HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Town Manager Dave Richards finds reason to smile at a special meeting to discuss his resignation yesterday morning. Advertisement

Pahrump Town Manager Dave Richards will be bidding farewell to Pahrump, serving his last day on Feb. 22.

He'll spend a week of paid vacation time packing his bags and heading up to the small fishing village of Hoonah, Alaska, which has a population of less than 900 people.

"I've enjoyed working for the people here, and I made a lot of good friends, people I'm going to miss," Richards said. "But I'm looking forward to a new chapter in my life."

The Pahrump Town Board formally accepted Richards' resignation at a special meeting held yesterday morning.

In addition to accepting the resignation, the board also started working on the task of ensuring the town is managed in the interim and finding a replacement for Richards.

To ensure ongoing town projects would continue running smoothly, Richards agreed to go through the town manager's report and list the relevant contacts town staff would need.

Vice Chairman John McDonald suggested having Town Finance Director Michael Sullivan act as town manager was met with some concern by the other board members.

Sprouse worried that being budget season, asking Sullivan to manage the town as well was quite a heavy burden.

"I'm sure he'd be a fine manager, but he also has to work on the budget, and I want to make sure we're not overcasting that," Sprouse said.

Sullivan said he was willing to take up the task to some degree although he would need some idea as to when the town was planning to have a new manager hired.

"This is my town too, my family and I live here, and we've got to have continuity of some sort," Sullivan said.

A solution was found when the board gave various department heads, such as Fire Chief Scott Lewis and Buildings and Grounds Director Matt Luis, managerial authority for their departments while giving Sullivan the town manager's authority to approve up to $5,000 in spending.

Chairman Laurayne Murray and McDonald agreed to form a subcommittee and work on writing up an advertisement for the position and interview applicants.

Murray proposed having Richards turn in his keys even earlier than his proposed resignation date and be out of the office by the end of the week to give him time for his relocation.

Board members Dan Sprouse and Nicole Shupp, however, questioned whether that would give Richards enough time to tie up loose ends and prepare for the interim period during which the town would advertise for and interview new manager candidates.

Richards responded by reiterating that he had already scheduled a week for himself to move and that he did have tasks to complete prior to leaving.

"I planned to leave on (Feb. 22), and that interim period would be a week of vacation which would allow me the time to get things in order, so I don't think the time period you've outlined would be really adequate to do the things that need to be done," Richards told Murray.

Don Rust, who was unable to attend the meeting, had Murray read a statement of some requests, including having Daniel McArthur conduct a special audit on any projects Richards had worked on during his employment.

"Every check that goes out of here requires two signatures, and I very seldom sign checks," Richards pointed out in response. "And any accounts payable are reviewed by yourselves, so I really don't think there's any need for concern."

In addition, Sullivan pointed out that Richards didn't have any authority over receipts or the signing staff, and questioned what, exactly, they would be asking McArthur to do.

Ultimately the board members agreed that it is not necessary for McArthur to conduct any extra audits but simply go forward with the usual audit activities.

Several town employees and volunteers commented on Richards' leaving prior to the brief meeting ending.

"As an employee and a citizen of this community, working with Dave Richards has been a privilege for me," Ordinance Enforcement Officer Bernie Fleeman said. "He's always kept the agenda of what the town needs were, and not a personal agenda as others have. I think the town has benefited from that, and he's going to be sorely missed by this town and others."

Charlie Gronda, the airport planning director, echoed Fleeman's sentiments.

"I'd like to say that Dave's being here the last four years has helped the airport project immensely," Gronda said. "He has helped me a lot and his management skills have kept me on track, and that has been a big help and I'd like to thank him for that."