County Commissioners Meeting Notes

County Commissioners met last week in their regular meeting to discuss a list of general matters, including presenting awards to several exhibitors from the 2024 Churchill County Junior Livestock Show. The county is a strong supporter of the Livestock Show and has spent countless hours and dollars supporting the youth in the community for nearly 80 years. 

Commissioners also heard a report from Jeremy Drew of Resource Concepts regarding the Bureau of Land Management’s Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement for Greater Sage-Grouse, who gave a history of the process over the past nine years. They approved a comment letter to the plan, reiterating that the plan has the potential to impact the eastern third of the county and emphasizing the critical need to maintain the practice of multiple-use management on the public lands that are critical to the county’s “culture, customs, and economy.”

The county also recommended dropping Alternative 3, 4, and 6 from further consideration as they are inconsistent with state and local planning. It was recommended that Alternatives 1, 2, and 5 continue to be analyzed and further refined.

In other business, commissioners adopted a resolution designating the Churchill County Library Director to be a position for which there is a critical labor shortage and as a critical need position. This will allow the Library Board of Directors to temporarily re-employ a retired public employee as the Library Director without impacting the retired public employee’s benefits. 

The Library Board of Directors will meet on Thursday, June 13, in a Special Meeting at 4 p.m. to consider and act on making a job offer to former Library Director Carol Lloyd to fill the current vacancy. 

Additionally, Commissioners rescinded Tara Price-Gritzmacher's and Ashlee McGarity's recent reappointments to the Library Board of Trustees for a term beginning July 1, 2024, to comply with the Churchill County Board Nomination Policy. 

Tara Price-Gritzmacher was initially appointed to the Library Board of Trustees to fill an unexpired term from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, and Ashlee McGarity was appointed to the board with a term beginning on July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2024. Per the Churchill County Board Nomination Policy (Doc #443434), adopted by the Board of County Commissioners on November 6, 2014, it states under Monitoring and Notification: "Notification to the board member whose term is expiring will include direction on how to re-apply if the member is still interested in serving unless the board member is subject to term limits. A copy of the written notice shall also be sent to the relevant department head and the county manager." The members were not instructed on "how to re-apply" and thus were not given a copy of the application to re-apply for another term. Action was taken to rescind the reappointments, after which the eligible board members will be provided with an application to reapply for the open terms. The open positions will be advertised to the public as outlined in the Policy in the intervening period. NRS 379.020 authorizes the trustee to hold office until their successors are appointed and qualified, so any delay will not impact the board's operations.

The commissioners also made several personnel changes for the new fiscal year, including a new alternate public defender, eliminating the building official position, approving a senior building inspector, reclassifying a legal secretary in the District Attorney’s office, approving a human resources manager to begin July 8 as well as a human resource generalist. Several other positions were adjusted, and a complete list can be found in the board packet for the June 6 commission meeting on the county website. 

Finally, the commissioners approved an amendment to the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between the Bureau of Reclamation (BoR), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and Churchill County for delivery of treated effluent to the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge. In 2010, USFWS, BoR, and Churchill County entered into an MoA to distribute effluent from the Moody wastewater facility to the Stillwater Refuge using BoR facilities. USFWS was required to apply for a water rights certificate associated with this agreement and has applied for the water right permit since then. The discharge of treated effluent from the Moody facility has generally been unnecessary in the intervening period, so no certificated beneficial use has been established in the intervening time. USFWS has requested, and the amendment provides, that Churchill County will be responsible for applying for any necessary water right permits under this agreement.

The County Commission meets the first Thursday of each month at 8:15 a.m. and the second Wednesday at 1:15 p.m.