I’m not sure what it is going to take for residents in Nye County and Pahrump to realize that the quality of life here is in a terrifying downward spiral.
On Wednesday, the financially struggling Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah dropped a bombshell that it would be closing its emergency room today (Friday) and its health clinic on Sept. 4. Unless another operator steps in to take over this money-troubled facility in a town of 2,500 (and dropping), those residents will have to travel at least 94 miles to Kingston or Beatty for basic health care.
However, the health clinic in Beatty is also in flux because the county, who is having its own increasing financial problems, had to cut $312,000 in subsidies to the clinics there and in Amargosa for the current budget, which started July 1.
CEO Wayne Allen said Wednesday that the Tonopah hospital could no longer be sustained “with expenses greater than revenues.” Allen came in with Prime Care Nevada after the hospital restructured its finances through bankruptcy last year. Even $2 million in loans from the county, which had pledged another $500,000 before Wednesday’s announcement, was not enough to keep the medical facility open.
Less than two months into the new fiscal year, the county is already projecting a $400,000 general fund budget shortfall. Funding to the animal shelter and senior nutrition has already been cut, along with other cuts to emergency services and the police.
County officials are now researching the legality of cutting $270,000 in funding to the county’s health clinics in Pahrump and Tonopah, where both administrators have resigned for job offers elsewhere anyway. The county is also eyeing $65,000 set aside for veterans’ services, that the state has already taken over. The District Attorney’s office is also researching the possibility of cutting funding to the Pahrump Valley Museum and the Central Nevada Museum in Tonopah. The University of Nevada’s Cooperative Extension, which was cut by $50,000 earlier this year, and may be cut completely.
If those cuts don’t happen now, the question being if they can be defunded during the funding cycle, they will most definitely happen by the start of next July.
The county’s general fund budget, which pays for day-to-day operations, is already down significantly from years prior. And since many vocal residents don’t seem to want to pay anything more than what they already pay for services, the situation in Nye County will only continue to get worse.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a proposal being discussed by the County Commission to raise the county gas tax for the first time in 30 years from 4 cents per gallon to 9 cents. Five cents more per gallon to address the county’s quickly deteriorating road infrastructure. Many readers blasted me, even though most counties have the higher gas tax already, and pay a lot more at the pump than we do here in Pahrump.
I guess people think the roads are going to pay to pave themselves.
And it’s not just dollars that are disappearing. As mentioned above, two people working for the county in the health clinics left for jobs elsewhere. In the past two weeks, Tonopah Town Manager James Eason, County Geoscience Manager Levi Kryder, and Nye County School Board Trustee Robert Mobley all resigned, citing job opportunities outside the county and state.
There have also been other recent departures from the county’s administrative office. And I don’t even have time to discuss the funding concerns with the Nye County School District.
I hear from many people here in Pahrump that they just want to be left alone with no government interference.
But that may come because the government doesn’t have the money to keep citizens safe or the people to respond to any call.
Arnold M. Knightly is the editor of the Pahrump Valley Times