Organizers want to grow Earth Day event

Officials want to grow Earth Day as they are looking to hold the event at the Discovery Park.

John Pawlak, a member of the Pahrump Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Board said the event will take place on April 22, 2017.

“We are looking at trying to kick-start Discovery Park and this would be a good way to do it,” Pawlak said.

“One of these years, we have to break out,” he said. “And one of the ways to break out is get out of Ian Deutch Memorial Park and go into something like Discovery Park, since we don’t have the Town of Pahrump to give us funds, although we did get it from the commissioners, some funds for advertising last year.”

Officials also plan to celebrate Arbor Day on the same day.

This year, organizers hope to attract a number of new participants as well as those who were there last year, such as Boy Scouts of America, Red Rock Audubon Society, High Desert Astronomy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Model Airplane Club, Master Gardeners and others.

Pawlak said Discovery Park shows off Pahrump “in a positive manner.”

“We’d like to grow because we have a big, big venue here,” Pawlak said. “We have something that we want to show off for the community.”

“We may have it in Discovery Park,” he said. “We would only be using a very small, well-defined paved area of that for the event. It’s easy to get to with vehicles, it’s paved parking lot. It has trees, and it looks pretty decent.”

Additionally, officials are hoping to do tours of the sites that are owned by Red Rock Audubon Society and are currently being developed.

“I would like to bring in new blood with this. Also, we could have some exhibits there that we haven’t had before with alternative energy or renewable energy or something like that,” Pawlak said.

“We are hoping to make this somewhat bigger because of the fact that Discovery Park is much bigger and hopefully, we will be able to expand so more people realize it’s there,” he said.

Pawlak said those who are interested in participating in Earth Day can submit their inquiries at the Pahrump Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Board meeting that takes place at 12:30 p.m. on first Friday of every month in room 125 at Great Basin College.

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77