Election Guide News, voter information MARK WAITE / PVT County commission candidates from left, Lorinda Wichman, Rob Mobley, Joni Eastley, Gary Hollis and Harley Kulkin are seated at the podium in the debate at the Pahrump Nugget banquet hall. Advertisement

Brian Kunzi posed questions on incorporation, the federal detention center, ethics and residency during the candidates debate sponsored by the Nye County Democratic Party at the Pahrump Nugget Friday night.

Pahrump Town Board member Don Rust said a feasibility study by the University of Nevada, Reno, will recommend whether incorporation is viable.

"Nobody really knows for sure. The earliest it would be is 2011 before it would ever be on the ballot because you have to go through steps with county commissioners, the state legislature," Rust said.

Town board candidate Sean Brooks said the outside, independent study by UNR is needed.

"When we get those studies it will have all the information on taxes, what it will cost and whether it will be feasible and at that time the information needs to go out to the community," Brooks said.

Town board candidate Vicky Parker thinks it's inevitable the town will need to pursue incorporation, due to the changing demographics in Pahrump.

Town board candidate Mike Darby said, "I don't believe it's financially feasible in the economic time we're in."

Parker said she'll work to improve econnomic development by continuing to serve on boards like PAVED.

Rust said the town's economic development coordinator, Al Balloqui, has been working hard on a variety of projects including the fairgrounds.

Brooks said, "I would like to see some of these impact fees looked at reasonably. We have a lot of companies that try to come out here and are hit with hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars in impact fees."

Darby concurred with that suggestion. Darby said he talked to the developer of the proposed shrimp farm in Pahrump.

"I asked him how the impact fees affected him. He said he didn't have anything to compare it to because the only place that he dealt with was North Dakota where they didn't have any impact fees."

Nye County Commission District 3 candidate Harley Kulkin blasted the federal detention center project.

"It seems overanxious to bring a prison here for a lousy 200 jobs but that has an awful lot of negative connotations," Kulkin said. Instead he urged Pahrump to go after tourism, like his proposed theme park.

His opponent, incumbent Commissioner Gary Hollis, shot back, "If Harley's got the money to build the theme park -- I'm sure the five commissioners sitting on the board today would absolutely be looking at it if he brought forward the money."

District 2 Commissioner Joni Eastley said Nye County needs more jobs because there aren't the tax revenues to support 10 communities in 18,000 square miles. But she added, "We are not going to be able to bring jobs into these communities or be able to support those industries without protecting our water resources."

District 1 candidate Rob Mobley said the county won't be able to draw a lot of businesses in the next 12 to 18 months with the current credit crunch. What's needed is to keep what business is in the county now, he said.

His opponent, Lorinda Wichman, said priorities have to be examined. "There are certain areas that deal with safety, health and welfare of the community that need to be fully funded," she said.

When it came to residency, Wichman supported Eastley's remark that "it's important to vote for the person who can best do the job regardless of where that person lives." Both women live in northern Nye County but each of their districts include portions of Pahrump.

Mobley, a history professor, said it's important to have local representation and quoted former U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, who famously said, "All politics is local."

"How can you get the pulse of the majority of the constituents if you don't live here then? I shop in the same stores as almost everybody in this room. We go to the same activities on the weekends," Mobley said.

Kulkin said "physical participation is very important, not by phone but by actually being there."

In taking another shot at his opponent's recent move to District 3, Hollis said, "I live in Pahrump and I live in the district and I've lived in the same place since ... 2002 and I have all the documents to prove that."

Mobley felt Pahrump needed a new community center and should pursue grants. But Wichman said money from grants comes from taxpayer's pockets like everything else.

Wichman added, "When you compare a community center with your safety on the street in a budget situation, I think that the priority is obvious."

Hollis said he tried to renovate the Calvada Eye building for a community center. But he said the Federal Emergency Management Agency noted the building is too low and has to be demolished; the county commission will have to construct a new one.

"I don't care what FEMA or anybody else says. We have our needs and we have to work within a financial budget, and I'm not going to let anybody bully me around," Kulkin said.

Eastley suggested questioners ask Pahrump, which owns and operates the community center.

"If the town board would like to approach the county commission with a plan to build a new community center, I would absolutely support some level of funding for that," she said.

Wichman said when she found out utility lines will be expanded to serve the proposed federal detention center, she became supportive of the project.

Mobley said the detention center is "a boondoggle on the community." The law removing a 9.5-mile minimum distance from correctional facilities to homes was passed so the sheriff could have a new jail, he said.

The Mesquite Avenue location would increase traffic on Highway 160, he said, shuttling people back and forth.

Eastley said, "In a nutshell: no problem with the project, don't like the location, never have."

"I'm for the project. Again, I don't think any commissioner likes the location," Hollis said.

Kulkin called the detention center "a last resort business. I don't think we're that desperate yet." He charged the public was being kept out of the development agreement negotiations.

Pahrump Justice of the Peace candidate Linda DeMeo said her legal experience came from her work for an international shipping company.

"I've had to handle legal documents throughout the world dealing with communistic countries," DeMeo said. "Do I know how to understand legal jargon? Absolutely. I have dealt with the communists I know I can deal with my fellow people in Pahrump."

Opponent Kent Jasperson said he had 25 years of experience as a deputy sheriff.

Jasperson said his only conflict of interest could be a stepdaughter-in-law who works for the sheriff's department.