36 years ago this month

All indications are that the new Pahrump Valley High School will be ready for classes in the fall.

Money for the $1.2 million project has now been turned over to the Nye County School Board and is drawing interest for the district. Completed plans, submitted to the state planning board for final approval, are good to go.

Construction should begin in February.

Lawyers Title of Las Vegas has inaugurated a complete escrow and title insurance service relative to Pahrump Valley real estate. A complete title search of Pahrump property will normally be accomplished within three days by the company, according to title officer Bill Singleton.

Searches now must go to the Nye County seat in Tonopah and often take longer.

Bill Singleton, on horseback, tracked down Pahrump Valley rancher/real estate broker Tim Hafen at a cow corral to deliver the first title policy from Lawyer's Title.

30 years ago

Nine members of Pahrump's Southern Nye County Search and Rescue organization participated in the effort to rescue Blue Diamond youth John Allison, 18, who fell to his death in an old mine shaft near Mt. Potosi.

Controversy surrounded the tragedy as parents of the boy complained about the effort exerted in the rescue attempt by Clark County organizations.

Allison and a companion entered the abandoned 99 Mine on a youthful excursion. The companion decided against continued exploration and turned back. Apparently, Allison fell while his companion was still in the mine.

The second boy went to get help and the weekend long effort to try to reach Allison began.

A study of water resources in Pahrump Valley is being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The action follows the request by the Nye County Commission for more information from the state Division of Water Resources regarding its new policy that opposes subdivisions in Pahrump Valley that are smaller than five acres.

The commission asked that further evidence be provided by the division showing how the present subdivision policies, which allow 1-1/4-acre parcels on which private wells may be drilled are no longer acceptable. According to the state division, the total number of lots already subdivided in Pahrump Valley numbers 20,000.

20 years ago

The drive to ban brothels by the 1989 Legislature appears to have little chance of success.

Lack of support by Clark County legislators, especially in the assembly, in combination with opposition to a ban by most rural legislators, means there is little chance for brothels to be banned next year, according to a story in the Review-Journal.

What appears to have been a planned major campaign to close the brothels now appears to be a dead issue.

Nevada's Nuclear Waste Project office has sent a preliminary report on the valuation of a Yucca Mountain repository to the Legislature's Committee on High Level Radioactive Waste, listing the 1988-89 market value as almost $411 million.

County repository consultant Steve Bradhurst told Nye County commissioners the county's property tax share could be over $7 million annually.

At least part of the opening refrain of "Home on the Range" applies to Ted Binion, who can now say the deer and antelope play on his 138-acre Pahrump homestead.

Binion recently took possession of more than 30 members of five different species of African wildlife after paying about $30,000 for the exotic animals to breeders in Texas. More are expected to arrive, bringing his total investment for the animals to more that $40,000.

10 years ago

Nye County will challenge the Environmental Protection Agency over a threatened $1 million fine and jail time for managers of the Amargosa Dairy resulting from a liquid cow manure spill in February.

Ed Goedhart, who operates the dairy, came to the commissioners seeking assistance and left with assurances the county would do everything within its power -- and perhaps more.

The spill of hundreds of thousands of gallons of the liquid manure occurred in February, with record rainfall in Amargosa Valley, and during a period when the valley received up to four inches of rain in 24 hours.

County and state officials responded to the spill. Tests later confirmed no environmental damage was caused.

If the timetable is followed perfectly, a 246-bed adult and 28-bed juvenile detention facility will be in operation in Pahrump by February of next year.

The public-private partnership, as proposed in the motion by Commissioner Cameron McRae, calls for a 20-year obligation on the lease at a cost of $835,913 a year, plus 41 people to staff it with an annual cost of just under $1.9 million.

The county pays about $750,000 a year in detention expenses for adults and juveniles. The facility, to be constructed just north of where the new county complex is being built on Basin Avenue east of Highway 160, will cost an estimated $8.5 million.

The county already owns the property.