Nye County shifts fairgrounds funds away from controversial civics center

Nye County commissioners unanimously voted to pull $2.43 million in Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund money away from the planned civic/community center at the Pahrump Fairgrounds and put it toward other fairgrounds work instead, a sharp signal that the county is reordering one of its biggest long-running projects.

Commissioner Ian Bayne requested the shift at the May 5 commission meeting and said the money would go toward “a vision of baseball fields, a walking path and a biking path.” Commissioner Debra Strickland, who has backed the civic center in the past, asked whether the baseball complex could be treated as a multi-purpose field complex, noting that Pahrump already has five baseball fields and could use more soccer fields. Contracts and Grant Manager Stephani Elliott said the motion needed to be explicit on the record so the funds would be earmarked for multi-purpose fields. Commission chair Ron Boskovich said he would be happy never to hear the words “civics center” again.

The vote matters because it takes money off the civics center table at the same time the broader fairgrounds plan continues to evolve. The 427-acre site, stretching from near Highway 160 and East Dandelion Street down to Gamebird Avenue, was granted to Pahrump through a Congressional Land Patent in September 1999. That patent carries a reversionary interest clause requiring the land to remain in fairgrounds use, giving county leaders both an opportunity and a constraint as they decide what gets built first.

The fairgrounds vision has changed repeatedly. In May 2024, officials said a Bureau of Land Management clarification could allow commercial leasing on part of the site if the revenue benefits the fairgrounds. The updated plan at the time included 12 baseball diamonds, soccer and football fields, an off-highway vehicle park, a rodeo and agricultural events center, a proposed civic center and an oval dirt racetrack.

The civics center itself has already absorbed years of planning. In November 2024, commissioners authorized staff to begin negotiations for the first phase of construction. Core/Knit estimated that first phase at about $11.47 million, with all phases totaling about $43.55 million. Korte Construction Company put the first phase at just over $7.26 million and the full project at about $18.47 million. County officials had already secured another $1 million in grants in March 2023, and U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford delivered a $1 million check for the project in 2021.

Elliott said the center’s design had already been completed under a $581,000 site development plan contract, so the building does not disappear with the funding shift. But the money vote changes the near-term path: more of the fairgrounds budget now goes to active recreational uses, while the civic center waits for the county to decide whether taxpayers will keep paying for a building that still has no settled price tag.