Pahrump Valley Times
TONOPAH — Nye County Commissioners Tuesday voted 4-1 to add another 10 acres onto the multipurpose training facility, a request by Commissioner Gary Hollis who championed the project.
Commissioners approved spending $293,705 to construct the multipurpose training facility project in April 2010 without any public discussion. Change orders since then have added the project cost up to at least $478,132.
The facility is on 40 acres of county-owned land at 2871 E. Mesquite Ave. It is used for training by emergency response agencies like fire departments, emergency services, Nye County Search and Rescue, animal control and is available for use by outside agencies.
The proposal suggested adding a 10-acre parcel to the south, but Commissioner Dan Schinhofen suggested adding property west of the existing facility fronting Mesquite Avenue. Schinhofen said after he spoke with Nye County Emergency Services Director Vance Payne and Public Works Director Dave Fanning, he felt the 10-acre expansion was a worthwhile project.
Commissioner Butch Borasky cast the sole vote against the expansion.
“I don’t understand why we’re designating anything at the moment without some sort of a plan,” he said. “I supported the training center up until now, but I think until I see some assurance that facility is being used to the max, that we’re getting reimbursed from other agencies coming in, why set any land aside right now without a plan?”
Hollis said more props could be added without cluttering up the existing acreage. He told the Pahrump Valley Times, “We would like to do a shooting range, a driving course for the ATVs, we’re hoping one of these days when we move that old jail out there we can put it there for a prop to be used by the police and fire, to see how they would attack a jail as far as a riot or it being on fire.”
Hollis called the multipurpose training facility a one-in-a-kind facility in the state that would allow county employees to be properly trained, like letting firefighters getting the feel of 700 degree heat. Search and rescue crews use the facility for rappelling, patrol dogs are trained there regularly, the SWAT team uses it often, even the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. military special forces Green Berets and Delta Group used the site, landing choppers there.
Commissioner Joni Eastley made the motion to approve the expansion after being reassured it wouldn’t require any spending at this time.
Last March, District Attorney Brian Kunzi scolded county officials for allowing classrooms to be used for training without a permanent certificate of occupancy.
The only suggested use for the property was for the new county jail, which was instead built next to the old one on Basin Avenue.
The Nevada Southern Detention Center, built by Corrections Corporation of America, was built on 160 acres farther west at 2250 E. Mesquite Ave. on property purchased from United Holdings Corp.
Interim Nye County Community Development Director Darrell Lacy said the training facility site isn’t served by public water or sewer systems.
