No, I’m not talking about taxi cabs! These CABs are Citizen Advisory Boards that work on citizen concerns in Washoe County. You may not know that there are many local boards and committees that are begging for community members to attend their meetings and speak to them about their issues and concerns. Reno, Sparks and Washoe County all have dozens of citizen advisory boards that you can apply to serve on or just attend as a member of the public and give your three-minute public comment about something you want them to know.  Most of these boards meet once a month (some every other month) for a few hours in community rooms around the county. Members of the community are welcome to attend, learn about current neighborhood issues, and make a public comment that will be forwarded to the city councils and county commission that the advisory boards report to. They want and need to hear your views as an interested senior citizen. They know that we make up a large part of the community and that we vote.

Let’s start with Washoe County’s eight Citizen Advisory Boards (CABs). These citizen boards bring community members together to talk about topics of interest within their neighborhood, express ideas and concerns to the board members and Washoe County staff and hear from experts. They make recommendations to the County Board of Commissioners about the issues they discuss.

Below is a list of the eight CABs representing different geographical regions within Washoe County, divided by district and areas with similar concerns. You can find them on the county website at  https://www.washoecounty.gov/CABS/.  They are:

• Gerlach/Empire  Meets 2^nd Thursday, monthly at 6pm at 410 Cottonwood St., Gerlach
• Incline Village/Crystal Bay Meets 4^th Monday, monthly at 5:30pm at Incline Village Library
• North Valleys  Meets 2^nd Monday, monthly at 6pm at North Valleys Library
• Spanish Springs Meets 1^st Wednesday at 6pm every other month at Spanish Springs Library
• South Truckee Meadows/Washoe Valley Meets at 6pm every other month at South Valleys Library
• Sun Valley Meets 1^st Saturday at 10am monthly at Hobey’s Casino in Sun Valley
• Warm Springs/Rural Meets 2^nd Wednesday at 6pm every other month at Washoe County Regional Shooting Facility
• West Truckee Meadows/Verdi Township Meets 3^rd Monday at 5:30pm every other month at Verdi Community Library & Nature Center

Meetings are subject to change or cancellation, so please visit the CAB web link above three days prior to the scheduled meeting to see agendas or cancellation notifications. You can also call 311 for this information or you can email county support staff at [email protected]. If you cannot attend in person, you can email your comments to the CAB and can also zoom in all the meetings and make your comments that way.

If you’re thinking about serving as a voting member of your CAB, you can apply online at https://washoe-nv.granicus.com/boards/forms/494/apply/.  Scroll down in the form to the part that asks which board or committee you wish to apply for and a list of boards with vacancies will pop up. I looked recently and saw that there are openings for all eight CABs. CAB members are appointed by the commissioner of their district for three-year terms. If you aren’t online, you can call 311, the county’s information line, and request more information and an application.

I hope to see you at an upcoming CAB meeting! For more information on Washoe County CABs, please contact me at 775 240 2745 or [email protected].