36 years ago this month

Allan Estates, a 173-acre subdivision in Pahrump Valley, has been announced by general contractors Richard Leffner and Paul Simpkins, a 25-year resident of the Valley. Asphalt streets, water mains, fire hydrants and a park site dedicated to the county are features of the development.

Half-acre lots for 205 homes are contained in the subdivision. Models include two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes -- all with a garage.

Starting price is $20,500.; the development is located on both sides of the highway six miles north of the junction.

A surge of electrical hookups in March by the Valley Electric Association suggests a growth factor in the association's service area, which includes Pahrump Valley, Amargosa-Lathrop Wells, Beatty and Fish Lake Valley. The first quarter of 1972, VEA recorded 62 hookups and two retired lines. This compares to a total of 138 new hookups for all four quarters last year.

30 years ago this week

Continued growth in Pahrump Valley schools will necessitate double sessions in the grade school possibly next year and definitely no later than the following year if additional classrooms are not built before then.

Principal Don Worden said school enrollment is keeping pace with the general growth of the valley, increasing from 510 students at the start of the year to 570 at the end of the school year.

Without added rooms by the end of next year, some classrooms will have to accommodate as many as 50 students, twice the optimum size.

The Nye County Commission, following the advice of District Attorney Pete Knight, tabled an ordinance, up for its second and final reading, suppressing houses of prostitution in Nye County until an answer from the Nevada State Supreme Court is received.

Knight asked the court to review a county rule which was used to govern brothels. The rule was tossed out through a decision by Judge Stanley Smart, and eliminated Nye County's use of a nuisance "per se" in governing brothels.

20 years ago this week

Nye County commissioners reviewed plans released by the Department of Energy for possible rail routes to Yucca Mountain.

One route which passed just west of Pahrump along the state line, through Amargosa west of Devil's Hole, through Forty Mile Wash to the site, was supported by the commission. The railway will cost $1 million per mile.

A tentative schedule has been set by the Nye County School board for public input meetings throughout the county on the proposed $20 million school bond issue. Among projects being considered are new high schools for Pahrump, Beatty-Amargosa Valley and Tonopah.

Round Mountain, where considerable growth is taking place, is also in line for major improvements. Residents there are pushing for their own high school.

The Nye County Sheriff's Office reopened the Pahrump town dump after tests on unidentified substances found last week at the dump proved to be non-hazardous chemicals and metal shavings.

Workers from U.S. Ecology, a private contractor that handles hazardous waste, also took samples at the dump and an abandoned gold-leaching/assaying operation in the western section of town. Results from tests performed by U.S. Ecology will be released when received.

The owners of the abandoned gold-assaying operation have agreed to pay for the clean-up of the property if hazardous chemicals are discovered at the site.

10 years ago this week

A plan to bring back 24-hour urgent care services at Pahrump Medical Center by the first week of May fell through.

The PMC doctors who were offering to provide the service, and bill for it themselves, have decided that they cannot do so without losing money, according to Mark Stoddard, president of PMC.

The state Department of Transportation is a month away from going out to bid on a project that is expected to increase the safety of Highway 160 from just west of Mountain Springs to the southern edge of Pahrump.

As a fatal accident recently proved, any measure of improved safety is long overdue. The work, which will add another 17 miles to the section of divided four-lane road completed last year, is now expected to cost $16 million -- a full $6 million more than original estimates.

Pahrump Town Manager Mike Cosgrove is in the process of pulling together reams of ambulance service information in anticipation of meeting with acting Pahrump Medical Center Administrator Mark Stoddard.

The two managers were instructed to conduct a four-part study that will determine which bureaucracy is best suited to manage the ambulance service in Pahrump: The town board, through the fire department; the Pahrump Community Hospital District's board of trustees; a joint effort between both boards; or leave things as they are with the county responsible for emergency medical service in the valley.

One look at Fleetwood Homes' new retail sales location at 1531 S. Highway 160 will convince anyone this is a company that's serious about Pahrump.

So serious, in fact, the company chose the valley as the site of its first retail outlet.

The location exudes a serious commitment to the town; from its mock flagstone sidewalks and landscaped courtyards to its putting green and basketball hoop.

Four of Fleetwood's 14 models are fully furnished and climate controlled. When viewed together, they gives the home buyer or visitor a sense of being in a clean, well-kept subdivision.