Commissioners respond to proposed BLM rule

The Churchill County commissioners continued discussion regarding the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rule Planning 2.0 at their Thursday meeting.

The board passed a motion directing County Manager Eleanor Lockwood to finalize comments for review at the upcoming board meeting on May 18. Though the discussion is ongoing, the commissioners’ concerns were the same as previously stated regarding the BLM’s reception to community feedback and accountability at the state level versus federal. Two such inclusions in the board’s feedback, according to commissioner Bus Scharmann, stated the state director should be the appropriate designee for a level of official decisions and BLM should be required to explain to the governor their ultimate decision while identifying reasons and rationales for elimination of alternatives (such as those addressed in community and board feedback).

The comments will be reviewed and finalized at the next meeting.

The board also approved funding $1,000 to support the Fallon Animal Welfare Group (FAWG) and its “Trap, Neuter and Return” (TNR) initiative.

Community volunteer Bob MacDonald attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of FAWG, a program funded entirely by donations which currently totals $12,000 according to MacDonald.

MacDonald said the TNR program’ in several other communities focuses on rounding up stray cats to be taken to local veterinarians, neutered and returned to the community in an effort to reduce the population of feral cats in Fallon.

“By doing so, they (volunteers) over a period of time cut down the number of feral cats in an area,” MacDonald said.

The original request for funds, as MacDonald requested, was $1,000 per quarter, requested specifically so FAWG would be able to trap, neuter and return 12 feral cats and three non-feral cats per quarter.

Memebers of the board, however, were too skeptical of some of FAWG’s practices to approve such funding, including Scharmann who asked how FAWG identified stray cats from domestically owned pets and if there had ever been a complaint from a member of the community on pets being affected by FAWG’s practices. Commissioner Carl Erquiaga also asked where and how specifically FAWG returned cats to the community.

MacDonald, replying to Scharmann, said there had never been a complaint like this and identifying the cat as feral was determinate on the cat’s behavior. MacDonald wasn’t, however, able to amply reply to Erquiaga’s concern on relocation without having more information on hand.

Though MacDonald provided other points in support of the TNR program such as preventing the unnecessary harm of feral cats by members of the community versus poison and other methods, chairman Pete Olsen said he was not convinced of the need for the board to fund the project at this time.

“I feel like we’ve already spent a considerable amount of money on animal control already, so I don’t think I can support this today,” Olsen said.

Though Olsen voted against the $1,000 funding, Erquiaga and Scharmann voted for it, and the motion passed 2-1 with the stipulation that, if FAWG desires consideration of additional funding in 2017, the organization updates the commissioners on progress of the TNR program in the next six months.

Commissioners also discussed or took action on the following items:

Approved funding for the Fallon Ranch Hand Rodeo for $1,000.

Approved the reclassification of court clerk trainee (unnamed) to court clerk as a new hire.

Set the second reading of the Local Regulated Tariff No. 17 for May 18.

Approved a transfer of funds in the amount of $125,000 to the Churchill County Road Department for the first and final payment on the various fiscal year 2016 road and bridge projects for the third quarter. Funds were transferred from the Regional Transport Commission Fund 280 and from Public Transit Fund 395.

Approved $7,500 to be paid to the Central Nevada Regional Water Authority Member Assessment for fiscal year 2017.