Service
Forum
Therlnax Clean Care Center
8pemi£izin in 8team Oeaning
Home • Business • Auto -RV
- Equipment, Sales and Rentals ..
Rent the world's best Steam Cleaner
(702) 727-1339 $8 for 24 hours
1200 N. LesUe St. -FREE- I0x12 Room
Pahrump, NV 89041 Cleaned If mention this ad
Gift rks
727-1655
0000ravmg
140 K Nicholas Way
Wed - Fri 10-4
Sat- 10-3
[ WlhSON I
q w°a00
372
www.wimalLeom/peggiftworks
"Your Local Full Time Office"
• 50 yrs Experience
c • Free hearing evaluation
o -Cleaning & Electronic
u
check of your Hearing Aid
Po • batteries - Buy one pack
n get One free • Limit 2 m
a
WS ROADHOUSE NIGHTCLUB
MT.IC
b
SSOO N Hwy i60 NV
in aThg-,ii c
"What road are we on ?"
by Andy Holtmann
"I don't know, Bob's road I guess," comes the reply
in a conversation between two storm chasers tracking a
tornado ia the movie Twister. The confusion of not
knowing where you are or
where something is located
is the same feeling that the
postal workers in the Pahr-
ump Valley have to deal
with every day.
According to Bob
Philpot, the head of postal
operations for the valley' s
post offices, mail delivery
and operations have im-
proved dramatically since
moving into the new build-
ing on Postal Road, an ex-
tension of Loop Road. The
lack of street signs and an
organized, digital, address
system, however, serve as
a major inhibitor in the
mail carrier's quest for
timely and effective deliv-
ery.
"Street names and ad-
dresses are critical to our operations," said Philpot. "But
there are some roads that we can't get to, some that are
not accepted yet and put on maps, and some that simply
don't exist."
The post office handles 15 routes and around 9,000
home deliveries per day. The carriers drive an average
of 3,500 miles
per week trying
to make sure
everyone gets
their mail. But
not every par-
cel can get
through to its
intended desti-
nation.
So what
happens with
the mail that
cannot be de-
livered?
Philpot stated
that a lot of it is
returned to the
sender. Nearly
7,000 pieces of
mail are sent to
Las Vegas ev-
ery week to be
sorted and
traced to find
correct addresses. This does not happen without careful
inspection though. In many cases, street names are
spelled wrong or an address incomplete. It is up to
Philpot and his crew to take the role of detective to try
and solve these postal mysteries.
In one such case, there were several pieces of mall
sent to various addresses on Pointe Road. According to
maps of the Pahrump area, no Pointe Road exists. Yet,
how could nearly one dozen articles of mail be sent to
this non-existing street?
In cases such as these, Philpot calls a directory
assistance hotline run out of Reno. And attempts to get
phone numbers of the people who the mail was sent to.
TYPICAL MAILBOX--No name or. address on the
mailbox, or numbers on the house.
EFFICIENT SERVICE-Sally helps Mary McCrum with postal needs inside the
new, spacious building on Loop Road. But, there are still a lot of problems with
home delivery.
Photos by Brenton Cooper
He then calls the individuals and personally asks the
exact name of the street on which they live and how to
get there.
After two failed attempts to contact people, Philpot
finally got a hold of one
resident who stated that the
street in question is actu-
ally named Paiute, not
Pointe. It is common mix
ups such as these that give
the post office headaches.
Ron Williams, the di-
rector of planning for the
Pahrump Regional Plan-
ning Commission, has
been working on the street
address problem for some
time. He hopes that by the
year 2000 Pahrump will
have a fully functional
digital address system.
One of the main setbacks
and causes of the problem
is the block system in the
valley.
The current system is
not in a square and defined
form. Most blocks are defined by noticeable boundaries
such as streets or county lines. According to Williams,
the blocks in Nye County are not. He has sought help
and advice from census officials to come up with a
better system.
For the post office, the year 2000 is too far away.
They have to
deal with the
problem now.
As Philpot ex-
plains, the last
updated map
they received"
was in 1994,
"People
need to know
their street
names and
street signs
have to exist,"
said Philpot.
"The (plan-
ning) commis-
sion has
worked well
with us, but
new streets and
addresses have
to be brought to
the attention of
the post of-
fice."
Philpot states that currently the post office is doing
well, but it could be better. He is hoping that sorting
machines will be arriving soon. The machines would
help to alleviate some of the time problems that the
postal workers run into. Instead of a handful of workers
spending five to six hours per day sorting, these ma-
chines would do this in an hour.
Like anything, postal rates might go up to accommo-
date for the cost of the machines. Philpot, said the cost
will be worth the rewards. With the new machines,
employees will have more time to concentrate on making
sure everyone in the Pahrump Valley receives their mall
Barrick Goldstrike donates to med school
RENO -- Barrick
Goldstrike Mines Inc., one
of Nevada's leading gold
mining companies, is donat-
ing $100,000 to the Landra
Reid Center for WOmen's
Studies, which will be
housed in the expanded
medical library and educa-
tion building being planned
by the School of Medicine
on its Renocampus. Last year,
Barrick donated $1.3 million
to charities and projects in
Nevada communities.
Barrick employs more
than 2,000 people in Nevada,
primarily in the communi-
ties of Elko and Beatty,
Vice President and Gen-
eral Manager D9n Prahl said
Barrick "welcomes the op-
portunity to assist the work
of the University of Nevada
School of Medicine with this
donation. We are pleased that
a Nevada university is one
of 40 institutions participat-
ing in the national Women's
Health Initiative, and we are
proud to provide our sup-
port."
Landra Reid is a long-time
advocate of women's issues,
particularly women's health.
Barrick is the second larg-
est gold producer in the
world, with 11 producing
mines in Peru, Chile and
Nevada.
W
