Letters to the Editor
What would Pahrump gain by reinstating a town board?
There has been talk of reinstating a town board. We had a town board. There were numerous issues, too numerous and sad to list, not the least being a 50+% increase in taxes, that prompted the citizens to petition the BOCC for a question on the ballot that enabled the citizens to choose one way or the other. The citizens voted down the town board and our BOCC has been acting as our town board ever since.
Yes, Gabbs, Manhattan, Beatty, Amargosa, Belmont, Round Mountain, and Tonopah all have town boards in some form. What else to they have in common? They do NOT have four commissioners living, working, and participating in the day-to-day of their towns. Their town boards advise the BOCC as to the needs, wants, and wishes of their towns solely because the BOCC are not there to experience their needs.
Pahrump is in a very unique position having four of the five county commissioners living and working in town. And the fifth county commissioner owns land here, and travels to Pahrump. The BOCC is always accessible by phone and email, but more importantly, we run into them at Desert View Hospital, the grocery store, the hardware store, local restaurants …the list goes on. They are intimately familiar with the goings-on, concerns, and who’s who of Pahrump.
If you don’t think a commissioner is doing a good job representing us, we can vote them out! Adding a town board would not fix anything, it would compound issues by adding another layer of expensive and unnecessary bureaucracy.
What would Pahrump gain by adding a town board? Nothing.
Tamie Pitman
Risk of Mesothelioma among county vets requires action
Heavy use of asbestos by the U.S. Military left millions of veterans exposed to long-term risks of deadly diseases. Among these, mesothelioma, a lethal and rare malignancy with a high symptom burden and short life expectancy, disproportionately affects veterans.
The Navy, in particular, consumed high amounts of asbestos for shipbuilding, exposing thousands of veterans to asbestos fibers. Notably, unlike other conditions triggered decades after inhaling asbestos, mesothelioma is poorly understood, resulting in high rates of misdiagnosis and limited treatment options.
A National Mesothelioma Registry was proposed in 2019 to support research for developing more accurate diagnosis methods and better treatment options. However, interest in testing the feasibility of this common database is low, while funding is yet to be secured. Six years after this proposal was made, the registry has not yet been implemented.
Nevada’s veteran population exceeds 200,000 people, many of whom worked with asbestos. More than 7,000 of these veterans live in Nye County. Across the state, a total of 1,781 asbestos-related deaths were reported from 1999 to 2017.
In Nye County, the death toll was 70, with an average of three deaths per year. These numbers may seem small, but mesothelioma is diagnosed in approximately 3,000 people annually. Of these cases, approximately 900 are seen exclusively in veterans. When adjusted for population, Nye County’s asbestos-related death rate is 9.1 per 100,000 people, more than double Nevada’s state average of 3.9 and significantly higher than the national average of 4.9 per 100,000.
Nevada veterans could greatly benefit from the creation of this registry, as it would expedite detection rates and enable timely, potentially life-saving treatment. Establishing a National Mesothelioma Registry would not only honor the service of veterans but also provide essential data to improve care, guide research, and ultimately reduce preventable deaths among those who sacrificed for their country.
Jonathan Sharp
Jonathan Sharp is the CFO of the Alabama-based Environmental Litigation Group, P.C., a law firm focused on supporting people affected by toxic exposure.
