Published in the High Desert Advocate’s September 20th, 2018 Edition.
Philosopher Camus wrote “Always go too far, because that’s where you will find the truth. “
White Pine County Commission Meeting
September 12, 2018
Public Comment
Mindy from the BLM reported that all but 5% of the Goshute fire is out. There is still smoke in the area. She also complimented the road department and the County medical team for all their help.
A letter from Chris McVickers was read into the record. You felt the 2-mile restriction on hunting was a little unreasonable, and felt there should be restrictions for the shooting range and other areas in the county. He also felt that the county should provide a map that indicates areas where shooting is permitted. He also felt that different weapon should have different restricted areas to shoot in.
Tina Dobrescu you wanted areas where people walk and hike to have restrictions. She felt the deer are coming down into town and populated areas, and these deer are used to humans and should not be part of the hunting.
Mr. Barber from Baker spoke about Hangar 1 and how the Commissioners seem to agree that the tenants of Hangar One should not be forced to move out. Lance Gale informed me that they were taking the medical plane that was at the Jet Center and putting it in Hangar 1.
Matt Walker representing the hospital, spoke about needing better and faster internet in this area. We have lost employees because of the lack of speed in the internet.
Bruce Gustas spoke about the hunting ordinance around Squaw Peak. He felt it should be a shooting ordinance rather than a hunting ordinance. He felt that the two miles would be a little stretching it but there needed to be some type of an ordinance.
Julie Gianoli make comments on a new ordinance for shooting. She referred to the deer as town animals. She asked for the attorney to be instructed to write an ordinance prohibiting shooting within a close proximity of any residents.
John Gianoli also made comments about the hunting. He considers it a public safety ordinance.
Brian Barnson commented on shooting bows in the backyards of residence in Ely. He stated that this is not against the law and many people do it. As far as he knows no one has ever been hit with an arrow. He stated he did not want White Pine County turned into another Tahoe.
Fire Commission
Bill Ward – The fire stations have been busy helping out the Goshute mountain area fire, for about 9 days.
For the month of August there were 3 brush fires, a total of 5 emergency medical, a total of 67 a medical emergency calls. There was a total of 81 calls for the month of August. The average time to respond 2 minutes and 22 seconds.
Public Hearings
The White Pine County Board of the Commissioners will take public comment to discuss possible applications for funding under the next fiscal years July 1, 2019 to June 30th 2020th State Community Development block grant program and to solicit citizen input on possible activities to be included in this application.
So far there has not been any public input. There is a park project around the Aquatic Center that has been discussed. In order to go ahead with this project it has to be okayed today.
The Senior Center is also a project that can be approved, this is to increase parking area and sidewalks around and improve the heating and air conditioning in the dining room, as well as the flooring in the kitchen at the Senior Center.
RNDC needs money for their housing renovations. The road department also needs to improve the area adjacent to the golf course.
Bybee “We should consider the drainage ditches in McGill.”
Caroline McIntosh “One of the things that this community needs is low income housing.”
This is the last meeting to submit new ideas, the next meeting will be the third reading and will be to prioritize order in which things are done.
The White Pine County Board of Commissioners will take public comment on its intention to lease up to 10 thousand square feet of County property south of the USDA hanger to MedEx AirOne, upon such terms and conditions as the Commission deems proper , so that MedEx AirOne can build a hanger and other Aviation facilities on the property to support its emergency transportation operation, pursuit to NRS 495. 040.
Brian Pyle “This is only to allow the county to lease property at the airport.”
It was mentioned that they shouldn’t be limited to 10,000 feet. If the County was to take the limitation off of this lease, it would have to be written again and brought back to the County another time. The 10,000 feet was what was requested from MedEx.
Lance Gale stated that this was all in the parameters of the airport and the locations of buildings were shown at the last Commission meeting.
Richard Howe
Discussion / For Possible Action : Approval to Grant the Chairman the ability to accept or reject certain offers to purchase County – owned real property.
