Starting its monthly meeting promptly at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the Spanish Springs Citizen Advisory Board addressed the issues faced by the board because of county budget cuts.

While whittling away at the evening’s agenda, the board received its monthly update from Lorrie Adams, community outreach coordinator for Washoe County. Adams told the board that this week’s meeting would be her last for a while.

Adams explained that because of county budget cuts, the Washoe County Board of Commissioners chose to cut its intern program, which has left Adams to pick up the slack. She added that while she will not be at the monthly CAB meeting that she will e-mail the board members monthly updates.

Board chairman Vaughn Hartung was saddened by the news.

“We’re going to be sorry to lose you,” Hartung said. “I personally want to thank you. You’ve done a phenomenal job.”

After addressing the La Posada Bar and Grill special use permit and variance proposal, the board came to the final item on its agenda just before 9 p.m. That item was to address cost-saving methods for the CAB for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

Hartung jokingly asked the volunteers who staff the CAB to take a pay cut, but understood the budget cuts are all too real.

“County staff is no longer manning this building at night,” Hartung said of the community center at Lazy 5 Regional Park. “It’s me who locks up.”

Hartung told the rest of the board and the Spanish Springs residents who were in attendance that the county is asking the board to reduce its number of meetings from 12 a year to six.

Board member Nick Zufelt was unhappy at the prospect of longer meetings because of the cut, since the board’s regular monthly meetings are usually more than two hours long.

Adams explained that the board should look into limiting how long issues can be discussed and try to stick to a timetable for every meeting.

Hartung said that meetings could run later because the board sees an abundance of development proposals and that if the applications were to pile up in between meetings the board could be overwhelmed.

Adams suggested that the county look at ways to encourage “smart planning” by letting an applicant know when the next CAB meeting is before filing an application, so the applicant can adhere to the 120-day deadline.

CAB members were also concerned that projects being submitted to the county for approval in the Spanish Springs area could get approved without the CAB reviewing them. Adams said that was unlikely since the board of commissioners thinks the CABs are important to the governmental structure.

Met with resistance from the board, Adams reminded members that alternative ideas were still being concerned.

“We have 500 vacancies in the county and we will face more layoffs,” Adams warned. “If you can come up with other ideas, we’re open to them.”

When the idea of combining with the Warm Springs CAB was brought up, the board was unsure.

“I’m concerned about going with the Warm Springs CAB because we might not understand their issues,” Hartung said.

Board member Greg Prough looked at it in a positive light.

“If we combine with the Warm Springs CAB we might have a bigger voice,” Prough said. “There might be some advantages to doing this.”

Leaving the meeting on uncertain ground, Hartung said the board is scheduled to have a regular meeting in June at which time the board would look at its options again.

In addition to dealing with more fallout from the budget cuts, the board received an update from Will Lumpkin with the Washoe County Health District’s vector borne disease prevention program.

“It’s the start of our mosquito season, so it’s a good time for people to check around their home for standing buckets of water,” Lumpkin said of the mosquito breeding grounds.

Lumpkin also said the county would be spraying the area next week in hopes of preventing the mosquito population from getting out of hand. He encouraged residents to keep their pets up to date on vaccinations and to get horses vaccinated against West Nile Virus, which he said can pop up in mid-July and August.

The next CAB meeting will be held June 10 at 7 p.m. in the community center at the Lazy 5 Regional Park. The regional park is at 7100 Pyramid Highway.