Published in The High Desert Advocate October 4th, 2018 Edition.
Philosopher Camus wrote “Always go too far, because that’s where you will find the truth. “
White Pine County Commission Meeting
September 26, 2018
Public Comment
Warren Kirch had comments on road condition near his house and Head Start. The road is dirt and is an S curve. There have been many accidents and people going off the road in this area. His request is to have the County Road Department look into this problem and fix the road. The road department has come out and put speed limit signs up. People are not paying attention to the sign.
George had quite a few comments to make.
Discussion / First Reading of proposed Ordinance 494 allowing natural persons to designate a family cemetery on land owned by such persons for suit to NRS 451. 0 6 7.
Howe “The health department has to inspect before the first person is interned on the property. We already have several places with Family Cemetery.”
Wheable Read the ordinance and stated that zoning and Water Table would have to be looked at before a family Cemetery could be established. Anyone wanting to establish a family Cemetery would have to go to the health department and to the Commission.
Mckenzie questions if there is a size limit on the property. Wheable replied that that is one of the strange things, there is not.
McKenzie said she heard rumors that there were two children buried out in the Lund area, one is in her daughter’s front yard.
Wheable yes, we have that grandfathered in and we do not know the locations of every grave. A Rancher or farmer or a community can say let’s mark off an acre and use it as our local Cemetery.
Bybee “I would like to see a minimum of Acres the family would have to own.”
Wheable ask how many acres of owner should have. Perea stated that one acre would be enough. Mckenzie says she has one acre and feels that that would not be enough property to constitute a cemetery.
Bybee “I don’t think the cemetery should be an acre, it can be a small plot but you have to have enough property. I feel that it should be a hundred acres or better.”
Mckenzie stated that she didn’t think a hundred acres would be necessary but it did have to be far more than one acre.
Wheable “I want to make sure of the ownership of the property, because if you ever want to sell that property you’re going to have a rough time with bodies buried there. The County Commission can deny a cemetery if it is not within safety, health, comfort and Welfare of the public. These are pretty loose and there are other considerations that you cannot possibly dream up all the other situations.”
Wheable “Do you want a 10-acre minimum?”
Bybee “This would be that you had to have 10 acres in your control to put any type of a cemetery. I think I would be more comfortable with 30 or 40 acres.”
Wheable “We haven’t had any requests in a number of years. People may have been doing it without permission.”
( I believe this is one item that the public should have some say-so in and you need to make your comments to any of the commissioners.)
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 $4,000.
Howe “I was informed that a property that the County owns had received a bid. The property is valued at $44,000. Mr Holdaway has made an offer of $4,000. It is the commissioners authority to accept or reject the $4,000 offered.”
Paul Holdaway “The appraisal says there is water and a septic tank, neither of which exist. 20 acres of this 40 acres is on Mountainside. 10% is on a slope. This is been through to County auctions and no one made an offer on it. It was a landfill and basically a junkyard is the reason that the offer is what it is. I don’t think you could ever build anything on it. It would cost $30,000 to put a well in, $8,000 for a septic, the power would be $2,000 to get up there and there is 2600 ft easement from the BLM. It says 40 acres but there is not 40 acres of usable land there.
Howe “We are the Stewart’s of the County’s money. We did get an appraisal of $44,000. To receive an offer for 1/10 of the appraisal, are we really doing the County Justice to accept this proposal?”
Holdaway “The appraisal says it’s worth this much with a well and septic. There is no well and septic. You have to go 340 feet down to get water.”
Wheable “ I’m just wondering if the appraiser took in account that it was a former landfill.”
Bybee “I am of the opinion that we need to just get rid of it. That is a liability out there and if he’s willing to accept the liability. The appraisal does say with well and septic and if there is none, we need to get rid of the property. As it sits right now, I’m glad he came to take us off the hook.”
Howe “But it’s 40 acres.”
Holdaway “But it’s not 40 acres of usable land.”
Mckenzie “Can I ask you why you want to buy this?”
