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Pahrump Valley Gazette, Thursday, April 10, 1997 11
Opinion
County Manager Gets Feathers in an Uproar
I received a piece of something in the mail the other day
from the Nye County Manager, Les Bradshaw, that may be of
more than casual interest to the reader.
Lee's communiqu6 is headed with bold letters across the
top of the page stating, "Request to publish correction". The
letter states that I published false statements which said that
he had committed a crime. The specific statements that
Bradshaw identifies are a complete five-sentence paragraph
in a front-page hard news article published in the Gazette on
January 2, 1997. The article was headlined, "Nye PETI" loans
violate NRS law".
The five sentence paragraph includes four statements of
t plus an allegation. At least in part because of the facts
ed in the paragraph the allegation appears to me to be
completely logical and have merit. I confess to being some-
what bewildered by Mr. Bradshaw's request. Am I expected
to publish a retraction of printed facts simply because Mr.
Bradshaw is not comfortable that they exist? How do you
retract a fact anyhow? How do you even begin?
Am I expected to retract an allegation that seems solid on
its face when looked at from every known angle available to
look through? As Mr. Bradshaw should be well aware, an
allegation is not a statement that a crime has been committed.
That can only be determined in a court of law. It is certainly
alleged that certain improprieties appear to have taken place
in violation of Nevada statutes. For clarification to the reader
the paragraph in contention is reprinted in full and is as
follows:
Since early November, 1996, Nye County through
actions taken by the Nye County Commission and Adminis-
THIS MAN'S OP]N :ON
by Brent Mathewson
tration staff has obligated itself to 3.5
million dollars in debt that clearly ap-
pears to be in violation of applicable
Nevada statutes. Several Nye County of-
ficials have openly stated in public meet-
ing that the chances of these loans ever
being repaid are remote at best. The loans were allegedly
orchestrated by the Nye County Manager, Les Bradshaw, and
his Special Assistant, Rachel Nieholson, with the tacit ap-
proval of Nye County's (sic) chosen independent auditor.
Bradshaw and Nicholson are both attorneys. Violation of
Nevada's"Local Government Budget Act" isa misdemeanor,
but carries a heavy penalty and states in pertinent part, "any
officer or employees of a local government who willfully
violates NRS 354.470 to 354.626, inclusive, is guilty of a
misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof ceases to hold his
office or employment."
The Nye County Commission's actions, with no discour-
agement offered on the part of the Nye County Manager,
since these violations of Nevada statute were so rudely
brought to its attention on January 2, 1997 have been on the
strange side and somewhat incomprehensible. 5 million
dollars in Payment Equal To Taxes (PET/') fund money that
has been approved for expenditure by the commission since
mid-November 1996 through loans, borrowings, or interfund
transfers has been done in violation of Nevada's Local
Government Budget Act according to information I have
received from the Nevada Department of Taxation.
Can the Nye County Commissioners and Administrative
staff actually believe that its insistence to continue and
magnify a violation of Nevada Law by repeating it over, and
then over again, lessens the severity of the offense? If this be
the case then multiple investigations presently ongoing by the
Nevada Ethics Commission, the Nevada DepartmentofTaxa-
tion and the Nevada Attorney General's Office may soon
change their mind.
That is this man's opinion.
Letters to the Editor
I didn't get my March 27 issue until
Monday March 31. That's a problem; a
problem for me AND a problem for
you.
I don' t know who Dave Downing is (editorial page 10), but
I appreciate your printing his submission. Brent Mathewson
is good for your editorial page, but when he states opinion or
goes beyond the bounds of responsible reporting it is your job
to keep his stuff in the editorial section and not allow it
elsewhere in the newspaper. Oh, and while we are talking
about Brent, could you get a better picture than that to print
with his column. He is my neighbor, and I know he does not
look that awful.
Thanks for the coverage you give to Kathy Scott and her
work. I do volunteer work for her organization from time to
time.
I never read Gazette on the street, I always read Nevada
Then and Now.
The other day I was on the top of Eagle Mountain (south
of Death Valley Junction) and saw Mike Doughtery's name
in the registry that is on the peak. Seeing that he can climb
mountains as well as write about them causes me to respect
his column a little bit more.
Trevor B. Dolby
Amargosa Valley, NV
Had a toothache lately?
Somebody in this valley with a population of maybe
25,000 probably has a toothache right now and desperately
needs dental care, right now.
Somebody with a swollen face, unable to eat properly or
even talk well, has probably already tried to get an appoint-
ment from Pahrump's one and only dentist. Probably even
tried to find a dentist in l.,as Vegas, assuming he can get to Las
Vegas if he should be lucky enough to find a dentist who can
help.
Poor guy, or gal, or child. Heaven help those who have to
aYthfor their dental care without insurance or Medicaid!
Van Ronk
Pahrump "the golden hour"
We have read, with interest, the recent letters concerning
a comment made by the Chairperson of the Hospital District
Board.
