By GINA B. GOOD
PVT
In these days where transparency in government is sought after, some residents would prefer to hide unpleasant facts of life in Pahrump from the sight of outsiders — especially business owners who might be considering a move to the valley.
As reported last week, the Pahrump Town Board passed Resolution No. 2010-08, related to poverty, by a vote of 3-2, at their August 9 meeting, with members Frank Maurizio and Mike Darby voting against passage.
The adopted resolution recognizes the need for volunteers as well as public and private organizations in Pahrump whose ongoing actions are necessary to help alleviate the physical, mental, economic and other known problems associated with the conditions of poverty.
The resolution was discussed with passion by supporters on both sides of the issue.
Darby asked for a clarification on the words stating the town would be “supporting the actions” of those working to alleviate poverty and was assured that the town was not pledging any monetary support by board member Vicky Parker and others, such as volunteer Don Rust, a member of NyE Communities Coalition.
“This resolution was introduced to simply give government recognition,” said Rust. “It supports the actions of volunteers and nonprofits.”
Parker said, “I know there is a great deal of poverty in this town, and I know that a number of people and organizations are doing the best they can to help. I feel it’s within the purview of the town board to officially support them in this effort.”
Parker then made a motion to accept the resolution and Vice Chairman Bill Dolan seconded it, opening the way for public comment.
Andy Alberti questioned whether a business would come to an area where residents didn’t have enough money to make purchases.
“To me, we are advertising to the rest of the world that we don’t have enough talent here to attract business” Alberti said. “Jobs eliminate poverty. Lack of work and subsidies are the things that create poverty.
“I would like to see this town board reject this and encourage every organization that wants to do something about poverty in this town to look to see what they can do to help attract light industry or other types of jobs.” Alberti left the podium with a round of applause, as did each speaker offering an opinion on the resolution.
Dave Stevens had a different take on the subject: “I want to say to this town board, God bless them for bringing something like this up. People are at least thinking about others. These people are no magicians. There’s no jobs here.”
According to resident and town activist Margery Hansen, Nye is the most poverty stricken county in the country.
“Nevada is number eight in the country for poverty and our unemployment recorded rate is 14 percent, but the actual rate is 25 percent,” she said.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most recent unemployment figure for Nye County was 16.7 percent in June.
Hansen also said there are 50 delivered eviction notices in Pahrump each day.
“Yes, we need jobs here. However, we are averaging five suicides a week. I don’t care about corporations — I care about the people we save.”
Isabelle Isherwood was next at the public podium. “Corporations create jobs. This town is begging for business and … it has turned businesses away. I think that a resolution is pap. It’s worthless. It doesn’t do a thing.”
Auctioneer Carl “Ski” Censki, said he was a little confused. “We are quite active in trying to raise money to feed a lot of people. We’ve got children that are sleeping in vans. We aren’t asking to put a big billboard up to say Pahrump is poverty stricken.
“This is just asking for an endorsement. Can you really look at yourself in the mirror if we have one child starve to death just because we don’t want the world to think that Pahrump is poverty stricken?”
Don Cox said Pahrump is branded right now with the prison. “Are we going to get branded again for being the most poverty stricken town in the nation?” He blamed the Nye County Board of Commissioners for “running jobs off.”
Candidate for town board Harley Kulkin was the last at the podium. He was for adopting the resolution.
“If we are willing to publicly admit we have a financial crisis in our community, that’s the first step toward recovering from that crisis,” Kulkin said. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Margery Hansen needs to do more research. Nye County is NOT the most poverty stricken county in the country. In fact one county in Alabama has 33.6% of the people living below the poverty level. There are many other county’s throughout America in worse shape than Nye County.
I also question her comment about 5 suicides a week in Nye County.
But on to more pressing issues is the fact that there are no jobs in Pahrump. That’s what is needed to combat poverty as Mr. Alberti remarked. The private sector cannot create jobs because of the stifling nature of business regulations as well as high taxation.
Now accept this fact as to what is happening in America. The government is the economy and they are running out of other people’s money.
The US economy won’t ever return to the glory days.
The jobs that went to third world nations will stay there because that’s where the globalists want them.
Now, jobs could come back to the USA but only after the USA falls into third-world poverty-like conditions and we achieve China-like wages. Once the US dollar starts down and loses reserve currency status, the Wal Mart shoppers will think they are shopping at Neiman Marcus.
