36 years ago this month

Joe Heiligers has announced plans to open a youth-oriented "Cotton Pickin' Annex." The annex will be located in the refurbished 2000-square-foot building that formerly housed the Tom Parsons restaurant.

Heiligers said the new operation will include various arcade type amusement games, pool tables, and non-alcoholic refreshments.

The North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce has recommended to the city council that the next election ballot include a change-of-name for the city, something excluding use of "Las Vegas." Two suggestions: Nellis City and Freeport City.

30 years ago this week

The Los Angeles Times ran a 2,000-word story by William C. Rempel Jan. 12 about brothels in Nye County, mainly focusing on Walter Plankinton and his Chicken Ranch. The story for the most part is a review of the brothel history of Nye County with little information offered that hasn't already appeared in print.

The story says Plankinton "launched a $60,000 advertising campaign in Las Vegas papers when he opened, offering free limousine service and special rates with a local rental agency."

Ash Meadows, once the site of a famous house of ill repute has been transformed into a lodge, motel, bar, restaurant, and hunting club featuring family sport and recreation.

Located in Amargosa Valley, the lodge is eight miles east of Death Valley Junction off Highway 29. The gravel Amargosa Road which begins at Bell Vista off Leslie is open.

Even though the hunting is mainly for members of the club, public pheasant and chukar hunting is now available daily. Co-owners Jay Pennington and Vern Spradling, both former Air Force pilots, are deeply committed to provide the best in food, relaxation and hunting.

20 years ago this week

The Nye County grand jury issued a surprise "accusation" charging Sheriff Harold "Stick" Davis of "willful or corrupt misconduct" in handling a marijuana bust in Beatty.

The accusation document claims sheriff's deputies April 20, 1987, seized about three ounces of marijuana from Dall Shemp Jr. and Timothy Nochols but failed to arrest them, and also failed to keep the marijuana as evidence, or to file either a police report or a report to the district attorney.

The accusation was signed by the grand jury foreman Ronald E. Floyd of Pahrump.

One of the major battles in the 1989 legislature will be over whether more taxes are to be paid by the Nevada mining industry.

Gov. Bob Miller is expected to push for $20 million more in taxes from mining, but the industry has already launched a major public relations campaign. "Mining, it works for Nevada" is the slogan employed. The campaign includes a brochure that states: "Who wants to raise mining taxes by 150 percent? We do."

Two years ago, the legislature passed Senate Joint Resolution 22. It proposed a constitutional amendment to levy a 5 percent net profits tax on mining revenue which could generate $50 million over two years.

10 years ago this week

Two recent earthquakes that U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) termed a "wake-up call from Mother Nature" shook the southeastern edge of the Nevada Test Site but caused no damage or injuries.

The stronger of the two earthquakes rattled the plateau known as Frenchman Flat, home of the Hazardous Spills Test Facility.

Officials at the University of Nevada, Reno seismological Laboratory reported the event as a moderate magnitude 4.3 quake, while the U.S. Geological Survey's national earthquake information center in Colorado listed it as a magnitude 4.5.

Pahrump Regional Planning Commission members appeared to be overwhelmed when they were confronted with a subdivision master plan that has the potential of doubling the valley's population -- as well as doubling the town and county's obligation to provide public services.

Al Collins of E.A. Collins Development Corp. and Kathy Smith of VPoint Engineering presented the RPC with their plans to develop the Mountain Falls subdivision in south Pahrump -- plans that if approved will be comparable to master planned communities in Las Vegas, where Collins has been a builder since 1954.

The subdivision will consume 2,771 acres and involve 8,360 dwellings, two resort-style hotel casinos boasting 400 rooms each, a 300-unit timeshare condominium development, two 18-hole golf courses complete with lakes and waterfalls, 285 acres of commercial development, a 480-space RV park, two school sites, a Valley Electric substation, along with pedestrian and equestrian trails and parks.