Commissioners approve plan for detention center debt

In light of the recent ground-breaking ceremony, the Churchill County Commissioners have laid out an annual payment plan for the debt of the new Law Enforcement Center at their second monthly meeting.

The annual payment is set at $747,916 according to a presentation made by County Comptroller Alan Kalt. The total cost of the project, $15,495,211, comes from a 32-year U.S. Department of Agriculture loan with an interest rate of 2.75 percent for a total cost of $22.4 million.

In light of the annual payments, Kalt further presented Churchill County’s debt management plan and said the county is currently in an excellent debt position. Churchill County’s debt per capita is currently $34.02 with no current outstanding debt aside from CC Communications debt of $854,695 through Louie’s Service Center and supported by user fees that Kalt said will be paid down by normal payments.

Some of the sources of profit in county to be used in part for the long-term repayment include the Federal Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) as well as geothermal rents/royalties. The debt management plan, which compared Churchill County to Humboldt County’s current debt of zero, also explained the county will be closer in its debt to Lyon County’s current standing at roughly $359 after the payment(s) on the detention center to the USDA.

Commissioners also heard the first reading of Bill 2016-B, Ordinance 7, an ordinance amending the provisions of Title 3 of the Churchill County Code regarding information technology.

Civil Deputy District Attorney Ben Shawcroft read the bill and detailed its primary concern when county employees are using personal cellphones or data storage services for county business.

“What we’d like to make clear to county employees is that, if you use a personal device for county business, you are not protected if there’s a public records request for that data, of if your supervisor wants to look at that data,” Shawcroft said.

The bill would come with an acknowledgment for existing and future Churchill County employees to sign, though, pertaining to non county-issued cellphones and only county related business.

Commissioner Carl Erquiaga expressed some concern over the bill, namely, asking why the employees would not be protected if non county-issued phones are permitted. Shawcroft said in reply only county-related business on the phones is subject to public records requests rather than other non-pertinent personal information, based on an honors system with county employees to turn over the specific information requested.

Commissioners voted to publish a notice of the bill and a public meeting will be held to discuss the issue on Aug. 14.

The commissioners also voted or took action on the following items:

Approved the grant agreement with the State of Nevada Department of Health and Human Services for the provision of the Family Resources under Social Services in the amount of $27.393 for Fiscal Year 2017.

Approved the grant agreement with the State of Nevada Housing Division for Tenant Based Rental Assistance Funding to support homeless programming in the amountw of $54,840.

Approved Intrastate Interlocal Contract with the State of Nevada, Division of Public and Behavioral Health Environmental Health Section for FY17-18 in the amount of $70,823.20.