In at least one of these letters, the writer stated that CPR
could not be stopped to place the patient on a gurney. With this
thought in mind, we started wondering how any patients are
ever transported, for the gurney is a must on an ambulance or
a helicopter. Also, this particular writer informed the board
that they should be getting some paramedics in Pahrump. It,
seems to me that about the time PMC opened, there were three
EMT's in Paramedic training. What has been the result of this
endeavor?
As to the stopping of CPR to place patient on a gurney, the
American Heart Association Protocol allows a cessation of
One (1) minute for this action. After five minutes' CPR on the
gurney, a cessation of one (1) minute is afforded to place
gurney in ambulance or flight. This information comes from
an ICU nurse who is now an ER nurse and a former para-
medic. Last, we hear regularly in the media today about the
"Golden Hour," which is the most important time to these
patients.
Hopefully, this information will be of use to the service in
the future.
Bob Coati
Pahrump, Nevada
I Agree, Where's Richard?
I agree with Doris Myers who wrote a letter published in
your March 27 issue requesting you bring back Richard
Reul's column. I used to always read Richard's column first,
too, and I miss it. Richard was allegedly fired because he
wrote a column about the National Institute of Justice study
which criticized the D.A.R.E. program, and reported it had no
significant effect in reducing drug use among children. Since
this has now been all over the media, including such prime
time shows as 60 Minutes and in numerous newspaper and
magazine articles, it is now obvious that Richard was just
ahead of the pack on the story. That's supposed to be good in
the newspaper business, right? So do us all a favor and bring
back Richard.
Trish Rippie
Tonopah, NV
Editors note: we appreciate the interest and loyalty of our
loyal readers. See Richard's article in this issue.
Pahrump population?
A recent article in a local paper quoted the State Demog-
rapher as putting the population of the Pahrump Valley at
14,62L
This figure is very interesting, since the Review/Journal
just ran an article stating new statistics showing an average of
2.6 persons per family or household. In the same two-week
period, Valley Electric announced the 10,000 customer
signing.
Now, by way of simple arithmetic, we find if we take an
educated guess and place the number of business licenses at
800, and deduct this figure from the 10,000 Valley Electric
customers, we have approximately 9,200 residential custom-
ers, when you multiply x 2.6, you get a total of 23,920. From
this point on, it gets more complicated so I will let the
mathematicians among your readers figure out how many
households in the Valley have only one resident. It would
seem to be somewhere around 3,576 homes. Does any one
want to go out and count all these one member homes? If so,
while your're counting, count the homes still using their own
generators.
Bob Coad
Pahrump, NV
Where are entry level jobs?
According to liberal columnist Bob Herbert, a Chicago
study "found that while overall unemployment rates in Illi-
nois are at their lowest levels in more than 20 years, the jobless
rate for those needing entry-level jobs was nearly twice that
of other workers."
So what's happened to all those entry-level jobs?
Think aback to last summer. Can you say government-
mandated minimum wage hike, "boys and girls? As pre-
dicted, raising the minimum wage has forced businesses to
eliminate many of the entry-level jobs needed by the poor to
get started on the road to self-sufficiency.
Don't government-loving liberals ever get tired of
being wrong?
Charles A. Muth
Is year round school practical
As part of a broad-based, grass-roots coalition, I get
hundreds of calls from frustrated parents and school admin-
istrators who aren't content with the rose-colored sales pitch
of year-round education (YRE). And, they're asking tough
questions.
If YRE is such a proven concept, why after eighty-plus
years in existence only 3 percent of our nation schools have
such a calendar? Why do school districts continue to spend
millions of tax dollars to evaluate the merits of YRE only to
conclude the benefits really aren't there? And, why have
hundreds more schools tried YRE only to drop the program
and return to a traditional calendar?
Fact is, districts are dropping their year-round programs
because the concept proves too costly, disruptive and educa-
tionally inferior. Recently school board members in Orange,
Seminole and Volusia Counties in Florida ditched year-round
education, due to lack of academic achievement, parent and
teacher discontent. And, districts in Maryland, Colorado,
Indiana and Kentucky, to name a few, scrapped the idea after
studies revealed the merits of YRE were unfounded.
Yet, some continue to grasp at the empty promise of
increased student achievement despite the lack of evidence
that such achievement occurs. In a recent national survey of
principals currently on a year-round calendar, over half
indicated their students did not score higher than students on
a traditional calendar. Acclaimed academic honor society,
Phi Delta Kappa concluded that YRS has little impact on
scores and is not associated with great leaps in achievement.
AS for costs, cram enough kids in a school with a multi-
track year-round calendar and you may save money (133
percent capacity to constitute a savings). Yet, few schools
were built to handle this gross overuse without falling apart.
Most districts that try YRS find themselves anteing up to pay
for installing air conditioning, additional utility costs, interces-
sion staff salaries, and extending teacher contracts for special
subject teachers, nurses, administrative and facility staff.
So you see, despite the glowing claims of its proponents,
year-round education is not all it's cracked up to be. Make
sure you have all the facts before you expose your children
and your community to this disruptive, expensive and un-
proven educational trend.
Jm Parker
Time To Learn
Charlotte, North Carolina
The views expressed above are those of
the Pahrump Valley Gazette. All other
opinions expressed on these pages are
those of the artist or author indicated.
