Nye County Commission candidate Antheny “AJ” Dodd has more than just a single issue on his agenda. Instead, he wants to go through a lot of things, including water, business recruitment and infrastructure needs.
“There’s no one thing that I would just really go for. There’s a lot of things that need to be gone through,” he said in an interview to the Pahrump Valley Times.
A San Angelo, Texas native, Dodd owned a health club business for 16 years in Palm Springs, California. He also spent 39 years in the automotive industry.
Dodd has been in Pahrump since 2004 and currently works as a salesman at Pahrump Valley Auto Plaza. He has been involved in several projects with the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce and United Way.
“My grandfather taught me that you have to be committed to whatever endeavor that you are planning on doing. And not just 50 percent but 100 percent. That philosophy has carried through to me in every endeavor I’ve ever done,” he said.
Early in his career, Dodd worked for the office of then-Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono, who was later elected to serve in Congress.
Dodd, who’s running for a Nye County office for the first time, said that Pahrump needs “serious” people on the commission.
“We have serious things that need to be taken care of now, and we have to have serious people that can get those things done,” he said.
Dodd said he had talked to many people about the water situation in Pahrump and received a wide difference of opinion.
“I have a stack of different things that I’ve researched that is about two inches thick right now,” he said.
“I think our priorities need to be as to what we can do to make the people here in Pahrump a lot more knowledgeable than what they are,” he said.
Speaking about most recent issues in Nye County and Pahrump, Dodd said he supported rapid infiltration basins or RIBs and county commissioners handing the now-shuttered Nye Regional Medical Center over to Reno-based Renown Health, a not-for-profit health care company that offered a new model for operating the facility.
“I don’t think it is something that commissioners could watch, and I don’t think they should be responsible for what’s going on with the hospital,” he said about Nye Regional Medical Center.
“Tonopah needs a hospital up there. We need to have a hospital group that is successful in running a hospital.”
He said he didn’t support moving the county seat from Tonopah to Pahrump. “The county just does not have the money. There’s just way too many issues that this county does not have the funds to do what they want to do,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dodd said it was suggested to him that if he got elected, he should work on the zoning issue to attract more businesses to Pahrump.
“If you don’t have the proper zoning, and you don’t have the proper structure to get businesses to come in, they won’t come in,” he said.
Dodd is running in Nye County’s District III against incumbent commissioner Donna Cox, Nye County Water District Governing Board Chair Greg Dann, businessman Leo Blundo and Pahrump resident Louie DeCanio. The candidate receiving the most votes in the June 14 primary will be placed on the General Election ballot unopposed. No Democrats or small-party candidates filed.
Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77