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Business Insider
20-05-2025
- General
- Business Insider
20 vintage photos show what life was like in America's small towns 100 years ago
Between the early 1900s and the 1940s, Oatman and nearby Gold Road were Arizona's biggest gold producers, and the town used to be a bustling center with over 10,000 the 2023 census, it had a population of just 102 the "lively ghost town" is defined by its streets of historic buildings, burros on the streets, and people wearing old-timey clothing and gunfighter costumes, as reported by Legends of America. The town was founded in 1881 and was named for O.H. Manning, a town of 1,500 is about 2 miles long and 2 miles wide, and its Main Street was paved in 1915, as reported by a community website. The town was established on land taken from the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, at the end of the 19th century, a general merchandise store with a post office was established nearby. The name of the town honors a postal employee, Wayne W. Cordell. In 1905, a prospector found gold, and within a year, its population had reached 4,000, Travel Nevada about 125 people reside in the town, and residents often refer to their community as a "living ghost town," per Nevada's state tourism agency. Though the town enjoyed decades of prosperity for the resources provided by Grasshopper Creek, by the 1930s, few residents the following decade, the local school had to close down due to a lack of students, effectively turning the once-prosperous town into a ghost town, per Legends of now-abandoned town where gold was first discovered in the state is now part of a state park where dilapidated buildings are preserved. In 1925, Dayton, Tennessee, became famous for the Scopes Trial. In 1925, a Dayton high school science teacher, John T. Scopes, was tried and found guilty for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in what became known as the Scopes Trial. Fleischmanns, New York, was a vacation town for those looking to escape the New York City heat. Farmers discovered they could make money from people leaving the city, and hotels and guest houses popped up throughout the the town houses around 205 people, according to 2023 census estimates. Provincetown, Massachusetts, began as a fishing and whaling community. In 1914, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum was founded by a group of prominent local artists. They worked with local businesses to create an art collection and educate the public in the arts. The town is known for being the 1620 landing site of the Mayflower. Lumber operations are pictured in Crossett, Arkansas, in the 1920s. The town was named after Edward S. Crossett, a lumber entrepreneur. Stillwater, Minnesota, was incorporated in 1854 and also began as a lumbering town. The town "had all the ingredients for a lumbering town," as reported by the Washington County Historical Society. The town features rivers connecting the small community to the pine forests of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and still waters that allowed for the raft assembly industry to flourish 2011, Forbes named it as one of America's prettiest towns. Holy City, California, was established by a cult leader and white supremacist, William E. Riker, in 1919. Holy City was created not as a religious oasis, as the name would indicate, but instead as "a commune and tourist trap created in the 1920s by a white-supremacist huckster," the San Francisco Chronicle Chronicle also reported that Holy City was reduced to "a few derelict buildings" after facing fire, neglect, and a new freeway that cut off the compound from major roads. Mercury News reported in 2016 that the town was purchased after a decade on the market by Robert and Trish Duggan, billionaire Scientologists. Historians estimate that the ancestors of Taos Pueblo people built their living structures, as well as pottery and ceremonial buildings, as far back as 1000 AD, according to Wrangell, Alaska, pictured below in the early to mid-1900s, was discovered by the Tlingit tribe. The Native Alaskan populations remained isolated until the early 1800s, per Wrangell's website. Lt. Dionysius Zarembo, a Russian-American ship commander, landed on present-day Wrangell in 1833. It is the only city in Alaska to be ruled by four nations and under three flags — Tlingit, Russia, England, and the United States — according to the town's website. South Pass City, Wyoming, was founded as a gold mining town. It was later abandoned.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Ninth Circuit pauses predator killing on Nevada's federal public lands
(Photo: Travel Nevada) Native animals, such as mountain lions and coyotes, will get a reprieve from predator control efforts on Nevada public lands thanks to a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals order requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services to reexamine its policy of killing wildlife to benefit cattle ranching and other livestock production. The order, issued Monday, instructs the USDA to redo its environmental analysis to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires the department to demonstrate its actions cause no significant harm to the environment. The ruling does not affect lethal predator control efforts employed by the Nevada Division of Wildlife, except those involving federally-protected lands. 'The decision keeps native carnivores like mountain lions and coyotes from being killed across Nevada's 65 congressionally-designated Wilderness areas and 62 specially-protected Wilderness Study Areas, an area spanning over 6.2 million acres of federally-managed public lands, or roughly 9% of the state's total landmass,' WildEarth Guardians, an environmental organization, said in a news release. 