HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks to the press at the Emergency Services Building meeting room Monday afternoon. RELATED STORY Reid on stump in Pahrump Advertisement

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., explained some of the topics discussed during a closed door meeting with a couple of town and county officials Monday morning.

Some, Reid said, included a request for $1 million for a reconnaisance study of Wheeler Wash, a 10-acre entrance to the Last Chance Park site and a Municipal Utility District that would allow recycled effluent to be used to water the fairgrounds site.

A press release from town manager Bill Kohbarger said the Pahrump Airport and a railroad spur also was discussed.

Reid said town officials had a good plan for a recreational complex at the fairgrounds with baseball and soccer fields. It was Reid who first announced the 426-acre property was awarded to the town in a congressional act 10 years ago.

"The most important thing is to be able to do something with sewer and water," Reid said. "What we need to try to do to help is have a municipal utility district -- it's called a MUD."

Pahrump town officials had to delay plans to develop the 1,200-acre Last Chance Park because they lacked funds for desert tortoise mitigation.

"So we set it up where there would be 10 acres which would be an entry way to all those thousands of acres for people to have an equestrian trail, to have walking trails," Reid said.

On another topic discussed in the closed door meeting, Reid said there have been discussions with the Paiute Indian tribe over completing the proposed 230-kilovolt power line extension from the Valley Electric Association grid to connect with NV Energy in northwest Las Vegas.

Reid admitted it was the first time he heard about Wheeler Wash.

Detention basins could be built to help drain water coming down Wheeler Wash without spending $200 million to $300 million, he said.

In his brief, prepared remarks, Reid said Nye County has benefitted from economic stimulus money already. There will be more money for transmission lines to spur renewable energy projects in Nye County, feeding the power generated to populated areas, he said.

"We need to look at what can be done to get these renewable energy projects up and running," Reid said.

Local officials are in support of renewable energy projects in Nye County, Reid said. He said government officials in Nye County asked for an extension of six months on a deadline for solar energy projects to break ground in 2010 to be eligible for tax breaks in the stimulus package.

On a national scale, the debate over health care reform has been front and center lately. Reid said America today spends one-sixth of every $1 on health care, a figure that will rise to one-third in 10 years.

Reid heaped blame on the insurance industry for spreading false information about health care reform. He said the insurance industry and most Republicans don't want any bill on health care reform at all.

"The status quo helps the insurance indusry. The insurance industry is the biggest benefactor of what we have now. The insurance industry wants everything to be just the way it is," Reid said.

The American public should have the same privileges federal employees have to pick the health insurance coverage they want, regardless of pre-conditions, he said.

"There's no socialized medicine. This is all a figment of someone's imagination. No one's talking about a single-payer system, but what we are talking about is a public option of keeping insurance companies honest," Reid said.

Democrats would have 60 votes in the Senate to pass health care reform, but Senators Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., are sick. One Republican, Olympia Snowe, from Maine, is in favor of health care reform, Reid said.

"One of the things that the insurance industry has done, together with all the Republican leadership in Congress, is they don't want a bill. They know how successful some of our programs have been in the past, like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid -- all imperfect programs but all good programs and kind of like the face of the Democratic party. We want to do some health care now and take another whack at the insurance industry, but the Republicans aren't helping us. We want bipartisanship. We're doing everything we can," he said.

There's waste in the health care system that can be cut, Reid said. The pharmaceutical industry spends 70 percent of its money on marketing, not research. Medicare isn't alllowed to negotiate for lower-priced drugs.

Reid explained why he will host a town hall meeting on health care reform by teleconference from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday instead of in person.

"At town hall meetings, not everyone that comes is in love with me, is in love with the federal government. But in the past people weren't trying to disrupt meetings," Reid said. "People have a right to speak up, but it's not even a fine line, it's a bright line between asking questions and disrupting meetings, yelling and screaming."