Yesterday morning, at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Pahrump Tourism and Convention Council, which is an advisory board to the Pahrump Town Board, the members voted to hold a special meeting to accommodate the Pahrump Powwow and clear up funding for the event.

The seven-person advisory board will convene at 9 a.m., Nov. 18, in room B at the Bob Ruud Community Center. The meeting is open to the public. It is expected the PTCC will approve funding the popular event.

The following evening, a special meeting of the town board will convene at 6 p.m. in the conference room at the town office, to consider the recommendation of the PTCC regarding funding the powwow. That meeting is also open to the public, but seating is limited.

"This is an unfortunate situation that did not have to happen," said Parker. "Receiving a grant from the town for the powwow should have been a slam dunk. The tourism board has been generous in the past with its grants for this event."

In fact, the town has already contributed $3,800 for highway station radio advertising for this year's powwow.

"The powwow committee chose not to appear before the tourism board but instead approached the town board at the last minute without proper documentation and without accounting for last year's funds," said Parker. "It was the decision of the town board to refer the Pahrump Powwow back to our advisory board for their review and approval.

"The value of the powwow to the community is not the issue. It is a great event, and I hope to see it continue for many years. However, proper and established procedure must be followed to insure accountability of tax monies," she said.

"If we made an exception for the powwow, we'd have more and more organizations coming in at the last minute, demanding funds."