A return to the Pahrump Town Board?
This January marked the 10th anniversary of the formal dissolution of the Pahrump Town Board and with a full decade of change having taken place since, one former town board official believes that now is the time to push for re-instatement of a local town board form of government.
To that end, Dr. Tom Waters is organizing a town hall meeting for the end of May to allow valley residents an opportunity to discuss the possibility as a community.
“I plan to have a town hall meeting to try to find out just how much interest there is,” Waters announced in March. “Whether we have an elected town board, an appointed town board or an advisory town board… Pahrump is a large town. We have smaller towns that have town boards and in Pahrump, we have enough talented people here to help the commissioners run the town.”
Waters is a longtime resident and well-known figure in the area, both as a former town board member and as a veteran-activist working on various community projects, committees and causes. Earlier this year, Waters penned two Pahrump Valley Times letters to the editor expounding on his reasoning for a return to the town board, something that was voted out of existence by a slim difference of 231 votes in an election that saw more than 14,000 ballots cast.
As it stands today, governance of the town falls to the Nye County Commission, which is also charged with overseeing certain other towns and other governmental entities.
Waters has emphasized several times that his interest in seeing the town board revived is not to be seen as a criticism of the Nye County Commission but as a desire for more localized representation.
“This is not to minimize the responsibility or importance of the Nye County Board of County Commissioners. Personally, I believe that they are doing the very best they can but are overwhelmed by this vast responsibility of caring for the county of Nye (their jobs) and the town of Pahrump (our job),” Waters asserted. “And I will reiterate that even though four of the five commissioners live in Pahrump, they remain county commissioners, not town commissioners and they need not be involved in the day-to-day operation of Pahrump.
“Please, remember that the Nye County Commission is not the enemy and never has been,” Waters reiterated. “Unfortunately, they are county commissioners, not town commissioners and they should also not be the Pahrump Town Board. If you agree with me, contact your county commissioner and talk to them, instead of merely complaining to each other.”
The town hall meeting on recreating the Pahrump Town Board is slated for 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday, May 23 at the Valley Electric Association Conference Center, 800 E. Highway 372.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