If federal taxes are increased in January 2011 capital flight will take place to where business creation conditions and taxes are more favorable than the USA. Witness all the manufacturing and service jobs to China, India, and Indonesia.
Jobs are not coming back to America. We are sliding down to 3rd world status. In fact we are pretty much there with 41 million people on food stamps and 30,000 people in Atlanta showing up to place their names on a list for section 8, read as public housing.
The only true growth industry we have in Pahrump is incarcerating people in prisons, witness a new federal detention prison and a new Pahrump jail.
Sarcasm on
Maybe what is needed is to build enough prisons to hire everyone who lives in Nye County who wants a job. But then we would have to make criminals out of almost everyone.
Sarcasm off
5 Suicides a week – average?
I, for one, would like to hear the Sheriff’s take on this.
Hi, Calico Wheels,
I thought that was a little much too but called Fire Chief Lewis. He said the only exaggeration is in the number of actual suicides, but that five a week is about correct for suicides and suicide threats. I know we hear a lot of the latter on the scanner. Lewis said domestic violence cases are also up because of the lousy economy. I’ve assigned one of the reporters to work on a story about these problems. Thanks for writing.
Mark Smith, editor
Suicide Threats? For instance, “If things don’t get better soon, I’m gonna kill myself!” This now becomes a Nye County DA statistic?
Was it 5 suicides or 5 suicides and attempts. Good reporting would clarify how many tried and how many died. As a mental health worker 5 “attempts” in one week is not all that drastic. That could be a couple of frequent flyer’s acting out.
1 actual suicide is 1 too many.
I have heard this from visitors and people who have moved here and left… Pahrump is the most business unfriendly town they have ever visited or lived in. I have to agree… why all the roadblocks for business to open and employ people who live here? Why make it so hard for anyone to own a business? I have lived here over 20 years and sadly have not seen a change in the mindset… unless your a fast food business, I guess anything other than might be a threat to those who run our town and have motives for family and friends when they want to open up a business. Just my observations….
Just reading some of these comments makes me positively ill — you people live in a fantasy world! You spend more time splitting hairs and disecting the “verbage” than you do about the thousands of poor people in your town. Is this right? Is that right? whose the most right. YOUR TOWN IS DYING for all intents and purposes, WAKE UP. Course, you all like it like that don’t you Bubba! I left your incestuous little snake pit.
Why don’t we knock out all the crutches we’ve supplied to many undeserving people in this town (ie: welfare, foodstamps) so that they have something to work towards. If we supply what’s necessary for survival then what motivation will anyone have if they can survive by doing nothing. I’ve seen first hand the excuses, laziness and lack of motivation that fester in this town and it’s a shame you can get rewarded for it. More of the families need to come together for their relatives and supply the emotional and physical support needed to improve their ambition. If you personally don’t want to be better then any volunteer group or assistance program won’t change your mindset. These are just incentives to continue a lazy lifestyle. It’s ironic that I make to much to get financial aid for school…. I basically work to hard to recieve help. I would literally have to quit both of my jobs for at least a year to even be considered… I don’t think I could sit on my a $$ for that long (scuse the french). I know people need help and I want to see a change in the community, but not by taking my tax dollars and using them on something like this. We need to give them incentive to work and incentive to try harder… Not give Them handouts to support the laxidasical lifestyle they are stuck in. I’m just tired of excuses.
Thank you Shania for that response !!
I am a business owner that also has a second job. I can not sit around and watch my world fall apart by laziness. I have hired two employees in the past and have interviewed several others. The interviews were only looking for a job because of drug court and the ones hired couldn’t wake up on time, designed their own hours, days off. Then ran around Pahrump with a few bucks in their pocket like Donald Trump has his millions. Then back to work they thought. We do a professional business here and want to keep it that way.
My second job, well lets just say exactly what I tell others because I want to eat and pay my bills.
It is so sad when I hear people exclaim “GOD” will provide. But, GOD helps those who help themselves in my book?
I got your name spelled wrong, I’m sorry for that
Yes, Nye County may be a poor county, but the Nye County elected officials do not agree. After voting themselves a 4% increase in pay. In particular, the Assessor does not believe that home prices are falling, thus, assessing the taxable value of the Nye County properties a great deal more than the market will fetch. Yes, the City of Pahrump should make some effort in helping the poor and homeless, perhaps the Nye County Assessor can give shelter to some of the homeless … after all the Nye County Assessor is part of the problem ….
