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October 15, 2003
Push is on for Pahrump collegeGROUP HOSTS TOURS BY UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS, TAKES AIM AT INCLUSION IN 2005 STATE BUDGET
By MARK WAITE And rather than replace the existing Pahrump Valley Center, the university could supplement it with a "two plus two" program, through which students could attend the Community College of Southern Nevada for two years, then switch to the four-year campus in Pahrump. Proponents are racing to meet a Dec. 1 deadline to present a proposal to the chancellor of the University and Community College System, said Allan Parker, director of the Small Business Development Center. Parker is active in the project as chairman of the Pahrump Valley Community Action Team Education Task Force. Nye County Commissioner Patricia Cox said she'll have an item for Tuesday's county commission meeting to allocate $1.5 million out of the Educational Endowment Fund from the Payment Equal to Taxes Nye County receives for the land value of Yucca Mountain. At the last county commission meeting in Tonopah Oct. 7, Cox inquired about $1.5 million the commission supposedly set aside from possessory use taxes paid by employers on the Nevada Test Site, back in December 1999. Tim Hafen, a developer, long-time Pahrump resident and former assemblyman, said state educators have been invited to visit Pahrump. Jane Nichols, chancellor of the University and Community College System, toured Pahrump three weeks ago. Marcia Bandera, former Elko County superintendent who is now Pahrump's representative on the Nevada Board of Regents, visited last week. CCSN President Ron Remington will be invited to visit soon, Hafen said. "The thrust of it is, it's a community effort. It's a community effort to get a campus," Hafen said. "We're trying to get it on the Board of Regents capital improvements project budget." Hafen's daughter, Vicky Hafen Scott, from Henderson, is also working on the proposal. Hafen said his daughter helped successfully lobby the Nevada Legislature to provide funding for the new Nevada State College in Henderson this year. Parker said a Pahrump college campus would be based on the new Henderson college proposal. Hafen said it would be probably be a Nevada State College branch. If the 13-member Board of Regents approves the project, Commissioner Cox said the next step is to take it to the Nevada Legislature for incorporation into the governor's budget for the 2005 session, which has a deadline of Sept. 1, 2004. Proponents say a four-year college campus, like a hospital, is one of the amenities Pahrump lacks. "We're the largest community in the State of Nevada that does not have a community college campus," Hafen said, rattling off thee names of other, smaller Nevada communities with college campuses of their own such as Fallon, Elko and Gardnerville. "The chancellors and the regents are in full support of this," said Cox. "We're just having to get our plan together. We have roughly seven weeks to get our plan together because we have to have it ready by December to present to the regents." Bandera appears to have been sold on the idea after her first visit to Pahrump in five years. "I was very impressed with what the people had to show me. This is not a light thought; this is a very well thought out, comprehensive, determined approach, and I was impressed with that," Bandera said. "I'm a big supporter that rural counties and rural towns need educational support and infrastructure," she added. "I toured the high tech center, and I also looked at the plans and I am supportive of the preliminary plan. "As I told them, there will be competition but I think they have a right to ask. They're looking to get a first building and certainly with the population base and the interest, why not?" Bandera noted the concept wasn't a new one. The idea was first floated in 1999, when there were discussions about building a community college campus behind the Pahrump Valley Winery, on 80 of the 240 acres acquired from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Pahrump Assistant Town Manager Peggy Warner said the town acquired that property at the same time it acquired 427 acres for a Pahrump/Nye County Fairgrounds. However the BLM, which gave the town a recreation and public purpose lease for the 240 acres, told the town it couldn't use part of it for a community college, Warner said. Cox said the proponents are looking at another possible site for a college campus across from the fairgrounds on Highway 160 and Ironwood Avenue. The BLM would be asked to transfer that land, she said. Parker said, "There's an awful lot of work that needs to be put together: a formalized proposal, a professional presentation, update any information that has been previously done, they want us to do two surveys." Fortunately, some legwork has already been done. Parker said PVCAT education task force member Karen Spalding has plans that were already drawn up for a college campus. He plans to survey local students on their educational needs and survey local employers on what training they need for their employees. That could include employers such as the Nevada Test Site, building contractors and hotel/casinos. The campus could provide certificates for technical training in the culinary arts or the building trades, as well as a standard university bachelor's degree. Parker said the idea is "to be able to provide the full menu of a student's post secondary education for anything they might want to do." Pahrump received $3.5 million in state funding, to go with a $1.5 million U.S. Economic Development Administration grant for the CCSN Pahrump Valley Center, also known as the high tech center, in the 1999 legislative session. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in February 2000, but the construction contract wasn't awarded until December 2000 due to the relocation of the Nye County School District bus barn and problems with administering the EDA grant. The 16-room, 34,000 square-foot center opened its doors in time for school in September 2001. Though it hosts community college courses and dual high school/college credit classes, the Pahrump Valley Center was never intended to be a college campus, Parker said. Proponents of the four-year college envision the Pahrump Valley Center eventually being turned over to Pahrump Valley High School. "I can see the community college keeping that building and working on the high school with their dual-credit systems," Hafen said. "There's a place for the high tech center, but we have to get a college campus started." Parker said he heard estimates the cost of the campus may run $4 million to $6 million. While Nye County may provide some funding, the State of Nevada couldn't be expected to shoulder all of the remaining cost, he said. "Budgets are tight everywhere so you wouldn't get it from any one source," Parker said. "I would suspect some of this would have to come from private corporations and donations." Former District 36 Assemblyman Roy Neighbors, D-Tonopah, submitted a bill in the 2001 legislature for $5.8 million to construct a college building in Pahrump, but it didn't go anywhere. Kelcy Thompson, administrator of the Pahrump Valley Center, had a death in the family and was unavailable for comment. But Cox said CCSN officials support the idea. "They're extremely happy, they think a two plus two would work extremely well." Pahrump Valley High School Principal Jerry Hill said 60 to 65 percent of the graduating seniors go on to postsecondary education. "If we had a full college you'd find a lot more kids staying here (in Pahrump)," Hill said. |
