County shelves plan to study strains on staff facilities — for now

With hundreds of workers in its various department and the expectation that staffing levels will increase in the coming years, Nye County Assistant Manager Lorina Dellinger recently requested that the county embark on a project to determine how best to house them. Despite the evident support from the director of Nye County Facility Operations, however, the request met with resistance from commissioners Donna Cox and Ron Boskovich, both of whom expressed concerns with the timing and potential cost of the project.

“We put out a Request for Qualifications for a consultant to provide services that the county is in need of. We’d like our facilities to be assessed… to plan for growth,” Dellinger explained for commissioners during the June 6 meeting. “We tend to go up and down (in staff) but we definitely need to have an assessment of our facilities done for at least 30 or 40 years of future use.”

As detailed in the agenda item, the project had been budgeted for $200,000 but fee negotiations would have determined the exact cost of the assessment. The assessment would then outline what the county needs to do to make best use of its current buildings, as well as what the county might need to build new.

Nye County Director of Facility Operations William Allen said he believed this to be a crucial project, remarking that even the county’s newest buildings are nearing two decades in age, a fact with which commissioner Frank Carbone agreed.

“We know the facilities we have currently today are wearing out, as the director pointed out. Not only the ones up here in Tonopah but down in Pahrump and in Gabbs and everywhere else,” Carbone said. “So I think it is time for us to do an evaluation but I’m not too sure we are going to like the answer we’re going to get or the price tag and all the things that come along with it. I think it’s worth getting it. My concern is, what are we going to do with it once we get it?”

Commissioner Donna Cox, however, was clearly against even entering into fee negotiations, focusing her comments on the contract Nye County made with Siemens two years ago.

“We just spent $7 million to put a program into these buildings to bring them up to par, as far as A/C, lighting, insulation, roofing, all these kinds of things, so we can use them for a long, long, long time. And I would hate to have them (Collaborative Design Studio) come back in a year and say that nothing is great and we threw away all those millions of dollars because now we want to tear down all the buildings and start over again,” Cox asserted. “Maybe we are just jumping the gun too soon to do this kind of thing. I don’t think we can justify at this time going through this kind of exercise.”

Commission Chair Bruce Jabbour responded that in his view, proper planning was the crux of the item.

“This has to do with proper planning. The staff is coming to us to see if this is something we want to consider,” Jabbour said. “I think it is important for us, as the commission, to have the foresight and insight for the future, for whoever sits as the commission and whoever our residents are then.”

Allen jumped in as well, attempting to ease Cox’s concerns. “We did just spend a pretty decent amount of money (on the Siemens contract) and it’s important to state that none of that will actually go to waste. They (Collaborative Design Studios) are going to evaluate the current buildings for reuse, we’re not getting rid of any of them. And they are going to also evaluate what we need additional, in order to accommodate the growth.”

Dellinger added that as they stand today, some of the buildings have several safety and health risks but Cox rebutted that she felt those could be evaluated on an individual basis.

As for Boskovich, he reminisced on a time in Pahrump when the local government was conducting study after study, thereby making the valley something of a joke in the eyes of many. Because of this, he advised caution and suggested that the item be postponed until a later time, when it might be more appropriate.

With the board apparently split on the idea and no tie-breaker for a vote, the commissioners decided to allow the item to die without any action. It will be brought back before the board at some point in the future.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com