Assumptions made in critical letter wrong

This is in reply to a letter to the editor on July 15, 2015 from Cathy Girard. Let'€™s me say this for the assumptions you made in your letter Mrs. Girard.

First, you say the town let the fairgrounds on 160, "€œrot"€ for 10 years. Well, the town has owned that land for way longer than 10 years that prior town boards did nothing with either, until Mr. Kohbarger made something happen for the betterment of this community.

Second, the town was not the one who rejected the water treatment plant worth over $5,000,000 that was going to be gifted to the town and the county jointly. That distinction rests solely on the current county commissioners who rejected that wonderful gift.

Third, your town board and staff went out and obtained grants to start the process of building athletic fields (soccer and baseball) with the intention of having the treatment plant located along SR 160 as well as power to not only serve the fairgrounds but also Spring Mountain Raceway and any other business that was located along that stretch of road. BUT YOUR county commissioners told the great folks at the raceway to stuff the water treatment plant, so with no water plant and power, equated to no athletic fields, no nothing.

Did you know there are over 600 children who play soccer and over 400 children who play baseball/softball in Pahrump annually? Not to mention the revenue estimated at many tens of thousands of dollars each season, that those fields would have brought into your community, along with thousands of visitors plus extra off-season events that would have been generated; no, I didn’t think so!

You go on to say it only took the commissioners six months to do it and without spending thousands of dollars unlike the town board. Let'€™s set the record straight if the town had not done what they did with the aforementioned Grant Funds and Room Tax revenue (without spending “not one red cent of taxpayer dollars) there would not be a shooter site period!!!

Let'€™s add one more thing to that statement; the county had nothing to do with the groundbreaking of that site. Matter of fact, the BOCC, led by Commissioner Dan Schinhofen thought it was a "Stupid Idea"€ and a waste of money to develop the Pahrump Fairgrounds. You also said "€œthe rumors"€ say the "€œshooters park" was very profitable. Let’s look at those rumors.

In one PVT article the fireworks stores said that 14,000 permits were sold that would equate to $70,000 (14,000 @ $5.00 each) and then later it was reported by the PVT that about 100 people used the site over the weekend so that is only $500 (100 @ $5 each) so which report in the PVT is correct? You decide but I'€™ll go with a few hundred instead of a few thousand. Of course you can always check the county books!?!?

Now, before you put those county commissioners up on a pedestal you should know as Paul Harvey use to say, you need to know the rest of the story. Two of your county commissioners held meetings with the fireworks store owners out in public at a local restaurant prior to the election and after, and who took campaign contributions from the Red Apple Fireworks owner, yes that’s right, Commissioner Schinhofen and Commissioner Borasky (it is a matter of public record, look it up).

And the fireworks stores reported big increases in sales because of the shooter site. PROVE IT! Well, this smells of nothing more than a political payback to the fireworks store owners for their campaign contributions and who knows what else took place between them, that'€™s for you to decide.

Let'€™s have the town add up all the hours that staff had to put into this project compared to what fees were collected and my bet is your town lost money. And that is nothing new for the county staff and commissioners the way they spend money.

But my biggest concern here, is if the "Shooters Site" was so successful and indeed raised $70,000 as rumors say, then why did YOUR county commissioners just raise our property taxes by 3 percent? I bet Pahrump was the only municipality to have their taxes raised by the commissioners. Check it out! And why close it down, and only to have it open a few days a year with that kind of new revenue? Why not keep it open year-round and make tens of thousands more every few weeks? Because, I think YOUR county commissioners and staff are blowing smoke.

In addition, what did the county do with this big increase to their budget?

Next time, maybe look into it a little closer and not listen to “those rumors” you talked about. This article was beneath you Mrs. Girard, I thought you were better than this.

Bill Dolan, certified public officialPast Vice-Chairman, Pahrump Town Board (2008-2010 and 2013-2014)