Lyon County is looking to many challenges in the new year, but also to many opportunities. Members of the new Lyon County Commission talked about their expectations of the year ahead:
Scott Briggs
“I think the budget is going to be a challenge to make sure that we stay on track with that. A lot of that is going to be answered on how quickly we get the sales tax pushed through the legislature. That’s going to be a little bit out of our hands. That’s going to be turned over. I still think the county roads have a lot of work to be done on them as far as getting them back in shape to the way they were even 10 years ago. That’s going to be a challenge to do that with the budget the way it is.
“There’s still a lot of loose ends on the city/county agreements that we need to work through. That would be one priority.
“The opportunities include wind energy. Renewable Energy Systems are looking at between 22,000 and 25,000 acres by Reading. Have had one landowner meeting. There will be another landowner meeting within the next couple of weeks. They are moving right along. It’s going to be a long process, it’s not going to be overnight. I think that’s going to be a huge opportunity for the county. It would be a pretty good size wind farm. That would tie right in with the peaking plant.
“Hills is still coming online. I think that’s an opportunity that we are counting on.
“It would be an opportunity to work with two new commissioners and a new county clerk (will bring on new ideas). I think all of them will be great. I know when I came on, I had a lot of different ideas.”
Rollie Martin
“Our first challenge probably would be hopefully the local legislature will be able to get a variance in the sales tax passed through the state Legislature so we can start collecting the 1-cent sales tax hopefully by April 1.
“I, as far as an outlook, am cautiously optimistic that Lyon County will be in a slowdown, but I don’t think in as much as a slowdown as in other parts of the country. I’m cautiously optimistic, but yet there’s going to be a lot of blanks that are going to have to be filled in as the year goes along.
“Other challenges for me is to just learn each department and study it and to be able to evaluate each one on their merit.”
Teresa Walters
“I certainly know the challenge is going to be sticking to the budget and not knowing what funding is going to be in the future and income and hope the sales tax issue comes through soon. I think money is going to be a big issue.
“A lot of times they say the things that challenge you the most end up making you stronger. I think this is definitely going to be a way that we can demonstrate how fiscally responsible we are and how we can be lean when we need to. I think overall we’ve got such a great group of people working on keeping an eye to this that we should come out in good stead if we just be conservative.”