Holdaway “I do a lot of scrapping and for my business this would be very useful. In 2014 I shipped more than 900 tons of scrap, 2018 – 2200 tons.”
Stork “It’s unfortunate that the appraisal came back with the numbers it did, because the numbers are out of line. I’m not an appraiser, that was the cost of putting water and sewer on that land you’re going to be well over $40,000. You look at the history of that property, it would be good to get it off of our plate and get it on the tax rolls”
Wheable “The public is aware of the appraisal and now they’ve heard the reasons why it may not be an accurate number. The decision is up to the Commission to accept whatever”
Bybee “When I was young it was the city dump. And every now and then they would douse it with gasoline and burn it.”
Stork “Is that property zone for industrial work?”
Holdaway “No. That’s part of my proposal. My offer is contingent on rezoning. I will pay for the rezoning cost.”
5/0 Approved
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to set the regular Commission Meeting schedule for the month of November, December 2018 and January 2019.
November can remain the same – 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. The meetings for December, will be the first meeting on the 12th and the second meeting will be cancelled. The January meeting will be the second of January and will be the swearing in of the new Commissioners.
5/0 Approved
Discussion only about changing the Five County Commission seats from at large to by District Precinct and mandating a minimum number of Commissioners coming from unincorporated parts of the county allowing for equal representation on the board.
McKenzie “ I’ve been thinking about this and I feel we need to have at least two board members that are outside the limits of the City of Ely. I don’t know if we have to set it up by Precinct. I just feel that people outside the City of Ely need to have representation as well. We always seem to have this issue between the City and the County as to who’s representing who. I just feel it would be more conducive to people if there was a set amount of Commissioners that had to be from outside the City limits.”
Wheable “It would have to be done by Precinct. You could make it three precincts and the City of Ely. This would have to be something that was put on the ballot.”
Perea “Would we have to look every 10 years at the number of people in each Precinct?”
Wheable “No. You would just have to win the majority of votes in that Precinct.”
Perea “Similar to what Mount Wheeler has.”
Stork “ I disagree, people put this process in place and going back in history in 2012 this board was made up of two or three from the County not the City.”
Howe “We are not getting a lot of people running for these offices. What if nobody in the outlying areas steps up to take these offices? I believe that if we put it to precincts we may not get any candidates at all.”
Perea “It works for Mt Wheeler, because they have a larger area they cover. I just don’t know that it would work for us. If ever the city decided to unincorporate that would be the time to look at this again.”
( This is another items that I do feel the citizens of the whole County need to look at and make suggestions and comments to our commissioners)
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to extend the moratorium on marijuana establishments in White Pine County for an additional 60 days to discuss the compact with Ely Shoshone Tribe on cannabis.
Wheable “ It is getting close to the end of the 60-day moratorium that we had put on there and I have not heard from the Ely Shoshone Tribe.”
Howe “If they have not communicated, I feel we should lift the moratorium and look at other prospects”
Wheable “ If there is no motion to extend, then it will just sunset at the date set prior to this.”
No motion was made, so the moratorium dates remains the same of about October 12.
The County Clerk’s office was given permission to close at 5 p.m. on October 15th through 16th. Normally they would stay open until 7 for last-minute registration to vote. But the NRS does allow them to close early because of the low population in White Pine County.
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approve the request from the Chairman of the White Pine County Board of Public Health to appoint Yum Namkung, M.D. as a Deputy Health Officer pursuant to White Pine County Ordinance 465 and to set his compensation.
5/0 Approved
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval of the Airport improvement Project Supplemental funding Grant offer in the amount of $4,969,969.00.
5/0 Approved
Gale did announce that he will be in Washington DC to represent the County about this and officially receive this.
Discussion / For Possible Action: Ratification of the internal recruitment for the upcoming vacancy in the Clerk’s Office for a Deputy Court elections Clerk due to the retirement of an employee.
5/0 to advertise internally to replace One employee in the clerk’s office who will be retiring next month.
A raise increase of 3% was given to the exempt employees, with the exception of any employee on probation. Anyone on probation will receive this increase upon the end of their probation.
