Scurrilous Barbwire predictions have a way of coming true, even some I regret. (See “History foreshadows a GOP November win,” 16 Feb. 2016. I did include a 2020 silver lining.)
Sparks, Washoe County, the school district, UNR and the Catholic Diocese will get hit with massive class actions by aggrieved parents and former students within the next five to 10 years.
By the time this column hits the streets, the Sparks City Council will have voted to spend $300,000 to expand parking at Golden Eagle Park. I’ve written an entire series about the toxic, cancer-causing, brain-damaging phony turf at that pit. It’s overdue for replacement.
It also infects sports fields throughout Nevada, including the football fields at Mackay Stadium, McQueen, Manogue, Carson and Douglas high schools. Ditto Peccole Park, the UNR baseball complex.
I informed Washoe County School District Superintendent Tracy Davis at a public meeting. Her basic response: Don’t talk to me, I just work here. Get a bunch of people to complain at a board meeting.
That cover-your-ass bureaucratese is Exhibit A why I’ve been telling people she will announce her departure before her three-year contract expires. I hope her greener pastures don’t include parks and athletic fields with toxic turf.
I assume an occasional intern at Sparks City Hall may get stuck with skimming a random edition of the Trib. Alas, perhaps not. The mayor and council have been just like Ms. Davis, informed but catatonic without a crisis (see Flint, Michigan).
The days are long gone when public officials looked into public problems. Modern political management advises ignoring them. Most of the time, they’ll go away or someone else will do something. If a government official looks into a situation, that action confirms something’s wrong for the damned liberal media.
So Ms. Davis, Mayor Martini and the usual suspects do nothing while kids get brain damage from lead- and benzene-laced turf. School district staff know. I’ve talked to embarrassed coaches afraid to say a word.
Sparks better hope City Attorney Chet Adams is long retired before these lawsuits start flying.
LOUSY LEGAL ADVICE DEPT. This week’s council agenda item 10.1 was about as illegal as possible. It involves “modifying environmental control and pretreatment standards.”
Of what? Asthma victims? Paint primer? Wood stain? Swamp gas? Sparks has developed a rep for vague and thus questionably legal meeting agendas. Just remember folks, the last council that did lots of business in secret was unanimously ousted in 1983.
REQUIESCANT IN PACE. We are losing giants. This Friday at 11:00 a.m. at Reno’s Second Baptist Church, we say goodbye to Nevada civil rights legend Eddie Scott. (I composed his full and extensive obituary at RenoSparksNAACP.org/)
While I was writing this column, word arrived that another former Reno-Sparks NAACP president died. We lost William Moon last Sunday. Watch my websites for updates.
I lament the loss of these good friends. They were better than me. Eddie and Bill would already have been out picketing Golden Eagle and City Hall.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
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