I too am tired of hearing people complaining about they have to wait for their unemployment check from the government and say ‘I’m not going to work for minimum wage when I receive a check for sitting on my duff.’ My own nephew is so lazy that he is on unemployment for more than a year. He hasn’t looked for a job at all since they continue to give extensions every time the old one runs out. Has anyone received a increase in their social security check in the last two years?
We who are retired don’t qualify for a increase but they are finding ways to take out money in taxes from our pensions to pay for those who don’t want to work.
Everybody cries out loud. My question is, where have been that time those big voices when the Zionist government took most of your jobs out to some third world countries just to save some money for IsraHELL and the privately owned Federal Reserve? Where have been that time those big voices when the Zionist government let all the Chinese junk without control to flood in the US soil? Where have been that time those big voices when the Zionist government sending out your own children for a illegal war for the benefit of IsraHELL? Where have been that time those big voices when your own government faking the election in front of your eyes and put a puppet in there who don’t give a crap what happens with you the citizens? Where have been that time those big voices when your Zionist government sending every year over $3 BILLION to IsraHELL instead of helping the people out in his own soil? And son and so on and so on…………………….
The article was to alert us about the problem in their town, which is not too different from the town we may live in. We are all upset, and have right to complain about what is before us.
But make no mistake, our behavior got us into this mess; just as a better behavior will get us out. The reason why things like this never get better is because of several reasons (and I am sure there are more).
We work at our jobs to put food on the table, and some of the things we do at work cause problems for others and their environment. Instead of confronting our boss, and our co-workers back us up; we choose to go along and just grab the pay check. And what we do not think about is “what others” would compromise for a pay check. For instance, the fishery went along with what deregulation was occurring in the oil industry, and now there is no food worth putting on the table anymore because of pollution in our sea.
When we discover a problem, we distract ourselves or just blame others; and this can go on for a very long time. We will even find a news channel that tells us what we want to hear (that we are not responsible and others to blame). And how often do we speak up while in a group when we hear someone talk stupid about our problems. We are cowards till the end. A nasty lot of humans. And if you want incintive to do the right things, look not much further to really hard times. An example of this is the people living near the Exxon Valdez oil spill; the most reported group for suicide, domestic abuse, alcoholism. This lashing out is still an avoidance of acting responsible toward oppression. We have to becvome informed, learn how to talk with one another, and then collectively do something. Until then, all these articles are just wall paper.
There are examp[les of how other countries have fought what we are fighting. Use the internet. Or just look back at our own history. Women had groupd of people all meet in their houses to discuss what to do. They formed community news papers. They made unions for work. They got organized. While in other countries, they hold hostage their employer until their pay check is cleared. They take over the news stations and have regular town people talk on the station. They through out all public servants with dual citezenships. They create tuff regulations for business. They take their countries resources for them selves and kick out the foreign oil companies. They use the international news and legal to make transparent what their governments do at home. They make local curriencies. Stop paying taxes. they fill the streets with people and energy to scare away the bad guys. they elect dictators with power of the people in order to clean house of bad people in government then restore democracy when all is clear. Often they choose to keep their ruler such as in Cuba or Venesuela.
In other words, they do things. and until we start implementing actions, we will continue to feel hopeless. Power to the people. Ever wonder why they go through such great lengths to keep you informed?: If you knew just how bad the problem was, you would fill the streets. They are watching us., so they know when to run. And watch out, they will grab what they can before running out the back door. they are as stubborn as we are. Our problem is us, stop pointing at others, and stop writing about it too. Because now caring people have a job on blogs, and this is also a distraction unless it is giving us ideas of what to do about the problem.
Look up Evo Morales too. The good news is when you do get control of your country, the people often redistribute the wealth, all land is given back to the poor and our military keeps the criminal business owners from driving on the street to his old store.
What are you going to do about it?
I keep reading and hearing about how anit business the local government is/has been. Is there any proof that this is a fact or is this just rhetoric designed to give the impression that our elected officials are anti business?
This might be a good question for a reporter to sink their teeth into.
Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their behind, doing drugs, while I work. . . . Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check? Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don’t. Hope you all will pass it along, though . . . Something has to change in this country — and soon !!!!!
These suicide statistics appear to be exaggerated given the town’s propensity to talk, talk, talk and posture about this apocalypse rather than take direct action on this apocalypse. The people here are cowards, attempting to save face by appearing to be doing something with this endless babble instead of tackling the problem by revolting.
