Pahrump to sponsor Nye Ryder grants

Pahrump’s first on-demand transportation program got another name and is now governed by the town, but officials don’t want to shell out money on the program as it still lacks a budget and operational plan.

The program organizers for Pahrump Rural Transit, that was formerly known as Nye Ryder, requested an approval of up to $50,000 for operational funding from Pahrump at the Nye County commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday. The money was supposed to cover a part of the match for a grant from the Nevada Department of Transportation.

Nye County commissioners met the request with skepticism, citing the lack of a concrete financial plan for the program and the county’s slim budget.

Commissioner Dan Schinhofen said that the numbers presented by the program officials “don’t add up.”

“I’d like to know what all of the costs are. What your salary is, who’s paid what, all of those things. I want to know all of that,” he said.

Instead, Schinhofen said Pahrump will sponsor grants for the program and requested Pahrump Rural Transit organizers to come back to Nye County commissioners for approval of those grants.

Nye County Manager Pam Webster said $50,000 for the match grant wasn’t in the county budget this year.

“If you would want to consider this in the ‘17 budget, that might be a better (idea) and more appropriate. (It’s) hard to do that given the fact that it’s not an imminent need for the funding and there would be time to bring that back as part of the budget cycle,” Webster said.

The initial plan called for a countywide transit system, however after evaluating financial conditions of Nye County, the program organizers decided to focus on Pahrump.

Susan Holecheck, chair of the Nye County Regional Transportation Committee, said that under the program, one bus will operate on the north side of Pahrump and another one on the south side.

“We just need to submit the budget, the actual monies would probably not be called for until October-November,” she said.

Holecheck said the deadline for the NDOT grant is April 15. Pahrump Rural Transit will have to reapply for the grant if it doesn’t get it this year.

Albert Bass, one of the Pahrump Rural Transit organizers, said officials had launched a community program last week to fundraise the money for Pahrump Rural Transit. The endeavor already brought $11,000 into the program’s coffers and will be ongoing.

“The total matching funds would be $145,000, and we are fulfilling that amount with other grants as well. We are fulfilling that through the community support,” he said.

“But there are so many other grants that come throughout the cycle, one of the big problems for us is that this particular time is two of the main grants that will actually be for $50,000 were mid-cycle and we can’t even apply for it until the beginning of next year,” he said.

The program officials delivered four buses from Salt Lake City, Utah to Pahrump in January thanks to numerous donations from the community.

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DariaSokolova77