36 years ago this month:

Ray Wulfenstein has broken ground for a new sales office fronting Highway 160 adjoining the Charlotta Inn. The building is expected to be completed in late July. Wulfenstein's Prime Land Development Inc. also is in the process of completing preliminary engineering for a mobile home park and an overnight camper facility on the land.

Roy Neighbors has become the first resident insurance agent of Pahrump Valley. He is a four-year resident and chief property appraiser for Nye County with offices at the Nevada Test Site. He will represent Farmer's Insurance Group as well as act as a general insurance broker and will serve Nye County from Goldfield south.

30 years ago this week:

The Talley Corp., which has had a small warehousing operation in the Pahrump Valley for the past few years, is interested in moving its North American Manufacturing Co. to the valley. The firm employs about 35 workers in its plant in Newbury Park, Calif., and had sales last year of about $1 million, according to general manager Alvin Keith.

Keith said that North American Manufacturing is a profitable operation that mainly has been producing a mini-.22-caliber revolver. The weapon is patented by Wayne Baker, who owns part of the company.

The biggest and best July 4th celebration yet sponsored by the Pahrump Valley Volunteer Fire Dept. is expected to take place with fun, games, a barbecue and fireworks Monday at the Community Center grounds. Games will include foot races, sack races, egg toss contests, darts and other tests of skill and fortitude. Fire Chief Ron Perry promises that the display this year will clearly out-dazzle any of the spectaculars offered in the valley in the preceding years.

20 years ago this week:

The long awaited paved road linking Pahrump and Amargosa Valley -- and making the Pahrump Valley the shortest asphalted route between Las Vegas and Death Valley -- appears ready to become a reality. Sen. Harry Reid this week confirmed that about $900,000 had been earmarked for the project by a House-Senate Supplemental Appropriations Conference Committee.

Valley Electric Association directors, at their meeting June 15 in Pahrump, approved a "cost of service" study to provide data for possible changes in power rates. The VEA board in recent meetings has been discussing the concept of reducing commercial power rates, possibly lowering power rates during the non-peak nighttime hours as an incentive to attract business and industry to locate locally.

Three actions will make it easier for the county to meet its growing needs, according to County Administrator Jan Wellman. The decision to remove the net proceeds of mines from the total revenue allowed about $200,000 that can now be added to income. A gasoline tax bill will add 3 cents per gallon this year and 2 cents per gallon a year later, resulting in about $500,000 the first year and $400,000 more in revenue the second year. AB645 allows a change in the property ad valorem tax rate; the bill allows counties to increase their revenues over their previous budget caps from 4.5 to 6 percent.

10 years ago this week:

The annual Pahrump Valley Volunteer Fire Department Fourth of July festivities will get under way Friday at 8 a.m. at Petrack Park when PVVFD is slated to defend its softball trophy against the Nye County Sheriff's Office.

Chief Vern Long, while acknowledging this will be the first game he's been around to play, nonetheless drew a line in the proverbial sand. NCSO Captain Doug Richards didn't shy away from the challenge.

The fire department will get some full-time help this summer for what is traditionally its busiest time of the year. Long said the Bureau of Land Management will house a fire engine and three to four full-time firefighters at the Pahrump station for the remainder of the season.

It's going to be at least another week before Pahrump's new summer youth center is ready to open its doors. No To Abuse Director Kathy Scott said the center is shaping up nicely, but there's still a lot to be done, including an inspection by the state fire marshal's office. The center is located directly across from the No To Abuse facility at 1471 E. Highway 372.

A spark from a welding torch was the apparent cause of a fire at the Pahrump Dairy Monday afternoon. Pahrump volunteer firefighters worked through heavy smoke to extinguish several burning piles of hay and smaller spot fires at the dairy.

Chief Long said the fires started when a spark from a dairy maintenance worker's welding torch apparently blew into a small pile of hay, ignited and then blew into a large pile of hay bales.