Alternate sites

Sometimes the most innocuous sounding proposals cause the most stir. At the Oct. 13 meeting, the tempest in a teapot revolved around board member Vicky Parker's suggestion to move a few board meetings out into the community to encourage more people to attend.

She also said the town annex building is now too small to seat everyone when there are scheduling conflicts at the community center, and alternative meeting places need to be found.

The board discussed possible additional costs and various facilities.

Parker said Nevada Treasures RV Resort's meeting room and Artesia's clubhouse have been offered to the town for free. However, other venues, such as Mountain Falls' meeting rooms, would cost $100 per hour.

Recording equipment and microphones may need to be purchased for some proposed locations.

"There are a lot of senior citizens that don't drive who would like to come to the meetings," Parker said, adding the Pahrump Senior Center would also be a possible meeting venue. "I'd like to just see how it goes as a trial run."

No one who spoke at the public podium shared Parker's sentiments. Donald Cox said, "That's stupid. This building is centrally located. That's a stupid thing to be doing. This is where it should be held."

Dave Stevens said, "I don't like to agree with Mr. Cox, but I do agree with him. We shouldn't pay five cents to go someplace else."

Bruce Calley pointed out, "This is the center of town. You want me to drive from the north end of town? You want to pay $100 an hour ... move the speakers, move the audio equipment? The equipment barely works in this building. I don't think it should be considered."

No vote was taken on the item, although a motion was made to open public discussion. Staff was directed to look at other venues in the event there were scheduling conflicts, such as the yearly town meeting that is held in the town annex so the community center can be used for the Fall Festival.

Ambulance delinquencies

On Oct. 13, by a vote of 4-0, the Pahrump Town Board approved transferring $265,653 in delinquent accounts in the ambulance fund for further collection and related accounting adjustments. The period the delinquencies accrued was March through July.

This amount is subtracted from the accounts receivable to show the net realizable value of accounts receivable on the ambulance fund's budget sheet. Any subsequent recovery through collections will be credited to the ambulance revenues.

10K for airport

By a vote of 3-1, Mike Darby voting nay, the board approved paying $10,000 from the economic development room tax to the Bureau of Land Management for the completion of the environmental process for the town's general aviation airport.

At two previous meetings, payments of $10,000 each were approved to provide funding for a draft environmental assessment report. Those funds were also obtained from the room tax fund.

According to Town Manager Bill Kohbarger, this $10,000 payment is not part of the additional funds needed to complete the upcoming environmental impact study which will cost an additional $40-$55,000 that the town board approved to move forward at their Aug. 11 meeting.

During public comment, Donna Cox questioned if there was enough room tax to cover the expenditure. "This was an airport that wasn't supposed to cost us much of anything," she said.

"No glass"

At the request of Darby, Pahrump Town Ordinance 63 was brought to the attention of the board by Town Manager Bill Kohbarger.

PTO 63 makes it unlawful to possess any glass container on park property.

Darby was concerned about vendors selling items in glass containers during special events such as the Fall Festival.

After some discussion, it was decided a clause could be added to vendor contracts, explaining town policy on glass containers rather than incur billable attorney hours and the cost of publishing changes to the ordinance in the newspaper.

No vote was necessary, as this was not an action item.

Exchange ideas

At last Tuesday's town board meeting, Pastor Ron Fairbairn gave an overview of the Nevada Center for Public Policy Dialog program, brought to Pahrump by the League of Women Voters in partnership with Great Basin College.

Carolyn Endersby, chairman of the the steering committee for the center, along with the town's Economic Director Al Balloqui and Laurayne Murray, former town board chairman, led a workshop last Saturday at the Great Basin campus extension on Basin Street to further the program. Their four-hour program instructed a small group of residents in how to foster a positive political dialog throughout the community.

The weekend forums are free of charge from 8 a.m. until noon, Oct. 24 and Nov. 21 at 1541 E. Basin St., room 6. For questions, call Jacquie Jensen, 727-1026.