BY BOB CONRAD
Garbage, debris and human waste along the Truckee River have raised concerns about water quality.
IS THE DREAM OVER?
PHOTO/BOB CONRAD
It seemed on Tuesday that a bare majority of the U.S. Supreme court would allow the Trump administration to follow through on its plan to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which has allowed around 800,000 young people, often called “dreamers,” to avoid being deported from the United States. The justices heard well over an hour of oral arguments—and hundreds of DACA supporters rallied outside the court. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh appeared likely to agree that DACA was properly shut down by the Department of Homeland Security. However, Chief Justice John Roberts may be the deciding vote in the matter. Last term, he was the deciding vote when the court blocked the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said a greater degree of explaining would be needed to justify the decision to end DACA. “This is about a choice to destroy lives,” she said.
COP SHOPPING According to a report in the University of Nevada, Reno’s, student newspaper—the Sagebrush—the university has announced two candidates to fill the position of chief of police for school’s police department. The announcement was made in an email sent to faculty and staff. The two candidates are Terence Calloway and Todd Renwick. According to the Sagebrush report, Calloway is currently an assistant vice president for safety and parking—and the chief of police—at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee. Renwick is a long-time employee of UNRPD. He’s been serving as the interim assistant vice president and director of the department since previous UNRPD Chief of Police Adam Garcia departed from the position in February.
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW In a Nov. 4 press release, KNPB Public Television announced that it was rebranding itself—with a new name and a new look. The station, which has served Northern and Central Nevada and North Eastern California since 1983, will now be called PBS Reno. The change coincides with a rebranding of PBS on a national scale made in response to public broadcaster’s 50th anniversary. In a story on the Fast Company website, Don Wilcox, vice president of multiplatform marketing and content at PBS, is quoted as having said, “We had a flip-phone brand in an iPhone world.”
—JERI DAVIS
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Bathroom break Can an innovative public restroom reduce waste along the river? Officials want to find out. People are pooping in the Truckee Escherichia coli (E. coli) in the river, River. Increasing homeless encampand while the source of E. coli has ments in recent years have led to not been tied directly to a single more debris, garbage and excrement source, human waste is a probable along—and in—the river. contributor.” It’s gotten so bad that TMWA’s Andy Gebhardt, repeated concern has director of operations been raised about water and water quality, said “Homeless quality and general that—despite the camps along the public safety along camps—drinking Truckee River banks Reno’s widely used water quality is scenic and recrenot being affected. are of obvious concern ational amenity. Drinking water is to us as the river is our “Lack of diverted from the primary source of supply.” public restrooms Truckee and subsehas created a quently treated. Andy Gebhardt human waste issue “Homeless TMWA Director of Operations that impacts the water camps along the quality of the Truckee Truckee River banks are River and its terminus, of obvious concern to us as Pyramid Lake,” according to a the river is our primary source document from the Truckee Meadows of supply,” Gebhardt explained. Water Authority. “TMWA and other “Because of that, we have worked agencies regularly record elevated with the local entities, particularly the
City of Sparks, to help ensure that the area around our intake structure at the Glendale Water Treatment plant, as well as the plant itself, are regularly monitored.” TMWA, along with the City of Reno, is also seeking another potential solution: an innovative public restroom that officials hope will reduce waste and subsequent water contamination. The Portland Loo, as it’s called, debuted in Portland 11 years ago, and the public restrooms have since been installed around the U.S. and Canada. The open-air loo is proposed to be installed at Brodhead Park, the green strip along the river just east of the Reno Police Department building. The loos, however, while a potential solution for the needs of people without homes, have generated other problems in communities where they have been installed. National Public Radio reported in 2015 that San Diego’s new Portland Loos were pricey and became havens for illegal activity. “The toilets turned out to be much pricier than expected, and some people complain that they could attract illicit activity—prostitution or drug use,” reported Claire Trageser for the show All Things Considered. Two years after that report, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that, as the region was battling “a massive outbreak of hepatitis A that has killed 16 and stricken 444 people,” the restrooms were filthy and hot spots “for meth and heroin use.” To address those issues, the Portland Loos have blue lights so addicts can’t see their veins. Fans were installed to prevent people from using lighters to cook drugs. The Portland Loos also needed constant human attention—every few hours—to remain clean, something the City of Reno admitted could be a concern for the one it is proposing along the river. “Challenges the City has had with other park restrooms include use of drugs and improper disposal of hazardous materials; use of the building for overnight camping, washing clothes and cooking; setting fires inside the restrooms; and repetitive vandalism and graffiti,” city staff said. Portland Loos are promoted as graffiti-proof, easy to clean and
