NEWS ARTICLE: INCLINE LAKE PURCHASE JEWEL OF A DEAL

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Editorial

Thursday, February 9, 2006

The value of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act was made crystal clear this week.Interior Secretary Gale Norton was expected to announce Wednesday that she was recommending that the $75-million purchase of privately owned Incline Lake be funded from the sale of public land in the Las Vegas area.

The Incline Lake purchase is one of the most significant in recent years.

Once a private playground for some of the area’s richest residents, the lake — located near the Mount Rose summit — is considered a hidden jewel.

Along with the lake and land, the 777-acre property includes cabins and a deep-space observatory that would continue to be used to educate area students. The property’s current owner, the Incline Lake Corp., has offered Washoe County a $10 million endowment to maintain it.

There are other projects that are expected to be funded by land sale, including about $7 million in work along the Truckee River, according to Sen. John Ensign. In total, $273 million of the $1.13 billion raised by the land sale will be spent in Northern Nevada.

That’s a wise use of the money. In return for giving up some public land near Las Vegas, Nevadans are getting some stunning property, along with projects to protect the public lands we already have.

Those purchases would have been threatened by the Bush administration’s desire to siphon off a significant portion of the profits to make a paltry dent in the federal deficit. It’s to the credit of local officials and the state’s congressional delegation that they were able to fight off that proposal, and that they were able to put the Incline Lake purchase together. (Ensign sponsored a bill to fast-track the purchase.)

The property will be a great contributor to Northern Nevada’s quality of life.