Letters to the editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Thank you to Pahrump Arts Council for recognition

To the Pahrump Arts Council, thank you for your recognition of my accomplishments over the years in our community. If it wasn’t for this community who opened so many doors, we may not have been so very successful.

The Tappers and I enjoy donating our time to the many charities we have performed for and are very proud of the funding we helped to generate.

Thank you

B. J. Hetrick-Irwin,

Nevada Silver Tappers

Can anyone really explain how the BLM works?

I live on the north end of town and have recently written the PVT concerning the Bell Vista shooting range. The trash that litters it, old refrigerators, television sets, spent casings and apparently the homeless new tenant who has decided to live there threatening those who dare clean up their casings.

Anyway, this paper reported that Dan Schinhofen recently introduced some sort of proposal for a county-owned public shooting range that would be supervised. A great idea! He stated, and I quote, “we have been working for 19 years to get the Bell Vista site land from the BLM, that was our plan, to build a range once we got that property,” Schinhofen said. REALLY!! That’s interesting. In the April 27 edition of the PVT the article titled “Spring Mountain moves ahead on projects”, it’s reported that Spring Mountain was set to close on 630 acres adjacent to the main facility from none other than – you guessed it – the Bureau of Land Management.

Can anyone explain how Dan Schinhofen and all the king’s men couldn’t close on 10 acres from the BLM in over 19 years while Spring Mountain Motor Resort was able to close on some 630 acres in a few years?

Nineteen years spans more than just one politician.

Perhaps the citizens of Nye County would be better served by a commissioner who is a successful business owner rather than just another politician.

Stephen Sanzari

Trash, litter on roads embarrassing to residents

I live on the north end of Pahrump as does Friday’s author of “Trash along highway on way to dump is a mess” (Donald Schieber). The trash in town is not only disgusting, it’s embarrassing to us residents. There are bags of trash just waiting to break open, or have already opened, littering our desert. As for the “Gateway to Death Valley” being tainted with all this, we agree with Richard Hamilton: Put the detainees to work for their food and housing by having them help clean up the town that’s paying for their keep.

What about the property code violations? You would never know we have any by the look of properties on Bell Vista, Barney, and Mesquite, to name a few. Unregistered broken down vehicles, RVs, buses, tractor trailers, garbage … properties overflowing with junk!

Nye County codes don’t even allow excessive weed growth on properties. Is anyone responsible for enforcing these codes? Most have children’s playthings among the litter. Does anyone care that children may be living in this filth with dozens of potential health hazards? Shouldn’t this be more of a priority than placing orange stickers on signs deemed too close to the road? How about a letter of warning to these owners that they have 30 days to clean up the mess and if there’s no improvement, follow up with a fine and then have the township clean it up and charge the owner.

Kathleen Sanzari

Reader disagrees with columnist on Social Security

Thomas Knapp in my opinion is in error, and why, is that I am a baby boomer and I have been earning an income since I was a lad delivering the newspaper in Glendale, Arizona. I have always been employed and I am a veteran from the U.S Navy, have put into the Social Security my whole life so those funds in the Social Security are mine not the U.S. government’s to use as they deem necessary. They have taken this money but have never reimbursed what they took. The government has depleted the monies in the Social Security system and so it is not the baby boomers as the cause for the funds not being available past 2035. Also the workers now have been putting into Social Security every pay period and that money is going in and it should be there when they are entitled to draw their money they worked for as long as the government pays back what they took.

Another way to stop the loss of monies available is for the workers to put in 2 to 3 percent more into Social Security, then more will be available or every employee in the USA to stop payments to Social Security and have all those monies put into a 401K and then the government can’t take it when they want some easy money!

D.J. Bellemore

Some dogs in stores are pets, not service dogs

Over the past few years, I have noticed a substantial increase in the number of dogs in the grocery stores. I can understand the need for a true service dog to be present. However, it is obvious to the observer that the majority of these pets are just that - pets - not service animals.

I was in Walmart last month and three medium-sized dogs were huddled together at the checkout and started barking. It echoed throughout the store. Last week we were in Walmart Subway and a couple had their small dog sitting in the seat, head on the table.

I noticed that Albertson’s has a notice posted in their entrance that non-service animals are prohibited. Hooray for Albertson’s for taking a stand! Are people so afraid of public opinion that they are afraid to implement company policy? What happened to health standards? What has happened to old-fashioned courtesy? Surely the majority of adults can go to the grocery store or restaurants for a short time without taking their dogs. I’m just waiting for the report that someone has suffered a dog bite and the store is involved in a lawsuit.

It’s National Stuttering Awareness Week

National Stuttering Awareness Week begins May 7, 2018. Did you know more than three million Americans stutter? That’s more than the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C. … combined.

One percent of your readers stutter, and up to five percent of children stutter for a time during their early developmental years.

In the spirit of spreading awareness, the most important thing you and your readers can do for someone who stutters - or for anyone you are speaking with - is listen. Listen to what they have to say rather than how they say it.

For more information, visit our website: StutteringHelp.org.

Jane Fraser

President, The Stuttering Foundation

Memphis, Tennessee