Yerington Community Update on December 12, 2025 from Interim City Manager Jerry Bryant

Good evening Yerington,

It has been a busy and wonderful week here in our community.

In fact, the sense of “community” is what has made this week so wonderful.

With the kick off of our 3rd Annual SMALL TOWN CHRISTMAS, every where I have gone this week, I have been welcomed with “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” and all have been paired with warm, welcoming smiles that remind me of how amazing our community is. Last night, during the Cocoa and Cider Walk, I had numerous conversations with friends and neighbors from town. Each one expressing how much they enjoy the Hallmark Channel look of our downtown and involvement of our community organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce, Through a Child’s Eyes, the Boys’ & Girls Club, the Mason Valley Singers and more.

We held a magical tree lighting here at City Hall this past Monday, and we were fortunate to have carols performed by the Mason Valley Singers and music performed by the Pride of Mason Valley Marching Band from our local schools.

We are already working on plans on how to make this great community event even bigger for next year.

Also on Monday at our regularly scheduled City Council meeting, Mayor John Garry and your City Council recognized Sherri Hiles and Justice of the Peace Pete Spinuzzi for their support and help with the Yerington Municipal Court. These two, along with many others in Lyon County and the Walker River Justice Court were extremely helpful to our city in a critical time of need to maintain our Municipal Court operations. As a city, we have undergone a lot of transition lately, and as many of you know, significant transitions always come with some learning curves. Without the support of our friends in the neighboring courts, our Municipal Court would not be operating as well as it is today.

I’d like to take a moment to say how thankful I am for the wonderful ladies I work with at City Hall. Brittany Mays, Stacey Larsen, Sarah Watson, Stacy Stevenson and our newest part time employee, Abigail Joyner. These ladies are wonderful to work with and I’m very proud of how every one of them has worked hard to help me during these transitions. Each one has undertaken projects from beginning to end and helped keep our city moving forward. For example, Brittany Mays recently helped with the repair of our digital board at the intersection of Main & Goldfield. Without any prompting, Brittany took ownership and saw it through to completion. I feel it’s important to recognize when you’re surrounded by good people who want our city to succeed. I’m happy to report we have some wonderful people working for you. In the future, I’ll try to speak a little more about the other departments and the great staff we have so that you can get to know your city a little better.

In regular City business, I’d like to let you know that our Chief of Police Shawn Clanton and Public Works Director Paul Shapiro are working together to coordinate a public safety effort to improve our visibility at many intersections throughout town. YPD has been working to help remove trailers, vehicles and similar items from the roadways where they impair visibility. Public Works will be coming through shortly after to help mark more curbs with red paint where needed to deter parking of vehicles in the future.

I’m happy to report that some road funds were recently approved to begin work on the alley by the High School. This project should start by mid January, and we are installing a paved apron where the alley approaches Goldfield Ave, with an improved drainage system. You may recall, this area is notorious for collecting standing water after any precipitation. The rest of the alley will NOT be paved just yet (maybe in the near future) but will be improved to have level surface and drainage. While I enjoy feeling like I’m in the Dukes of Hazard shows, I’m not sure my vehicles shocks agree with the excitement this alley currently offers!

We will also see a lot of sidewalk improvements coming in the next few months. Over the years, several sidewalks have been disrupted for water/sewer repairs, or other issues and never repaired/replaced. We have identified several of these areas and work to rehabilitate them will also begin shortly. If you know of an area that is in need of repair, please help us know by reporting it to Paul at pauls@yerington.net or myself jerryb@yerington.net. Hopefully anything you see is already identified for repair. If not, we will gladly get it added to our list and see when we can schedule/fund repairs.

Speaking of repairs, some of you may have noticed the “Rotary Clock” in front of the Post Office on Main Street is currently not operating. This is an item we are aware of and are working with an electrician to replace the timer to have it operational again very soon.

A few months back, I provided an update about the bubblers at the bottom of our sewer lagoons and how they received maintenance to help with the processing of waste. The surface aerators are now giving us a little trouble, so we are working to find a solution to keep the operation running as well as can be. Our staff at Public Works has been working very hard to keep everything running on a thin budget and I want to say I appreciate their efforts.

Your Yerington Police Department was recently awarded grant money to help with the acquisition of new traffic control equipment. These new LiDAR scanners help our officers get an extremely accurate read on vehicle distance and speed, for the most accurate traffic control. We anticipate that traffic in our community may be increasing in the very near future and our Chief and his Officers have been working very hard to ensure we are ready to maintain our standard of safety.

In closing, I’d like to remind you all of the Parade of Lights through downtown tomorrow at 5 p.m. This is a great event that has grown significantly over the years. I remember helping put together our first Parade of Lights almost a decade ago now and to see how far this event has come is amazing. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all,