Dear Editor,

The Nevada Rural Housing is a total scam outfit, in my opinion, and the Lincoln County Commissioners fell for them hook line and sinker about a year ago, all because of a 14 million dollar carrot that was hung in front of them by the NRH. In the 20 plus years I’ve lived in Pioche, I have seen the Lincoln County Commissioners make some poor and foolish decisions, but this time they have really outdone themselves.

Pioche housing consists of several buildings that were built during WW 2 in order to house miners working to extract the lead and zinc from our mines here to help the war effort. They are sort of barracks style buildings and most of them have been sold off and moved away from Pioche many years ago. The remaining ones that we still have are now apartments, and have been a very valuable asset to provide housing for people who have few other choices for housing here. The Pioche Housing buildings that are remaining have been cared for, improved and renovated, and are in excellent shape despite their age.

The current manager of “housing” stated at the recent commissioner meeting that the wiring and plumbing in them is safe and adequate. They have modern siding and metal roofs and that they don’t need to be taken down. But the truth is that these buildings have become a big thorn in the side to first the Pioche Public Utilities who first inherited them, and then the commissioners who the PPU sluffed them on to next. It appears that the only reason our commissioners “found” the NRH was because they did not want to retain what they felt was just a pain in the neck to them. These buildings are, and could be for a long time to come very valuable as apartments here in Pioche.

There is however an option which is to pay the Nevada Rural Housing for what they have spent on their project to date, and retain “Housing” the way it currently is except for the building that suffered bad damage from a fire. The big question regarding the burned building is what happened to the insurance money that came in after the fire, and why was that building not repaired or replaced.

Leslie Derkovitz

Pioche, Nevada