Past Pages, Jan. 30, 2012: Fire-recovery firms say Caughlin lessons help newest efforts

Companies that provide fire cleanup and restoration services say the lessons learned in the Caughlin fire of November 2011 helped them quickly mobilize for victims of the more recent Washoe Drive fire.
In the case of Servpro, mobilization meant bringing in Servpro workers from throughout northern California to create a large pool of disaster-cleanup labor. For furniture rental supplier CORT, it meant tapping its Sacramento ware-house for truckloads of additional furniture and housewares.
There are currently seven Servpro franchises in place helping victims of the Washoe Fire. Twelve Servpro franchises helped victims of the Caughlin Fire, which caused more smoke dam- age because of the higher density of homes, says Mike Grashuis, owner of ServPro of Reno East/Central Sparks.
Servpro crews scrub a house from top to bottom, cleaning all the wall, ceiling and floor spaces, as well as wiping down every single dish, plate, cup, knick-knack and bric-a-brac in a home to remove the stench and film left behind by smoke.

— Page 1, by Rob Sabo

 
Challenge for Sparks: New special events
Sparks hosts some of northern Nevada’s most popular special events, and city officials have been stumping hard the past few months to lure more special events to the city in order to boost tax revenues.
But finding new special events is no easy task.
Ron Schmitt, City of Sparks councilman and chair of the tourism and marketing committee, says the city’s Brand Leadership Team identified the need for additional special events to increase revenues. City officials host- ed “familiarization tours” for event promoters in 2010 and 2011 to garner attention and to promote the city’s special events venues — Victorian Avenue, Sparks Marina, Golden Eagle Regional Park, and the Rock Park Whitewater Park.
“We brought people in from around Nevada who had never thought of Sparks, as well as from out of area,” Schmitt says. “We’ve been looking nationwide. Once we put the word out, there has been great response from people looking at having a presence on the West Coast.”
However, Schmitt says there is no set formula for attracting new special events to the city.
“We couldn’t find any government agency where we could do an RFP for special events — we are kind of charting new territory right now,” he says.

— Page 1, by John Seelmeyer

 

Construction at Virginia Lake project restarts
Capstone Communities has restarted the Virginia Lake Crossing subdivision near Plumb Lane and South Virginia Streets.
Capstone Communities purchased 38 finished lots and 40 mapped but unfinished lots at the subdivision started in 2005 by Silverstar Communities at the site of the old Mark Twain motel.
Development at the site stalled with the housing crash until the Capstone partnership was formed in early 2011 to put the community back on track, says Mike Branson, a partner in Capstone.
The community features two models: Camden Place and Glen Manor. Sizes range from 1,494 square feet to 1,839 square feet, and homes are priced between $174,950 and $199,950 — a far sight from Silverstar’s 2005 cost projections of $340,000 and $420,000.

—Page 2, by John Seelmeyer

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week, we feature snippets of stories that published a decade ago to provide readers a 10-year perspective of business news in the region. This week’s stories first published in the Jan. 30, 2012, edition of the NNBW.