The new commissioners chambers at the Calvada Eye will be called the Charles Dupre Meeting Room, county commissioners decided recently.

The county is in the process of refurbishing the building, which formerly held administrative offices for Preferred Equities Corp., Central Nevada Utilities Corp. and the PEC library.

The library room, which was also a courtroom for the Fifth District Court when the county courthouse was closed for two years due to mold, is being refurbished as a meeting room.

The request for the renaming came from Nye County Commissioner Butch Borasky, who served on the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission with Dupre, who died last year.

He also persuaded commissioners to install a large boulder or bench in the courtyard with a plaque honoring RPC member the late Sheldon Bass, who died in 2005.

"I know Commissioner (Gary) Hollis has made attempts to honor people in the Pahrump area for their service to the community. I want to jump on the bandwagon and honor two members who were active members of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission," Borasky said.

Borasky was referring to the recent naming of the boulevard going into the Calvada duck pond after Pahrump pioneer Walt Williams, the owner of the 10,000-acre Pahrump Ranch until it was sold to Preferred Equities.

Hollis also persuaded county commissioners recently to rename the northwest corner of Highway 160 and 372 "Mankins Corner," after Bill and Pat Mankins, proprietors of a store and gas station there in the 1950s.

Commissioners approved the agenda item under the assumption there would be no cost to the county. All expenses will be paid for through donations.

The completion of the renovations will mean county commissioners no longer hold meetings at the Bob Ruud Community Center, a plain, white block building completed in 1966 thanks to a $50,000 bond issue. It's named after the late Bob Ruud, who moved to Pahrump in 1958 with his wife Jacque from Madera, Calif., obtained 320 acres under the Desert Land Entry Act and was a three-time county commissioner from the Pahrump district. Ruud died in 1982.