Its wings mended, White Pine County’s finances set free

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Four years ago the Nevada Taxation Department took over the financial operations of White Pine County — the first time state government has taken such a measures to address a local fiscal crisis.

On Monday the Tax Commission decided the state’s work in the eastern Nevada county was done and voted to relinquish its financial management duties there.

Terry Rubald, chief of the Taxation Department’s assessment standards division, said the state worked during the first two years it was in White Pine “to avoid insolvency” and during the last two years to establish financial controls.

The county had an ending balance of $6.8 million with another $6.7 million in a mineral assessment backup fund to offset a downturn in the mining industry, state officials said.

The state will continue to keep tabs on the county through periodic reports that would reveal early warning signs of financial deterioration, officials said.

White Pine County Commissioner Laurie Carson told state officials the county has the desire and capability to manage its own affairs. “We’ve come a long way since June 2005,” she said.

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A state board has agreed to lend up to $2.75 million to the Southern Nevada Water Authority to make energy and conservation improvements at its two Clark County treatment plants.

“This will pay for itself,” Jeremy Brooks, a management analyst for the water authority, said of the expenditures. “The object is conserving water so we don’t have to buy more water, which is more expensive.”

Brooks appeared recently before the state Board For Financing Water Projects, which has federal stimulus money to lend for “green” projects.

Adele Basham, program manager of the board, which is part of the state Environmental Protection Division, lauded the authority’s past efforts to conserve water. From 2002 to 2008, the authority saved more than 21 billion gallons despite a rising population, she noted.

Brooks said about $100,000 would be spent to bring in electricians, plumbers and others to assess the lighting, cooling and other systems at the Alfred Merritt Smith and River Mountain water treatment plants. The rest of the money would be used to make the improvements to conserve energy, water, gas and other resources.

There wasn’t enough money in the fund to lend the full $2.75 million so the board agreed to provide a $2 million loan with 20 years to repay at no interest. If money becomes available, the loan amount will be increased by $750,000.

The board also approved a loan of up to $3 million to the Truckee Meadows Water Authority in Reno for a new pipeline to replace a wooden flume that was destroyed by an earthquake last year. The project, with a total cost of $13.1 million, is expected to save 500 acre feet of water per year.

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Las Vegas Paving Corp. submitted low bids for two road projects in Clark County to be funded by federal stimulus money. Both bids were below the cost estimates of the Nevada Transportation Department.

The company bid $5.8 million for a project resurfacing U.S. 93 from the Garnet Interchange to the Clark-Lincoln county line. The state’s cost estimate ranged from $6.6 million to $7.9 million.

Las Vegas Paving also submitted an apparent low bid of $1.9 million for resurfacing U.S. 95 from Jackass Flat to state Route 160. The state’s cost estimate ranged from $2.2 million to $2.6 million.

Construction won’t begin until about September, officials said.

The department has awarded seven contracts to be paid for with stimulus money, but only one so far in Clark County — a $3.1 million contract to landscape U.S. 95 from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Rainbow Boulevard.

Scott Magruder, public information officer for the department, said so far the winning bids on all of the jobs funded by the stimulus have been below the estimates of the state engineer. As a result, the department will be able to do more stimulus-funded work than initially planned.