36 years ago this month

The secret to winning the Burro Flapjack Sweepstakes is "jackass talk."

That's what Rod Ayres of Long Pine, Calif., said following his second consecutive championship performance at Stovepipe Wells during this year's Death Valley Encampment.

The event requires contestants to race their burros from their appointed campsite around a central pole and back to the camp. Then a fire must be started and a flapjack mixed, fried and fed to the burro.

Nevada Casinos reported a record take of $185.3 million during the summer, up 7 percent over last summer. Clark County, slower to recover than the rest of the state from the economic slump, was up only 4.1 percent.

Conventions in Las Vegas the first three quarters of 1971 served 211,845 delegates and brought in $52.4 million, up $10 million from the same period last year. Tourism for the first half of the year was up 11 percent over 1970 according to a Bank of Nevada report.

30 years ago this week

The Nye County Commission will grant $4,000 and the Parks and Recreation Committee $5,000 for construction of lights for the Pahrump Valley football field. About $18,000 is needed for the project; the balance is expected to come from the school board.

The commission also chose a more ambitious of two plans proposed for the Pahrump Complex expansion. The $120,250 layout approved by the commission will include construction of two dental offices, along with a two-bay ambulance garage and a room for meetings, training and equipment storage.

Nevada Bell is installing $306,300 worth of new telephone cable with the capacity to serve 775 new main stations in three different parts of Pahrump Valley.

Combined with the $260,000 in cable installed earlier this year with a 1200-main station capacity, the investment for new lines this year totals $566,300.

The biggest of the current projects involves 4.25 miles of cable being laid by the Ron Floyd Co. along Pahrump Valley Boulevard to Highway 52, to Highway 160, to Homestead Road, then to Gamebird.

20 years ago this week

A total of 45,940 parcels of real estate are listed on the Nye County tax list for fiscal year 1988-89 being circulated in the Pahrump Valley Times this week.

The list will appear in each paper circulated throughout Pahrump Valley this week and will also be mailed to all other box holders throughout Nye County.

Assessor Bernie Merlino said that an effort is made to get the tax list out as soon as possible to provide property owners time to review assessments prior to hearings before the board of equalization.

The long-awaited opening of the Mountain View Recreation Center has arrived.

The former Double B Bowling Alley will open its doors under new ownership with an expanded list of activities -- including an enhanced arcade for the community's young people.

The arcade features four pool tables, a juke box and all the latest video games, said owner John McCaw. In addition, "There will be a dance floor installed for the kids before New Year's Eve."

The only portion of the new center that won't open today is the New Coyote Flats Restaurant, which is expected to open Dec. 20 under the management of Peter Soto, formerly with the Dunes in Las Vegas.

Despite efforts by the Pahrump Town Board to convince the State Transportation Board that there is a critical need to widen Highway 160, the project has been moved up only one place on the state's list of priorities. The project is now number 16 on the list issued by the state.

The change was revealed during the town board Meeting and the decision was not well received by the board or people attending the session.

10 years ago this week

Pahrump residents got a sizable Christmas present from the federal government last week, but no one here is likely to mind if the Nevada Department of Transportation decides to open it a little early.

On Dec. 2 President Clinton gave final approval on an interim transportation bill that restores funds for the expansion of Highway 160. With the bill's signing, NDOT once again has access to the now-infamous $10 million in Federal Lands Highway Funds, which was promised more than a year ago but has been unavailable until now.

Pahrump's fairground committee will ask U.S. Sen. Harry Reid to sponsor a bill to deed 873 acres of land to the town to be developed as the Nye County Fairgrounds.

Committee members have been considering for several weeks how much of the Bureau of Land Management land they should ask the senator to request on their behalf and, after getting some advice from one of Reid's aids, they decided Thursday evening to first ask for 873, with a request for the remaining 396 acres to come at a later date.

County school administrators were once again the target of criticism at the Pahrump Town Board meeting. Members made it clear they were not ready to lend their support to a school bond issue that district officials intend to place on the 1998 general election ballot.

Board member Steve Rainbolt, who is openly opposed to the $1,600 impact fee that the school board currently has before the Nye County Commission, said he remains opposed to the fee, particularly if it is imposed without a public vote, and he has little faith in the school board's ability to responsibly manage the money it has.

He added that he believes the students will be the ones to suffer if the district doesn't get the money it needs.

Pahrump's actual population may not be determined until after the next census, but town officials are doing their best to make sure that it's not underestimated by the state demographer's office in the meantime.

Peggy Warner of the town office did some checking of her own, and based on figures she received from the county assessor's office, the post office, Nevada Bell and Valley Electric, she estimates Pahrump's population to be 20,645 people, about 2,000 more than the demographer's estimate.