Monday, January 7, 2013

Open Letter #16


OPEN LETTER #16 TO THE COMMUNITY FROM A TOWN BOARD MEMBER

Here is the Open Letter #16.  Feel free to contact me at twaters@pahrumpnv.org or 775-764-0949. 

As a DISCLAIMER, please understand that I speak ONLY for myself as a Town Board member and will provide accurate information as I see it through my research.  All information is reviewed by several entities to ensure there are no NRS violations. 

Welcome to 2013 -  If you’ve read the December Town Newsletter from the Town Manager (available at the Town’s webpage), you see the things that are being done by the Town Board and the Town Staff.  Yes, there is still a lot to do and we still look for citizen input as recommendations for other possible Town improvements. 

I am pleased to say that we have several residents who look at the positive side of our Town and recommend improvements instead of mere criticism about any suggestion of a change.  The rest of this Open Letter contains recommendations from a citizen.  I feel they are valid and should be shared.  She sent them to the Commissioners and the Town Board because some items would take Town & County working together.  Thanks Marna. 

FROM MARNA KRAUSE:

Below are several ideas to make our town look more attractive and to bring more tourists to Pahrump and all of Nye County.  If we can implement just a few of them both our town and county will benefit. 

Let's start with making Pahrump more attractive.  People are attracted to a quaint, cozy looking town:

1.  Flower barrels along the main corridors of Highways 160 and 372 and the Calvada Eye.  There are faux wooden barrels made of fiberglass with a 20 year warranty.  These barrels run $20-30 each.  In the past I have spoken to both Star Nursery and Home Depot locally about the barrels and flowers.  Both indicated an interest in substantial discounts and/or donation of partial needs.  Home Depot suggested planting some year round desert plants in each barrel with seasonal flowers filling in to decrease the cost of changing plants.  I know you are wondering how they would get watered.  We have 2 garden clubs in town that I know of.  Perhaps one of them would take this job on as a town project.  Perhaps some of the businesses the barrels are in front of would take responsibility for watering those on their site.  In tiny Panaca in Lincoln County I saw a town employee (or a resident) with a portable water tank behind her truck watering all the flower barrels.  There are also other groups that may want to take watering on: Rotary, Lions Club, 4-H, Kiwanis, Masons, etc, maybe rotate organizations on a monthly basis.  Little cost involved for a major impact.  Lots of Bang for your Buck.  With a little thought and effort this would work.

2.  Old Fashioned street lamps or just poles also along the 2 main corridors of highways 160 and 372 and the Calvada Eye.  These are not for "lighting" purposes but solar ones would add a soft glow and not add to electrical usage or needs for wiring.  The light poles would be used to hang banners advertising all the events going on in town as well as seasonal decorations.  Banners could be purchased by the event organizers and would let tourists just passing through know there is more to Pahrump than supermarkets, casinos and WalMart.  Seasonal decorations for 4th of July and Christmas would be used year after year as would event banners.  Start up costs of poles, banners and decorations but not much after that except to replace banners that need so after a few years. 

3.  Local artist painted statues of native animals.  These statues run about $2000 each, or less, according to a web site other towns have used.  These could be all the same animal or a variety of animals and even plants or trees.  I'm sure the price would be cheaper if all one statue was used but using multiple animals/plants would be more visually appealing. Each statue would have a plaque with the name of the artist and some history about the animal/plant.  Funding could be handled a number of ways: the town paying, artists raising donations, businesses could purchase them to be placed at their site, auctioned off after completion, grants possibly available.  I've attached a few photos of bison and a horse, some life size, some smaller.  We have so many possibilities: wild mustangs, burros, desert tortoise, rattlesnake, road runner, burrowing owl, coyote, elk, deer, mountain lion, sagebrush, Joshua tree, and the list goes on and on.  Here's a couple of websites to check out:   http://www.chicagofiberglassworks.com/html/publicart.htm,  http://www.fiberstock.com/customers/art-project-customers.  These statues could be placed all over town and places of interest, possibly all over Nye County.  To go along with the statues a map could be printed to direct tourists and locals alike to see all of them.  Possibly a small token given if someone has the map stamped at each location and visits all of them.  Will take some thought to work it all out but is a good visible attraction for our town/county. 

4.  Western fronts for commercial buildings.  Pahrump needs to have a "theme" as far as commercial buildings go. Anyone that has been to Sedona, AZ, knows how a uniform look can add to the appeal of a town.  Sedona does not have Golden Arches or large Bells but everyone still finds McDonalds and Taco Bell.  Let's have an ordinance for all new construction, including remodeling, conforming to a western building front approved by the Town/County.  All existing commercial buildings will have X (7-10?) amount of years to install a false western front on their properties, design being approved by the Town/County.  Again, people are drawn to a town that has a comfortable, unique, cozy appeal.  If we want to be the Heart of the New Old West, or Western Ways and Sunny Days, we need to provide the Western Look.  A few wagon wheels and hitching posts wouldn't hurt.  (NOTE: Our slogan is “Your Base Camp to Adventure” but her ideas would still work.)

5.  We need a central tourist area.  People want to park and walk down the street window shopping.  The only place feasible for this is the Calvada Eye.  We need to build for shops along this area, decorate with the flower barrels, lamp posts/banners and statues.  On Hwy 160 all the businesses are set too far off the road to allow walking along and looking in windows.  The Eye is a beautiful area as it is but is underutilized.  We need to use what we already have to our benefit.  I can see the tourist buses there now instead of Smiths and Albertsons.  Let's show the thousands of tourists traveling through here every year there is more to us. 

