MARK WAITE / PVT Al Bass, founder of Visiting Angels, stands in front of an angelic painting at his office on Loop Road. Advertisement

Al Bass, founder of Visiting Angels, a non-medical home care company, has been nominated for small businessman of the year by the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce and SCORE, a nonprofit organization offering business counseling.

The chamber nomination letter states the award recognizes small business owners for their staying power, growth in the number of employees, increase in sales, financial performance, offering an innovative product or service, response to adversity and contribution to community-oriented projects.

Bass thinks the latter criteria could play a factor in his nomination. Bass participates in the Arthritis Foundation, the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life, founded Pahrump Valley 4-Wheelers and next year will be training officer and fund-raising chairman for Nye County Search and Rescue.

"I don't know how far it can go because there's so many great people and organizations involved with that (award)," Bass said. "I'm very grateful with the nomination. That's worth more than winning anything."

Bass, 38, left a good job as a corporate analyst for 3M Company in 2004 and moved from Ventura County, California, to Pahrump to start Visiting Angels. He now has a staff of 40 to 50 mostly personal care attendants who provide people with assistance bathing, keeping house, personal hygiene, providing transportation to doctor's appointments, and other non-medical chores.

"I needed a big change. I was a corporate analyst for a Fortune 100 company for 16 years," Bass said. "Some family and friends moved out here. This was a wonderful, small town and I saw a place where I could make a difference -- which was my goal -- instead of being just a number in a big company."

Visiting Angels has grown to service anywhere from 60 to 75 patients at a time, he said. His wife Araceli helps out at the office, now in its fourth location on Loop Road near Floyd's Ace Hardware store.

"We've had continued growth since we opened and we just continue to grow. Obviously with the aging population growing as fast as it is, we get to the point sometimes where we don't even have the staff to care for the number of people who need it. So we try to refer them to other companies," Bass said.

Business picked up by the end of 2005, after he arranged contracts with major providers, like Medicaid and the Nevada Division for Aging Services. Bass said usually a third of the funding for a client's care comes from Medicaid and government programs, another two thirds consists of private funding.

Bass formed Pahrump Valley 4 Wheelers, since he's an outdoor person and there was no organized four-wheel drive organization in Pahrump at the time. He promises big changes when he takes over Nye County Search and Rescue.

"If there's a need there's always time. You make time to do things for the community," Bass said. "I really felt when I got to Pahrump I could spread my wings and not be so confined by the corporate structure."

Bass said he gets calls every week from people who want to locate to Pahrump. He sends them a packet of information.

Nevada doesn't have the taxes in place to provide benefits to seniors as other states do, Bass said. At the same time, as a businessman, he said workman's compensation and employees taxes are high in this state.

"We're just a couple of decades away from having a quarter of our population being senior citizens. Medicare is already considering to be bankrupt; if they don't make some serious changes on health care it's going to be devastating. Someone's going to have to be there to fill in the gaps on what's available and what's not available," Bass said.