Supervisors needed to take action

Carson City supervisors had some high stakes on the table when they were asked to decide whether to file a lawsuit in federal court to block the auction of 144 acres in northern Douglas County.

They were looking at the future of the community -- five, 10, maybe 20 years down the road.

By not filing a lawsuit, the supervisors would have been gambling retail development and car dealers wouldn't scamper out of Carson City for the wide open sage hills of the Bureau of Land Management property, located just across Highway 395 from Wal-Mart and a shopping center under construction.

Recent history tells us that some heavy hitters are likely to move into the newly developed areas, and at least a few businesses in Carson City won't be able to resist joining them.

But filing a lawsuit -- the decision made by supervisors in a unanimous vote -- was also a gamble. The predictable result: Douglas County commissioners went ballistic.

That means two things for the next five, 10, maybe 20 years. Douglas officials will have no qualms about doing anything in their power to steal business from Carson City, and any hopes for reconciliation and cooperation between Carson and Douglas seem dashed.

Maybe the situation already had deteriorated too far. Douglas commissioners certainly could have at least discussed -- in public -- a proposal last week from Carson City before sweeping it under the rug.

Nevertheless, there are many topics beyond the tug-of-war for stores on which Carson and Douglas need to be partners. That's going to be tough now, as Douglas Commissioner Jacque Etchegoyhen demonstrated by resigning on the spot from the Carson River Advisory Council.

Carson supervisors could have decided to sit back and see what develops. But as the song says, sometimes you gotta do something -- even if it's wrong.

In this case, the supervisors' decision to sue may not win friends and may not even be successful, but it wasn't wrong. The stakes were simply too high to do nothing.