Nye County seeks resident input on needs, future funding priorities

Nye County is asking residents to tell officials what their communities need most, and the answers could help decide where opioid settlement money goes next. The countywide survey is being treated as a planning tool for future prevention, treatment and recovery spending, not just a public-comment exercise.

Nye County Health and Human Services launched the Community Needs Assessment Survey as part of the county’s opioid settlement work, with a clear invitation for participation from across Nye County, not just Pahrump. County officials and survey organizer Charli Bruce are pushing for broad input because they want a fuller picture of where the county is strong, where services fall short and which problems residents see as most urgent.

The survey asks about healthcare access, mental health, substance use and recovery support, prevention efforts, housing stability, transportation and other factors that shape daily life. County officials say those responses will help determine how opioid settlement funds are allocated locally, with the goal of putting resources where residents say they are needed most.

To widen participation, paper copies are available at Nye County Health and Human Services offices in Pahrump, 250 N Hwy 160, Suite 1, and in Tonopah, 101 Radar Road. Each completed survey is eligible for a monthly drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card, and the survey remains open through July 31, 2026.

The outreach sits inside a broader county planning effort that began before this year’s survey launch. On March 19, 2024, county commissioners considered a presentation from Human Services Director Karyn Smith, NyE Communities Coalition Executive Director Stacy Smith and Amanda Hammar on the opioid impact in Nye County and the creation of an Opioid Use/Opioid Use Disorder Community Needs Assessment. That work was tied to Senate Bill 390, the 2021 state law that created the Fund for a Resilient Nevada.

The stakes are unusually high in a county as large and spread out as Nye. County materials describe Nye County as the largest county in Nevada and the third-largest in the contiguous United States, covering 18,199 square miles with a population density of 2.8 people per square mile. That geography makes it harder to deliver services evenly from Pahrump to Tonopah and beyond.

Public-health data underscore why the survey is landing now. Nevada’s 2025 health profile for Nye County lists 786.0 opioid prescriptions, 152.0 opioid patients, 1,542.4 all drug-related emergency-room visits, 561.8 meth-related ER encounters and 345.2 opioid ER encounters. A 2024 county assessment also flagged fentanyl and psychostimulants on the rise, along with non-fatal overdoses and death rates.

The funding backdrop is equally important. Nevada’s One Nevada Agreement allocates 43.86% of opioid settlement funds to the state and 56.14% to local governments, with approved uses ranging from prevention and treatment to recovery, harm reduction, housing for people in recovery, workforce development and data collection. In July 2025, Attorney General Aaron D. Ford said Nevada could receive up to $8,921,593.50 from a multistate settlement with eight drug makers, a reminder that local survey responses may shape how real money is spent in communities across south-central Nevada.