January 3, 2008
2007: Year in Review

By Dave Maxwell

A look back at some of the major news story events for Lincoln County in 2007 will focus on selected events that took place in individual months. Admittedly, some stories may be overlooked.

January
Ronda Hornbeck accepted a two-year term as Chairman of the Lincoln County Commission during their first semi-annual meeting of the year. Mrs. Hornbeck had previously served as Vice-Chairman under Tommy Rowe. Wade Poulsen was selected as Vice-Chairman for the next two years. Rowe continued as a Commissioner.

At the same meeting, Commissioner Spencer Hafen resigned his seat citing conflicts between his position on the Commission and his full time job as a land surveyor. His job involved work at Coyote Springs and with the Lincoln County Land Act. Paul Mathews of Panaca was appointed in March by Governor Jim Gibbons to fill the seat vacated by Hafen.

February
Harold Minick, the mail truck driver, from Las Vegas to Lincoln County, was honored as “Driver of the Year” by the Las Vegas office of the United States Postal Service. Minick has been driving the mail truck for Holton Trucking the past 18 years.

The Lincoln County Detention Center added 24 more beds to their facility, bringing its capacity to 100 inmates. Most inmates are referred by Clark County, but some are sent by the U.S. Marshall’s service. The Center brings in over $100,000 a month for the County.

March
The City of Caliente offered to sell the electrical system which is owned and operated by the City. The matter became a very hot issue among city residents and was put on a ballot for a special city election in June.

Lincoln County Power Board and Coyote Springs Investments wrestled for a time over a question of nearly $300,000 in bills for unpaid services. The Power District even considered shutting off electric service to Coyote until the bills were paid. Coyote Springs Vice-President of Community Development, Doug Carriger, said the matter was “just a matter of misunderstanding” between Coyote Springs, LC Power and Pardee Homes. The matter was later resolved quietly.

Steel Tech Industrial Corporation of Corona, California announced their intent to buy 24 acres in the Alamo Industrial plant for the purpose of constructing a manufacturing plant. Steel Tech CEO, Mike Black, said the 126,000 square foot plant would be for steel materials construction with 5,000 additional square feet for office space. However, by the end of 2007, problems in getting electric power to the Industrial site had delayed Steel Tech from breaking ground on construction. County Commissioner, Wade Poulsen of Alamo, said Steel Tech remains committed to building the plant at the Industrial Park.

June
The question of whether the City of Caliente would continue to operate the Caliente Electric Utility or turn it over to a private entity was put before the city voters. The measure was turned down in the special election by a wide margin, leaving the City as the operators.

Lincoln County Therapy opened a new physical therapy clinic and fitness center in Caliente. Dr. Lane Truman and Sam Moore are the therapists. The 2100 square-foot facility has four private treatment rooms and a spacious gym area. Lincoln County Physical Therapy also has a facility in Alamo.

July
Bredero-Shaw, a global wide pipe coating manufacturing firm located in Houston, Texas, presented a letter of intent to the Caliente City Council to lease 62-acres in the Meadow Valley Industrial Park on which to build a manufacturing plant. The company manufactures and supplies coatings for pipes used in oil, water and gas lines. Given that Southern Nevada Water Authority expected to put out bids in 2008 for building the water pipeline from White Pine County to Las Vegas, Bredero-Shaw thought Caliente would be a key location for a manufacturing plant.

The plant would consist of two buildings, one of 27,000 square feet and the other about 18,000 square feet. A 6,000-foot long double track rail spur off the Union Pacific line into the plant would also need to be constructed. A new power substation at the Antelope site that can handle a 138KV load will have to be built in order the handle the power needed by the plant. Bredero Shaw officials said they would probably need about 5 megawatts of electricity. Lincoln County Power Manager, Mick Lloyd, said 5 megawatts is about entire amount of electricity used in the Pahranagat Valley/Hiko area. The Council accepted Bredero-Shaw’s letter of intent and gave them the right of first refusal thereafter.

Norcal Waste Systems proposed an idea to offer curbside service in certain areas of the county in lieu of requesting a rate hike for 2008. The matter was discussed during the summer and wasn’t really settled until October.

Several members of the Lincoln County and Alamo High School Rodeo Clubs attended the National High School Rodeo Finals in Springfield, Illinois, July 22-28. Nevada State steer wrestling champion, Dude McCarty of Alamo, finished in 8th place in the final standings of the steer wrestling competition at Nationals.

August
Panaca was rattled by an earthquake on August 5. The quake, which occurred at 10:59 pm, measured 4.1 on the Richter scale. The U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Center reported the epicenter was about 14 miles north northeast of town and about three miles underground. There was no significant damage but it was enough to cause pictures to fall off the wall, items to fall off tables, and hanging light fixtures to sway.

The new Alamo Clinic opened this month. The facility, which is located only about 50 yards west of the previous one is about twice the size of the smaller building. The new building includes three exam rooms, one procedure room, a nurse’s station, a larger waiting lobby, spacious front office and a room to house an X-ray unit. Brian Stark was hired during the summer be the full-time PA at the clinic. On December 31 the Clinic added Monday to its existing Tuesday and Thursday schedule.

Attorneys Dylan Frehner and John Brown opened the law firm Brown-Frehner, LLP, in Lincoln County this month. Brown, 33, and Frehner, 31, work in both local county government and in private practice. Brown serves as legal counsel to the City of Caliente and Frehner, a 1987 graduate of Lincoln County High School, is part-time General Director of the Lincoln County Water Board.

