MARK WAITE / PVT Nye County Facilities Manager Bob Jones and Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis look over the Calvada Eye building at the duck pond. Advertisement

The Calvada Eye was once a steakhouse and a sales office for Preferred Equities Corporation when they sold parcels to thousands of Pahrump home buyers back in the 1970s.

The Southwest-style building with the red-tile roof then underwent a metamorphosis into the Calvada Library and the offices of the former Central Nevada Utilities Inc., now known simply as Utilities Inc.

Nye County bought the 32- acre site for $3.2 million in September 2004 from Frank Shopko, manager of Rocklin Redeleng, the company that purchased the property after the bankruptcy of Preferred Equities Corp.

Now the county has plans to transform the old building again, this time into a meeting room to replace the Bob Ruud Community Center, where the library once called home until the new Pahrump Library opened in 2000.

The old steakhouse would be used as offices for the Nye County district attorney. The Nye County Administration Department, including the county manager and Human Resources Department, will also be located there.

Nine condominium units at the west end of the Calvada Eye are being renovated for the Nuclear Waste Repository Office, which currently works out of a building rented from Wulfenstein Construction for $6,000 per month on East Basin Road.

County commissioners allocated $2 million to renovate the Calvada Eye in this year's budget from the $10 million in Payment Equal to Taxes county officials expect to receive from the U.S. Department of Energy for the Yucca Mountain Project next January.

Nye County Facilities Manager Bob Jones said it should cost closer to $1 million.

The first step in the rehabilitation project for the 65,000-square-foot Calvada building will be the award of a contract for $6,108 to examine the building for asbestos and mold.

"We have to re-roof, a sprinkler system will have to be installed, basically it will have to be gutted, and an electrical system will have to be done," Jones said. "I've already got a price of $150,000 to put a sprinkler system in it."

Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis said the existing courthouse on East Basin Road will be converted into three courtrooms after the district attorney moves out and modular buildings will be installed on the northeast corner of that property for the county treasurer, recorder and assessor.

Hollis said Pahrump will need another justice court when the population of the valley reaches 35,000. The Nye County population estimate for the first quarter of 2006 put the population at 36,584.

"I'm not sure if we have to wait for the census year or when the state deems it necessary," Hollis said during a recent tour of the Calvada Eye buildings.

Another courtroom will be needed for a second district court. That would be needed whether Department One District Judge John Davis in Tonopah retires in 2008 and is replaced by a Pahrump judge or is re-elected, due to the increasing caseload.

"A lot of the time it's difficult to get a courtroom because Judge (Robert) Lane is using it. I have to bring cases up here to utilize my time," Davis said from Tonopah. He added it would be good to have another courtroom for hearings in Pahrump like law and motion day.

The third courtroom would be for Juvenile Court Judge Margaret Whitaker. Hollis said she's had to hold court in ambulance bays, coffee break rooms and other unlikely venues. Among other problems, such locations don't give the right courtroom atmosphere, he said.

"That's the wrong message to send to these kids. They need to know the justice system is going to come down on their little heads," Hollis said.

The county commissioners voted to put the Calvada duck pond property out to bid, after a report of "an unidentified man" offering double the price the county paid for it. Minimum bids were set at $6 million. But Jones said, "That mysterious person that was going to give us $6 million didn't bid."

Nye County has spent about $50,000 on landscaping the grounds and watering the duck ponds, Jones said. However, the duck ponds are no longer used as the site for community functions like United Way fundraisers.

The duck pond is still a favorite place for Pahrump residents to relax under the big trees and feed the ducks. Hollis said, however, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may have to hire a ranger to thin the population of ducks.

In the near future, residents attending county commission or town board meetings may relax around the pond during breaks in the proceedings.

The Calvada Eye was recently identified as the top choice of a town center by 51 percent of the small number responding to a recent town survey.

Hollis said the room formerly used for the library, and for a time as district court when the existing courthouse was closed due to mold in 2002, is big enough, at about 1,900 square feet, for holding all those chairs set up for community meetings.

Pahrump Town Manager Dave Richards will then be able to do some renovations to the existing Bob Ruud Community Center, which is used almost constantly, Hollis said.

"In the beginning, the recommendation was just to bulldoze this because of the expense," Jones said, while walking through the Calvada Eye building. But in the last year, the cost of construction material has gone up.

Jones estimated that, at $165 per square foot, it would cost $1.8 million to build a courthouse using estimates from Kitchell Consultants -- and those were last year's prices.

The Nuclear Waste Repository Office will move into the nine condos that have been vandalized since they were abandoned a few years ago. The county will tear out some shrubs that block the view of the building. The offices are funded by the federal government; the county will collect the rent for that space. Some nuclear waste office space has spilled over to a shopping center on Basin Road.

The county allocated $250,000 to renovate those condos. That building measures about 6,500 square feet, Jones said.

When the Nuclear Waste Repository Office moves into the Calvada Eye, Jones said the Pahrump Buildings and Grounds Department, operated by Charles Abbott and Associates, may want to expand in that complex.

In the middle of both buildings on the Calvada Eye is the JobConnect office, a one-stop center that opened May 7, 2005. That modular complex anchored by the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board includes offices for employers to conduct interviews - like the Desert View Regional Medical Center and hiring for a Target store in Las Vegas -- as well as the veterans services office, Progressive Choices, the Western Truck Driving School and others.

Workforce Development Director Victoria Balint said she'd look forward to having the county next door. It would complement their existing services.

"Any time you can pull in government, the private sector and nonprofits, it's a win-win for everybody," Balint said.

Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett said locating there would mean a commute of several minutes for his attorneys to travel to court, but it wouldn't be a major problem.

When commissioners discussed appropriating the $2 million last month, Hollis said that would be better than going out for bonds to build a new courthouse.

"If we go out and ask taxpayers for a bond issue, the first thing they'll say, 'You haven't used up your options. You have a building out there you haven't done anything with,'" he said. "We have enough money to revamp that Calvada Eye and make it something we can all be proud of."

Commissioner Patricia Cox said she'd rather see the Nye County Planning Department, the Public Works Department and the code enforcement officer at the Calvada Eye instead of the D.A. They work out of the original courthouse on Highway 160 and Basin Road.

"Without moving the D.A.'s office, I don't see how you'll put three courtrooms in there," Hollis said, referring to the existing courthouse.

It cost $7 million to put up in 1998, Hollis said. He said it would cost $22 million to build today.

The rest of the PETT funds will go toward a new fire hall to replace one that has been condemned in Tonopah, $500,000; paving the Amargosa Valley Community Center parking lot, $300,000; another $352,619 to supply water to the old Barrick Bullfrog Mine complex in Beatty for renovation as an industrial park; $750,000 for the Great Basin College project; $200,000 for connecting to the Southern Nevada Area Communications Complex; $550,000 for a sheriff's department microwave system and $291,700 in carryover funds for Simkins Park.