County Manager Jim Barbee spoke recently in the first meeting of the Fallon Chamber since the COVID outbreak. He said that under “other duties as assigned” became the Deputy Health Officer when the COVID broke out which changed the dynamics of the position have a background doing animal disease traceability which turns out in a pandemic has some value. “We have a lot of people at the County and City working real hard to protect the community and keep us in a place where we can open up as soon as we’re able to.”
In terms of community testing and the spike seen in the statewide results, Barbee said it is the percentage that matters, and keeping the positivity rate around 5% is comforting.
According to Barbee the county has received the CARE Act funds from the state, qualifying for $2.9 million and the city qualified for $1.4 million. “We’re looking at the costs that have been incurred at the county that aren’t otherwise covered by FEMA and then we’re going to be sitting down with the city to have significant conversations to come up with the best ways, based on the restrictions of the funds, the best ways those funds can be used to benefit our community.”
Comparing the economic results of COVID to the most recent economic downturn, Barbee talked about the focus of the county in terms of jobs and positioning the community in terms of infrastructure to have the housing, water, and wastewater. “One of our greatest limiting factors to economic growth and having good companies come in that are a fit for the community, is infrastructure.”
The county has submitted a Department of Transportation grant for $8.5 million to expand and create a new roadway from Coleman up to Moody Lane, and to look for ways to expand and improve the roadways from Moody out to Wade. The Economic Development Administration is also pushing out grant funding to stimulate the economy in light of COVID and the county has put forward an idea for a business/commerce park in the northwest of the community near the Planned Unit Development of Sky Ranch. Barbee said that in these kinds of projects, the EDA pays for the water and wastewater development which allows for getting the infrastructure in place.
In Hazen the CHIP Project (Churchill Hazen Industrial Park) continues to also be a focus of the county for economic development, with water and infrastructure being the main issues. The county is working with the State Engineer on the issue of recharge of the aquifer and drawing ground water. One option is utilizing the Wild Goose water and reinjecting that county resource into the aquifer.
Barbee also discussed the Navy expansion, and the latest action taken by the Senate Armed Services Committee, approving the 20-year extension of the existing ground for the Navy withdrawal without the expansion. Once the Navy approved their Record of Decision for the expansion, there must be congressional action, and funding before the expansion is implemented. Now that the Senate has taken their action, there still has to be an introduction on the House side, and Barbee said Congressman Amodei has also introduced a Churchill County Lands Bill as part of the mitigation for any expansion and withdrawal that are approved. “We are heavily involved in this and will continue to be,” he said.
The economic development language in the Lands Bill would lead to consolidation of the checkerboard lands in the northwest of the county near Fernley, giving the county the ability to work with the Department of Interior to start grouping the private and federal lands. This would be done in ways that make more sense for economic and environmental benefits, instead of trying to work around the 640-acre patches of checkerboard. The bill would also consolidate and redefine Wilderness Areas, eliminating Wilderness Study Areas that have tied up ground for over 50 years, including ground around the airport that would allow for economic development.
Barbee said he expects action on this by the end of the summer.
The county quickly made budgetary adjustments in response to the COVID economic impacts, cutting the Fiscal Year ’20 budget by 7% across the board and then using those numbers as a base for budgeting the FY ’21 year. Barbee said they came up with roughly $1.3 million in cuts coming from Fiscal Year ’20 and moving into FY ’21, and will continue to evaluate the budget moving forward.
Looking to the future, and depending on the economy, the county will continue to look at the need for new court facilities.
“Ultimately we think we’re in a really good place and we want to keep it that way,” said Barbee. “We are proud of this community and how we’ve behaved in the difficult time and you can see the results of our testing.”
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