Letters to the Editor

Festival fees should be lower for non-profits

Just read the article in the PVT on the Pahrump Fall Festival. Glad to see the Chamber of Commerce step up and take on the challenge. The major issue I see is the cost for a booth and booth locations.

While there should be a fee to vendors, $200 per 10x12 booth is too much for local non-profit groups. Local groups provide to the community and are not making a living off the Pahrump event, like many of the food vendors from Pahrump or not. Vendors selling merchandise should be charged.

Local groups in Pahrump like the 4-H. the Rock Hounds, jeep clubs, ladies’ quilting group, art guild, gold seekers, animal rescue and more provide for the community and the people of Pahrump. These groups use the Pahrump festival to let the community know they are there and how they support and help the community, providing more to the community and only recruiting new members or getting volunteers. Twenty-five dollars per booth for non-profits is more than enough. If the chamber insists that booths be open after dark, the cost should be $10 for power hookups for non-profits.

Booth spots or locations at the event should be first paid, first choice. Last year some were paid up first and were told other groups, not paid had their choice. I understand some things need to be in certain places, the bandstand, info booth, but anything else should be set up this way.

In closing, last year the festival wanted $100 for a dead space behind a booth. Is this event for the people of Pahrump or for someone to line their pockets? While we’re at it, where did all the money go that was taken in at the festival?

B. Burker

Rhyolite depot needs to be preserved

We need to save the ghost town of Rhyolite and the Rhyolite train station while there is still time. I realize there are more urgent and important things in the world that need to be dealt with, however that doesn’t mean we should ignore the others.

I have been visiting Rhyolite for the past 20 years and every time I go there the train station is in a further state of decay and is deteriorating fast. The weather and lack of maintenance is taking its toll on that once beautiful and dynamic building.

The same can be said for the entire town of Rhyolite, there is less and less of that town every year. We need to stabilize all those buildings in Rhyolite in a state of arrested decay, like they did at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park by Gabbs, Nevada and the Bodie State Park in California. And while we are at it why can’t we do the same and make that area Rhyolite State Park??? The town of Rhyolite is maintained by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) so it is on public land.

There is so much history in the town of Rhyolite. In 1907 it had over 10,000 residents and for a short time was one of the largest towns in Nevada. In its hey-day that town was famous. Rhyolite is one of the most photographed ghost towns in the West and is clearly one of the best ghost towns in Nye County and in the state of Nevada. At one time the town of Rhyolite was served by 3 different railroads which were the Tonopah & Tidewater, Las Vegas & Tonopah and the Bullfrog & Goldfield railroads. Each of them had their own train station in Rhyolite. The only train station that is still standing belonged to the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad. It was built as a mission style depot and was completed in 1908 at a cost of $130,000. That station was (and still could be) a very dynamic and beautiful building.

There are many visitors that visit Rhyolite each year from all over the world and that building would be a definite asset to the area.

An example of what could be accomplished with a lot of hard work and money, which I realize is not easy to acquire, is what the state of California accomplished when it refurbished the old Kelso train station in Kelso, California and is now a very picturesque building which is presently the Mojave National Preserve Visitors Center that contains a small museum, gift shop and even has an art exhibit and is open to the public.

The best case scenario for the Rhyolite train station (in my opinion) would be to make it into a museum or a visitors’ center or both, promoting Rhyolite and the Death Valley area and they could even operate tours of Rhyolite and the Death Valley from there.

Please let us do something now to preserve that area for future generations. One way we can accomplish this is by contacting your local senators and congressman and requesting that they take action now to look into achieving this. For the Pahrump area they are listed below.

Senator Dean Heller, 333 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV 89101, (702) 388-6605; Senator Harry Reid, 333 Las Vegas Blvd. South, #8016, Las Vegas, NV 89101, (702) 388-5020; Congressman Cresent Hardy, 2250 Las Vegas Blvd. North, Suite 500, North Las Vegas, NV 89030, (702) 912-1634

Any comments to this editorial, either pro or con, would be welcomed.

Bob Jacobs