Commissioners approve financial ordinance for jail expenditures

The Churchill County Commissioners recently approved Bill 2016-D Ordinance 117, which authorizes and directs the issuance of revenue interim debenture of the bond used to fund the new Law Enforcement Center at their bi-monthly meeting.

The bill, which was first read and introduced Aug. 17, will be used to help pay for the construction of the adult jail facility, the proceeds for which will not exceed $15 million with a draw-down period not to exceed 24 months within Bond Act NRS-350, according to Comptroller Alan Kalt.

This meeting was the public hearing for the bill, which will be paid in p0rtions by the United States Department of Agriculture Revenue Bond, sales tax for infrastructure, federal revenues of geothermal rents and royalties, as well as a tax-free financial venture with Wells Fargo with the minimum draw at $250,000.

Commissioners also approved a contract for Justice Court security services with G4S Secure Solutions as proposed by Deputy District Attorney Ben Shawcroft.

The contract, which would replace officers from the Churchill County Sheriff’s Office, was between G4S and Resolute Security as a means of cutting costs, namely, the estimated contract with G4S being $47,000 whereas the cost to put a sheriff deputy in court is $79,000, saving $32,000 for the county annually.

For the contract for Justice Court security services, Shawcroft received responses from two security firms, one from G4S Secure Solutions and Resolute Security.

“We’re also very pleased with the relationship we’ve built with G4S,” Shawcroft said. “We’re confident that they will provide the services were asking for. They actually have a security guard who lives in Fallon who would be posted here and this security guard has a lot of training and a lot of experience, so we’re confident we’ll be happy with the services they’ll be providing.”

The commissioners expressed no opposition to the changing of the guard, and Commissioner Bus Scharmann was vocal in their support of the change before the motion in regards to a guard from Fallon taking the job.

“It’s nice and convenient to have somebody in Fallon and I would encourage that continue even if you lose this employee for some reason because this would be a major commitment,” Scharmann said.

Commissioners discussed or took action on the following items:

Approved a Sub-Recipient Agreement of Family Resource Center Fund between Churchill County Social Services and Churchill Community Coalition for Fiscal Year 2017.

Approved a grant agreement with State of Nevada, Department of Health and Human Services, Community Services Block Grant for the provision of General Community Action Activities for Churchill County Social Services FY17.

Approved a transfer of funds in the amount of $15,000 to the city of Fallon for final payment for the miscellaneous street maintenance materials, $8,200 for partial payment for the Street Sweeper rental, $11,850 partial payment for the Kaiser Street sidewalk improvements and Phase 1 of engineering design and final payment for the Street Name Signage Improvement Project.

Striking uncollected taxes from the tax roll in declaring certain uncollected property taxes as uncollectable.

Approved a proposal to provide professional appraisal services from Mark Warren for Conservation Easements on various properties owned by Goings and Frey Ranch LLC.