$6.2M allocated to 10 projects

After much wrangling with the numbers, Nye County has now earmarked about $6.2 million of its $12 million in Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) grant dollars for a total of 10 projects throughout the county.

The Nye County Commission addressed the LATCF funding allocations during its Tuesday, April 2 meeting. There were 27 funding requests under consideration, 17 of which were discussed during the LATCF workshop in October of last year. Of the 27 requests, 18 were from Nye County departments, while nine came from other entities.

“What we’re here to do today is, take all 27 of these projects and try to finalize how we’re going to spend $12 million on $28 million worth of ask,” Nye County Contracts and Grants Manager Stephani Elliott told commissioners that morning.

To streamline the process, each commissioner took part in ranking the various projects based on five sets of criteria. These included:

• This request provides for the Safety of the Public and/or Nye County employees.
• Delaying the approval of this proposal will increase compliance risk to the county and/or result in negative consequences.
• This request will have a lasting impact on the county and will be a sustainable investment, warranting additional future funding through the general fund.
• Implementation of this proposal will improve and/or expand services to Nye County communities.
• Multiple county departments and/or county functions will be positively impacted with the fulfillment of this request.

Gaining the highest rank was the request from Nye County Facilities Management for deferred maintenance projects. The request was for a total of $6.8 million but department head William Allen noted that he was only ready to move on a portion of those projects. Though these projects will need funding in the near future, he said his department could get by with $1.5 million to begin with.

Next in the rankings was Nye County IT’s request for about $3.2 million to pay for a public safety communications microwave upgrade. Considering the sensitive nature of government communications, this was deemed to be a must-have and therefore, the microwave upgrade received all of its desired funding.

Another large chunk of the LATCF dollars were requested for a facilities key system for the many county buildings but this request saw only seed money granted. Of the $1.18 million needed to fund the key system, commissioners awarded $200,000 to get the project started.

Various departments also requested new vehicles, including the Nye County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management, Public Works, Facilities Management, District Attorney’s Office and Assessor’s Office. However, only the vehicles considered critically needed at the moment were funded. The sheriff’s office received just under $715,000 for 10 pursuit vehicles while the DA’s office was allotted $63,250 for one investigations vehicle and Emergency Management received $177,500 for two vehicles.

The Juvenile Probation Office is looking to relocate and commissioners budgeted $38,325 in LATCF dollars for that purpose.

Only two outside entities were allocated LATCF funding. The Town of Amargosa Valley Fire Department was given $250,000 for a quick response vehicle and Beatty will receive $13,770 for electricity at Beatty Revert Park.

Elliott noted that Nye County received the highest amount of LATCF dollars possible, the same amount as its much-larger neighbor Clark County. “I believe that there was some foresight behind providing us this funding - knowing that our net proceeds were going to be reduced, the impacts of COVID taking two to three years to reach us,” Elliott remarked. “And these funds are available for any government use, as long as it’s not lobbying.”

The remaining $5.78 million in LATCF dollars has been used as a temporary interfund loan to the Nye County General Fund, which is anticipated to be paid back by January, 2025 at the latest. Once the money is returned to the grant fund, commissioners will be able to allocate those dollars for other project funding requests.

For more details on the interfund loan see previous coverage on the subject at pvtimes.com

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com