About 20 members of the Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community showed up in Room B of the Bob Ruud Community Center Tuesday afternoon, expecting to get a detailed report on the collection and spending of impact fees.

That was promised at the last meeting of the Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee June 30, the first meeting of the board since October 2005.

What they got from Nye County Treasurer Gary Budahl, seated at the table with 17 people during a meeting of the Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee, were total figures for the four impact fee funds and a rebuke of accusations he wasn't providing the public with information.

Budahl said as of May 31, Nye County had $5.5 million in impact fees for street improvements and the sheriff's department, Pahrump had $714,000 in the impact fee account for the fire department and $398,000 for parks.

Capital Improvement Plan Advisory Committee member Bill Garlough said the records on impact fees are supposed to be available to the public.

Budahl said three people came into his office requesting information about impact fees: the Snowden family, Ted Holmes and Robert Smith. Snowden and Smith have pending litigation against Nye County.

Budahl said, "The Pahrump office is a satellite office. It is not the main office for the treasurer. The main office for the treasurer is in Tonopah. That's where those records are kept and that's where I informed all three of those parties where they could view the records.

"I did not deny access to any records to anybody. I told them all they were in Tonopah and I would be happy to meet with them up there and help them go through the records. Nobody was willing to do that."

Garlough replied impact fees are collected only in the Pahrump Regional Planning District.

"Do you think that I should be spending the money to maintain duplicate records in both places? Because the people of Tonopah, they are county impact fees that are being collected, they have the right to access those records also don't they?" Budahl asked.

Garlough said local developers contributed to that impact fee account and have a right to know how their money is spent. He added the accounts are supposed to be earning interest.

Budahl said the town has impact fee funds for the fire department and parks that are not co-mingled. The county has impact fees and development agreement payments in one fund, but the county has three separate revenue categories in that fund with project codes for each development.

But those detailed reports weren't presented Tuesday.

Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee member Mark Kimball cut off the argument.

Kimball said Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman is preparing spread sheets with information on development agreements. The county manager is trying to get a software program in place to show general impact fees, he said.

"I believe within a few months we will have a system in place where it's easily transparent and the public can see anything they want by going to one of two places: the county office, to make your initial request, or planning, to make a request on development agreements," Kimball said.

The Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee board is also required by state law to provide a report on impact fees every three years, the board didn't meet from October 2005 until June 2009. Lohman said they tried three times to fill vacancies on the committee starting in summer 2008 in time to meet before that deadline but were unsuccessful.

Larger developers can execute development agreements and build infrastructure themselves, getting credits for impact fees, Lohman said. There are development agreements on 13 projects, he said, all but one, the proposed federal detention center, are residential projects.

The county has five years to begin spending impact fee money, though Lohman said that could include planning. He said they have 10 years to begin construction. Some companies began paying impact fees after the passage of the ordinance in October 2005.

Kimball urged his cohorts to think about amending the capital improvements plan which was adopted in 2006. For instance, he said widening Homestead Road should be upgraded from No. 5 in priority to the top priority. Charleston Park Avenue may have been a top priority when the plan was drawn up, but it's not now, Kimball said.

Nye County Acting Public Works Director Dave Fanning said the county has to pay for acquiring right-of-way before embarking on widening Homestead Road from Highway 160 to Gamebird Road to either three lanes -- with a continuous left-turn lane -- or five lanes. He was asked to come up with updated street construction costs based on 2009 numbers.

Rick Walker said the capital improvement plan was drawn up by consultants for Tri-Core Engineering with little input from the Capital Improvements Plan Advisory Committee.

Amy Riches asked for traffic lights at Mesquite Avenue and Highway 160, at Blagg Road and Highway 372, and a second entrance to Desert View Hospital from Basin Avenue.

"We're talking about a state road, the state has jurisdiction over those roads whether we put a light there or not, not the county, not the town and not this commission. So whatever we would do, we would have to do a warrant study on 160 and Mesquite," Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis said. "It hasn't warranted that as of yet. So, until the state says that a traffic light is warranted, there is very little we can do."

The county is set to go out for bids soon on paving Lola Lane from the hospital through to Wilson Road, Fanning said. But there will be a slight jog in the road as a landowner on the west side wouldn't donate right-of- way, he said.

Jeff Wiest wanted something done to improve the shoulders on Highway 160 north of Basin Avenue.

Garlough urged the board to start planning for projects like the extension of Thousandaire Boulevard from Quarter Horse Avenue to Hafen Ranch Road.

"Time is running out. If we don't have it completed let's say within the next six years we will have to refund the full impact to the people if it's not completed," Garlough said.

The next meeting was scheduled for 2 p.m., Sept. 24.

Volunteer training

Pahrump JobConnect will hold a "Medicare Overview and Volunteer Training 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Aug. 18 at Great Basin College, 1541 E. Basin Ave., Classroom 8.

The presentation will be made by the state Medicare SHIP office.

SHIP volunteers provide unbiased health insurance information for seniors and pre-retirees, and is part of the federal network of State Health Insurance Programs located in every state.

Call 537-2323, extension 204, to register.