I’ve spent the last decade working with Truckee Meadows Tomorrow on tracking and improving our quality of life.  Now, more than ever, we need to focus on protecting and preserving the best of the Truckee Meadows.   

It’s great to see some of this hard work being recognized nationally:  Truckee Meadows Tomorrow hosted a reception for Paul Epstein, www.epsteinandfass.com, a New York-based consulting firm on March 30th.  Paul is the author of Results That Matter a book that presents tools for communities to take charge of making their cities and towns better places to live.  The book focuses on engaging citizens and measuring their accomplishments.  For more on his book:  www.resultsthatmatter.net

Truckee Meadows Tomorrow, a local community-based nonprofit dedicated to improving our quality of life, is a featured case study in the book.  For more about Truckee Meadows Tomorrow click on:  www.quality-of-life.org

While we’ve come a long way, we still have a lot of work to pass this wonderful quality of life that we enjoy on to our children.  I hope you’ll join me.

On Friday, March 10, the Flood Project Coordinating Committee approved the “Living River” concept for flood management on the Truckee River.  For those of us who have been involved in the planning (and waiting) over the last six years, it was a real victory. 

In 2000, Washoe County created a Community Coaliton to develop a flood protection plan that would be acceptable to the community.   A small group of us have stuck with the process from those early days to make sure that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would include our alternative in their Environmental Impact Statement process. 

 Over 730 meetings later (yes, I have kept track!), we’ve got a solid consensus around a flood protection plan that lowers flood waters in the Truckee Meadows, reduces the need for levees and flood ways, and keeps the Truckee River an amenity for the entire community to enjoy.  And we’ve worked with our downstream neighbors to make sure we don’t just send the problem downstream.  For more information about the Truckee River Flood Management Project, go to www.floodawareness.com