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Education an investment

I would like to commend Donna Cox and members of CCSC as they have the best of intentions.

We all want safer communities and should work to accomplish that end. Jails and prisons are not the cause of unsafe communities, but rather the evidence that there are people among us who want to cheat, steal, rob and kill us, as evidenced by the recent robbery and killing at a local convenience store and gas station.

Most people are not aware of the fact there are more felons in our communities than incarcerated. I did not know anything about corrections until I took a class in sociology on criminal justice at the age of 28. In that class I learned that of every 100 reported crimes, about 50 people are arrested, 25 are convicted, 15 go to prison, five are paroled and 10 serve about two-thirds of their sentence.

This fact came home to me about 27 years later when I retired from Nevada Department of Prisons and was attending UNLV, working on a elementary teaching certificate.

On a regular basis I would run into former inmates on the street, in the post offices, at convenience stores and once at a hotel casino. I was checking in and the clerk remembered me as having been his case worker. I handed him my credit card with some reluctance.

The reason I went into teaching after retiring from corrections was that I used to test inmates on math and reading. I found most of the inmates functioned at the third-grade level in math and on the fourth-grade level in reading and dropped out of school at the 10th grade.

That told me they dropped out at the fourth grade and hung around until the 10th grade, causing all sorts of consternation to themselves and everyone else. In order to really prevent crime (and make the community a safer place) I needed to focus on early elementary education, especially the first three or four years.

This developmental stage is a good place to identify the children that are on the slippery slope to dropping out, intervene at that point and get them to experience success in education. This is exactly what the school district is trying to do in conjunction with parents.

If you are really concerned with safety in your community, and I believe you are, I would like to encourage you to focus on children -- especially their early childhood education.

Support the school district, vote for taxes that will pay for more teachers and pay teachers more. Smaller class sizes in the early grades to help deal with the diverse learning abilities between five and 10 years old.

We need to help the slow learner, work with the average student and challenge the fast learner. This takes money, lots of volunteers and support of the school district.

Funding education is not an expense, it is an investment in your community and will reduce crime over the next 10 to 15 years. This means there will be less need for costly correctional systems (It costs the state about $50,000 a year to house one inmate).

In the meantime we need a new jail and more prison facilities to get more felons off the streets for longer periods of time to make our community safer. Reference 2007 "Crime in the United States Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report," U.S. Department of Justice. If you have any question or would just like to contact me my e-mail is tbpsmith@yahoo.com.

TOM SMITH

Rules apply to everyone

After reading the article about L. DeCanio and the incident with the ATV riders, I felt the need to speak out. First let me say I do not believe in guns, period. Mr. DeCanio definitely should not be waving a gun around.

But, I have two neighbors who allow their young children to race their ATVs/off-road motorbikes up and down Calvada Boulevard, or through both vacant or occupied yards at high speeds. When notified, the sheriff's office said there isn't much they can do. I have lived here for many years and while I understand the thrill ATV riders get from speeding up and down public roads or across bumpy, unpaved property, the bottom line is this:

1. If it is not your property or public land denoted for ATV riding -- stay off it. Would you like us to use your yard for my activities? These riders believe the laws/rules don't apply to them, but would scream loudly if it was done to them. I even had a neighbor bring a backhoe onto my property because I refused to landscape my acreage to his specifications (when the deputy arrived, this jerk claimed he didn't know the land was mine so he got off with a warning while bragging about it to me).

2. When you break the crust of the desert, you create dust which impacts our air quality and any native plants/animals. Haven't you heard of "leave no trace"? These riders have no respect for others, the environment or private property. These are people who could be given a "Darwin Award."

3. What are the parents thinking? Are they that stupid when it comes to their kids? ATVs and motorbikes are dangerous to operate (we have had several incidents in Nevada where children have been badly injured or killed while riding recklessly) and while there may not be specific laws, there are manufacturers guidelines about who, what and where you should ride. If one of these riders was injured, no doubt the parents would sue the owner of the land and the manufacturer, which is ridiculous. Remember the very young girls who fell into an old mine shaft and one died while riding in the Arizona desert? That family is suing the mining company. Frankly, I believe those parents should be arrested for child neglect and I certainly hope the lawsuit fails. Anyway, who believes it is safe to ride a vehicle in the desert is an idiot. It is no safer than laying down in the middle of Highway 160 for a nap.

