain is not cost effective. The planning commission should be limiting its discussion to proposed gated neighborhoods. Every new development should provide a dedicated public access to any public lands beyond the subdivision boundaries, and public access to dedicated open space within the subdivision.

Eric Bacon



Truckee

The teachers of the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District understand and appreciate the support of the local community, especially the parents of the students in our local schools. It has come time to call on that support once more.

After almost eight months delay in negotiations, the certified staff represented by the Tahoe Truckee Education Association requested a 6 percent raise in staff salaries. The reasoning behind this was that for the last three years teachers have not received any cost of living increases even when the state has continually given an annual increase to the district.

The 6 percent is merely compensation to bring the teachers back in line with the annual increases of fuel, utilities, food and other essentials. Last Thursday, the district negotiators responded by offering the teachers 1 percent. This offer is ludicrous especially in light of the fact that the district administration has substantially fattened their salaries from the district’s general fund. In fact, the board recently voted to give one such administrator $20,000 for two months extra work.

Please contact the school board members with your concern to let them know where priorities in the district should be, not with paper pushing bureaucrats but with the people who make the most direct impact on you children ” the teachers.

Vince Bruno

Teacher, union representative

Alder Creek Middle School


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