'As the agency attempts to fix its deeply flawed and now invalid environmental analysis, top predators can continue playing their vital ecological roles free of human control and persecution in the state's most remote and rugged public lands,' Jennifer Schwartz, Senior Staff Attorney for WildEarth Guardians, said in a news release. 'Nevada's wilderness and other specially protected areas should be sanctuaries for wildlife and places where people can experience true wilderness—not landscapes laced with traps, snares, and cyanide bombs,' Paul Ruprecht, Nevada Director for Western Watersheds Project, said in a news release. 'The court's decision underscores that the public has a right to know where and how lethal predator control is happening, especially when it puts people, pets, and native wildlife at risk.' WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project, in 2021, challenged a decision allowing USDA-Wildlife Services in Nevada to employ aerial gunning, poisoning, trapping, and shooting of foxes, bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, beavers, badgers, rabbits, ravens, and other wildlife on Nevada's federal lands. The ruling marks the second time USDA Wildlife Services has shut down its lethal predator control operations since 2016, when it agreed not to respond to requests for predator control while it conducted an environmental analysis. The effort resumed following a court order allowing the agency to protect livestock grazing on federal lands. Monday's ruling from the Ninth Circuit invalidated that order. The court ruled USDA Wildlife Services' environment analysis was too broad and failed to consider the potential impacts on public safety and health of lethal methods such as lead shot, poisons, and cyanide ejectors, which were approved by President Donald Trump's first administration. The agency's new analysis must rely on current scientific studies of the long-term efficacy of predator control methods.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Esmeralda County secures at least $15 million to mitigate impacts of lithium mine
Goldfield is the county seat in Esmeralda County. (Photo: Sydney Martinez/Travel Nevada) Esmeralda County has secured an agreement with lithium developer Ioneer that will bring the rural county at least $15 million in funding to mitigate the impacts of a massive planned mine in the least populated county in the state. Earlier this month, the Esmeralda County Board of Commissioners approved a development agreement with Ioneer that will provide the county with at least $5 million in funding for emergency services and more than $10 million for road improvements and maintenance. The seven year development agreement is meant to 'reasonably mitigate the land use impacts that the development' of Ioneer's 7,000 acre Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project 'will have on the citizens of Esmeralda County.' Esmeralda County is the least populated county in Nevada, a fact reflected by the county's infrastructure and services. The county is built to support the roughly 750 residents who live there, but if the projected 500 construction jobs it will take to build the lithium mine is accurate, that influx alone would nearly double the county's population within a couple of years. Under the agreement, Ioneer will reimburse Esmeralda County for the cost of three sheriff's deputies and six emergency services staffers, including salary and insurance and retirement and benefit costs. Esmeralda County will also be reimbursed for three converted patrol vehicles, one fire truck, and one ambulance under the agreement. 'Ioneer's investments will make for a safer and more secure Esmeralda County,' said County Fire Chief Jeffrey Bushnell in a press release Monday. 'We're grateful for their financial support and look forward to our continued partnership for the many years that follow.' The agreement is in the final stages of approval with the county. A signed copy of the agreement will be posted once finalized, according to county officials. 'Ioneer has embraced our entire community, welcoming our input. They have left no stone unturned in a quest for a fair and harmonious development agreement,' said Mary Jane Zakas, Esmeralda County Commissioner for District 3 in a statement. For years, county officials have raised concerns about how the largest development project in the county in the last 22 years would require significant investments from the county to expand law enforcement, emergency services, and waste disposal. The county will also need to take on higher maintenance expenses for the wear-and-tear on roads carrying heavy machinery, a concern reiterated by county commissioners last year during the project environmental review period. Those impacts will now be partially mitigated by the development agreement which is designed to 'promote the health, safety and general welfare' of Esmeralda County residents while ensuring the 'highest economic benefit and least fiscal cost to its citizens,' according to the agreement. Dyer, a small town about 13 miles from the proposed lithium mine, would likely face the brunt of the impacts from the project. State Highway 264 and other transportation routes through the town of Dryer would be used to transport hazardous materials and hundreds of diesel fuel vehicles a day to and from the mine, according to the environmental review. Under the development agreement, Ioneer would be required to prepare and deliver an emergency