The televised footage of the flooding in places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this week would seem to make starting the process of creating a General Improvement District to finance flood control improvements here a timely idea.

But Nye County Commissioners Peter Liakopoulos and Gary Hollis Tuesday voted against even scheduling a public hearing, partly out of sticker shock at the $315 million price tag.

Kendra Follett, a representative for the county's bond counsel Swendseid and Stern, said either a unanimous vote of the county commission would be needed to create the GID or a simple majority with the consent of the Pahrump town board.

Bureau Veritas was awarded a $386,946 contract in March 2007 to draw up the service plan for the flood control improvements. Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao said the plan could still be useful in the future, even if it's not adopted, perhaps to show to potential developers the county's intentions.

Bureau Veritas project manager Donald Allison said Nye County would have the advantage of constructing a flood-control system now on raw land, before much of the area gets developed. He said population projections show Pahrump could have a population anywhere from 59,210 to 103,750 by 2018, depending on whether a low or high growth rate is projected.

A smaller project with just a series of dams in Wheeler Wash and a channel funneling flows into a series of retention basins east of Highway 160 could be done for $160 million. If improvements under Highway 160 are included to provide a flood-proof roadway that cost would rise to $220 million, Allison said.

The total project of $365 million would include those improvements and the cost of building different channels west of Highway 160 funneling the remaining flows west into California.

The assessments to pay for those bond issues would range from $71.18 per acre, per year over a 20-year period for the $160 million bond issue to $98.58 per acre, per year for the $220 million bond issue and on up to $165.88 for the $365 million bond issue.

Allison told Commissioner Butch Borasky that's for all acreage in the Pahrump Regional Planning District, not just improved parcels.

The major flood basins are the biggest expense item at $104.6 million. The series of Wheeler Wash dams would cost $20 million.

Other costs would include residential access, major intersection crossings, Highway 160 crossings, reconstructing roads and utility lines, acquiring rights-of-way for the channels, building the channels and permitting costs.

Allison said he tried to design a system that would maximize infiltration back into the ground of flood waters, using unlined, dirt channels, which would also reduce the cost, and a lot of retention basins.

There is the potential for a water recreation project in Wheeler Wash, a dream of Hollis and Liakopoulos, who envisioned such a facility behind one of the dams. Neither commissioner explained their objections in the public session.

"It's not addressing the things that need to be addressed," Liakopoulos said afterwards. "That's Gary's project. We have been fighting for that, that's what we want but not at that price."

Liakopoulos said building one levee along the highway could still result in a flood, as evidenced currently in the Midwest.

"You have this one big levee they want to produce and it's way overpriced. Where are we going to get the money?" he asked.

Hollis said the GID would require taxpayers to pay an assessment per acre before even one detention basin has been permitted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

"The cost is absolutely outrageous. That's a lot of moolah," he said.

Allison said the flood water would be slowed down enough to be directed into a series of big retention basins just east of Highway 160. There would be a channel three to five feet deep with a foot of freeboard so the water wouldn't come up to the highway during a 100-year storm, he said.

But Allison said the maintenance costs of all the flood control improvements could cost $1 million per year.

"If we build this project, it's going to provide flood relief for the valley. It's designed for a 100-year ... storm and subsequently will store a lot of it on the east side," Allison said. "Right now the storms generated up in the mountains are going to come right into your valley -- there's no protection."

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said the flood-control improvements would provide relief to homeowners on their flood insurance rates. He said there could be other ways of funding the plan than having each property owner pay a couple hundred dollars per year.

Walt Kuver, who has been hired as a contractor to help Nye County with planning issues, said the information on the proposed fees and assessments was inadequate. Kuver said he'd pay assessments of $1,130 on his property per year just for the improvements east of Highway 160.

The Pahrump Regional Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on establishing the GID and adopting the flood control plan July 9.

The idea is to put it on the Nye County Commission agenda July 15. If the governing boards approve the plan without delay, Swendseid and Stern said the GID could be up and running by the end of the year.