The reason for putting this on the agenda was that Mr. Howe had received an offer that was extremely low on a piece of property owned by the County. He felt that he could have rejected it right then and there but he did not have the authority.
A motion was made and was not seconded so it remains that the whole commission must vote on the sale or rejection of any property.
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to accept or reject an offer to purchase the County-owned real property located at 1266 North 53rd West in White Pine County, Nevada for $4,500.
5/0 Tabled
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to send a letter of support or rejection to the National Register of Historical places regarding its nomination of the Lund Grade School at 30 West Center Street in Lund.
McKenzie “The building is in good condition and we would like to maintain its condition, because it is used quite a bit. It was built in 1915. The town of Lund is all for this and so is the Board of Education.”
5/0 Approved
Discussion /For Possible Action: Approval of current and / or newly elected Commissioners to attend the 2018 NACO conference in Douglas County on November 13th – 15th, 2018 and / or attend the P. O. W. E. R. I and II classes offered by UNR.
5/0 Approved
Gary Perea
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to file an appeal of Nevada State Water Engineer’s decision rejecting SNWA water permits as White Pine County as primary petitioner, specifically rejecting and challenging the engineers functional findings, and to direct Simon Herskovits to prepare and file said appeal / petition on White Pine County behalf.
This would be to mitigate against the 3M program, Monitor, management and mitigation. The feeling is that the state water engineer does not have the right to do that. Basically he’s asking for the State Legislative to give him more power.
5/0 Approved
Steven Stork
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to direct the District Attorney’s Office to revise, amend, and / or replace sections of the White Pine County Code governing business licensing.
Stork “The main reason for having the business license was to control the marijuana business. With in discussions we can limit the license to the marijuana and alcohol businesses. The licensing has caused a lot of discontent and it does not bring much revenue into the County. We need to have the District Attorney look into this and come up with ideas that would be more palatable to the citizenry.”
Perea “Another reason for having the license was to keep the numbers of businesses in the County. This can help us with grants.”
McKenzie “We need to look at fictitious names. If each business had to have a fictitious name we could keep track of everyone doing business in the County.”
It was suggested that the County let the license sunset for one year. At this point they could change the requirements for a license and would not have to refund the license payments that have already been made.
Parea suggested that instead of letting it sunset, have the license fee go down next year.
Bybee “This is just silly to me. When you consider the benefits we receive. How can we single out one business. I am just not in favor of changing anything we’ve done.”
3/2 Approved to keep the $50 rate and revisit this in January of next year. The name of votes were Howe and Bybee.
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to direct the airport manager to move to willing tenants to hanger two and make room in Hangar one to accommodate MedX AirOnes Pilatus PC12.
Stork “ It is apparent that Medx is not going to be able to get a building built prior to the winter. Since they have become the primary transport by the hospital, I think it is important that we Supply them with a place to operate out of. A couple of the tenants have stated they would be willing to move.”
Lance Gale “The contractor is going to be doing the north and south side of the taxiways . If this is the case it blocks off the east taxiway, which is the Ely jet Canter and where the American Medflight has their airplane. All of our aircraft will be moved down to the south end for about 45 days. Now we have two Medics companies wanting to use Hangar 1. We have discussed their joint use of the hanger, we don’t know if we can put both aircraft in Hangar One. This will require us to move the other two tenants who did not want to move out. The two people who are willing to move are going to move their aircraft to the Ely Jet Center.”
Howe “ What happens to American Medflight now? Do we have to choose which one goes into Hangar One?”
Gale “Yes. Our request double occupancy and that will require us to make the other two pilots move their planes.”
Mr. Barber “I have not had any discussion, because this all came up quickly in the last 4 hours when I talked to Lance about it. The last I heard was they were going to stuff the American Medflight from the Jet Center in there. There was nothing said about moving us all around. They want us to taxi on a still to be created dirt road.”
Gale “ Dan Natcher and Tom Lawrence are willing to go over to the Jet Center.”