response plan to the county before the company starts transporting or storing hazardous materials on the project site, including truckloads of boric acid needed to mine lithium. Ioneer would also be required to pay up to $25,000 annually for emergency response and fire protection training as soon as the company begins delivering equipment for construction of the mine. The increase of emergency services needed to accommodate mining operations also calls for an emergency facility to house the additional emergency workers the county plans to hire, according to the development agreement. Ioneer will be required to pay up to $900,000 for the construction of an emergency facility near the intersection of State Highway 264 and State Highway 773. Lithium extraction requires massive amounts of water, a tough sell in a state plagued by two decades of drought. Ioneer plans to source water from Esmeralda County's Fish Lake Valley, where the groundwater supply is already over-appropriated and over-pumped. Over the past 50 years agriculture has reduced groundwater in Fish Lake Valley by up to 200 feet in some areas, drying up residential wells. The agreement acknowledges the need for groundwater mitigation by establishing a county-administered program to help residents in the region who need domestic water wells drilled deeper or rehabilitated. However, the program would only be funded if Esmeralda County secures grants to fund the jobs and associated costs that Ioneer would have covered under the agreement. In that scenario, Ioneer would get paid back the costs in annual payments and half that money would be set aside for the well digging program. County officials have also raised concerns about the costs of expanding waste disposal services to accommodate the boom in workers needed to construct the mine. The agreement addressed that concern by noting that Ioneer will reimburse the county for the cost of a garbage truck if the volume of household waste increases to the point where another is needed. 'We are dedicated to being good neighbours, providing the County with the necessary resources to ensure that our funding assists the County and services it provides in preparation for the commencement of project construction,' said Bernard Rowe the Managing Director of Ioneer in a statement Monday. Federal land managers gave their final approval for the mine in October, after a four year federal permitting and environmental review process. Ioneer also secured a $996 million federal loan in January to fund the mine processing facilities and associated infrastructure. However, the project was hit with a financial setback in February when South African mining company Sibanye-Stillwater pulled back plans to invest $490 million in Ioneer for a 50 percent stake in the project following cratering lithium prices. Despite the setback, Ioneer said Rhyolite Ridge is construction ready and the company is currently focused on seeking a new equity partner to bring the project into production. Once constructed the massive 7,000 acre project would be in operation for 23 years and remove enough lithium from Nevada's public lands to supply nearly 370,000 electric vehicles each year. The project has also attracted fierce opposition from conservation groups opposed to the mine's encroachment on critical habitat reserved for the only known population of the endangered wildflower Tiehm's buckwheat. The flower grows on just 10 acres of lithium-boron rich soil near the Silver Peak Range in Esmeralda County. A week after the federal government approved the mine, the Center for Biological Diversity initiated a lawsuit against the mine under the Endangered Species Act. If constructed, the mine would create a 66 acre quarry — a deep open pit characteristic of mines and where the lithium would be extracted — and directly disturb about 191 acres of critical habitat for the Tiehm's buckwheat. In total the mine would result in the removal of more than 2,000 acres of nesting sites and foraging habitat for a number of species.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mesquite city manager admits racial slurs, can't remember using ‘N' word
(Photo courtesy of Travel Nevada/Sydney Martinez) A divisive and protracted years-long quest to terminate Mesquite's police chief is causing collateral damage in the executive offices of City Hall over allegations of racist remarks by the city manager. In an audio recording obtained by the Current, Mesquite City Manager Edward Owen Dickie tells several residents that he notified police union officials last year that if Chief MaQuade Chesley were fired, he'd replace him with a '6 foot 5 Black woman…' '…Early on, I said 'guys, I'm going down to Louisiana, I'm going back to the back parishes and I'm going to find me a 6 foot 5 Black woman chief…'' Dickie is heard saying in the recording from February. The statement echoes another by Dickie recorded in late 2024, according to sources, in which he repeats a similar assertion made to the Mesquite Police Officers Association, which was seeking Chesley's ouster. 'I told them I'd like to go down to Louisiana with the biggest Black Aunt Jemima. I was careful how I said it cuz…. But I said '(unintelligible) would love that and come back and just flippin' whip you guys into shape,'' Dickie can be heard saying. 'I brought this up. I've heard things and if the Chief doesn't come back you guys, it's not going to be, you're probably going to hate the next Chief more than him.' Dickie goes on to say he's 'heard there's racial issues' in the department. Dickie, during a phone interview, called the statements 'poor taste of humor. I didn't know I was being recorded. I own it. I learned you just don't say things that you really shouldn't be saying. The City Council is aware and they're going to hand down a reprimand.' Dickie says the residents who recorded him were alleging racism against police officers and suggested he hire a Black chief. ''Maybe what we need is diversity,' I was telling them. 