Some of the town's parks could be left in the dark for a while now that the Nye County commissioners have voted to rescind previously approved funding to upgrade and add lighting to Petrack and Honeysuckle parks. Funding to work on Blosser Park (which has nothing on it but a portable toilet at the moment) was also rescinded.

Simkins Park is the only town facility that will have some light shed on it since the commissioners approved retaining $291,700 of funding for it.

The plan for the brand-new park is to put in a soccer field as well as some baseball fields.

The funding, a total of $750,000, would have come from left-over Payment Equal to Taxes money (which the county receives from the Department of Energy in lieu of taxes on Yucca Mountain) from last year.

The commissioners had approved the funding for all the projects last month but at their meeting this week rescinded most of it as part of a revision to the PETT funds budgets.

Commissioner Butch Borasky said that "the money's needed more desperately by the county in other areas."

Borasky did not comment about specific areas to which the reallocated money might be directed.

Furthermore, Borasky pointed out that there's already lighting at the parks.

"I don't see the county just changing lighting on a whim," Borasky said.

Pahrump Town Board Chairman Laurayne Murray, however, said that isn't the case.

Murray, who was at the meeting, admitted that it seemed as though the commissioners were under the impression the town was just replacing the lighting.

Actually, the $200,000 to fund lighting for Field C at Petrack Park is not a replacement project but an entirely new field that needs lighting.

"It's a new project and a new field, and is there to meet the demand of the kids who want to play there," Murray said.

The increasing demand on the parks by Pahrump's growing population, and consequently by youth sports organizations such as Little League and the American Youth Soccer Organization, is the main reason the town requested the PETT funds for the lighting.

The town has only one park, Honeysuckle Park on Dandelion Street, with Little League-approved lighting.

However, due to the high desert winds, the Honeysuckle lights are beginning to deteriorate, putting the park at risk of losing its approved status.

Additional lighting, or improvements in existing lighting at the parks, would give youth organizations more time and places to host practices and sporting events.

"We've had to turn parents away, and we've had to turn organizations away," Murray explained. "We need more lighting to facilitate more Little League parks."

A comment was reportedly made at the meeting to the effect that the lights at Honeysuckle Park were only five years old and, as such, don't need to be replaced.

According to Stacy Behnke, Valley Electric Association's public information officer, the lights at Honeysuckle Park were actually installed in 1992.

Another reported comment made was that the town was allocated the funding last year but failed to use it.

Murray said this was due in part to the town's difficulty in securing a bid for what, relatively speaking, many contractors would consider a small job.

Additional funding for Petrack Park would have gone to upgrade the electrical facilities at the park because the facilities cannot accommodate the increasing demands of the Fall Festival and various other activities.

The town did consider using impact fees to fund the lighting projects but later discovered they could not be used for that purpose.

However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel, or rather on the ball fields.

The town secured a contract with WillDan Engineering Group Inc. to do preliminary engineering work for lighting projects at Simkins and Petrack Parks, including Field C behind the town office.

Town Manager Dave Richards said that once the engineering work is done, the town can ask the county for a PETT fund allocation.

In addition, Richards said the town also has several other options, including possibly using the parks room tax fund or the capital improvements fund.

Although it may be a while before the lights flicker on in those areas, the preliminary projects are not affected by county funding.