Nighttime in Pahrump will be a little brighter in the coming year, if plans by the Regional Transportation Commission become a reality.

The RTC budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year beginning July 1 includes $175,973 in intersection safety improvements, that will include solar-powered, blinking red lights on stop signs at four-way stops. They will be similar to the blinking red light at the intersection of Calvada and Pahrump Valley boulevards.

Another $50,647 will go to flashing yellow lights that will advise motorists to slow down in school zones.

When it comes to the red-yellow-green variety, Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao said the county has an agreement in hand with the Nevada Department of Transportation for the long-awaited traffic signal at Homestead Road and Highway 160; the RTC has $100,000 budgeted for the design of that project.

In addition, the RTC budgeted $100,000 to design a traffic light at Charleston Park Avenue and Highway 372, the most dangerous intersection with 21 recorded motor vehicle accidents in the years 2005-2006.

Yao said the majority of the attention is being paid to Pahrump, which has the highest volume of traffic. But the north county won't be left out as the RTC budget includes $1.05 million for improvements to Pole Line Road, a 67-mile road between Tonopah and Gabbs, which is much shorter than the 106-mile journey via Highway 95 and Highway 361 but is unpaved almost the entire length.

The budget also includes $22,429 for street lights to illuminate major intersections in Pahrump.

"We're going to have street lighting at the major intersections in conjunction with the flashing lights," Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao told the RTC board at their quarterly meeting Monday.

The RTC plans to stripe all major roads, 250 miles worth, a project that will cost an estimated $158,400.

Patchwork on 63 miles of major roads will cost $330,000. Another $1.63 million is included in road preparation for the annual chip-sealing program.

The RTC uses funds from a four-cent-per-gallon gas tax and a quarter-cent sales tax. The RTC begins the year with a generous $2.26 million beginning fund balance in the quarter-cent fund, $1.4 million in the four-cent gas tax fund.

The RTC can add to that an estimated $860,000 in revenues this coming year from the quarter-cent fund and $896,000 from the four-cent gas tax fund.

Yao called the $4.7 million spending program for the coming year "huge." By the end of the fiscal year June 30, 2008, the RTC will be left with fund balances of $373,777 and $312,806, respectively.

"We haven't been spending enough for the last couple years which resulted in a huge surplus last year," Yao said. "We have two years surplus."

Nevada Revised Statutes states the county can't have more than half of its budget in reserve, Yao said.

Nye County spends $1 million per year to maintain gravel roads in northern Nye County, where 71 miles of county roads are paved and 1,556 miles are gravel.

By contrast, in the Beatty-Amargosa Valley area 53 miles of county road are paved and 113 miles are gravel. In the Pahrump region, there are 133 miles of paved road, 40 miles of chip-sealed road and five miles of gravel roads.

The mandate by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to improve the dust problem in the Pahrump air is the major impetus to chip-sealing streets in Pahrump Valley, Yao said. The county uses Payment Equal to Taxes, from the U.S. Department of Energy for the chip-sealing contract every year.

"If we didn't have PETT funds the county would be in much worse shape than it is now," Yao said. "We may have to speed up our chip-seal but we don't have the manpower or the resources."

RTC member Roberta "Midge" Carver, a Nye County commissioner from Round Mountain, asked what contribution the Nye County school district would make toward the blinking caution lights around the schools.

When it comes to repairing Pole Line Road, Carver said people who live in the remote areas should realize they're not entitled to a lot of services. But she said improving that road could improve ambulance runs.

"That golden hour of opportunity could be realized if that road is in good condition," Carver said.

The RTC also heard a request to provide a northern access to Desert View Regional Medical Center in Pahrump from Basin Avenue.

But Carver thought the developer, Pahrump Lands LLC, owner of the 40 acre site, should install the curb and gutter. The project would cost a total of $36,952, with the chip-seal cost $9,496 and the labor and equipment to prepare the sub base running another $13,934.

Resident Bob Howard pushed for establishing a park and ride lot at the Nye-Clark County line on Highway 160 and Trout Canyon Road. Howard said the Southern Nevada Transportation Coalition is receptive to the idea of extending bus service from Las Vegas out to the county line to serve commuters from Pahrump.