'Maybe it's an African-American woman, you know, that is qualified,'' Dickie said of the recorded conversations. 'Those comments are inappropriate for anybody to be using, especially in a work environment, especially in a position of power, where you're picking the next police chief,' says Wes Boger, who was re-elected in November to serve on the city council, but resigned after a month, citing a desire to spend more time with family. 'I don't blame Wes for leaving, because this is not worth it,' Councilwoman Patti Gallo, the only member of four who voted against terminating Chesley, said at a special meeting in March that was called to investigate Chesley and ratify his termination. Last month, Judge Nadia Krall ruled the city failed to comply with the law in its investigation of Chesley, and granted the former chief's request for a restraining order and injunction, prohibiting the city from holding a public investigation into Chesley's termination. Dickie's statements should preclude him from 'any role in the recruitment and/or appointment of the next Chief of Police,' Mesquite resident Bob Muszar wrote in an emailed complaint last week to Mesquite Mayor Jesse Whipple. Federal law prohibits hiring based on race. Dickie says the city has scrapped its search and will stick with a successor from inside the department. Whipple, in a reply to Muszar, defended Dickie, suggesting he 'was trying to express to them that he would like to make sure that racism was not acceptable within our city or department,' and 'was using that example as an illustration that our department could use some diversity within its leadership. I do not believe that he intended it literally.' 'At some point, the City Manager's intended message becomes irrelevant,' Muszar wrote back. 'Throwing race, gender, size and point of origin all into a single statement generates just too much fodder for anyone wanting to challenge the recruitment/appointment process.' While Dickie's recorded statements indicate he was defending Chesley, the relationship at some point became more antagonistic. When Dickie's statements prompted a flood of public record requests from residents seeking his text messages and emails, Chesley says he asked the city manager how he was coping with the requests. Dickie, in response, defended his earlier comments. 'I didn't say anything like 'I hate n——, I hate Mexicans,'' Dickie can be heard saying on the recording provided by Chesley. Dickie, asked to authenticate the recording, said he didn't remember saying the 'N' word, adding he never uses it. 'If I said it, it would be that I was saying 'I didn't say this.'' Chesley suggests Dickie could have conveyed the thought without using the actual word. Dickie alleges Chesley may have altered the recording. 'I know he learned how to do that at the FBI academy.' 'I have the entire conversation and it is easy to prove it wasn't doctored,' Chesley responded, adding he would sign a court affidavit stating as much. Dickie also suggests he was baited by residents Nick Alfonsetti and Mike Benham to repeat the assertion he made to the police union about finding a female Black chief. 'It's sad,' he said, adding he 'didn't know there are people really like that out there.' Alfonsetti and Benham say Dickie was not baited. The discussion, they say, was in response to Dickie's earlier assurances that he would not fire Chesley. 'That's when the whole thing came up about hiring somebody outside Mesquite, because the police didn't like anybody that was in the department,' Alfonsetti said. Dickie said he is good friends with Chesley, though he acknowledges they never socialized together. Chesley says Dickie, who was hired by the city last summer, 'is not my friend and never has been. I don't associate with people who make racist comments or jokes. In the short time I've known Owen he has repeatedly done both.' Dickie, who initially cited a no-confidence vote by the Mesquite Police Officers' Association as one of the factors to be considered in Chesley's termination, was unable to say how many members voted or how many expressed no confidence in Chesley. The MPOA did not respond to the Current's request for the information. 'As a labor attorney who represents labor organizations, I would never recommend doing a vote of no confidence unless you can have almost 100% if not 100% of your members voting,' says Reno attorney Ronald Dreher, who is representing Chesley in a lawsuit against the city, adding 'it's odd not to put up the numbers.' The wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Chesley against the city alleges the city violated Nevada law, which requires any investigation of a police officer be conducted by law enforcement. The city has commissioned several investigations, Dreher said, but none were conducted by law enforcement. Mesquite, a small city about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was founded by Mormon pioneers in the 1880s. The population was predominantly Mormon until a building boom in the last 15 years brought thousands of retirees to the Virgin Valley community. 'Every police chief that's ever been promoted in the City of Mesquite has been a white Mormon,' says Chesley. 'I fit the bill in 2019 when I became the police chief.' A turning point came, Chesley says, when he began getting calls from individuals who expected favors, such as making traffic tickets disappear. 