Commissioners look forward to 2024 NACO annual conference

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners held a regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 16. In the upcoming week, commissioners will be traveling to attend the 2024 NACO Annual Conference. From Sept. 24 to 26, Carson City will play host to the 100th Anniversary celebration of the Nevada Association of Counties. Commissioners shared excitement for the annual engagement as they look forward to continuing to advocate for Lincoln County with partnerships across the state.

Lincoln County Sheriff Derek Foremaster was approved to hire a new administrative assistant for the sheriff’s office. The position was approved despite a county hiring freeze as the previous administrative assistant was transferred to a position within the jail and no new position is being created.

Foremaster also discussed recent goals within the department to seek out enhancements for the current 911 telephone system. The sheriff has continued to meet with the telephone company to research a potential new system that would offer enhanced location data and text response capabilities. Funding for such an upgrade is currently being sought out though no official transition is planned at this time.

After providing statistics and an update of the jail, Foremaster thanked Commissioner Diane Path for her efforts in writing a grant to secure additional vehicles for the department. Path presented both a letter of support from the board and grant application for the Memorial Jag Grant. If approved, the grant would reimburse the sheriff’s office for two upfitted vehicles per year in a three-year period, with six vehicles total. The county would use the miscellaneous fund for the purchases and repay the cost with the awarded grant funds. Commissioner Path plans to provide an update if the application is selected for funding.

During department reports, Lincoln County Clerk Lisa Lloyd announced that election preparation is ramping up. “Ballots go out next week,” said Lloyd, “and I will be in training next week in preparation for training the poll workers.” Lloyd shared that voting machines recently underwent preventative maintenance. Commissioners inquired about the process of preventative maintenance and whether machines were connected to the internet at any time. “I don’t really get that question much anymore,” commented Lloyd. “The machines are not hooked to the internet at any time. They don’t even have the capability.”

The 2024 United States Elections will be held on Tuesday, Nov 5. Registration by mail must be postmarked by Oct. 8. Registration in-person during early voting will be Oct. 19 to Nov. 1. Voters can also register in-person at voting locations on Election Day.

Sixco CEO Derrick Hembd joined the commissioner meeting via phone to report that the Crestline project is close to major upcoming milestones. While the organization continues to work towards gaining their first tenants, Hembd plans to meet with a logistics firm to continue to work on the Comprehensive Economic Development strategy. Once tenants are secured, Sixco looks forward to working with the county directly to plan for local housing, medical and other infrastructure that may need to be addressed for the expected workforce expansions. In recent weeks the director of the BLM has visited the site with his team to assess their interests in the project. Hembd shared that he plans to return to Lincoln County in October to continue planning at the site. Additional updates on the Crestline Sixco project will continue to be provided at regularly scheduled commissioner meetings.