4/1 Approved Bybee was the one nay vote.
You may contact any of the Commissioners with your concern on this agenda and you may feel free to comment on White Pine Talking
Richard Howe 287-2851
Steve Stork 397-3550
Shane Bybee 289-6200
Carol McKenzie 238-5384
Gary Perea 234-7356
Richard Howe 287-2851
Steve Stork 397-3550
Shane Bybee 289-6200
Carol McKenzie 238-5384
Gary Perea 234-7356
Ely City Council
September 27, 2018
( Ernie Flangas absent)
Public Comment
1. The owner of 1600 Avenue F wrote a letter concerning the closure of a street by NDOT, his concern is that people will be using his street as a turnaround for Avenue G. His building contain several offices and this would be a problem for all of them. – John McCarty
2. Another letter was read concerning the City Utilities. This person felt that anyone in the County using City Utilities should become part of the City. The City should have an ordinance that only residents of the City can connect to City Utilities. The growth of the County is hindering the growth of the City. – Dale Derbidge
3. There was a letter concerning Sagebrush Texaco station that will be impacted by the closure of the street by NDOT.- Sagebrush Texaco
4. Julie Spear – Is very concerned about raising the licensing fee for animals. Julie is a licensed dog breeder and trainer. I don’t feel raising the fee to $100 is responsible for people who do not want their animals spayed or neutered. These owners usually are ones that take care of their animals than they’re not usually running the streets. The ones that are caught running the streets should have their impound charges higher. There are a lot more cats running the streets than dogs, so have the cats licensed. I do feel that there should be a higher charge for non0 spayed or neutered animals. Charge $10 for spayed or neutered animals and $25 for non spayed or neutered animals. Please reconsider this action.
5. Mr. Robertson, owner of the laundromat on Avenue F, I am opposed to this action by NDOT. It will drastically interfere with my business down there. People who are turning around are using private property. It is the bad intersection, but there has to be a better way to handle this.
6. Mr. Parker I’ve been looking at some property out on Lackawanna close to the landfill, that was listed for sale by Keller Williams for $109,000 and I heard today somebody on the City Council accepted the bid for $4,000. This property is 40 acres. So I didn’t even get a chance to put in the bid. ( it is County property not the Cities property and the bid was accepted yesterday at the Commission meeting.)
7. The owner of 1539 Avenue F states the closure of Avenue F would be to the advantage of nobody. It has many businesses and as the street is now, there are plenty of problems, but if that street is closed there will be many more.
8. Alan Wise also commented on the closure of Avenue F and was opposed to the closure. Allen also had a complain about the landfill, there were brand-new reels of barb wire that could be used by the City or someone else in the scrap pile.
9. George also had comments on the dog licensing fees, he also feels that the cat license needs to be addressed. He also had several other items he wanted to point out to the City Council.
( I feel this is great that there are so many people interested in what goes on in the City. The more comments and interest the better this will make the City.
The City Council approved the proclamation declaring the week of October 23rd through the 31st as Red Ribbon Week, the County Commission approved this also. This Proclamation is to make White Pine County and Ely drug free.
Department reports
Fire department report
Medical transports – 23
Non transport -2
Jail welfare check – 2
Special events standby – 5
Co alarm track – 1
Lift assist – 1
34 Total Calls
Police Chief
An update on the new courthouse and jail extension, the architect has been hired and the construction company which is Core Construction. Right now we are doing consensual plans to meet our budget.
Ely Municipal Court
Statistics for the month of August 2018
Public Order – 3
DUI – 3
Other Misdemeanors – 1
Parking – 1
Crimes Against Persons – 3
Domestic Violence – 2
Protective Order Violations – 1
Crimes Against Property – 4
Public Order – 3
Motor Vehicle DUI – 7
Traffic – 35
Parking – 1
72 – Hour Hearings – 1
Arraignment Hearings – 11
Sentencing Hearings – 28
Judge Coster -We have been doing training which includes confidentiality and reaching out to the public. We have received some compliments on our phone service.