'My response was always 'we have court proceedings for that.'' His fall from grace with the Mormon community, he says, was cemented on the heels of rumors allegedly circulated by former City Attorney Bob Sweetin. Sweetin was appointed last year by Gov. Joe Lombardo to the Real Estate Division's Common Interest Communities Commission, which regulates homeowners' associations. 'Bob had spread rumors that I was having affairs and getting people pregnant and having sexual relationships with minor females, and so I filed a harassment complaint with Human Resources,' says Chesley. 'I've been a police executive for the past 14 years. I've always held myself to a higher standard. I don't have locker room talk. I don't have sexual discussions like most guys do. No one will ever say 'MaQuade is talking filth.' I just don't talk that way. I don't like to be around it. To be accused of these things floored me. It destroyed me and my family.' Sweetin says an investigation cleared him of spreading rumors. He says his termination was purely political. Sweetin also alleged financial crimes against Chesley. Attorney General Aaron Ford investigated and found no evidence of criminal violations, according to Chesley's lawsuit against the city. The final straw for Chesley may have been an internal investigation Mesquite Police initiated under Chesley's watch into allegations leveled against Officer Ryan Hughes. 'Ryan had applied multiple times for the police department, but he never passed any background checks,' says Chesley. As a police officer, Chesley assisted on Hughes' background investigations and quickly learned Hughes had a reputation as a bully. Hughes was eventually hired by former Chief Troy Tanner. In June of 2024, Mesquite Police launched an internal investigation of Hughes. Chesley says the officer went on leave for twelve weeks, mounted a campaign against Chesley, and won assurances from two council members, Karen Fielding and Brian Wursten, that they'd vote to fire Chesley if the police union could deliver a vote of no confidence. Hughes, Fielding, and Wursten did not respond to requests for comment. In January, Hughes was terminated because he never passed a background check, a psychological exam, or a polygraph examination, according to Chesley, but was rehired three days later by Dickie. 'Ryan Hughes was terminated, through no fault of his own, due to the City's discovery of an incomplete background investigation performed by a previous police administration,' Dickie told the Current via text. He says Hughes was rehired 'due to the fact the discrepancy was not due to any action or inaction on his part.' 'They wouldn't allow me to be involved at all,' says Chesley, adding Hughes 'painted a picture that I retaliated against him and placed him on administrative leave and investigated him' because he was vocal in his opposition to Chesley in union meetings. At the January 14th city council meeting following Hughes' rehiring, text messages from Hughes' police department cell phone obtained through a public records request were read during public comment by a detractor, Daniel Miller. 'Watching this battle between the Dallas little dicks and buff daddies feels like I'm watching two severely Down Syndrome kids see who can lick more windows on the short bus on their way to school,' read one text attributed to Hughes. 'I could not stop envisioning beating the shit out of both of those kids last night. I had to open the Corona app and do some breathing exercises,' says another text. In another text, Hughes decries a city law that prohibits drinking alcohol in the park. 'The government can't tell us when and where we can drink. I'll bring an ice chest.' In another text, Hughes writes he hasn't 'been very good about logging' his K9 training. 'I may or may not be copying and pasting my logs from a different time period and just changing the dates.' The revelation could prove perilous for the city should Hughes' arrests involving a K9 be challenged in court, say experts. Whipple, the mayor, said the text messages and K9 log falsification were investigated internally by Mesquite Police, who deemed Hughes could not lose his job for the offenses under the union contract. 'There were two officers who had an issue with the K9 logs,' Whipple said during a phone interview Monday. 'Both were disciplined by loss of pay for that, and Hughes had more' sanctions as a result of the offensive texts. Just weeks after Hughes' termination and rapid rehiring, Chesley was summoned to a meeting with Dickie, the city manager, and the mayor. Chesley, who says he was at a doctor's appointment at the time, informed the city that he was unable to go to work, based on his doctor's order. Dickie says Chesley's failure to attend the meeting amounted to insubordination and terminated him. 'It was just weird,' Dickie said of Chesley's failure to make the meeting. He declined to say whether it's city policy to terminate individuals who take leave on doctor's orders. Chesley is suing the city for wrongful termination in both state and federal courts.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
A decade after Tesla megadeal, Storey County recommends state revisit tax break award process
