36 years ago

Five models -- the first homes for the Calvada development in Pahrump Valley are scheduled to go up beginning in February.

Construction will coincide with that of the Pahrump Valley High School, according to Jack Soules, Calvada executive. Calvada's five units will be located near the new school and will use the water and sewage systems capable of serving the school and 50 homes.

Jack Trostroff, a Wisconsin businessman, is in the process of establishing a concrete batch and asphalt-producing plant in Pahrump Valley. The company would also be able to manufacture concrete block and pre-cast buildings.

Much of the heavy equipment used in the operation is on location at the company site behind Ray Wulfenstein's office building on Highway 160 south of the junction.

30 years ago

Mike Cox, the CPA who handles Nye County's books, has recommended the county conduct a census in order to gain thousands of dollars in federal funds that go to counties based on their population.

Cox told the commission the in-lieu-of-tax-payments that go to counties in which federal government owns land and federal revenue-sharing funds are based on county populations. The 1970 population in Nye County was below 6,000 while the county population now is expected to be dramatically greater than that figure.

The Nye County Commission has requested a county grand jury be called to deal with "continuing charges of political corruption in Nye County," Commissioners Andy Eason, Don Barnett and Bob Revert said. "The board has repeatedly invited critics to make known specific facts constituting the basis of their charges but without success."

The board also said it felt "the continuing controversy will interfere with the smooth operation of all county offices until all the critics have had an opportunity to testify, under oath, as to the basis of their charges."

The board said that for the first time county officials will have an opportunity to answer charges "in a proper forum rather than arguing the merits of the allegations through the media."

20 years ago

District Attorney Phil Dunleavy survived a close recall election with support from throughout the county except in Beatty and Amargosa Valley.

Dunleavy escaped the embarrassment of mid-term expulsion by just 167 votes. A total of 1,602 voted to retain him and 1,435 were against. That's 52.7 percent for and 47.2 percent against.

Beatty and Amargosa Valley, the home base of Sheriff Stick Davis, overwhelmingly opposed keeping Dunleavy.

A car purchased by Dunleavy for the district attorney's office just days before the recall election has become a real thorn in his side.

Dunleavy traveled to Fallon and purchased a Pontiac Grand Am for $12,000 from Cooper Motors. Under the Local Government Purchasing Act, the county has to put any item over $10,000 out to bid. Commissioner Bob Revert said the D.A.'s office should call Cooper Motors and have them come and get the car.

"I'm not signing this voucher. The D.A.'s office should call and explain that this was not put out to bid, that the D.A. made a mistake and that they should come and get the car," he said.

Undersheriff Mark Zane has asked Nye County commissioners for $150,000 to cover staffing, services and supplies needed for the next six months.

Zane said the department currently has a staff of 64, down 17 from the 1987-88 budget years. Smoky Valley is currently without a deputy and has been covered by deputies from Tonopah, including Zane himself, in recent weeks.

10 years ago

After more than a year of preparation, the U.S. Department of Energy has issued a viability assessment for the Yucca Mountain Project that, to no one's surprise, calls for scientific and technical work to continue at the site 20 miles east of Beatty.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson submitted the roughly 6,000-page assessment to Congress and the president.

Richardson was more than happy to offer a synopsis, saying the document "indicates we need to continue to study Yucca Mountain," which is the only site currently being considered as a permanent repository for the nation's high-level radioactive waste.

On a chalky white rise overlooking Highway 95, geologists are working to protect Nye County's near future with its distant past.

The site, known as NC-EWDP-1D, was once a spring flowing as recently as the last Ice Age.

Now, a tiny sample of the ancient water and prehistoric rock hidden 1,700 feet below its forbidding surface is seeing the light of day once again -- at least in the time it takes to go from a plastic bucket near the drill rig to a laboratory somewhere.

The county's work is meant to provide geologic, hydrologic and geochemical data that will be used in various models to predict the ability of a proposed nuclear waste repository at nearby Yucca Mountain to contain its waste for at least 10,000 years.