It is appalling that we have become a nation of people who feel that the rules apply only to others and then cry foul when the tables are turned. These are the same people who bought homes they couldn't afford yet want a bailout and who cry, poor me, when their own poor behavior bites them in the rear. I am extremely worried about our future because no one takes responsibility for their actions anymore and no one believes the rules apply to everyone, not just when its convenient or no one is looking.

Mr. DeCanio should not be waving guns at people, but for those ATV riders, stay off the roads and use only designated trails. If you are injured or killed as the result of your stupidity, you won't get any sympathy from me.

JOHN ANDERSON

The 6 percent solution

Before Gov. Gibbons' state-of-the-state address last night, I read a letter by Vicky A. Johnson of Sparks, who wasn't happy with the proposed across-the-board 6 percent pay cut for state workers to help balance the budget without raising taxes in the midst of this recession.

"I have a suggestion that seems a little more than fair," Vicky wrote. "Let's lower the salaries of the legislature and the governor the 6 percent he wants us to give up."

As we now know, Gov. Gibbons did, in fact, propose the 6 percent pay reduction in his address, saying it was preferable to "wide scale layoffs." The governor added that he "will restore salary levels as soon as we can" and that he was "also taking the same 6 percent reduction" in his own salary.

With that and Vicky's letter in mind, I and my Republican colleagues in the state Assembly, also announced last night that we, too, are taking the 6 percent cut in our legislative salaries for the session scheduled to begin next month, and I encourage our Democrat colleagues in the Assembly and all of our colleagues in the state Senate to do the same.

Granted, our salaries as part-time legislators aren't very big, so the actual dollar amount isn't going to fix the state's budget problems, but I do believe in leading by example and sharing the pain.

While this action may be construed as merely symbolic, sometimes symbolism is important.

I think this is one of those times.

ED GOEDHART

State Assemblyman District 36

Are we big enough to fix the problem?

The following letter was sent to the Nye County commissioners along with many others.

A few of those who received it felt I should have copied you as well as a letter to the editor. I hadn't thought of it that way, but if you feel it to be appropriate then you may do so. I do regret not having included you from the start.

This new year offers each of us, and you especially, the opportunity to change those things that have gone awry from past decisions. Many worthwhile motives have now devolved into dramatic, unintended consequences that have so demeaned our ability to grow and adapt that simply trying to work out the kinks will only make the problem worse.

When our economy was being lifted by the congressional mandate to loan people money who had no chance to pay it back, many decisions were made based upon the ability of the mandate to survive in a real environment. These decisions were based upon a false appreciation of taxable values and the equally deceiving idea that growth must pay for itself.

Sadly, the growth that must now be paid for is the unbridled growth of government and the fee structure it has imposed.

The reality is most people simply cannot afford to live in Nye County anymore. Once an escape from the overpriced environs of Las Vegas and California, Pahrump has now become more expensive to live in than the places people would move from. The cost to develop a piece of land to put a home on has more than tripled with no real return on the investment. Those few individuals willing to buy in the area are no longer looking to build their dream home, as it is no longer feasible for the majority.

Business interests have chosen not to locate or expand here because, unlike the heyday of money for nothing, banks now require a clear and concise plan for repayment. This mandates a plan with a return on investment not 10 years down the road but within two to three years at most.

Due to the tremendous off-site improvements being required in order to build, most businesses cannot demonstrate such a return, thus banks are unwilling to lend. Most businesses will not state this as the basis for not proceeding with any given project because they do not want to be blacklisted in the future for having stated the obvious.

What all of this means is that a comprehensive review of current programs and policies must be initiated from a cost vs. value viewpoint.

Does having a planning department without a plan have a benefit? Does a public works department that performs few if any public works have a benefit? Can a small staff using private enterprise bids do the job quicker, easier and less expensively? Was it a good idea to mandate costs of construction so high that the value of lands are being driven down to levels that are pre-2002? Has zoning provided the private property protections promised?

The choice is yours and I hope you will take a moment, step back from the situation, and realize that we have created this mess ourselves. Not out of maliciousness but with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, those intentions are now being demonstrated in error. The question is, will we be big enough to fix it?

ROBERT A. LITTLE