Storey County Courthouse in Virginia City. (Photo: Sydney Martinez / Travel Nevada) Storey County officials are urging state lawmakers to mandate that corporations seeking significant tax abatements work with local municipalities to address the impact to public safety services like fire stations and traffic lights. Senate Bill 69, which the county is sponsoring, would require any companies seeking massive tax abatements enter into agreements to defray the costs of the government-provided services they would require. Currently, no such requirement exists in statute. Tax abatements for companies in $1 billion category 75% property tax for 10 years 100% local sales/use tax for 15 years 75% modified business tax for 10 years Tax abatements for companies in $3.5 billion category 100% property tax for 10 years 100% local sales/use tax for 20 years 100% modified business tax for 10 years The bill would only apply to the state's two largest tax abatement levels — those involving companies pledging more than $1 billion or more than $3.5 billion worth of economic development. These public subsidy packages abate taxes at both the state level (modified business) and the county (property, sales and use) for a decade or longer. Storey County is home to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, commonly referred to as TRIC or TRI-Center. Located approximately 9 miles from Reno, TRIC is home to the only three tax abated projects approved and operating at these levels: Tesla's first gigafactory (approved in 2014), Tesla's second factory (approved in 2023), and a battery recycling facility for Redwood Materials (approved in 2024). Storey County Manager Austin Osborne, who on Thursday presented the bill to the Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development, said that Tesla negotiated 'in good faith.' They voluntarily entered into agreements that included the electric car company assisting in public safety infrastructure needs, including paying for 70% of a 4-mile highway, 85% of a traffic signal, seven sheriffs' trucks, and one quint fire truck. But the state and county shouldn't assume that will always happen. 'If the company doesn't want to negotiate a government services agreement, it could put the county into a bankruptcy situation, or in a very negative fiscal end fund balance situation,' said Osborne. He added, 'We were lucky. The companies are not mandated to do this government services agreement.' Storey County Fire Protection District Chief Jeremy Loncar pointed out that large facilities like the factories at TRIC are 'complex, high risk environments.' 'GOED has tied us in and set up meetings with some of the companies so we can at least sit down and talk to them,'Loncar said. 'How generous are they feeling that day? Because there's nothing that actually says you have to help us at all.' Loncar and Osborne said the fire district and county are barred from levying special improvement district taxes or charging impact fees to support those additional needs. SB 69 would make any government services agreements between tax abated-companies and local municipalities confidential unless the company willingly approves the disclosure. The bill would also require the Governor's Office of Economic Development to allow the relevant county, city, and local fire districts to review and weigh in on a tax-abatement application at least 15 days before any public meeting for approval. That would allow those bodies to weigh in on any local impact concerns, said Osborne. Currently, companies are only required to inform those local bodies they are applying for tax abatements and request a receipt of acknowledgment. Impacted counties are invited to speak during public comment of a GOED board meeting. Details of tax abatement applications are typically not made public until days before the GOED board meeting where they are voted on. GOED board members have previously said they believe they have no discretion to decline a project if it meets the qualifications set in statute. Originally, Storey County wanted to add all local representation to the GOED board temporarily when abatement packages are being considered. But Osborne said they plan to remove that provision from their bill. Osborne emphasized with the Senate committee that Storey County is 'pro-incentive' and considers the state's tax abatement programs 'good for Nevada, despite some challenges.' Storey County, he said, is just now beginning to see the fruits of their investment, as Tesla's 10-year abatements ended last year. The state now expects to receive $12 to $15 million annually. '(Our bill) doesn't stop economic development,' he said, 'it just puts local jurisdictions at the table.' The Professional Firefighters of Nevada and the Nevada Association of Counties support the bill. The Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance and several chambers of commerce are opposed. LVGEA lobbyist Amber Stidham said the bill forces a statewide 'one size fits all' approach to issues that should be solved at the local level and may create barriers for companies thinking about expanding or relocating into the state. The City of Fernley, which is located near TRIC but in Lyon County, also opposes the bill. Fernley has been working with GOED and regional economic development offices to boost its own industrial spaces in the area. 'The current process for abatements and attracting businesses has been very successful,' said Fernley lobbyist Mendy Elliott during opposition testimony. 'If it isn't broken, we are trying to understand what Storey County is trying to fix.' SB 69 as introduced into the Legislature also includes provisions about auditing the equipment inside data centers. Osborne said they plan to amend those sections out of the bill entirely. He told lawmakers that, after conversations with GOED and others about proprietary and potentially sensitive information, they feel they can address existing concerns about these audits administratively instead of through statute.