At first, the two operated out of Brown’s home-based office in Alamo. Later in the year Frehner opened a branch office in Pioche and Brown leased the building that had been the old Alamo Clinic.

September
Nevada Governor, Jim Gibbons, made a visit to Caliente and toured the Caliente Youth Center facilities. He met with faculty and staff, toured classrooms and living quarters and spoke to members of the student body in the cafeteria. He also viewed the damage done to the Clover Creek Wash Bridge by the 2005 flash floods. The Governor also made a short speech at a meeting of the Nevada Homeland Security Committee, which was meeting in Caliente that day.

Conceptual plans of four new, or upgraded, city parks in Caliente were revealed at a City Council meeting. Sunrise Engineering of Fillmore, Utah is the company planning the parks. This year the City received over $8 million in grant money from Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act. Plans call for expanding Super Park to include a regulation Little League field and a new basketball court at the east end. Dixon Park will get two new softball fields, new announcers’ booth, concession stand and stadium lights for playing night games. Plans are to include a skateboard park. Railroad Linear Park will run from Spring Street along the tree line on U.S. Highway 93 to where the Kershaw-Ryan road connects with the highway.

October
Lincoln County Power raised rates to both residential and commercial customers by an average of 8.3 percent. It was the first rate increase since 2004. Rates for residential customers were expected to increase between four to five dollars per month and a bit more in winter months. Small commercial customers expected to have rates raised from $6 to $7 per month.

Sithe Global Power’s proposed 750-megawatt coal-fired power plant was a topic of interest before Lincoln County Commissioners. The facility which is planned to be built about 12 miles northwest of Mesquite, is entering the last segment of the Bureau of Land Management planning process. The process involves responding to recently gathered public comment, preparing the final environmental impact statement (EIS) and a record of decision. According to the BLM website on the Toquop energy project, the time frame for the last part of BLM’s planning process is January-April, 2008. BLM, the lead federal agency for the Toquop project, has final approval of the rights-of-way for the project. Thomas Johns, Senior Vice President of Sithe Global, appeared before the Commissioners in October and stated that the EIS would be available for public review and comment through December 11, 2007.

Local, state and federal opposition to the Toquop Power Plant has come most notably from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., because of his belief that coal-fired power generation contributes to global warming.

Norcal Waste Systems was allowed a 15 percent increase in customer rates for garbage collection around the county. Norcal had requested a 30 percent increase after being turned down on their proposal to offer curbside service in some areas in lieu of a rate increase.

Robison/Seidler and Resource Concepts presented the environmental impact statement draft to the Lincoln County Commissioners concerning possible alternative routes for the Caliente Corridor Rail Line. Two alternate routes were selected called the Cottontail and Short Routes. The Department of Energy plans to transport about 77 metric tons of spent nuclear waste to the planned disposal site at Yucca Mountain on rail lines that will cross through Lincoln County. However, in December, when Congress passed the $555 billion appropriations bill, the DOE was given a 22 percent reduction in funding for the planned Yucca Mountain project, prompting Senator Jon Ensign of Nevada to claim that Yucca Mountain “is doomed.”

A new countywide addressing system from the County Planning Department was approved by County Commissioners. The plan calls for every structure in the county, primarily homes and dwelling units, to be given a number. County Planning Director, Clint Wertz, explained that this would increase the efficiency of the Emergency 911 system dispatch by improving the accuracy of the display of a physical location and name of call origination and allow emergency services to be dispatched more efficiently. Wertz said that early in 2008 numbers will be assigned. Where possible, he said, street names will remain the same, but many numbers, house numbers included, will change.

November
A crowd of nearly 200 irate county citizens protested a proposed County ordinance during a public hearing at the Lincoln County Courthouse. The crowd was too large and had to be moved outdoors to the Courthouse lawn. The protest was over an ordinance which restricted the use of recreational vehicles and shipping/storage containers in the County. After listening to the concerns of many citizens, Commissioners withdrew the ordinance.

Lincoln County Power District decided they would sell $53 million in bonds to help fund the development of new transmission lines for projects within the County. At present, the District is not able to support the significant growth expected within their service area including Coyote Springs, Toquop, the Alamo Industrial Park and the Bredero-Shaw plant in Caliente.

Sealed bids from six contractors for the Alamo Town Project were opened. All were nearly $1.5 million over the amount of SNPLMA grant money the Town Board had available for the project. County Grant Administrator, Phyllis Robistow, said the project will have to be reexamined. By the end of the year, discussion had centered on having two contractors instead of just one do the projects with certain changes being made.

December
Jan Cole, owner of the Caliente Hot Springs Motel, presented to the Caliente City Council a proposal to annex land out to the Eccles railroad siding with the intention of making that land available to the Department of Energy for the staging ground for trains planning to carry nuclear waste to the Yucca Mountain repository. She said that would eliminate the DOE from needing to come into the center of the City for a staging area.

The Pioche Town Board selected Loomis Engineering of Reno to be the company to design and build the upgrades for the Pioche Upper Park project. Pioche received a large SNPLMA grant for the project.

County Commissioners approved a plan to create a countywide fire district to provide coverage in county areas lacking service by local fire districts. The process will take about one year to establish. After that time, people living in the areas outside local jurisdictions will be asked to pay a fire tax for the service.

County Commissioners learned that the $2.3 million grant from the Economic Development Authority for use at the Alamo Industrial Park does not apply to bringing electric power to the Park, only for building infrastructure within the 228-acres of Parcel A. As the year concluded the question remained of who was to pay for getting the power lines to the park, the County or Lincoln County Power/Alamo Power?