Mound House center funds taken for Fernley courthouse

The Lyon County Commission on Dec. 7 voted to reduce $300,000 in designated American Rescue Plan Act funding to $50,000 for the Mound House Community Center remodeling project after two motions to keep the project’s original allocation failed.

The item was part of a combined discussion to approve a reallocation of ARPA funding between existing projects for the Fernley Justice Court expansion and remodel, which had been designated for $6 million and for which the county has spent more than $131,000.

County Comptroller Josh Foli told commissioners the two ARPA items were brought to the board since more than $1 million in increased costs were expected for the Fernley court expansion. The county is required by state and federal law to build the facility to hold jury trials in domestic violence cases, ensure staff security and maintain the proper amount of restrooms. The courthouse expansion was allocated $6 million of Lyon’s $11.1 million total in ARPA funds originally, Foli said.

The Mound House community center originally received $1.2 million, which was rescinded last year, and was later to receive $300,000 in ARPA funds.

County officials approved a land exchange at 158 Garnet Circle on a 2-acre parcel this year with the Central Lyon County Fire Protection District at 56 Red Rock Circle. It was a cost-saving measure and intended to help residents move into a facility at least 10 years sooner.

Lyon County staff members also applied for a $200,000 Community Development Block Grant to retrofit the fire station into a meeting space, but the funding was not approved at the state level, Foli said. Preliminary costs according to Paul Cavin Architect LLC of Reno, the project contractor, are estimated between $550,000 and $600,000.

“So we have to know sooner rather than later on the Mound House Community Center,” Foli said. “But we have to have enough time to get the architectural work done and go out to bid.”

A budget narrative describing the scope of construction for the conversion from the existing fire station, a 4,000-square-foot building, recommends changes such as glazing the front apparatus doors, updating the restrooms to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, providing a new lay-in ceiling, making the flooring sealed concrete, adding a drinking fountain, installing an upgraded heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and improving the lighting, among other changes.

Foli said the remodel is underway for a 425-square-foot room with a kitchen add-on. The remainder will be available for meeting space for Citizen Advisory Board meetings.

A contract must be in place for ARPA projects by Dec. 31, 2024, Foli said, or its money will be returned to the federal government or redistributed to another ARPA project and the county would have until 2026 to use those dollars.

Commissioner Wes Henderson expressed dissatisfaction that the commission had not delivered on its promises of a community center for Mound House since the 1970s.

“I think we need to try to find a way to get them money,” Henderson said Tuesday after the board meeting. “We’ve got to look under every rock we can to find some money. The fact is if we hadn’t done the land swap, it would have been another 10, 20 years. We would have had to build a building, and I’m not sure we were aware of the costs. Hindsight’s always 20-20.”

Melinda Cash, representing Mound House’s Citizen Advisory Board, spoke during the commission’s public comment period and said many local groups are looking forward to seeing the center be established.

“We have nothing for our children in Mound House at all, no schools, no place for kids after school,” Cash said. “The Boys and Girls Club is just biting at the bit for us to get something built, and they can bring the Boys and Girls Club there, which is so desperately needed. … I have groups approach me all the time, ‘When is this going to get done?’ … As you’ve said, we’ve been very patient. I’m hoping I don’t have to continue to be patient.”

Commissioner Dave Hockaday, who also opposed the first two motions, said he did not enjoy repeating mistakes of the past.

“The thing that bothers me the most – way back, the previous board allocated money and pulled it back and here we are doing the same exact thing,” Hockaday said. “That goes against everything I feel like I can stand for.”

Commissioner Scott Keller said although he wanted to work toward getting Mound House residents a facility of their own, the problem was like trying to “make a square peg into a round hole in construction.”

“We do what we’re supposed to get done,” Keller said. “We have to deal with what’s on the budget now. … If we want to sit down and get ready for the budget and how to do a real community center, that’s a different subject.”

When the first two motions failed, a motion for a separate agenda item to reallocate ARPA funds that had not been spent totaling $250,000 for the Mound House project, was approved 4-1 to improve the existing space to satisfy the new building occupancy requirements. Henderson opposed the motion. Total funds instead were designated in $1,050,000 to complete the Fernley Justice Court.

“We cannot keep treating Mound House like the red-headed stepchild,” Henderson said. “We have the chance to do it now. If we don’t do it now, it’s going to be another 20 years before they have a community center.”

Cash told the Appeal after the meeting Dec. 8 she was “flabbergasted” at the board’s decision.

“Where do we turn now?” she said.

In a follow-up e-mail to the Appeal Dec. 10, Cash, a board member of the Carson Parks and Recreation Foundation, said she would consider seeking a request to have it take on the community center as a nonprofit umbrella or ask for guidance to create its own organization to raise funds.