Barber “Well you’ve had time to have a discussion with them, but with me only a few hours ago. At the last meeting the Commissioners decided it was not appropriate to make us move. Things change everyday, different reasons and different proposals.”
Stork “We’re not kicking anyone out, we’re asking people to accommodate each other for a short time, until we can get our airport reconstructed, which will benefit everybody. We have a duty to the people of White Pine County ambulance service that the hospital has contracted with and is ready and able to move. All we’re asking people to do is cooperate. We’re only asking you to move for 60 days we’re not asking you to relocate. Even if that means relocating a couple of unwilling occupants for a short time, we need to get the airport ready.”
Perea “I don’t understand why this is coming to the commission this is all should be handled by the Airport Manager.”
DA “I would agree with that but if we have unwilling Pilots it may have to come to Legal actions.”
Stork “ None of these tenants have a lease they have a month-to-month rental agreement.”
Bybee “If both planes don’t fit in that hanger, which one will be out in the cold. MedEx One has come in and wanted to take over RSVP office and they want hanger one. They’ve decided they want to be in business and it’s up to us to kick everybody’s tail out of their way. I’m not really pleased with the way they’re handling this.”
Joel, MedX “ we haven’t asked anybody to get kicked out. We wanted to get approval to build a hanger and now we have the possibility of you got done.
American Medflight was already in their hanger and they were not looking for any space. And we wanted to have some cover for the winter time. We offered to pay the rent on Hanger 2. If two of the aircraft owners from Hangar 1 were willing to move, not forced out. We offered to pay their rent if they moved into hanger 2 in a well-insulated lit building. I have never asked this board to evict anyone. I also committed to building a hanger, so this move would only be temporarily during the winter.”
Howe “How did you get an agreement with William B Ririe Hospital to be their provider? I’m sorry I asked that question.”
Joel “Now the runway project has come up and American Medflight once at hangar and the commission has no problem just giving it to them exclusively.”
Bybee “My concern is the four people in that hanger. They feel like they’re being leveraged out of there and that’s where my concern lies.”
Stork “We met with these Pilots and two of them did agree to move to a better facility rent free. This was done so they could put a plane in out of the weather. You don’t want to leave the $3,000,000 airplane out in the weather especially when you’re using it for emergency transport. It’s a real simple thing in my mind, we are facing a situation where we need to move all the airplanes to one side of our Airport. We need to make adjustments for 2 months. Are we going to make everybody happy, no. But it needs to be done if we’re going to take care of the public.”
Joel “Just to solve the problem, after the winter weather we will park outside and allow American Medflight to have the large building. I did not come into this community to count cause malcontent. Nobody we fly out will ever be billed for their flight. We operate on the behalf of the patient. That all say right now you move American Medflight into that building for the next 45 days and if we can’t fly we just can’t fly.”
MedX mechanic stated the sizes of the two aircrafts will fit into that hanger with no problem. It is common practice for members of the medical field to work together and move each other’s aircrafts around. We had seven flights out of here the other day, Reach (American), MedEx and Amaira flight team work together. The hospital did not have to wait for the airplane, the airplane were waiting for the patients. You don’t, you don’t want to be arguing about who Parks where it’s all about the patient and the safety of the patient. This is about working together as a team.
Bybee “A half an hour ago we weren’t sure if both planes would fit in there and now that I’ve been assured that they both will and the other two tenants are willing to move, I’m all for it.”
Howe “I think we’ve given authority to Lance to work things out with the other two pilots and move them into hanger 2. I don’t think there’s an agenda to vote on.”
Gale “The next airport Advisory Board meets on October 2nd and we will discuss this. The main thing to remember about this is it will be a huge Improvement to the airport. The tenants get to go into nice facilities for 45 days, rent-free.”
DA “We don’t need to vote on this. If any of the tenants don’t like or will not agree they can come before the Commission at the next meeting.”
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to adjust County Commission Liaison appointments for County Departments as necessary.
