Churchill County Commissioners met last week in a regular meeting where Nevada Association of Counties President Varlin Higbee and Executive Director Vinson Guthreau spoke in support of the Historic Routes Preservation Act, which would create and mandate an efficient administrative process for the adjudication of county R.S. 2477 road rights-of-way claims.
“Congress has passed money bills to bring the rural areas up to par with urban areas, but some places are still running on diesel generators. They don’t even have electricity. How are we going to install 5G,” said Higbee. “The only way to do some of this is to put the infrastructure in the county roads right of way, but they don’t belong to us.”
He told of a road project on the eastern side of Nevada on State Highways 317 and 93, “but the state doesn’t own their roads either. They told me the cost is the same to do the environmental work as it will be to build it.”
Churchill County has previously adopted a resolution and taken a proactive approach to protecting all RS2477 roads in the county. These roads were all made a part of the Churchill County Minor Roads Inventory to ensure the county has standing to request adjudication if ever in a situation.
Higbee said the Historic Routes Preservation Act would make it possible for a government entity to apply to a local, federal agency office for a quiet title to roads that can be proven to have existed in a county or state before 1976 when the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act was passed, establishing how the federal government would manage public lands.
Commission Chairman Bus Scharmann said, “I support this bill. It gives a little more strength to the counties.” The commission approved the resolution, and Higbee noted that if all 17 counties pass it, the Nevada delegation has committed to introducing the legislation in Congress. So far, he said, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah have all made a run at passing similar legislation, unsuccessfully.
In other business, Social Services Director Shannon Ernst presented the 2023 Community Needs Assessment results, a document driven by the Community Services Block Grant process required every five years before a strategic planning process to support the county's designation as a community action agency.
After completing 30 interviews, seven focus groups, the receipt of 129 survey responses, and an access audit, consultants at Crescendo Consulting Group, paid for by a grant, identified 24 community needs and prioritized 17 of them into seven categories.
Priorities that the social services team will address through a strategic planning process include transportation, housing, enhanced childcare options, more local health care, expanded senior services, expanded youth services, including behavioral health and after-school activities, and behavioral health availability with in-person providers.
Ernst said the needs assessment process included representatives from NAS Fallon, Banner Health, Churchill Coalition, the Central Nevada Health District, Nevada Association of Counties, Churchill County School District and Oasis Academy, New Frontier, and the Fallon Tribe.
“When you really look at bringing all those great minds around a table to address not only what has come from the community but what they’re seeing within their organizations, it makes a very nice report,” she said.
The commissioners also had requested a report on the Opioid Settlement funding several meetings ago, asking Civil Deputy District Attorney Joe Sanford to bring back a report on how much funding was available and when it would be disbursed. Sanford presented a statement saying that the total amount expected is just over $3 million, most of which will be received by 2035. There are several restrictions on how that funding can be used, with the vast majority designated for treatment and prevention.
The County Commission meets the first Thursday at 8:15 a.m. and the third Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. each month. The agendas and minutes are available at ChurchillCountyNV.gov.
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