After years of talks, work to start flowing

By JEFF DELONG
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
2/4/2008

Efforts to control flooding along the Truckee River are reaching a critical stage this year as Congress moves toward the first annual appropriation for the $800 million project and local leaders establish a system for assessing local businesses and residents for $400 million to help pay for it.

The first construction associated with the project -- a levee and flood wall where the river flows through the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony -- is expected to begin this spring. It's an important convergence of events as officials endeavor to avoid watery disasters that regularly inundate the Truckee Meadows, costing millions and placing lives at risk.

"This will be the launch pad. We are at the 11th hour," said Washoe County Commissioner Bob Larkin, named earlier this month as chairman of a coalition of local governments pursuing the long-awaited flood improvements.

"This is truly the beginning," Larkin said. If that's true, that beginning had a lengthy buildup.

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