Dear Editor,
My name is Joe Dunne and I have lived in Pioche for 21 years+. Over 20 of those years I have lived in the Lincoln County Apts. These apartments are owned and operated by the county. The buildings were placed here in the 1940’s as lodging for the miners back in the day. Over the years they have been used as stepping stones for young families, a place for retired folks to live, and a residence for a lot of the workforce for local businesses. Originally there were 24 buildings, now there are 4. It was overseen by the Lincoln County Housing Board which no longer exists. The property has since been neglected. One of the buildings caught on fire in 2019 and 4 years later the burned-out building has yet to be demolished. County officials clearly wish to rid themselves of this headache. Their solution is to donate your county property to what is called the Nevada Rural Housing organization who in turn wish to build a complex of 32 apts. It was reported that some of these units would be made available to the residents as much-needed rentals and the rest would be subsidized housing. After a recent meeting with N.R.H., it was brought to our attention that all the 32 units would be subsidized housing and only those that qualified with little, or no income would be allowed to apply. Since Pioche has very few people that have little or no income these units will be available on a national database to anyone who fits their requirements, and they will be imported to the county from parts unknown. This will “statistically” bring more crime, and drug trafficking to our town. The entire landscape of Pioche will in some way be affected.
The County wants to get rid of what they have deemed a headache, but importing low- or no-income residents to our small rural town is potentially eliminating one problem and creating another that will be completely out of our control. I urge everyone that is concerned about this to attend the County Commissioner’s Meeting on Monday October 16th at 9 am. Make your voices heard before it is too late.
Thank you,
Joe Dunne
Well said Joe, also another question is where would all the construction workers building this “huge” complex live during the building? We have limited accommodations in this area as in hotel rooms. 32 units is a lot, our tiny community would be heavily impacted by the extra traffic, noise, more Sheriffs complaints I would imagine. I feel the County is not thinking clearly on this matter, more like we don’t want this headache, but lets create another bigger one.