By Richard Howe
This question was put before the citizens of White Pine during the General Election of Nov. 2010. The response 1697 (53.16%) in favor to 1495 (46.84) against. For reasons unknown to me this stalled and a deadline passed. It is recommended that all Nevada counties under 40,000 population should look into combining services as a way to save revenues.
Just after the new year his subject began to peek my interest, so I set out on my own, not as a commission, rather as a concerned citizen of the City of Ely. I was on a mission to see exactly how the community felt. I wondered why a county of about 10,000 residents had two governmental bodies located only five blocks from each other, needed duplicate services, i.e. City Clerk, Treasurer, County Clerk, County Treasurer, City Attorney’s, County District’s Attorney, City Road Dept., County Road, Dept.
So I decided to do my own research to get an idea of just how the local business community felt, as I made my rounds I became apparent that we are ready to combine governments. Some of the responses complied from “why did this take so long, it should have been some years ago.” Another said “I’ve been preaching this for years.” Still another said “We’re too small for two separate governments.” I then asked at other residents and it became more apparent.
Try and imagine the savings that will come from this collaboration. Just the administrative alone would save thousands. Think about one Building Dept., one Parks Dept., one Road Dept., one Fire Dept., one Finance Dept. I believe these services would improve greatly in a relatively short time.
These are some of the reasons I feel would make for a more cost efficient government.
Granted there is a lot of work to do before this can happen, and yest there are logistical hurdles to over come, such as landfill, water, sewer, revenue sharing to mention a few. That is why an ad-hoc committee is being formed, to address these and other issues.
My hope is that enough citizens will join together, start a petition drive to put this question on the ballot for the General Election on Nov. 4, 2014. This will go a long way in helping the Ad-Hoc committee to know just how year feel.
There is a process that needs to be followed; first you will need to get a petition with 10% of the voters in the last General Election, based on the approximate voters you will need 350-400 qualified signatures. These questions can be addressed at the County Clerk’s office.
To answer the question as to why I didn’t ask City or County officials about these questions, I was acting as a private citizen and felt I needed to ask the citizens and the businesses so I could get an unbiased opinion.
In closing I believe this issue should be brought before all the citizens of Ely and White Pine County. Let your voice be heard on this very important issue.
Last day for petition is June 17th. Must be returned to Secretary of State by Aug. 16th to appear on ballot for 2014 General Election.
Richard I would like to ask you a few questions on what you are trying to do in dis-incorporating the City of Ely. First of all do you know that NRS: 265.110 states that only city residents can vote to dis-incorporate the city by a majority vote in a city election. White Pine County Residents have no say in the matter. If by chance the majority of the city voters decide to dis-incorporate the city I would like to know how you are going to go about dissolving the city departments. For the Fire Department are you going to get rid od the County Fire Chief or are you going to fire the City Fire Chief. Are you going to fire the Paid Ely Fireman or are you going to leave the Ely Fire Station as a paid station.
What makes you think that White Pine County can manage the City of Ely better than it has been managed now. In the past White Pine County has refused to help the City of Ely in maintaining the infrastructure in the city limits. When I was the City of Ely Street Supervisor all White Pine County would give to the City of Ely for the Street Department was $22,500 per year, that they were required under NRS: Sure the City of Ely Received monies from the RTC, but usually only the 29% of all of the monies collected from the 5 cents per gallon of gas sold in the County even though most of it is sold in the City limits.
How is White Pine County going to be able to budget the same amount of revenue for the City of Ely when White Pine County is already receiving 100% of the property taxes collected in the City now. When you dis-incorporate the City the CTX tax the city was collecting will go back to the Hospital and the County, so that means that White Pine County will only receive about half the amount the City was receiving. Will White Pine County do away with business licenses in the City if it gets dis-incorporated or will White Pine County add Business Licenses to all of White Pine County? If you remove the business license for City businesses that will be that much more revenue the County will lose and if you keep charging Ely businesses but not the rest of the County businesses you will be discriminating against Ely businesses. Does White Pine County plan on cutting even more of the services that the City Residents receive now?
White Pine County Commissioners and the Ely City Council should think twice before you decide to move forward on this, as the volunteer fireman in the County and in the City have been against merging the departments in the past. Ely moved forward to create its own ambulance service because White Pine County couldn’t provide adequate ambulance service to the City. Now that the City has a functioning ambulance service along with the fire department the County wants to come in and try and screw it up too. Leave everything the way it is now and improve on your inter-local agreements for the departments to back each other up when needed. Things will work a lot better. Every time the Politian’s get involved you just screw things up worse.
Also what is going to happen in 2015 when the net proceeds of mines goes on the ballot to divide it state wide and White Pine County Loses most of its revenue from it? It has already been stated in the paper that White Pine County budget’s about 48% of their budget from net proceeds of mines. With this loss of revenue and the cost of the 7 million dollar swimming and the cost of operating it can the County guarantee that they can meet their budget requirements without going into bankruptcy again.
The residents of the City of Ely needs to be very careful on voting for this as it will change your way of life in the City of Ely forever. Also if the City Council and County Commissioners keeps pushing for this I say we the citizens of Ely and White Pine County need to recall every one of them for office as soon as possible.
Thank You,
Rick Stork
Also Editor could you please put this in the next newspaper on April 25, 2014