Letters to editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Residents, please wake up and save our town

Please understand that this letter is 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 this 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.

While some negative actions taken may have not been intentional, I believe that the BoCC has made some mistakes in their efforts to manage and govern the affairs of the town of Pahrump.

Some past, current and future mistakes (and possible future plans) are:

1. Closing the Town Office and combining the town and county.

2. Terminating town employees as a duplication of a county function while ignoring the town’s need.

3. Merging town funds with county funds to augment the county deficit and possibly changing Pahrump to a township reducing the town to a subdivision of the county.

4. Failure to keep the town and county as separate entities along with the funds, the assets, and the employees.

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.

With this open letter, I am recommending that the BoCC allow the residents of Pahrump to vote again now that they have seen the results of the BoCC sitting as the Pahrump Town Board since January 2015.

It is my hope that the residents of Pahrump will demand of the BoCC to create an appointed town advisory board, an appointed town board, an elected town board, or place the item on the next ballot for an elected town board. All of these can be done by a BoCC agenda item.

The people of Pahrump want to govern themselves and the BoCC must allow for that accommodation. Failing to follow the “will of the people” I foresee a push for 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 or incorporation. It will be up to the actions (or non-actions) of the BoCC as to what happens from here.

Let’s look at how we got into the situation in which we find ourselves and when did it happen? Here’s the background for the Town of Pahrump losing its Elected Town Board:

On July 17, 2012, the BoCC agenda item #11h stated the proposed County Question #2 which stated, “Shall the Pahrump town board form of government be discontinued. Yes / No.

It was Election Day, Nov. 6, 2012, where the County Question #2 was on the ballot asking the above question. There were a total of 14,357 votes cast and here are 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 vote in 2012, the town of Pahrump not only lost the town governance, it 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 a town board or advisory 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 retain a town that can provide its own governance.

I was informed recently that there is a group of residents who are already planning a method to return to a town board (or other) form of town governance apart from the Board of County Commissioners. For this group, I say, “Please step out of the shadows,” because you have a large contingent of supporters. Also, stepping out of the shadows would require this group to work openly and with the BoCC.

So, as I stated at the beginning of the open letter – wake up, get involved, and save our town!

Tom Waters

Reader addresses absurdities of ‘Trump Party’

Regarding letter to the editor by Dennis Crooks, “Local says Republicans are now the ‘Trump Party,’” dated Feb. 22, 2019, I believe it is good to have two sides to coins and, in particular, the political coin. It would be disastrous for our nation to evolve into a one-party system in which you can either vote for the guy in charge or… not. I am grateful, though, that people who think like Dennis Crooks are still in the minority. Saner heads still prevail, for a while anyway, at least the next six years, giving President Trump ample time to straighten out the mess BHO left behind.

Crooks lists some of the awful things for which the “Trump Party” supposedly stands and I would like to address just a few of the absurdities.

With regard to school shootings: Can someone please provide Crooks with a statistic on how many of these crimes were committed by members of the NRA? President Trump has proposed several different ways of improving protection for schoolchildren, including posting more security personnel and arming teachers and professors.

Only billionaires get tax cuts: The top income-earners in the U.S. pay the lion’s share of taxes. You can’t benefit from a tax cut if you don’t pay any. And by the way, my husband and I live on a pension and Social Security and are far from billionaires and we have also benefited from tax cuts.

Global warming: Crooks may not be up with the times. Since liberals cannot prove “global warming” (the recent “Polar vortex” springs readily to mind), they have modified the expression to “climate change.” Crooks may be surprised to learn that I, a conservative, believe in “climate change.” Yes, indeed! The climate has been changing for millions of years and it will continue to change whether I drive a Prius or not!

As for Russian meddling, they have been meddling for decades and will continue to meddle. Apparently though, when Democrats win elections, Russian meddling is not an issue. By the way, nobody I know voted for Trump because a Russian forced him to.

Building a 15th century wall: Tell that to Israel.

And about Governor Sisolak’s heroism. Improving our educational system: How does eliminating testing improve anything? Sisolak says tests are a waste of time. Seriously? Children are tested to observe whether or not they are making progress and may move up to a higher level and where they are falling short. Sisolak is “modernizing the infrastructure.” Nice big words, Dennis. What do they mean? Sisolak is providing quality health care: I already have quality health care and have had all my life. Democrats, please mind your own business. We already provide health care for people who do not have health insurance. Improve that if you must busy yourselves and leave my health care alone!

To paraphrase your words, Dennis Crooks, Democrats should work with Republicans, stop with the political roadblocks already and help “find solutions to some of the difficulties we face,” instead of just hating Trump because he’s Trump.

Linda DeLaMare

VEA dustup causes concern for employees

I pray, in light of the news surrounding Valley Electric Association that is being reported in all manner of media that no VEA member be tempted to fall into a mob mentality and initiate a backlash against the VEA employees.

These workers are knowledgeable, hard-working, decent folks who are members themselves. Their only aim is to keep the lights on and serve the membership to the best of their ability.

Any harmful action toward any employee in the VEA workforce would only serve to harm the entire membership.

Linda Kass