A 40-acre piece of county property on East Mesquite Avenue might be pulled from consideration as the site of a federal detention center. (See related story, page A1.)

Nye County Manager Ron Williams, addressing a special meeting of county commissioners by conference call Tuesday, questioned reports that a majority of commissioners may not be in favor of using the county land for that purpose.

County Commissioner Butch Borasky for one, confirmed his suspicions. Borasky asked that action on the withdrawal of the Mesquite Avenue site be scheduled for the next county commission meeting in Tonopah July 3.

Borasky said he envisioned offering the county land when the project was going to be 300 beds for the federal prison system and the remainder for the county jail, but the project has now ballooned to a 1,000- to 1,500-bed project for federal inmates only.

"I'm just wondering whether we want to pull our site off the table and save it for the jail," Borasky said. The East Mesquite Avenue site would be conveniently located near the courthouse on East Basin Avenue for a future jail, he said.

Borasky received vocal support from at least one other commissioner Tuesday.

"I don't support any site that's within the town of Pahrump," Chairman Joni Eastley said by telephone from Tonopah. Eastley said she supported the Panaca Road site, which is in far southern Nye County near the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute.

Nye County Comptroller Pam Webster said two contractors interested in the site on Mesquite should be promptly notified about the changing commission climate.

There is also a privately owned site on East Mesquite Avenue up for consideration, Williams said. Two more of the Pahrump sites are on property owned by the town, he said.

"The farther we can get it out of town the better. Number one, we wouldn't have the traffic," Borasky said.

Williams said he would put a master plan amendment and zone change for the sites being considered for the federal detention center on the agenda for the July 11 Pahrump Regional Planning Commission and the July 18 Nye County commissioners' meeting.

Companies have until Aug. 31 to file requests to build the facility and need to have zoning approved before then, he said.

Mark White, the county's development attorney, also suggested a development agreement be approved with the companies building the detention center.