Regional cooperation -- what a concept

Where's the hottest development spot in Carson City? The Douglas County line.

Now that South Carson Street is six lanes, where's the tightest bottleneck for traffic? The Douglas County line.

Where's the fastest growing residential area? Lyon County.

Why are we asking all these questions? Because we thought it sounded like a pretty good idea to add Douglas and Lyon county members to a new transportation planning board for Carson City.

The 2000 Census recognized that some of Carson City's residential neighborhoods aren't actually in Carson City -- they're just across county lines. So while Carson City gets extra federal transit funding because it passed the magical 50,000 mark, it also opened the possibility of placing Douglas and Lyon representatives on the commission that decides highway funding and priorities.

That went over like a lead balloon.

"This isn't a love-your-neighbor situation," said Jon Plank, a Carson supervisor and member of the city's Regional Transportation Commission. "We need to take the best approach for Carson City. We have a problem with other people telling us how to spend our money."

Nobody said you had to love 'em. But it might benefit Carson City to at least listen to 'em.

A newly constituted committee could have nine members, with just one each from Douglas and Lyon. That hardly seems to be a roadblock to doing whatever the Carson members want.

On the other hand, with the number of people who commute into jobs in Carson City every day from the outlying counties, there is a sizable constituency for voices from those areas.

What could it hurt? Heck, they might even find ways to cooperate and serve all the taxpayers.

Carson supervisors still have a chance to formulate a transportation committee that would be truly regional. If they don't see fit, it's up to Gov. Kenny Guinn to decide the final composition, and we assume he will see beyond petty county-to-county squabbles.

Otherwise, Carson City leaders might as well consider using some of the newfound money to put up gates at the city limits.