Cantaloupe grower Rick Lattin shows his crop of melons before the annual Fallon Cantaloupe Festival began in August.
Photo by Steve Ranson.
The Lahontan Valley News continues its look at 2023 with a review of May-August from the pages of your community newspaper.
MAY
• Carlene Pacheco, a paraprofessional, Title VI liaison and family service specialist at Churchill County High School, was the recipient of the 2023 Recognizing Inspiring School Employees (RISE) award.
• Churchill County School District trustees begin to interview candidates for the superintendent’s position. Eventually, trustees selected Derild Parsons of Fallon.
• Incident commander Caleb Cage discusses the flooding differences between 2017 and the spring of 2023 at a Fallon Rotary Club luncheon.
• The Fallon Churchill Volunteer Fire Department along with other agencies sponsors a street dance and dinner.
• Both the Churchill County High School and Oasis Academy Honor Societies induct new members.
• Library Director Carol Lloyd retires.
• Armed Forces Day kicks off with its annual show at the Rafter 3C Complex.
• Fallon woman killed in vehicle crash on the corner of Williams Avenue and South Taylor Street.
• Construction begins on the V-line canal’s second weir to release more water into the desert to prevent flooding.
• Reno police arrested Jordan Clairmont who faces charges in the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribal Court on charges of criminal homicide, domestic battery, child abuse/neglect and assault with a deadly weapon.
• The annual Portuguese Festival is held.
• Nevada’s secretary of state, Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar, speaks at the annual Sawyer-Bryan Democrat Dinner.
• Four graduations are held at the end of May extending into early June: Churchill County High School, Oasis Academy, Western Nevada College and Churchill County Adult Education.
• Memorial Day ceremonies conducted in Churchill County and at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley.
JUNE
• The Moving Forward Together Social Powwow was held during the first weekend at the Rafter 3C Arena.
• The Fallon Cantaloupe Festival king and queen, Gordon and Ashley Robertson, are announced.
• Artwork is removed from the Churchill Arts Center by the former director.
• New Churchill County librarian CL Quillen is named.
• Fallon City Council recognizes state-winning high-school archery team.
• Farm Bureau conducts AG Days.
• The Churchill Animal Protection Society reports another successful Bark in the Park.
• Churchill County trailer fire kills three people including two children.
• DeGoyer Bucking Horse and Bull Bash draws hundreds of people at the end of the month
JULY
• Fourth of July parade kicks off annual festivities.
• Former High-school track coach Paul Orong, who died in 2022, leads inductees into the next class of the Greenwave Hall of Fame.
• School board hears teacher’s grievance.
• Regional all-star baseball tournament returns to Fallon.
• Sen. Jacky Rosen visits Fallon, discusses health care and housing.
• Kristy Lynn Felkins, 38, of Fallon, was sentenced to five years in prison for a murder for hire plot.
• Final preparations are in the homestretch for the annual all-community reunion is a month .
• Fallon City Council approves new mobile food truck for 5-Star Indian Cuisine.
• Churchill County Sheriff’s Office wins annual blood draw.
• City, county end state of emergency that was enacted because of potential spring flooding.
• Fallon-Churchill Volunteer Fire Department named best in the state.
• Fallon resident Kristie Jo Harmon die July 21 in three-vehicle crash. Her husband, Bill, who was taken to Renown Medical Center in Reno in critical condition, died Aug. 2
AUGUST
• Hundreds attend Fallon Community Days at the Rafter 3C.
• Back-to-School kickoff for Churchill County High School students and their families was held on Aug. 10 at the Rafter 3C.
• Former Churchill County School District Superintendent Dr. Summer Stephens settles into new job in Nebraska.
• Local high-school athletic teams begin practice for the fall season.
• Community attends annual Books, Bites and Beverages, a fundraiser for the Churchill County Library.
• Troy Driver, a Fallon man charged with kidnapping and murdering Naomi Irion in 2022, was found dead in his jail cell in an apparent suicide, said the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.
• All Community Reunion and concert-in-the-park attracts hundreds of graduates, friends.
• County Commission approves funding for various organizations and clubs.
• Churchill County High School football season kicks off at Reed.
• Fallon Cantaloupe Festival opens at the Rafter 3C Complex.
• Churchill County purchases former J.C. Penney building for Central Nevada Health District.
• Fallon prepares for Labor Day weekend with a junior rodeo and Lions Cub parade.
• Former Fallon-Paiute Tribal policeman Anthony Francone killed near Pyramid Lake. Francone was an officer with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Police Department.
• School district announces the hiring of a new assistant superintendent, Stacey Cooper.
• For the third time in as many years, John O’Connor, a Fallon man charged in the murder of a fellow church member Charles “Bert” Miller in 2018, was ruled incompetent to stand trial and ordered to remain confined at Lakes Crossing, a maximum security psychiatric facility in Sparks.