UZBIKASTAND
AND TIJSESTAN REPRESENTATIVE
VISIT LAHONTAN VALLEY
LVEA
WELCOMES A NEW BOARD MEMBER
Paul Ortiz was recently appointed to the Lahontan
Valley Environmental Alliance Board of Directors as a representative of
Churchill County.
Mr. Ortiz has worked for the last 38 years in Silicon Valley, California in
the fields of Inventory/Supply Chain Management.
His positions have varied from Individual Contributor, Department
Manager to Director for major semiconductor and semiconductor equipment
companies like Advanced Micro Devices, National Semiconductor and KLA-Tencor.
During 2002, in preparation for retirement, he and
his wife, Sue, began the search to find a new home outside of California
because California’s costs were too high.
Mr. Ortiz explained that, “We still had to stay within driving
distance of the Bay Area to be able to maintain contact with our two sons and
our grandchildren.” After many
trips covering Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, Paul and his wife
discovered Fallon.
Mr. Ortiz said, “In Fallon, we found the things we
needed and wanted – a hospital, Wal-Mart, Sears and Sonic!
We spent almost one year traveling back and forth meeting people and
touring the area. The more we
learned about Fallon, the more we were sure that we had found our new home!”
Paul
Ortiz has become very active in the community and lends his knowledge and
ideas to LVEA activities such as the Agriculture Preservation Working Group.
He is a great asset to the Lahontan Valley Environmental Board of
Directors.
Visitors from Uzbekistan and Tijsestan, former
U.S.S.R. countries located north of Pakistan, recently toured Lahontan Valley
in search of knowledge that would help in the development of their
agricultural economy.
Jamie Mills, Newlands Water Protective Association,
organized the tour and was joined in hosting the visitors by Lahontan Valley
Environmental Alliance Board member Paul Ortiz as well as representatives from
Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, the City of Fernley, the City of Fallon,
Churchill County, Lahontan Valley Land and Water Alliance, Churchill Economic
Development Authority, and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.
The tour began at Lahontan Dam and continued to
locations where water-measuring devises were discussed.
The group then stopped at the Agriculture Service Center to view the
ditch-lining project.
Lunch was served at Lattin Farms where value added
agriculture and agricultural tourism was discussed. The function of the irrigation district and Fernley’s
purple pipe system was discussed at the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District
Office, the last stop of the tour.
Following a visit to Wal-Mart by the representatives
of the two countries, Norman and Sue Frey hosted a dinner for the visitors at
their Rambling River Ranch.
The Uzbekistan and Tijsestan representatives were
very interested in how the amount of water each farmer receives is determined
in Lahontan Valley. In their
country the amount of water each farmer receives is dependant upon the type of
crop he is growing and the water needs for that particular crop.
The farmers do not own water rights in Uzbekistan and Tijsestan. These
countries grow a great amount of cotton.
They are just beginning to develop tourism which they feel will benefit
their economy.