County receives more than $2 million in PILT money from the feds

Churchill County Commissioners heard a $2 million presentation Monday morning during their regularly scheduled meeting.

The good news came in the form of $2,053,174 in federal Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) as compensation for nontaxable federal land in Churchill County’s jurisdiction.

Nevada has PILT funds totaling $23,331,913 from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Interior Department collects about $14 billion in revenue annually from commercial activities on federal lands, such as oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing and timber harvesting.

Commissioners also discussed or took action on the following items:

• Approved Local Regulated Tariff changes. Commissioners voted for approval after hearing a presentation from CC Communications General Manager Mark Feest, although Tariff No. 17 regarding emergency line service will be brought back before the commissioners for a public hearing on Aug. 1.

• Approved a request from the Tenth Judicial District Court for a contract with New Dawn Justware court case management software.

• Three appointments to the Parks and Recreation Commission were confirmed: Bob Francke, Gary Imelli and Sandi Weishaupt. Francke was reappointed to the commission.

• Commission Chairman Carl Erquiaga was selected as the county’s representative to the Nevada Land Transfer Task Force. The task force is responsible for conducting a study to address the transfer of public lands from the federal government to the State of Nevada and report recommendations to the Legislative Committee on Public Lands on or before Sept. 1, 2014.

• Approved a request for transfer of funds to the Churchill County Road Department for the first and final payment on the South Downs area double chip seal project and for final payment on the North Harmon Road chip seal.

• A parcel map for Joan and Skip Cann at Harrigan Road and Drumm Lane was approved.