City Administrator
Last week we had a workshop for a safe and sober work place. Many of our employees did attend.
Animal Control August report
Ely County
Cats impounded. 1 4
Dogs impounded 10 9
Cats euthanized 1 0
Dog bites 2
Fees Collected $395.00 $480.00
Discussion / For Possible Action: Acceptance of the Animal Control Advisory Board prioritize goals and priorities.
1. Start a feral cat program
2. Established volunteer program
3. Revamping of the animal control website
4. Programming for the computer
5. Renovation of the Animal Control building
6. Dieter programs
4/0 Approved
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval to implement any or all of the following revenue-generating policies for animal control: – 1.) Electronic or paper reminders when the dog license expires, 2) requirement that local veterinarians provide to the City of Ely, on a monthly basis, a list of owners who have had their dogs vaccinated for rabies, so that the licensing notices can be sent to them and 3) an increased license fee for unspayed or unneutered dogs of $100, unless the owner possesses a Breeder’s license.
Odgers stated that there are no vets in the City so we cannot direct them to give us reports.
The County would have to get involved.
Kay McMurry “ This would be a volunteer sending out the notices and they will have no direct contact with the pet owner, so there should not be a problem.”
DeFelice “Can’t we access the Vets database?”
Odgers “ Do you say “Hey I want to look at your files”. I don’t believe we have the legal authority to do that.”
Mayor VanCamp “What is this about the increase of license fees?”
Murray “ I think it was because we want to teach pet owners to be more responsible. When you don’t spay or neuter your animal it causes more animals to be in the shelter and more animals to be euthanized. Quite frankly it’s $60 to spay or neuter your pet, it doesn’t cost that much.”
4/0 Approved all three items
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval for Animal Control Officer, Andrew Hayes, to attend Saving Nevada’s Pets conference October 25th thru 26th 2018 in Reno, Nevada as Humane Networks guest; Humane Networks will cover travel expensive hotel.
4/0 Approved
Discussion / For Possible Action: Authorization for the Mayor to sign water pipeline right-of-way. Assignor Consent from the BLM application, transferring Mineral Heights water pipeline right of away from Robinson Nevada Mining Company to the City of Ely.
4/0 Approved
Discussion / For Possible Action: Directions to the City staff and the Council landfill Liaison to meet with Paul Holdaway of 0utwest Escalation regarding whether to continue the metal recycling contract or renegotiate the contract terms, pursuit to article III Section 3. 0.
4/0 Approved
New Business
City Engineer Almberg – NDOT Ely District Engineer Steve Baer – Directions /For Possible Action – Concurrence with NDOT’s intent to close Avenue F extension, located at E. 15th Street across from Sagebrush Texaco as part of the NDOT project to bring the intersection at Aultman /East 15th Street up to current standards.
Baer “Because of speed, there have been a number of accidents at that intersection. The layout of the intersection is confusing to motorist. If you driven there you know there is a caution sign and then a stop sign right after it. It has been proposed that we close off that leg of Avenue F to improve safety and I don’t know if we have NRS is that would support that or not. If you feel you want to keep it open that is your perogative. The improvements would be taking place on City right away. If you want to go forward with the project it would all be paid for by NDOT.”
Mayor VanCamp “We have heard concerns from many businesses on that Avenue.”
Odgers “The reason this is put on there, is to get public comment. The state does have the right to shut it down.”
Hansen “ I would like to know if there are any alternative”
The question was asked as to how many accidents have been on that corner. Reply was in the last 3 months there have been two accidents.
The County side roads representing 15th Street which are approximately perpendicular from Aultman Street are permitted approaches. The approach which runs diagonally into the intersection is not permitted and therefore considered illegal. In our access management and system standards manual under Section 2-3-2 access violations and state in coordinates with the provisions of NRS 408. 210, the department, may remove, or install barriers across any illegal access. Any access that is not permitted. Any person, except at a permitted access, may be in violation of NRS 408.423. All Points of access including grandfathered access are required to be permitted.
