Voters set Nevada Day observance

CARSON CITY -- Looking for someone to blame for the state celebrating Nevada Day this Friday, rather than on Monday, the actual 147th anniversary of the Silver State's admission into the Union?

Start with yourself and your neighbors.

Then if you want to blame someone, blame new Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev.

Because 53 percent of the public approved a ballot question in the 1998 general election, the Nevada Day holiday always is observed on the last Friday in October.

The question was placed before voters largely because of the efforts of Amodei, then a state senator from Carson City, with approval from the entire Legislature.

What Amodei was trying to do was drum up sales for local businesses by turning the Nevada Day celebration into a three-day weekend celebration that would attract more overnight visitors.

He was concerned because when the annual Nevada Day parade in Carson City was celebrated on weekdays, attendance was in the 10,000-spectator range.

If the holiday always was observed on Friday, and the parade a day later on Saturday, Amodei reasoned as many as 100,000 people would show up for the parade.

"We don't just want to make it into a Carson City parade, but a parade for the whole state," he said at the time.

Amodei also predicted that more entries would come from Las Vegas, Elko and other distant cities if the parade were held on a Saturday every year.

But that hasn't occurred. A check of the 200-plus entries in this year's 10 a.m. Saturday parade shows no entries from Las Vegas.

"It is our desire to make it into truly a statewide event," said April Livesay, office manager for the Nevada Day Parade Committee. "We sent out over 700 postcards to chambers of commerce and hotels across the state. We sent three dozen to hotels in Las Vegas alone, but we didn't get back a single reply. We would love to have Las Vegas entries."

Livesay said she has heard no complaints about the holiday being held on Fridays -- a day off at least for state employees and schoolchildren -- and the parade being held on Saturdays.

"If anything, it makes it better for them," she said.

Nevada Day marks President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the declaration of statehood for Nevada, then home to about 40,000 residents, on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1864.

A state holiday, the real focus for celebrations is in Northern Nevada, particularly in Carson City, where many special events are conducted, including a beard contest at the Capitol and a rock drilling contest outside the Carson Nugget.

Gov. Brian Sandoval will host a semiformal, $40-per-person banquet in Reno on Thursday night to raise funds for families of the five people who died in a shooting at the IHOP restaurant in Carson City and the 11 who died when a plane crashed into the crowd at the Reno Air Races, both in September.

Sandoval will open the Governor's Mansion for tours after Saturday's parade. He and his wife, Kathleen, will hand out candy to trick-or-treaters between 5 and 8 p.m. Monday at the mansion.

Livesay predicts a crowd of 50,000 for this year's parade, a total she said is about normal. That might be a chamber of commerce estimate. At last year's parade, police gave an estimate of 15,000 spectators. In 2008, they said 20,000 attended.

The parade always draws politicians . This year's parade includes entries from supporters of presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Livesay isn't saying the actual presidential candidates will attend, but that certainly could boost attendance a bit.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.