End of an Error: Nye County finally gets good government

“We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”

Here, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was reflecting on the mutual pretense of living under Soviet propaganda. Parallels to the data center fight in Pahrump could be drawn.

In one instance, folks received a mass text message from an unknown person claiming, “I was here ten years ago when our hospital in Tonopah closed, and a Nye County resident died waiting hours for ambulance transportation. Our county commission is considering an ordinance that could allow for the future responsible development of a data center. That tax revenue could build and staff a new hospital in Nye County.” The random anonymous text ends by asking, “Reply yes if you support this new hospital. Reply STOP to opt out.”

That data was then presented by Manse Technology Campus developer Russ Meads at the BOCC meeting on August 18 who said, “On Saturday we decided to do a quick poll in general. In District 1: 105 supporters, District 2 138, District 3: 162, District 4: 179, District 5: 265.” He made it sound as if those polled supported data centers. No mention of the hypothetical hospital.

Other claims included more money for Nye schools, the sheriff’s office and of course, cuts on property taxes — even though Governor Lombardo’s website promises tax abatement to tech companies wanting to build data centers in Nevada. In other words, data centers would pay no tax for five to 10 years. Doublespeak.

It doesn’t end there. Some commissioners asserted neutrality, repeatedly stating, “You don’t know which way I’m going to vote.” Then they opened data center ban discussion by making arguments for these massive server farms.

Ron Boskovitch spoke ominously, “There is someone who wants the data. The U.S. owns 30% of the available data. You know who wants the data? They’re giving basically free construction to anyone who wants to go there. And no taxes. China. We’d better be damn careful. I’d much rather have our data here in the U.S. where it can at least be monitored.” Essentially, Ron wants Americans to be spied on and marketed to by American oligarchs rather than the CCP.

Debra Strickland took Ron’s torch and expanded on the need for these monstrosities, saying, “I want to remind you that you only have 2% of the taxable land in Nye County. Everything else is federally owned. Somewhere we’ve got to make money, guys. We’ve got to put some data centers somewhere.”

Strangely enough, earlier in the meeting there was a discussion about accidentally sending out thousands of duplicate property tax assessments and Nye County having to eat the extra postage cost. Pahrump residents like Anthony Greco are calling for a forensic audit of all county departments. Perhaps the money is already there, albeit mismanaged.

Comments at the August 18 meeting were limited to two minutes. And the residents were even lucky to get that. On the Nye County Facebook page, comments have been turned off entirely. When Nye County Public Communications Manager Arnold Knightly was reached for comment he said, “It was not decision I took lightly. I was not able to monitor the comments and they were getting nastier and nastier over the past year.” Knightly said it had nothing to do with the data center; however, turning off the comments July 30, just before the August 4 meeting where the ban was first proposed, is odd timing.

By the end of public comment, over a hundred concerned residents spoke against the proposed Manse Technology Campus (Orwellian Newspeak for data center). Even Commissioner Koenig felt the pinch when he acquiesced, “I eat out a lot… Last week my favorite bar mate says to me, ‘you’re not going to do data centers, are you?’,… Three or four servers did the same thing. Everyone’s on top of it.”

Commissioner Jabbour’s dad jokes broke the tension. Seven hours into the marathon meeting, a vote was called. Finally, and begrudgingly, the hold-outs voted in favor of a data center ban. Watching the overwhelming tidal force turn against them, they mumbled an ‘aye’.

Commissioner Ian Bayne, the sponsor of the data center ban, summarized by saying, “I think a lot of people in elected office think they’re the star of the show, we are not. I’ve been doing this for close to 30 years and it’s just amazing to see the people put pressure on elected officials to do the right thing. This is why I stay in politics. This is why I ran for office. Watching citizens put us in our place is worth all the work and every bit of abuse we take as elected officials. I wrote the bill, I was the quarterback who put the play together, but the residents spoke and the people made it happen. Without everyone pushing, this ban bill would just be a piece of paper rotting on my desk.”

It seems Pahrump may have turned the page. People rose up and accomplished something - 4,500 emails of support were sent; 3,849 signatures were gathered. And the people’s voice was heard.

According to Data Center Watch, at least 75 data center projects have been stopped — worth roughly $130 billion — in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Pahrump has now joined that list. Big Brother has been defeated. For now.

Eric Coleman is a free-lance reporter living in Pahrump whose political cartoons appear weekly in the Pahrump and Tonopah newspapers. Contact him at ericjamescoleman@gmail.com.