Salvation Army eyes school district modulars to add space

After more than two decades of serving the community’s various needs, a local agency finds itself in need of something –space.

Pahrump’s Salvation Army, a non-profit organization, has seen much growth in the community for the past 23 years.

Just recently, the organization was forced to relocate its cramped social service offices from 240 Dahlia St., to its church facility at 721 S. Buol Road. Salvation Army’s Lt. Tim Brown said the organization needs an additional structure to continue providing services to the community.

The structures will be used to store food and other provisions the organization provides to the community. Brown reached out to the Nye County School District in January.

The district, he said, has just what the organization needs in terms of additional space.

The mothballed Mt. Charleston Elementary School has numerous modular buildings on campus.

Brown is hoping the district could possibly bestow the organization with one or more of the vacant modular buildings. The school closed in June 2011, as a cost savings measure for the district.

“Any donated property would be advantageous for the Salvation Army,” Brown said. “As we are a non-profit, funds need to be stretched in order to meet the needs. We are already expanding and we need more room. We learned through the grapevine there was some possible excess buildings that we could acquire through the school board.”

During its final February Board of Trustees Community Outreach meeting, school district officials discussed the request.

Chief Financial Officer Ray Ritchie told the board the disposition of school properties must be done in accordance with Nevada Revised Statutes when property is no longer necessary for school purposes.

He noted certain steps must be made before any district property is disposed of.

According to the Nye County School District policy manual, district property may be used as a trade-in allowance when it’s a financial advantage for the district.

Property that could be sold, if serviceable, shall be offered to other school districts or political entities within the state either at fair market value or as a donation.

Any property remaining after those procedures shall be offered to the public for sale via bid or public auction.

Any property remaining after the public sale shall be either sold as scrap or discarded.

“We are in the process of putting together a list of items that we want to get rid of because we no longer need and will offer them up to them,” Ritchie said.

Superintendent Dale Norton said once the process is completed, the district will determine what can be done for the local Salvation Army.

“Once that process has gone out, these folks can make the request if there’s no bids,” he said. “We can work with them on how we dispose of that property.”

Norton said the district still needs to identify which modulars it would be willing to dispose of for others to use.

Brown said even if the request is declined, the organization will continue to provide those services as they have for more than 20 years.

“We can make do, but it’s a challenge to all of our programs,” he said. “It just puts an added stress on the programs, but the sooner we get something, the better for everyone and I think that will benefit the community and our other existing programs in multiple ways.”

Brown said if they are able to get some modulars, it would provide food storage.

He added the Salvation Army is not in a position right now to build a permanent structure, so any modular from the school district will be a temporary fix to address the community’s needs.