Mitchell discusses upcoming revenue bond issue

Wednesday afternoon, Nevada Interim City Manager Mark Mitchell and City Treasurer Kristie Modlin sat down with the Daily Mail to give an update on several local happenings and upcoming projects.

Water Treament Plant Bond Issue

“We're asking for voters help, to see if they'd consider allowing us to go get financing for the water plant upgrades,” stated Mitchell. “We need voter approval to do that. We're looking at maybe a state revolving fund and also the USDA — those are the two options we're looking at. The USDA would probably be our first choice just for the fact that there's possible grant money that comes along with that.” Mitchell went on to stress that the grant money is a possibility with the USDA option, and not necessarily guaranteed.

According to the plans drawn up by Black & Veatch, “The City of Nevada, Water Treatment Plant Improvements Project will include improvements to the reverse osmosis (RO) system, chemical storage and feed systems, air stripping and scrubber system, valve/gate replacement, electrical upgrades and plant control system improvements at the Nevada Water Treatment Plant (WTP). The plant was originally designed and constructed between 1983 and 1984 to provide a total plant capacity of 2 million gallons per day. Originally, the RO system was designed and operated with hollow fiber membranes, however, upgrades were made in the 1990s to convert the plant to spiral-wound membrane technology.”

“We're hoping that Nevada will grow, so we need to prepare for the future,” added Mitchell.

Read more in-depth about the Water Treatment Plant upgrades in the Saturday edition of the Daily Mail.

Airport Runway Light Repairs & Street Budget

The fiscal budget was recently amended to add $55,000 to the street budget and $2,200 to the airport budget for runway light repairs. In reference to the amended street budget, Modlin noted, “The general summer street project was more than anticipated. On the city side, they prep the streets and so the materials were more than we had expected. But the contract came in about where we expected it to.” The airport runway light repairs were amended to the fiscal budget since they weren't a budgeted item. The repairs took place in late 2019. “It was done as an emergency repair,” stated Modlin.

City Golf Course

A citizen group has formed with golfers to voice ideas and concerns about the City Golf Course. “We just ask,” stated Mitchell. “Ask the citizens to take a look at it — those who play on it every day — and give us some suggestions. That's where we're really at, so we're still working through that process.” Today's meeting of the City Golf Course Committee was the second meeting they've held with Mitchell. “They've gone out and done their research and they're going to propose some things and we'll consider those, then we'll see where we are in the budget and see if we can make those things happen.” Making a note about improvements, Modlin went on to say, “When you're talking about improvements, we didn't actually budget any improvements for this year. We budgeted to replace a tractor and batwing mower.”

Stressing the importance of community involvement, Mitchell went on to note, “When that golf course was built, most everything you see out there from benches to even some of the greens to the car paths, those were all community donated. That's what we want to get back to.”

#OurNevadaMo

The City of Nevada recently launched a campaign called #ournevadamo. “We developed a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and Instagram,” stated Mitchell. “We really want to change the narrative from being 'the city,' to 'our city.' We really want to bridge the community and us to work together. We want to look at a new way to do government, to have more input on the way we fund things and the things we do for our community.” One of the projects that is taking off is the street projects. “We put signs out all over town that state 'Your ½ cent sales tax at work' and includes the hashtag #ournevadamo. Basically, we want people to comment.” Community members are encouraged to visit the City's social media accounts with their comments and to use the #ournevadamo hashtag. “We want to start that engagement with the community,” said Mitchell in closing.