Tom Waters: Another open letter to the residents of Pahrump

Thanks to everyone who attended the May 23 town hall meeting about re-establishing the Pahrump Town Board.

Please understand that this Town Hall meeting was not to minimize the responsibility or importance of the Nye County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC). Personally, I believe that they are doing the very best they can but are overwhelmed by the vast responsibility of caring for the county (their jobs) and the town of Pahrump (OUR job).

I encourage all residents of Pahrump to work with the BoCC because as we strengthen Nye County, we strengthen our town.

Also, regardless of what several naysayers tried to insert, this meeting had nothing to do with the attempt to incorporate the town of Pahrump. That is the lie the naysayers used to scare the residents in 2012 so let’s not buy into that lie again. Let me repeat, the town board has nothing to do with incorporation regardless of how the naysayers try to frame it.

I continue to ask the question: Why are the naysayers so afraid to allow the residents of Pahrump to vote on whether they want to re-establish the town board or not? The vote in 2012 was extremely close:

There were a total of 14,357 votes cast in 2012 and here are the vote results:

Yes – 7,294 - 50.8% (To abolish the elected town board)

No - 7,063 - 49.2% (To retain the elected town board)

The difference was 231 votes, which means if 116 people had voted the other way, the results would have been different and we would still have an elected town board.

By this extremely close vote in 2012, the town of Pahrump not only lost the town governance, but it also lost the opportunity to ever have a town board under that NRS since the laws in the state of Nevada have changed. However, it can establish an elected town board under a current NRS.

As stated, we can never replace the previous town board that served the town of Pahrump for over 30 years but we can re-establish a “local government” in the form of a town board.

Everyone who knows me knows that I am in favor of local town governance through a town board form of government (Pahrump residents whose primary focus is the town of Pahrump) which would also ease the burdens of the BoCC and could also eliminate errors and potential errors made against the town.

The people of Pahrump need to govern themselves and the BoCC should encourage that accommodation. Failing to support the “will of the people” in this endeavor, I foresee a push by the people of Pahrump for city Incorporation to retain the Pahrump Town entity.

When we look at the overall picture, the residents of Pahrump should (and probably will) demand an elected town board under the NRS. It will be up to the actions (or non-actions) of the people of Pahrump as to what happens from here.

There were 14,357 votes in 2012 and 24,216 votes in 2024. We have grown in ten-plus years.

As noted, there were 24,216 Pahrump voters in the 2024 General Election and we need a percentage of those voters to sign the petitions to place “Re-Establish the Pahrump Town Board” on the ballot in 2026. So, sign the petitions (when they become available) to place it on the ballot in November 2026 to re-establish the Pahrump Town Board in January 2027. ALLOW THE PEOPLE TO VOTE!

Depending on the percentage needed of the 2024 Pahrump voters, according to the latest NRS, we have this task ahead of us:

Percent Needed (Goal)

10% = 2,422 (3,000)

15% = 3,632 (4,000)

20% = 4,843 (5,000)

Tom Waters

Lt. Col., USAF (Ret.), Ed.D.

twaters2015@iCloud.com