Town and school candidates face off

Hopefuls talk about community, education

The crowd had diminished by the time the Pahrump Town Board and Nye County School Board candidates took their seats at the Aug. 15 Pahrump Democratic Club debate. But some of those candidates said their message was just as important as county sheriff's candidates, county commission candidates, district judge candidates and others who took the microphone earlier in the evening.

Seven of the 10 town board candidates and six of the 12 school board candidates in contested races appeared at the candidates forum.

Town board candidate Charlotte LeVar, a town board member from 1995-99, emphasized her concern for water. She wants to publish results of Pahrump water testing in the newspapers. LeVar took credit for installing a well at Honeysuckle Park that saved the town $1,200 a month and opposing the takeover of the Calvada Recreation Center that would've cost the town $50,000.

"I will work for you and not special interest groups," LeVar said. "Now that I am retired I have more time to work for you."

Town board chairwoman Mary Wilson said in 1998 the town board needed to take control of its growth.

"We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel," Wilson said. "If we don't plan ahead, then the problems of the past three years will seem like nothing compared to the problems of the future."

Wilson said she founded the Pahrump Nuclear Waste and Environmental Advisory Board and said the Pahrump Economic Development Advisory Board was stagnating when she took office. Wilson said it takes about a year for a new board member to understand the current policies and how things work in the town.

Jeanna Howard said she's been a Pahrump resident for seven years.

"Since I've been here, I've been blessed at securing $340,000 in grants," Howard said. She described The Care Program, which provides respite care for people with disabilities. Howard said she's been operating the program without compensation.

Howard also put on public hearings for the Pahrump hospital project. But instead of making promises of what she would do if elected, Howard said, "My own goal is to do what I am told by the community."

Richard Billman said he moved to Pahrump six years ago, but still commutes to work at a collection agency in Las Vegas.

"I'm anxious to see people get employment in Pahrump so other people don't have to go in (to Las Vegas)," Billman said. He added, "I will keep a tight rein on our money. That's the chief job of the Pahrump Town Board."

Bob Cochrane said, "This is where good government starts."

"Two things I'll promise you -- you will know I'm here and you will know I did the best job that I could," were Cochrane's only prepared remarks.

Chuck Taylor, a 30-year Air Force veteran and 26-year firefighter, said many in the audience know him from his fights with the town board over the last four years. Taylor said residents should be outraged the town manager consolidated fire stations into one station serving 350 square miles.

Taylor expressed concern over the abduction of children. He said veterans should get involved by placing an arrow on their homes to show children it's a safe place to seek refuge.

"I want to clean out the town board and I'm going to clean out the town hall," Taylor said. "Some of the people in there are so arrogant."

While different candidates volunteered their opinions on different topics, candidate Don Schibi told the audience, "Everybody up here wants the same things: growth for the town, watch where the money goes, get what we can for our kids and our senior citizens."

Schibi said nobody likes Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository, but the town should get what it can out of it.

The three questions posed to the town board candidates concerned fighting graffiti, incorporation and the need for a town airport. The graffiti question was touched on lightly.

Wilson said her opinion on incorporation is irrelevant since it was voted down three times before. Billman concurred, saying the issue has been voted down election after election. Schibi said incorporation may have been a good idea before 1995. Taylor answered the question by saying the town should begin planning in case the federal government mandates a municipal water and sewer system. LeVar said if the town could afford incorporation, the people would vote for it.

Cochrane said incorporation "is a sure way to the poor house." Howard said, "Whatever the public decides has a bearing on me."

When it came to an airport, Wilson said the town needs to begin planning now. "If we don't set aside and plan now, there's going to be some of you that are going to have homes next to something you don't want to," she said.

Schibi said in his former home city of Cincinnati, the airport was in Kentucky. Pahrump doesn't need an airport either. LeVar said town residents already complain about dust, an airport would add noise. Cochrane said he's for the airport study, which is paid for by grants, saying, "If you're going to have a master plan, this has to be included in that."

Again Howard left it up to her constituents saying, "Airport, don't care for it; it's up to you." Billman said it doesn't cost anything to study an airport proposal.

All the candidates voiced support for a skateboard park and said they didn't have much of a role in attracting a hospital to Pahrump.

When it came to school board candidates, the last group of three dozen candidates to take the microphone, the crowd dwindled down to about 30 people. Area Five candidate Dawn Murphy said schools are the most important fundamental thing for the community. Murphy said she is the mother of four school children and fought to get lockers installed at Rosemary Clarke Middle School.

Murphy pledged, "If I don't know something, I will find out."

Her opponent, Conrad Menconi, said he was a retired teacher, principal and superintendent in California, but admitted he can only form one-seventh of the board. Menconi said what upsets him is money that isn't spent on kids in the $60 million school district budget. He also complained about money being spent on schools "out in the sticks."

"I want to know where the rest of the money is going," Menconi said. "There's a leak somewhere.

"Teachers are underpaid. Teachers are more important than doctors," he said. "We want to make this district a key district so other teachers will want to come here."

Menconi said in the past, weak superintendents haven't put pressure on principals to implement curriculum guides that spell out what's expected of children. He criticized the system of site-based management as setting up each school as its own district.

Area 6 candidate Jewell Burton-Avery said input from the public is needed on how to get the most from school revenues. Burton-Avery said she talked to a voter who wouldn't mind paying increased taxes if he knew where every cent went.

"The principals feed us what they want us to know about the teachers. Is that really true?" Burton-Avery, a former school teacher, asked.

Burton-Avery said the school district is doing some things right as evidenced by the Pahrump Valley High School class of 2002 -- 43 percent took advantage of Nevada Millennium scholarships; 20 percent were on the honor roll and 60 percent went on to secondary education -- but there was also a 4.8 percent dropout rate.

"We need our business people, our community behind us all the way," Burton-Avery said.

Fellow Area 6 candidate Joyce Smith-Call said she worked for the Utah Department of Rehabilitation, testing children and placing them in the right programs.

"I don't know what I'll do," Smith-Call admitted. "They (Pahrump residents) don't like newcomers coming in telling them what they want to do."

Area 7 candidate Jesse Radford complained the school district just found out it would cost $2.8 million to finish the Hafen Elementary School and the middle school, while neglecting to think about desks and supplies. Radford said the federal No Child Left Behind legislation enacted this year will apply tremendous pressure on the Nye County School District, part of more and more federal programs being imposed on the schools.

"Discipline in schools? We don't have any," Radford said. He complained students drink beer and smoke dope across from the high school. "Teachers drug testing, I've been told by the unions we can't do it."

"I'm a good honest man. I say what I feel," he said.

Finally, fellow Area 7 candidate Grant Hudlow spoke. He said for the first time, the school district is saving copies of the bills through Business Manager Ray Richie. Incoming Superintendent Bill Roberts is also now getting support from the public, he said.

"The next step is to get the parents involved," Hudlow said. "Instead of an 'us and them' attitude with the children, all of a sudden the children are involved," he said.

Pahrump needs to have more integrated software programs for education, Hudlow said. "Pathways is the leading edge not just for Pahrump, but for the state of Nevada," he said.

Radford agreed there needed to be more computer literacy taught along with reading, writing and arithmetic. He complained the school district was spending twice as much in the north county as they do on Pahrump children.


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