A Nye County working group brainstormed on ways to complete the Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park during a meeting earlier last month.

The group is composed of county officials like the public works director and assistant county manager. The meeting was scheduled in the aftermath of a final audit last September from the Office of the Inspector General asking Nye County to return a $3 million U.S. Economic Development Administration grant awarded in 1999 for the science and technology park, which was part of the Highway 95 high technology corridor project.

Nye County wants to extend water lines from Fort Amargosa across Highway 95 at Lathrop Wells, to the proposed technology park. But it will be expensive building culverts under the highway, Nye County Assistant County Manager Pam Webster said.

Paul Burris, regional vice-president of operations for Utilities Inc., has offered assistance to Nye County for the water project but was unable to attend the meeting.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management gave the county the right-of-way to extend electric lines to the property, Webster said.

Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao has been in contact with Valley Electric Association to check on the availability of power to the site, she said.

The county plans to put up a billboard, advertising the availability of space at the park, Webster said.

There are plans to set aside part of the 60 acres for a lay down yard that can be used for the Nye County nuclear waste repository oversight program for equipment used in drilling wells and other projects, she said.

"The NWRPO is currently leasing some land out there in Amargosa from outside parties, so we might as well pay that money to the county," Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office Director Darrell Lacy said of the lay down yard.

There have also been discussions about the state leasing space to store geologic samples in a climate-controlled environment.

There have been streets bladed into the desert at the park. Webster said the county will put up street signs soon.

Nye County will request grant money to purchase additional land at the Lathrop Wells site, Webster said. Congress authorized the county to purchase 350 acres at fair market value back in 1999, but only 60 acres was purchased due to budget constraints. Webster said land values have risen on the remaining property in the past several years.

The Office of the Inspector General told Nye County officials a marketing plan should be prepared to promote the park. The OIG said a time line and budget should be arranged on providing water to the park.

Nye County ran $154,062 short on funds needed to build the park back in 2005. The contractor was unable to develop a producing well on the site and there were cost overruns on the expanded digging.

The Nevada Department of Transportation required a turn lane into the industrial park from Highway 95, which project officials say wasn't in the budget. The turn lane now points to an empty industrial park site, with only a couple of water tanks and a pump house.

Nye County had projected the science and technology park project would create 160 near-term and 460 long-term jobs, which would leverage $31 million in private investment. The grant was intended to offset downsizing at the Nevada Test Site in the early 1990s.

"We want to be well positioned if the EDA decides to implement the recommendations of the audit," Webster said.