6.  Pedestrian Safety: I know this has been discussed before, having crosswalks across the highways.  It is perceived as too dangerous for the pedestrian.  I have been to towns where they have orange warning flags at stands on both ends of the crosswalk.  When a pedestrian is ready to cross they pick up a flag, walk across the street and deposit the flag in the stand on the other side.  The flags are large so that they are easy to see by the motorists.  Why not try?  This would certainly help the people trying to get from one business to another, everyone wins. 

Now on to bringing more tourists not only to Pahrump but also to Nye County:

7.  A Nye County Passport or Pamphlet directing people to all parts of the county.  People get the passport/pamphlet stamped at participating businesses or answer questions they can only answer by being at a particular place.  They get a small token when the completed, or almost completed, form is mailed in to the county or chamber.  Route 66 has a Passport for this, northern Nevada has a pamphlet with questions about information on historical markers and the loneliest highway, Hwy 50, has a pamphlet to be stamped as you cross the length of the highway.  I have done all 3 and it was a blast.  The northern Nevada one was like being on a cross-state scavenger hunt and I received a letter and jacket patch stating I had true grit just like the early settlers.  The Hwy 50 one got us a small token, key chain, etc, at each stop. Rte 66 mails gifts according to how many stamps you obtained going across several states.  We could have questions/require stamps from not only the obvious Pahrump, Beatty and Tonopah but also from Amargosa, Manhattan, Belmont, Gabbs, Round Mountain, Railroad Valley, Currant Creek, Duckwater, Ione, Sunnyside, Forty Bar, Smoky Valley and all other little bergs in Nye County.  People would love the challenge just to say they did it.  Really, why do people run 26 mile marathons?  To say they did.  Look how participating businesses would benefit as well as others nearby.  People have to eat and buy gas if nothing else. 

8.  Geocaching.  I don't know how this works exactly but do get the general idea and it seems to be very big.  We have so much land and wide open spaces to explore we could easily have a geocaching spot somewhere, or two, in Nye County that is only found by using GPS navigable skills.  Again, from what I have seen this is something people do just to say they did.  It is a challenge.  If done properly this could get adventure seekers to all parts of Nye County, benefitting many businesses. 

9.  Remote Control Air Strip.  I have seen a lot of people attending a remote control airplane tournament.  Now it doesn't seem this would cost much to have the air strip, just a short slab of concrete at one of our parks where there is plenty of air space.  I have seen lots of retirees enjoying their RC Airplanes on a sunny day and we have lots of sunny days and retirees/snowbirds.  Let's give them something to do and have a RC Airplane tournament. 

10.  Hot Air Balloon Festival.  We certainly have the wide open spaces for this.  I doubt Albuquerque, NM, was built around their balloon festival, but the other way around.  What do they have that we don't?  It would be small at first but would grow over time.  Albuquerque didn't start out like it is today, I'm sure. 

11.  Pistachio Festival.  Many towns have festivals based upon what is grown in their area.  There are strawberry, watermelons, cherry, orange, grape/wine and garlic festivals, among numerous others, which are very successful events. In the past Pahrump was known for growing cotton but that no longer is found here but I have seen at least 2 large pistachio orchards locally.  That would be a perfect crop to exploit for Festival purposes.  Of course it would start out small but look at how our local Grape Stomp has grown over the few years it has been in existence.  Many people come from out of town to attend the Winery's Grape Stomp and the same would be true of a well organized Pistachio Festival.  While strawberry and other fruit festivals are plenty, pistachio festivals are not.  Newberry, CA, off Rte 66 (I-40) and 20 miles east of Barstow, just had their 15th Annual Pistachio Festival on November 3, 2012.  Other than the Newberry, CA, festival the other pistachio festivals seem to be out of the country. 

For our own children:

12.  Let's push to grow 4-H.  It is unconscionable our children have to take their projects and animals to Logandale for their 4-H fair.  We should have our own Nye County 4-H fair and have all the children of the county participate with their 4-H projects.  Let's build a small barn to house the animals, a small show ring and a small pavilion to house the arts, crafts, foods and horticulture projects.  Let's support our local talent and children.  It seems Petrack Park with a little updating would be a nice place to hold this.  Very few of the tiny lots adjacent to McCullough Arena are locally owned.  They are unbuildable and cannot be worth a lot.  Why not offer current owners a fair market value price and take these lots by eminent domain for the good of the town.  Have an experienced fairground designer work with what is already at Petrack Park and expand on it.  Update the electrical and plumbing to support multiple vendors with 50 amp needs, enlarge the already nice McCullough Arena, expand seating capacity and so forth.  If the money is there through grants or tourism council or the fairgrounds fund this could be done rather quickly instead of waiting for years to build the fairgrounds on highway 160.  We owe it to our youth. 

13.  Soap Box Derby.  Let's get Pahrump Valley Disposal involved and have a soap box derby using recyclable materials for construction.  Get our children involved in constructing their own racer and let the kid come out in all the Dad's and grandpa's bring back memories of their youth.  We have several streets with a good slope that would work for the non-motorized racers.  It's something to think about. 

Ok, I think I'm done, for now anyway.  These ideas are worth putting a little constructive thinking into, some rather inexpensive some not so inexpensive.  We need to take baby steps but we need to take steps.  While the proposed themed attraction and the building of the new fairgrounds are both good ideas, they are not baby steps and way too far in the future.  Let's do something now. 

Thank-you all for reading this and considering some ideas.  
Marna Krause, Pahrump Resident
(702) 658-3198

I sincerely thank Marna for these ideas and suggestions and we’d like to hear from others as well.  Feel free to contact Marna for a show of support. 

Dr. Tom Waters
Pahrump Town Board
twaters@pahrumpnv.org
775-764-0949

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