“IT’S GOING TO COST AN EXTRA FEW MILLION DOLLARS TO FIX THE ROADS.”

“It’s going to cost an extra few million dollars to fix the roads” was the cry that caught my attention. This was back when the Town of Truckee was first incorporated in 1993. Building entry-level homes in Tahoe Donner, this cry was incredibly concerning. Then came my meeting with Truckee’s second mayor, Embree “Breeze” Cross, a third generation Truckee-ite and owner of the local lumberyard, Truckee Tahoe Lumber (TTL). Breeze was clear that the town council was making decisions, more than one, that directly affected the construction industry, thus affecting the town’s inhabitants, without any representation. He felt it would be prudent to have an association that unified the many small and large construction companies in town – if not collectively the largest employers in town, then darn close to it.

Upon leaving Breeze’s office I coincidentally had some business to take care of at the town’s building department. At that time the town was located at the Tahoe Donner Public Utilities District (TDPUD) building. This is where I met another concerned contractor by the name of Patrick Flora, who was also aware of the many issues facing the building industry within both the Town of Truckee and the North Lake Tahoe area. Keep in mind Truckee incorporated long after all the special districts that normally appear within a town government (parks & rec, water, sewer, etc.) were created. This situation is unique in that it creates a lot of “extra” boards of directors that have their own agendas not concerned with other district agendas, creating a plethora of repetitive documents needed for contractors to perform their duties. North Lake Tahoe is on the most eastern end of Placer County, the least populated section of the county, however it surrounds the most beautiful lake in the world. Protecting the lake is of utmost importance to us all. Since North Lake Tahoe is not incorporated it has relatively the same number of special districts separate from Truckee’s.

While conversing with Patrick about my meeting with Mayor Breeze Cross our conversation was overheard by then-Community Development Director (CDD) Tony Lashbrook who agreed that a contractor’s association was a great idea and instructed then-Chief Building Official (CBO) Bill Miller to help secure the board room at the TDPUD for a meet-and-greet type of gathering with other interested contractors about the possibility of setting up a legitimate association. At this time I ran a classified ad (remember them?) in the “Sierra Sun” looking for interested contractors interested in possibly starting a unified association to protect both the industry and the citizens that live in the homes we build, fix, repair, and maintain.

That evening, the evening the ad ran, I received a phone call from a gentleman named Ted Owens, who was currently a contractor with some lobbying experience and was looking for more information on the formation of this association. Only knowing that what I was doing was the right thing to do, I really did not have much more information to give him besides knowing the timing was right. I was anxious to have him help with his lobbying background and he was more than happy to oblige.

We met on a cold, snowy February evening, I think in 1996, at the TDPUD board room with about a dozen interested contractors. From there, with Breeze’s direction, we created a “steering committee” and started meeting at TTL, Breeze was gracious enough to offer his boardroom for those initial meetings.

And so CATT was born, there is a lot more to this story, tune in next year to learn what happens next!

Thanks to Mitch Clarin for writing this article. You can call/ text him at 530.308.9124 or email at Mitch@MitchClarin.com.