PVT FILE PHOTO The Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park sits unused in Lathrop Wells. Advertisement

LATHROP WELLS -- Nye County is being asked to return $3 million from a 1999 U.S. Economic Development Administration grant for the Pahrump High Technology Center and the Amargosa Valley Science Technology Park as part of the Highway 95 high tech corridor project.

An audit of the grant by the Office of the Inspector General also asked the EDA regional director to disallow the $6.7 million in total costs claimed by Nye County pending results of a technical assessment.

The county should be required to develop a sound marketing plan for the industrial park, the audit stated. It also labeled Nye County a high-risk recipient for future EDA grants.

The audit was obtained by the Pahrump Valley Times after filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

The EDA grant was designed to offset the impacts of defense downsizing at the Nevada Test Site, the first phase of the Nevada Science and Technology Corridor project.

The audit found the county was unable to finance the local share, implement components of the award or oversee development of the project.

"In other instances, claimed accomplishments failed to perform, were not marketed or further developed and had not contributed to expected long term economic development intended by the grant. In addition the county claimed more than twice the amount proposed for project management," states the final audit, released in September.

Basically, the county appears to be incompetent.

Nye County was taken to task for failing to provide the necessary engineering supervision at the construction site to ensure the work on the Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park conformed to plans and specifications and resulted in a functional park, the audit stated.

"EDA should monitor county efforts to collect on the performance bonds of the contractor and/or subcontractor for the Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park and ensure that EDA receives its share of any recovery of surety monies paid for inadequate performance."

Nye County should report on its efforts to provide water to the industrial park and establish a time line and budget to complete that project as originally conceived, the federal government stated.

A marketing plan should be prepared to promote the long term economic development anticipated by the grant.

Beginning in 1997, Nye County partnered with the Nevada Test Site Development Corp. and the Economic Development Authority of Esmeralda and Nye Counties (EDEN) to prepare an economic adjustment strategy designating Highway 95 from Pahrump and Indian Springs up to Tonopah as the Nevada Science and Technology Corridor.

The project included a Pahrump High Technology Center -- initially proposed by the Community College of Southern Nevada in a building now occupied by Great Basin College -- which was supposed to be a technology center to serve as a distance education hub linking rural communities along the corridor.

An independent auditor identified key control deficiencies in the projects in reports and letters to county management, the Office of the Inspector General stated. "Had the county promptly addressed the independent auditor's findings and recommendations, the county may have precluded the major deficiencies identified in this report," it said.

A New Mexico consultant, hired under a non-competitive basis and working without a sub-agreement until May 2003, prepared an invoice for costs including in-kind contributions for his services administering the science and technology park project, those of his sister and another individual, in 2000-2001. The consultant terminated this agreement in March 2004 during construction of the science and technology park.

In their response, Nye County officials estimated they owed $222,405 to the federal government, an offer that was rejected by the OIG.

"In November 2005, over a year after construction was completed and the EDA grant expired, the Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park was not being utilized and there had clearly been no progress toward achieving the long-term economic benefits anticipated from this component," the Office of the Inspector General audit states.

Nye County was short $154,062 in funds needed to build the park. The contractor was unable to develop a producing well, with cost overruns on extended digging and expanded highway requirements. Instead of terminating the grant in May 2004, with only 10 weeks left before it expired, the county notified the contractor to proceed with phase II.

During inspections in late 2005 and early 2006, the OIG found the park wasn't being used, with unfinished interior roads, lighting, hydrants, water or prospects for use. There was no sign advertising the park's availability to potential occupants, no marketing plan and county officials were considering selling property adjacent to the park to a developer for a much larger project of apartments, schools, warehouses and offices.

The EDA specified a well producing 100 gallons per minute, a 350,000-gallon water tank and multiple fire hydrants.

The fire hydrants were eliminated to cut costs. The contractor installed a water tank with less than half the capacity and a well producing 50 gallons per minute with unacceptable arsenic levels.

The OIG concurred with Nye County's response that "EDA did not demand, nor did Nye County ever commit itself to any certain level of economic benefits being derived from the park during the grant period."

But inspectors noted the EDA awarded the grant based on Nye County's assertions the overall project was expected to create 160 near-term and 460 long-term jobs, which would leverage $31 million in private investment. A complete industrial park was to be ready for occupancy.

"The Science and Technology Park is now fully three years old, still vacant, and with no documented prospect of imminent development," the audit notes.

The sub-grantee, EDEN, was supposed to upgrade its staff with a marketing specialist, train regional personnel and position itself as an economic development district. The EDEN executive director resigned in February 2001.

"EDEN, without an adequate financial management system or sufficient staffing, was clearly not a responsible sub-grantee," the audit states. "However rather than terminate its sub-grant with EDEN, in November 2001 the county amended the sub-grant a second time and significantly reduced the scope of EDEN's sub-grant responsibility."

The high-tech center has been a success, the inspector general said in agreeing with the county. It's now used for community college classes and high school dual credit. But the rural distance education network supposed to link the Pahrump High Tech Center with Amargosa Valley, Beatty, Goldfield and Tonopah wasn't in place.

Community college officials stated Nye and Esmeralda counties didn't have the technology infrastructure necessary to link outlying communities.

The audit also found the county's consultant failed to detect nearly $500,000 in duplicate equipment claims for constructing the high tech center.