By Kelci Parks
The prospect of a multi-million dollar theme park coming to Pahrump has residents buzzing. Some love the idea, some hate it, but almost everyone has an opinion about it.
The town hopes to put concerns to rest, address questions from the community and obtain public input on the matter by hosting a series of meetings next week.
The discussions will all take place on Monday, June 6. The first will be from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Chamber of Commerce office. Town Manager Bill Kohbarger says the first meeting will be for citizens and the business community. A second meeting will be held for media and is scheduled from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the town offices. Meetings will also be held from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the town office for the public.
Kohbarger says the decision was made to host multiple meetings throughout the day in order to better accommodate residents with busy schedules.
During the May 24 town board meeting, Certified Economic Developer and Vercitas CEO Don Holbrook gave a presentation on the prospect of building a theme park in Pahrump. And with a tourist destination like Las Vegas less than an hour away, Holbrook expressed his beliefs that the park would flourish and wondered why no one had capitalized on such an opportunity thus far. Even in today’s withered economy, Las Vegas caters to more than 40 million tourists each year.
After being approached about the idea by town board member Harley Kulkin, Pahrump Community Business and Development Services Manager Al Balloqui made contact with Holbrook and convinced him that the town of Pahrump should be looked at for such a project.
“We now believe that there’s a great opportunity. And Al and your development team have done a really great job of getting us to slow down and look at it,” said Holbrook during the May meeting.
Holbrook boasts a world-renowned team of professionals willing to work on the proposed theme park. He explained that the team started working together about six years ago with the design of EarthQuest Adventures, a massive project in Texas that is set to break ground this year. It will be the nation’s first all-green park and is expected to provide more than 17,000 jobs.
The fees for initial services will be just over $150,000 and will include $36,000 for public incentive and public-private partnership investigation, $67,200 for concept development, design and illustrations, and $36,100 for site investigations and research.
The item was tabled at the May 24 town board meeting, causing an unexpected uproar of disappointment from audience members. Harley Kulkin and Vicky Parker voted against tabling the item; however, Dr. Tom Waters, Carolene Endersby and Chairman Mike Darby tipped the scales in the other direction. The havoc-inducing vote was followed by a 10 minute break during which several residents confronted the board members that had voted to table the item and many stormed out voicing support of the theme park.
At this point, the project is still just a twinkle in Kulkin’s eye, and may very well never even leave the ground, but a few tentative details have been mentioned. Kulkin stated that an alien theme for the park would be appropriate considering Pahrump’s close proximity to the mysterious Area 51 and the Test Site. Also, if the board chooses to continue with the first phase of the project many different sites will be investigated but the 436 acres that the town owns along Highway 160 is currently at the forefront of choice locations.
A press release on the matter states that both Balloqui and Holbrook will be available for questions and comments during Monday’s informative meetings, so if you’ve got something to say, come say it. Both town staff and Holbrook have stressed the importance they place on community involvement.
The town board will be voting on whether or not to appropriate the funds for the first phase of this project during their next regularly scheduled meeting on June 14 at 7 p.m. at the Nye County Administrative Complex at 2100 E. Walt Williams Drive.
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- Kelci Parks / Pahrump Vlley Times – Certified Economic Developer and Vercitas CEO Don Holbrook gave a presentation in May at a town board meeting. He urged board members and the public to take advantage of Pahrump’s location and explore a major tourism project.
Come on people, we need something hear in Pahrump to help our town grow. We have grads coming onto the scene without any jobs, crime is low but do you think it will stay that way,people are starting to hurt…we need something here to boost our town, to create jobs. Harley is not an idiot, he’s a guy with a good idea trying to save our town, much more then i can say about other people.
Put this up for Public Vote!’ do not Embaress your self any more Kulkin!
A lotof US who live here since the early to mid 70′s and 80′s know you are just blowing wind! its all about making money in HAVC Business and Control! Yes we need some kind of Industry but Pahrump is a Retirement Community it is sad we caved in to carpet baggers from Calif, NYC, Jersey East cost carpet baggers!
To Inc will kill this place, The Prison was a bad Idea greed and Coruption will not change Until the people like Harry Reid Are dead and gone,Liberalisum is the death nail of America and morality and denial of God and Jesus and Our Foundations are crumbling before our eyes! The 150 k is not all your’s Kalkin,Invest it in chip seal,Boys girl clubs while kids are still here education,ROTC, Boy Scouts,Shooting Range for the Public,Open Up ATV Areas so People do not Trespass on open Acreages and disturb peoples peace and quiet. Equestrian Trails open up more Stabels Agriculture What is wrong with Pahrump is my Favorite Quote from Mark Twain when he came through P Town,even Satan would Not Consider living here as Hot and dry a wnd blown Lanscape but by Gods grace it Grew.Disney land over the hill ,keep it there Land grabing is Dangerous.Leave it to the people. A simple water park and Green belt but Water is our life blood and People can’t drive civily here any way Traffic noise and light pollution for a Carnaval Most of Us don’t want any way.keep it Rural. As the “Shark Tank Quote of the day count me out!
Joe, while I like some aspects of the idea, the thought of people coming to an amusment park when its 120 out just isnt cutting it with me.
Sure, its jobs, but for the most part.. low paying jobs.
I would be a whole lot happier with some kind of light manufacturing here in town.
I wasn’t for Growponics for 2 reasons, first it would suck up tons of water (think, growing veggies and such in water instead of soil) and it would have only employed perhaps 10 or 20 people while we all suffered from a “water crisis” now that we have the water police in town (AKA Water board)
If we could have a business in town that did not require tons of water or become burdensome on its neighbors I would be all for it.