Steve Baer
One suggestion was made to make Avenue F a one-way Street in this location, and to have it one way heading east.
Further discussion is needed on this item, if you have an opinion please let your Council member know.
Discussion / For Possible Action: Extension of temporary Conditional Special-use Permit to the Ely Shoshone Tribe to operate a cannabis cultivation facility at 16 Shoshone Circle, Ely, Nevada pending completion of their transfer to trust land or issue of license by Nevada Department of Taxation.
Odgers stated that the state and the tribe are at loggerheads as to whether they can issue a license on tribal land, so that this may take quite a while.
4/0 Approved of the extension of a temporary permit.
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approval of first reading of Ordinance 715, bill No. 2018 – 08, in ordinance establishing the City of Ely’s recreational marijuana rules, setting fees and Zoning requirements.
The ordinance is 32 pages long. One of the provisions is that the City can only have one establishment until the point in time when the City has more than 20,000 people.
Both recreational and medical marijuana could be sold at the same location. The difference being if you have a medical marijuana card your price would be cheaper than recreational.
3/1 approval of the first reading. Carson abstained.
It was agreed to send the letter to the Department of Taxation with the intent to pass Ordinance 715, limiting Recreation Marijuana licensing to those that have medical marijuana license and limiting the number of recreational dispensary within the Incorporated limits of the City of Ely to one until the population exceeds 20,000.
A Proclamation was made designating October 7th through the 13th as Fire Protection week in the City of Ely.
Discussion / For Possible Action: Approved to send offer of settlement to S&S Shortline.
The Board of Directors for the Railroad have come up with a offer to make to the Short Line Railroad. S&S Shortline would write off any maintenance they have done and we would write off any money they owe us. This eliminates anyone suing. S&S would have to leave the line in 30 days.
Odgers “Even if we win the lawsuit there’s always a chance of appeal then there’s also a chance of bankruptcy. I feel this is worth the shot, but it’s up to you”
DeFelice “ I feel they have a very weak position and that we will give up a lot to do this.”
Van Camp “This is useless, they’re going to say no.”
Gardner “This is just got to end!”
Odgers “If this goes to jury trial it could be up to 2 years.”
4/0 Approved
Discussion / For Possible Action: Appointment of Melvin Bahls and Bruce Setterstrom as volunteer workers with the City Administrator as the compliance officer for the City.
These two gentlemen came forward to the City to offer their services because of the amount of weeds and debris in yards. These two gentlemen would go out, take the pictures and do the paperwork and do the follow-up. All of the legal work would be done by the City Attorney.
One lady commented that she has gone out, taking pictures and turned reports into the City and she does not get much of a response. She gets a faster response if she calls the Sheriff’s Department. What takes Bob months to accomplish the Sheriff has it done immediately. The Sheriff office also checks up on the cleanup process.
Carson “ I don’t think this is a bad idea, but before we allows volunteer we need to set up some guidelines.”
4/0 Tabled
( I have had the opportunity to walk most streets in Ely and the alleyways. I am quite surprised that portions of this town have not burnt to the ground. I do agree with Carson’s that there needs to be some guidelines and different ways to communicate with the citizens of Ely. One thing that might work is to have a hotline for people who want to complain as well as people who have a yard problem and need assistance. There may be volunteers who want to help clean up property. If my neighbor’s house was a junk pile, I think I might go over and help them unload some of their junk. But I do feel that a phone line that would help people and not forget to return their calls would be very helpful.)
Discussion /For Possible Action: Direct the City Attorney to draft an amendment to the Ely City Code 1-6-1 (E) to increase City Treasurer salary range.
DeFelice wanted to discuss this but have it table. The asking offer is too low to get a qualified person in here to do the work.
Any items in this report can be commented on White Pine Talking, or council member.
Ernie Flangas 289-9053
Kurt Carson 289-3718
Tony DeFelice 702-686-9282
Jolene Gardner 289-6245
Sam Hansen 289-2638