The time for talking their way out of this situation is long past. The only recourse now is revolution, but they, like the rest of Amerika, lack the guts and would rather die on their knees while embracing their murderers.
Go ahead and talk your way into your graves, it won’t be too long now. The FEMA camps are open and ready for business, cowards.
Robert S. Finnegan
SoutheastAsia Independent Media
rsfinnegan@gmail.com
Jakarta, Indonesia
It is amazing with what all is going on, that some here commenting have to bring up old opinionated arguments about welfare. Then to add about everyone needs a drug test.
Man, are you that behind in the times of what is going on, is there not something more urgent to tackle now?
But since you brought it up, lets get that hate out. People do drugs because they feel helpless about their future, when nothing ever seems to make a difference so why not just numb ourselves in self medication. which is exactly what the middle class does with valium, or the latest new society pharma agent. No different in the two classes, both using poor coping mechinisms.
to help the underdog is to help yourself, because one day you will be the one doing drugs and welfare. Welfare is no big deal, it is very little money and food banks mainloy give out crummy can goods. If you want to be real, then look why your town has no jobs, and ask yourself if this man who is taking drugs and on welfare; well, if he did not do this and instead had coped with his problems in a healthy way, he would probably approach the middle class and ask them why they took his job and future away and to give it back or stay out of the way.
As far as drug testing for all people, you must like a police state; and what rights are you willing to give up next. say we put a sign in your house window saying you are a good citizen and then we have police check to be sure you put the sign out each day.
No wonder we are in this mess, allot of people just do not think, and have no courage. It is like the expect to be treated fine like, that they have a good life coming to them. Just wait when the prisons start releasing people because of no money, I bet you are approached by these people who also lived in unfair times.
If you want to fix your problems, have a lottery for your elected officials. No more voting people in. Now a poor man, a welfare person, a high school drop out can now win the lottery and become Mayor, City Councilman, and so on.l When your community stands on it;ps own, you will not need to play the blame game anymore. Man, blaming the poor welfare guy, or the guy who does drugs because life stinks; this is the least of your problems in growing up and observing what all has been done in your name.
Indonesia is a really cool place. You guys got internet over there? Wish I lived next to the biggest oldest rain forrest, with really cool people. I understand you got big alligators over there.
If Guantanamo and Torture are so effective, why are we NOT torturing our FINANCIAL TERRORIST Bankers and Politicians to get some TRUTH out of them? After all, the Al Queda Terrorists destroyed maybe $8 Billion, and murdered about 3,000 Americans. The World Trade Buildings cost the insurance companies $7,000,000,000 … and they had to pay TWICE because Shylock Silverstein got it counted as TWO separate acts.
“Our” BANKERS have destroyed TRILLIONS of dollars and MURDERED many 10,000s of Americans from lost medical insurance, stolen retirements, increased child abuse, suicidal despair, heart attacks…………… The government has the gall to state that $50,000,000,000 is “EXPECTED to be DEFRAUDED” from the RECOVERY funds. They should go find the FIRST “defrauder” and PUBLICLY HANG him, and any others later. ……If these “esteemed” Politicians who wish to brand American Veterans as terrorists, know HOW to fix the economy ……….. then they knew how it was SUPPOSED to be running as it was LOOTED …….. The American People have lost $14,000,000,000,000+ …….. root these FINANCIAL TERRORISTS out of their cubicles and lofty offices, and send THEM to Guantanamo (Goldman Sachs ….. hint hint hint)
And just who is going to take these bankers to task?
American’s are coward’s and content living off the government via food stamps, pension bailouts, subsidised housing the last thing they are going to do is protest. I cringe when I see American flags flying in yards and wonder if those people have any true understanding of history and why America once had greatness. America was great because America was good. Not any more. The world has our number now.
American’s will be the world’s future slave labor.
To allow the government/Congress to bail out banks under the pretense of civil riots and crashing stock markets and a destroyed economy from the likes of bernanke, blaninfein and geithner……………
America hasn’t had any spirit since 1969 protesting the Vietnam War. Today America is a much different place to live and work that I hardly recognize her. I certainly don’t recognize nor have much in common with its people.
BTW, the organisation Al Queda didn’t exist prior to Sept 11, 2001. From History. America must always have a boogyman to justify billions of dollars spent on the military industrail complexes. One would think that living during the “cold war” the people would have smartened up by now. I guess not.