Create jobs for who, drug addicts and child molesters? It’s bad enough having the carny come through for a few days at Harvest fest, now they want to keep those people here permanantly? Minimum wage jobs won’t help anyone, except maybe the PVHS grads who aren’t smart enough to change their grades in the computer.
Just remember the fiasco that Parker and Kohbarger brought to this town via Growponics…We have yet to find out if Growponics will be suing the Town of Pahrump for breach of contract..Parker is nothing but the yes person all the time bad ideal’s she votes YES on them..Send her a message-Retirement in 2012 and vote her out..Please!!! before she costs the taxpayers more money and more wasted time..As for Harley that right there is a whole different story–He made a lot of promises that he had no intention on keeping. He was going to say anything to get elected so the people that voted him in will not be easy fooled the next time around..This probably be the only time and only seat that Harley will ever hold..Harley is nothing but a 1 term Board Member..We just need to make sure that these people stop spending money like water on these get rich scheme..
IF IT IS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE–RUNAWAY FAST…WITHOUT OUR MONEY.
Yep the local populace complains about the prison and the higher priced wages they bring which required individuals that withstood a background check. FF to current times, a theme park which should irritate all of those complainers that whine about the foot race from Baker to Vegas and they will be fine with this? Look at the cruddy turnout for the ‘fairs’ that come to this town over the year, the turnout is low and those that run the rides are low class. Granted at Disney it is a different story but we all know anything that is brought to this town is trash just like most of the population.
Ask some questions first. Harley, if you think it is such a great idea, how much of your own money are you putting up? Just like other great “community” projects that have been proposed, i.e., the arts center, the veteran’s home, how much of their own money were those folks willing to put up? Could Harley be seeing dollar signs in potential revenue servicing all those A/C units installed at such a park? Follow the money. It will usually lead you to the motivation behind a person’s actions.
The cost of the infrastructure alone will prohibit the Town of Pahrump from ever taking on a project like this. Save your $150K for the costs of cleaning up some of the trash left behind by all of the people that have already walked away from this place.
If it costs 160,000 just to do studies and etc. for this thing, I say forget it.
This town can’t afford to BLOW that kind of money on a STUDY. Studies tell you stuff in a PERFECT condition. Then you build it and find out that all the worst case scenarios have happened and everything is down the SCEPTIC tank. Use the money to do something GOOD for the town, like a 4 plex MOVIE theatre. I KNOW people would go to that Pahrump is a dirty hole in the desert and noone from Vegas would bother to come here for a theme park (unless it was built by Disney).
The high school needs help. All the schools need help. The town is on life support. Help the town with decent ideas!
Was at 06/06 meeting. To the complete surprise of Developer Don Holbrook, who claims he just learned of this great news.. Pahrump is flush with money!
Out of a $109.00 Hotel bill, $9.00 of those dollars goes into The Pahrump Economic Development Fund.. WoW.. and after ten years of our holding on to these tax dollars, we now have over $900,000.00 saved up…. AND ITS BURNIN A HOLE!!!! So, what do we have to lose, was the theme today.
Well, lets part with some facts from the so called contract for the study. By the way, Mr. Kulkin has for years been howling and screaming about the BOCC of Nye Cty paying for study after study. So what does he do. He goes to California with the other two dumb A_ _ _ _. To talk to this low life in a business suit( kinda reminds you of Mr. Kasani of Growponics)about building a Theme Park. By the way, did the Town Board members vote on an agenda item to authorize this trip to Disney Land. Back to the contract. After you read the contract and understand the double talk, Mr. Holbrook and his company will pocket close to 900,000 before a shovel is put in the ground. Then he receives 1% of all investors money and 3% of all public money that is put into this project. Again before the shovel is put into the ground. Also, who is going to float the construction bond needed to get this project started. The Town of Pahrump can only float a bond for sewers, thats it. Another thing, the theme park in New Carney, Tx. is still not gone into construction yet. That park is designed for approxiately 1600 acres and is being scaled back. The study for that park was $106,000. Why is ours so much more. Makes you think a little. Why don’t one of our town board members ask Mr. Holbrook why they pulled out of the deal in Texas some thime back. Because before the 7 million dollar bond was floated, the money went dry. Oh! that was so nice on Contours. Inc. to do that. And after the bond was received, they came back to Texas. Besides the Water issues, environment and finanical issues, this Theme Park is not a good idea for Pahrump.
On the positive side, I applaud the Pahrump Town Council for looking at ways to bring jobs, albeit minimum wage jobs, to Pahrump with this theme park. I also agree that it is a good idea to have the meetings and get a buy-in from the residents of Pahrump. But Pahrump really needs jobs people can live on – buy homes and cars, etc.
On the negative side, where is the money coming from? In a related matter according to Kulkin the Town Council will punish the residents of Pahrump when there is no money to send an ambulence or fire department team when you need it. So where are they getting the $150,000 to initiate this process let alone the remainder millions.
Bottom-line: The Town Council needs to put this theme park idea and funding to a Pahrump resident vote before moving forward.
What happened to the fairgrounds?? That really would have brought in money. From an industry that is already here. Something that Vegas has pushed out…the Equine Industry. Anyone ever look up the studies done on the amount of revenue that it brings in.
I have lived here for 16 years, and when someone that knew what they were doing, ran the festival…the PRCA tickets sold out every night.
Not to mention all the open land for trails.
Anyone notice that Vegas is starting to hold Equine events, too
yes,and to sold out crowds…