Burning Man festival might not be snuffed

Monday, Sept. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

At the urging of Sheriff Ron Skinner, Pershing commissioners earlier this month agreed to write a letter to the Bureau of Land Management asking it not to reissue a permit to event organizers next year.

"I just thought maybe we should stand back and take a look at the whole picture for a minute before we dive in and say we don't want it," Ayoob told the Lovelock Review-Miner. "Maybe we don't want it, but I just want to look at everything."

But Commissioner Roger Mancebo said he expects the letter to be sent to the BLM after Skinner gives a final report on the event at an October meeting.

Skinner said he was concerned about alcohol consumption that resulted in a motorcycle fatality as well as reports of Satanic rituals during the event. He said he also was concerned about the cost to the county of medical and law enforcement expenses.

More than 7,000 people attended the festival over the Labor Day weekend. The offbeat recreational and artistic gathering takes its name from the burning of a 40-foot-high wooden sculpture of a man.

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