Richard Howe would like to drop the liaison position with social services and Shane Bybee will be taking it over.
5/0 Approved
Airport Manager, Lance Gale
The BLM is going to put some modular offices up on the south end of the airport next week. Mount Wheeler Power to do the electrical, lt’s already in our budget and so they’re going to do that.
5/0 Approved
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to direct the Attorney to draft an ordinance concerning hunting in close proximity of Residence Inn White Pine County.
White Pine County does have a gun ordinance, in this ordinance bows and arrows are not included. This item has been presented as a hunting regulation. The DA’s office would not be inclined to regulate hunting on a whole. People have been shooting on their own property forever here and it is not our intent to restrict someone from shooting on their own property. Any ordinance from the DA’s office will have public input. The DA’s office has to look at everything that is enforceable and constitutional. 2 miles would be very difficult to defend.
Steve Stork “It seems that’s what’s before us is an over reaction to an a single incident. But they were hunting on public land is my understanding. This is land that’s meant for multiple use hunting, hiking, biking, walking whatever you want to do. I have been told that at least one of these Property Owners has been feeding the deer. This is a problem that is created by the people living there. These animals are wild animals, they are not pets. The only way to solve this problem is by hunting. I’ve seen these incidents before, these animals start moving into town and then the mountain lions come into town, people were upset because their Landscaping was being destroyed, ultimately fish and game had to be called in to destroy several hundred animals. I cannot support any ordinance that would be more restrictive.”
Howe “I agree with some what of what Steve said, but when around a residence there needs to be some type of an ordinance set up. I think we need to come up with a number like a thousand feet around any property. Hunting is a huge part of Nevada and of course White Pine County but we do need to consider Public Safety. We need an ordinance that speaks common sense like don’t shoot towards a residence.”
Perea “ I would like to ask the Wildlife Board for their input. I feel the Sheriff needs to weigh in on this as to how this can be enforced. We need public input. There does need to be a common-sense ordinance put in place that does not restrict the hunting.”
Bybee “ I think we’ve missed a important step by not talking to the Wildlife Board. We need to encourage them to bring in the public. This is going to be a very contagious issue and the more different points of view we get the more effective we can be.”
5/0 Tabled
Gary Harrison was reappointed to the Board of Equalization. Larry Dunton also was reappointed to the Board of Equalization.
( All in all the meeting was very informative, I do think people should not feed wild animals, it damages the animal as well as your neighbor’s property when they come in to eat. I do hope any laws or ordinances pertaining to hunting or not changed much.
On the hanger 1 agenda item, I do believe that the hanger should be vacated by all the small plane owners for the better of the community. We need these airport improvements and we also are in need of our medical transportation.)
If you want your voice heard you may call any of our Commissioners, or you can leave your opinion on White Pine Talking.
Richard Howe 287-2851
Steve Stork 397-3550
Shane Bybee 289-6200
Carol McKenzie 238-5384
Gary Perea 234-7356
Sheriff’s Corner
by Sheriff Scott Henriod WPCSO
Each year I have the opportunity to apply for an Office of Traffic Safety Grant. This grant is awarded to Law Enforcement agencies throughout the state of Nevada. The grant provides agencies funding for deputies to work overtime shifts to target specific traffic problems within their communities. This year the Sheriff’s Office was awarded $23,000. dollars to proceed forth with our efforts. The new grant cycle will start October 1, 2018. The target areas that the have been identified by the Office of Traffic Safety will include occupant protection, which is the use of seat belts, including child restraints, impaired driving, DUI., distracted driving, cell phone use while driving, and speed enforcement. White Pine County and the City of Ely will benefit from this grant by having more deputies out on patrol taking care of many of the everyday traffic problems that many of our citizens have concerns about. The Sheriff’s Office has a great working relationship with the Office of Traffic Safety, which also provides free training for deputies in various classes that promote traffic safety. In October several deputies will be attending classes in Las Vegas which will consist of anatomy of motorcycle crashes, impaired driving training and traffic incident management training.
