36 years ago this month

The Nye County tax suit against the Nevada Test Site government contractors was argued before the Nevada Supreme Court in mid-December and a decision is expected in one to five months, according to Bill Beko, Nye County district attorney.

"I'm very optimistic, I have not even thought about us losing this decision," Beko said.

An affirmative ruling would mean a great jump in Nye property valuation as well as more than $8 million in back taxes that would stand unless appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court within 90 days of the Nevada decision.

Charles Lynch launches a commercial greenhouse to grow tomatoes all year around. The greenhouse is located on Lynch's 120-acre farm on Leslie Road. His aim is simple enough -- to grow tomatoes year round, but since tomatoes are pollinated by the wind and there is no wind in a greenhouse, this means that Charles has to buzz each blossom on each of his 800 tomato plants every day with a special plant vibrator, thus doing the work of the wind.

Lynch says, "Sure it's honest work. But how do you explain to the cotton pickin' boys at the bar that you spent all day buzzing tomato blossoms?"

30 years ago this week

Vern Andrews, an employee of the Environmental Protection Agency in Las Vegas, has been selected as the new fire chief of the Pahrump Volunteer Fire Department.

In naming Andrews, the commission said rotation of command responsibility was in keeping with guidelines calling for a regular exchange of officers in jobs in order to familiarize each of them with all aspects of the volunteer organization. The commission commended Chief Ron Perry for his dedication and contributions and will present him with a certificate of appreciation for his work.

Nye County is going to try a central purchasing system. If it works well, it will become the permanent method of buying materials for the county.

At present each department head makes his own purchases, assuming they are included in the department budget.

Some advantages of a single purchasing agent are improved buying efficiency, elimination of duplication of payments, and tighter controls. An emergency purchase routine will have to be worked out and a purchasing agent hired before the program is started.

20 years ago this week

Yucca Mountain being all but named as the nation's high level repository site, continued growth in Pahrump Valley and funding for the Pahrump-Amargosa link road were the top local news stories in 1987.

The repository is still 10 years from construction; the results and completion of testing are expected to bring the multi-billion project to Yucca Mountain. Growth in Pahrump Valley in 1987 exceeded 10 percent. The residential telephone hook-up rate for the first six months was over 13 percent.

The Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to pay Nye County $815,000 to build the Pahrump-Amargosa link road. That money, with $200,000 earmarked for the project by the county, virtually assures completion in 1988.

Passage of subdivision and flood control ordinances are among work accomplished in 1987 by the Pahrump Town Board. The increased authority for town board members stemming from passage of SB 463 in 1985, aided in passing ordinances in a timely manner.

The authority for the town to take action on its own instead of waiting to go through the commission, and having the authority to do the planning here in Pahrump, is much fairer to the locals and resolves issues quicker.

Nevada apparently is out of contention for a multi-billion-dollar atom smasher, which should give scientists a look at what makes up the universe.

Saying the move was political, Gov. Richard Bryan blasted the decision by federal officials to eliminate Nevada from consideration.

"This administration is no friend of Nevada," Bryan said of the Reagan administration. "If another state wants a project, Nevada can't have it. But if no other state wants it, like the nuclear repository, Nevada is considered to get it."

Nye County appears to have gotten the jump on Bullfrog County through quiet diplomacy during the writing of the bill just passed, which virtually puts the nation's high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Some key points and language changes were added to the 1987 version of the Nuclear Waste Act that would mean millions in impact funds to Nye County, while ensuring that Nye County will have a voice, along with the state, in repository related matters.

10 years ago this week

NASA's next generation of reusable space craft won't be coming to the desert near Tecopa, Calif., after all. Officials at Lockheed Martin, makers of the experimental X-33 aircraft, have decided not to conduct short-range tests that would have brought the craft in for landings at Silurian Lake, a dry lake bed between Tecopa and Baker. Instead, engineers will focus their attention on medium- and long-range tests that will take the X-33 to the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

A new drilling program at Yucca Mountain is expected to give scientists a closer look at the rock that may some day hold the nation's high-level radioactive waste. But it's who will be doing the drilling that may be of the most interest to local residents.

According to Department of Energy spokesman Erik Olds, the next phase of drilling at Yucca Mountain, and excavation called the cross-drift tunnel, is expected to bring back some of the Kiewit employees who were laid off earlier this year, not long after they finished work on the Exploratory Studies Facility.

Although Chairman Dick Carver has been urging a county split and using the needs of Pahrump as a reason for the division of Nye, information supplied by the county clearly shows the booming south community contributes the bulk of the money to the general fund. And there is no question Pahrump provides the bulk of county revenues on consumption taxes, such as gasoline, liquor and cigarettes, simply because it has well over 50 percent of Nye's population.

Carver has also been using the issue of where the ambulance in Smoky Valley will be located as ammunition during northern Nye town meetings in his argument for a county split.