Nevada Drought Forum begins deliberating ideas

CARSON CITY — A panel of water managers and experts begin the task Monday of digesting days of public testimony and suggestions on what, if anything, Nevada should do to better prepare for lingering drought.

The Nevada Drought Forum faces a Nov. 1 deadline to submit a report to Gov. Brian Sandoval with recommendations to promote best practices for water management.

Sandoval created the forum in April after a fourth dry winter reduced many rivers and streams to a trickle, leaving many farmers will little or no water for livestock or crop irrigation.

The forum held public workshops around the state, and last week sponsored a three-day summit during which water users of all stripes — municipal and public utility managers, ranchers, farmers, mining and tourism officials — relayed conservation triumphs and future challenges.

Suggestions ranged from overhauling 150-year-old water law and creating more drought storage to allowing rain barrels and requiring more desert landscaping.

Now it is up to forum members to identify priorities. Sandoval has said recommendations likely will be part of his agenda for the 2017 Legislature.

The forum meets Monday at the Legislature Building in Carson City. The meeting will be videoconferenced to the Grant Sawyer building in Las Vegas.

— Sandra Chereb

Vegas veteran named aide to Army secretary

WASHINGTON — A decorated Vietnam veteran from Las Vegas has been appointed as a civilian adviser to the secretary of the Army.

William T. Anton was picked by Army Secretary John McHugh for the post of civilian aide. The Nevadan, a retired Army officer and veterans advocate, began in the new role this month.

Civilian aides to the secretary are community figures who represent the service at local events, and who convey local sentiments back up the chain to Army leaders. There is at least one from each state, and they serve unpaid for two-year terms.

"This needs to be truly the people's Army. And to have that occur we have to have good folks like yourself telling the Army's story," McHugh told Anton at a Sept. 8 ceremony at the Pentagon.

Anton has been active in veterans service organizations in Las Vegas and advocated on behalf of disabled veterans.

Anton, president of World Technology Associations Inc., a business consulting firm, was the first Nevadan inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame, in 2009. He received the Army Military Intelligence Corps Knowlton Award in 2011.

— Steve Tetreault