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May 7, 2004
Developing economic issuesSPECIAL TO THE PVT Commissioner Patricia Cox brought the item to the table and said it was obvious that the county did not have someone who could go outside of the county to bring business into all its communities. Commissioner Midge Carver asked if the director position was combined with the Economic Development Authority for Esmeralda and Nye County (EDEN), but Cox said she envisioned the position to be separate from EDEN and they could work together. Chairman Henry Neth said he thought it would be appropriate to fund the position out of the $1.2 million economic development fund created a few months earlier. EDEN's request for $50,000 to continue operations in the upcoming year was not funded after lengthy discussion regarding Rural Nevada Development Corporation's (RNDC) affiliation with the organization. It is expected EDEN will need $175,000 to operate in the upcoming year, with $115,000 going to salaries and benefits. The organization also expects that $75,000 will be carried over from last year's allocation to fund next year's activities. EDEN director Al Parker and project coordinator Julie Lawrence expressed EDEN's intentions to aggressively attack economic ventures in the upcoming year, but commissioners doubted the effectiveness of RNDC and questioned the $33,000 earmarked for the corporation It was said that RNDC had very few deliverables in the past year and Parker admitted only four businesses in the Pahrump area were actually formed with RNDC assistance. It was expected Esmeralda County would not be funding the authority because of budget constraints. EDEN's request to seek 501(c) 3 status to obtain grant funding was approved without much discussion. |
