HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Motorists have to follow the speed limits on these highway signs, but speed limits on some of the newer roads in town may be up for debate. Advertisement

An attempt by Nye County commissioners to change and establish speed limits on various roads failed Tuesday due to questions about their authority to change limits without first passing an ordinance.

The proposal, on the commission's consent agenda, proposed reducing the speed limit from 45 mph to 25 mph on Gee, Geofrey, Georgine, and Francine streets.

It also proposed the same speed reductions on David Street between Blosser Ranch Road and Bell Vista Avenue and Issac Street between Leslie Street and David Street.

Ron Williams, Nye County manager, told commissioners an ordinance was required for the board to change speed limits.

Commissioner Gary Hollis, however, argued that in some cases it wasn't a matter of changing the speed limit at all but establishing one in the first place.

"Are all speed signs in Nye County now void because there's no ordinance?" Hollis asked. "I disagree with this totally. Nye County commissioners have been setting these speed limits for years, and now all of a sudden out of a blue sky the county manager wants to change all that."

"The Nye County manager wants you to get in compliance with state law," Williams retorted. "There was a lot of confusion over this when you just waved your magic wand and changed the speed limit on Pahrump Valley Boulevard."

According to Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo, Williams was correct.

"The sheriff's office kept getting complaints about county commissioners putting up speed limit signs and us not enforcing them," DeMeo said in a post-meeting interview. "The speed limits are illegal because they're not done by a certain procedure."

As such, many of the speed limits citing a 15 mph or 35 mph zone have not been enforced.

Examples cited by DeMeo included a 15 mph limit on Simkins Road near Simkins Park, a speed limit on Blagg Road between Calvada Boulevard and Highway 372, and the speed limit on Pahrump Valley Boulevard between Calvada Boulevard and Highway 372.

That doesn't mean motorists can run amok, though.

DeMeo said the speed limit for the entire town is 25 mph on any non-paved road and 45 mph on any paved road.

School zone speed limits are also enforced.

"We're still going to notice reckless driving," DeMeo said. "We look for other things before we pull someone over."

But Pahrump isn't the only place in Nye County that will have to confront the issue.

"It's not just a Pahrump problem," DeMeo said. "It's streets countywide. It's monumental, it's every street where the speed limit has been changed."

DeMeo said with the exception of Highways 160 and 372 (for which speed limits are established by the state) and school zones, all other limits are non-enforceable.

Nye County Road Foreman Dave Fanning said it wasn't quite as bad as DeMeo implied.

"A lot of the signage has been here for years," Fanning said, adding the enforcement issue probably referred to some of the newer streets in town.

Samson Yao, director of public works, said his office has filed a request with the district attorney's office to find applicable statutes or ordinances.

"We did some preliminary research and we had some questions," Yao said.

He said he had not heard back yet, but until they have more information as to what action they can take, there are no plans to take down any signs.