Dick seeks another term, pushes urgent care for northern Nye County

For Tonopah and the ranches, mines and highways around it, the ballot on June 9 is about one thing: whether the next Northern Nye County Hospital District trustee can help move care closer than 100 miles away.

David S. Dick is running to keep his seat on the district board, and he has centered his campaign on the gap between where northern Nye County residents live and where serious medical care is available. He said the usual idea of reaching treatment within the golden hour does not fit much of northern Nye County, a reality that drove him into hospital district politics and toward a goal of urgent care and a fully staffed hospital. Dick has lived in Tonopah since 2022, after years of wanting to settle there, and his background also includes time in Montana, South Dakota, Utah and Carson City, along with work in archaeology.

The hospital district itself was created in May 2015 under Nevada law and Nye County Resolution No. 2015-17. Its stated purpose is to provide accessible health care services to residents and visitors of northern Nye County, and its board usually meets on the first and third Thursday of the month at 5 p.m. in the County Commission Chambers at 101 Radar Road in Tonopah.

That board took on a bigger role after Nye Regional Medical Center closed in August 2015. Local reporting said the closure left residents without a hospital for about 100 miles, and county records show the district and Nye County later transferred ownership of the former hospital property to the district in 2019. That agreement also put liability, maintenance responsibility and financial operations on the district, turning the board into the local mechanism for trying to rebuild care from the ground up.

The work has remained practical and unfinished. County agenda materials show the board has dealt with emergency medical services contracts tied to the clinic at 825 S. Main St. in Tonopah, including Frontier Medical Group and a 2025 decision over whether to continue services. A May 2025 agenda also included discussion of reclamation work at the former hospital building, while a February 2026 meeting covered grant management and other board business.

Dick’s bid comes as state lawmakers also wrestle with rural access. Assemblyman Gregory Koenig has pushed AB277 to create an emergency rural hospital designation, arguing that long travel times worsen health outcomes and deepen inequity in rural Nevada. In northern Nye County, that debate is not abstract. The next trustee will help decide whether the district can turn contracts, grants and property control into actual care for people who now travel hours for treatment.