Lander County commissioners considered the dissolution of the Livestock Event Center Advisory Board but after discussion decided they will advertise the vacant seats and fill the five-person board.
Adam McKinney, Clayton Schroeder, Deb Piazza and Monty Price came before the commission and expressed their concern, stating there is a need for the board and there are people who would like to serve but they wanted to know the current status. Price stated McKinney and Schroeder were appointed to the board less than a year ago and should still be active members, and Piazza is very interested in being on the board.
City Manager Keith Westengard clarified, “Currently we do not have a Livestock Board, the seats have all expired. In the past there has been discussion to dissolve that board, and there has been discussion that maybe that board needs to be revived.”
Commissioner Patsy Waits said, “I was hoping we could put this back into effect if enough volunteers would step forward, because it was a very viable board and they did a lot for that area, so I think it would be a loss if we do have to dissolve it.”
Commissioner Judie Allan said, “I have been asking for this for a while. The existing board, before their terms were up, had not been meeting. They couldn’t get any of the members. I think it’s great that we do have people who would like to serve on the board and keep it active.”
Rita Rogers, director of the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce and past chairwoman of the Livestock Event Center Advisory Board remarked, “Things have changed out at the Livestock Event Center. I have been appointed over the center along with Bert (Ramos) to make decisions on the stuff that goes on out there. I’ve been on the board off and on for about 30 years and it’s a good board. We dealt with the Public Works Department but now things have changed and I’m actually over it, and an advisory board would be OK but they would have to know where their boundary lines are. They would have to know what the advisory board rules are. In the past, in the last two or three years, they overstepped their boundaries as far as what their actual job is, and that is something that needs to be taken into consideration.”
Allan suggested as things become organized, they go through the by-laws again and reiterated, “It is an advisory board and they cannot go free rein with what they want. They are an advisory board to Rogers and Public Works.”
Price asked, “As an advisory board, who do we advise to? Do we advise to the commission, to Rita or to Keith? Who is it we answer to?” Westengard clarified, “The advisory board reports and advises to the county commissioners.”
Commissioner Art Clark said, “One of the big problems four years ago was use. Anybody and everybody was using the rodeo grounds and when there was an event, people would go two days later to check out the grounds and see there was two weeks of work.”
Rogers said since Ramos has been involved the grounds have been in great shape and available for all to use. Allan pointed out the event center is county property and as such is open to everyone.
Rogers said, “We’re moving, expanding, making a lot of improvements, and there will be some changes. We’re making more room. It’s a great place and can be used for carnivals or anything.”
Allan said they will advertise for the positions but asked McKinney, Schroeder and Piazza to submit their letters, and said, “Let’s get this going again and make it a wonderful place.”
After some investigation, County Clerk Sadie Sullivan reiterated, “Just to give you a heads-up, on March 8, 2018, the board appointed Lisa Clark, Clayton Schroeder and Adam McKinney but it was only to fulfill until June 30, 2018, so we did have their letter of interest, it was in our minutes but we do not have a board as of July 2018 to current. We’ll get a publication out there for all boards and I’ll touch base with you on that. We have an advertisement, we have them in there as well as Austin, but we don’t have a current board.”
