Walking into the past, present and future of Alpine County leadership

It took me a week, but I met a past, present and future Alpine County supervisor, which is more than I've seen in 13 years, since I stopped going to their meetings.

The present supervisor was Chris Gansberg who swore in the Pony Express rider on June 2.

Chris is a fourth-generation rancher in addition to his elected office. I was a little surprised, because I didn't realize he would go in for politics. But Supervisor Gansberg does have a nice ring to it.

On Monday, John Brissenden from Sorenson's Resort came into the office with some material for their summer programs.

John was on the board back in the day when I covered Alpine County. The Record-Courier is back now, but when I'd arrived in 1989, no one had attended a supervisors' meeting in a decade or more before that.

I mainly went because the staff, including editor Guy Clifton, now a Gazette-Journal columnist, wanted someone to get Lotto tickets and I was the junior guy.

John and his wife Patty are still running the resort, only they've got reinforcements from their children.

The future supervisor is Gunter Kaiser, who won the job in the March California primary. He has cards printed, on which he has written "elect" after "supervisor."

I met Gunter on Wednesday at the Pacific Soaring Championships, where he was serving as assistant scorer. Gunter signed up for the election last fall and had five months to campaign. Because he took more than 50 percent of the vote, 58 percent to be precise, he didn't have to go to the general election in November.

What he does have to do is wait until Jan. 3 to be sworn in, more than a year after he signed up to run and nine months after he won.

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Carson City's Bill Williamson, whose car-driving dog is part of the annual Christmas celebration, is the guy who has my rifle scabbard, should I win the Pony Express raffle.

Bill rode himself back in the 1960s and his name appears on the monument in front of the Nevada State Museum.

The raffle is a fund-raiser to restore the monument, according to Bill. I purchased two tickets in Woodfords while the Pony Express riders were coming through.

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Gardnerville Ranchos resident Mary Jane Harding came into The Record-Courier with a cake she had made for the annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Douglas County. The cake features a photo of Ronald Reagan and was made entirely of wax by Candles & Crafts in Minden.

Mary Jane said that when she found out how much the Republican Committee usually spent on a real cake, which no one ate, she decided it was time for a Reagan revolution.

The cake even smells like a real one and Mary Jane pointed out they can use it every year in honor of Reagan's birthday, which is Feb. 6.

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I was at the Borders store on Sunday sipping a coffee, something I don't drink every day, and I picked up a copy of Cerca, the Las Vegas travel magazine.

I turned to the inside title page and there was a profile I recognized immediately.

It was Nevada Appeal reporter Karl Horeis standing on top of the Armagosa Dune during the 10-in-10 challenge in which a crew from the Appeal tackled 10 outdoor adventures around the state in 10 days. The article was written by former Appeal sports reporter Jeremy Evans.

Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 215.