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07-22-2010 Legal Complications for D.C. Day Park in Rachel
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Legal Complications For D.C. Day Park in Rachel
By Dave Maxwell
Using some $400,000 of a Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA) grant to build the D.C. Day Park in Rachel is going to require the Day family to give clear title for the 5½ acres to Lincoln County. That means the Day family will have to relinquish their right of reversion, which was stipulated in the original 1988 document donating the land to the County.
David Day
Photo by Dave Maxwell
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David Day, son of Rachel, founder, & the late D.C. Day, again appeared before Commissioners at their regular July 6 meeting, as he was asked to, and presented a list of proposal items from the D.C. Day Park Advisory Committee, which still include a medical facility.
D.C. Day’s intent in 1988 was to donate 5½ acres near the center of town, to the County for a park that would also include a medical facility. If the County found it could not provide the facility, then the land would revert to the Day family. The original wording states: “In the event said real property is not used by Lincoln County, state of Nevada, for a medical facility, said real property shall revert automatically to the grantor.”
Day wants to honor his father’s wishes of having a least a county nurse come to Rachel on a regular basis, but the Commission board is saying it cannot spend the SNPLMA grant money for the park unless they have clear title to the land.
Commissioners have never tried to build a medical facility there as D.C. Day requested, but have secured an $821,000 grant from SNPLMA, nearly half of which would be used to build a community park in Rachel. The other portion would go to the town of Panaca.
The proposals David Day gave to the Commission July 6, included formally naming the park the D.C. Day Park, be informed on what is going on regarding concepts for the park, projects, repairs, needs, etc., and also utilizing a room in the current Quonset hut on the property as a medical facility with the county nurse coming at least once a month, deeding the Rachel fire truck over to Lincoln County and housing it in the Quonset hut, and devising a maintenance plan for the park, including equipment, buildings/structures, and land.
The proposal by the Advisory Committee for the medical facility stated, “The Lincoln County Nurse will provide a minimum of monthly service to the town of Rachel. The nurse will utilize a room in the building currently housing the Penoyer Valley Electric Cooperative, located at D.C. Day Park. As time progresses, the town of Rachel expects more services to be available as resources allow.”
Commission chair Paul Mathews wondered whether or not the County could “meet the obligations to secure the deed or not. Either we can meet the requirements and own the property, or we can’t and we give the property back. What we need to resolve is clear title and then proceed with the park.”
In discussions, Commissioners were not at all sure they would be able to guarantee that a health nurse or a Physician’s Assistant would be able to go to Rachel on a regular once-a-month schedule, which Day strongly desired.
Commissioner Hornbeck, who oversees the Rachel district, asked what would happen if funding for a County nurse were removed, “and we don’t have a nurse to send out there, will you come back and say we want the park back?”
Day said he did not think he would act in that manner, but did say he thought the County could provide a nurse once a month, but he was also trying to fulfill his father’s wishes.
Hornbeck said the County cannot afford to send a nurse to the outlying areas, if the state funding is not there, “and we cannot absolutely guarantee that Rachel will have a nurse.”
Jean Lucht, County Health Nurse, said she could not guarantee either she would be able to make regular monthly trips to Rachel. Other assignments from the state health department, or results from special legislative sessions, may prevent her from being able to make a guaranteed visit.
However, the larger problem surfaced during the meeting when it was learned that if the County does not have clear title to the property at the park, they will not be able to use the SNPLMA grant to build the park, where some work has already been started. The original stipulations, made by D.C. Day, allow the family to take back the land, if the County fails to meet the conditions of the land being donated in the first place, thus not giving the County clear title.
District Attorney Greg Barlow advised unless the Day family gives up the reversion clause in the title deed, the County should not invest the grant money into building a town park. “The title to the property is clouded by the reversionary provisions,” he said.
He said he very much would like to see a medical facility in Rachel, as much as in all the communities of Lincoln County, however, “in terms of the County obligating grant money, one of the conditions on all the grants I’ve seen, is that the grantee has legal title to the ground. At this point, with the condition there of automatic reversion if there is no medical facility, that has at least the pertinence of that, whether it’s used once a month, once a week, or daily, not just a room, or a garage with a couple of chairs. That’s not in keeping, as I understand it, with proper medical procedural practice.” He added, “But you can’t just put it in and not use it. It can’t become a dead place. It’s got to be something that is used, and if you don’t have the resources to make it useful, as long as that condition pertains over there, the County would lose in a court action.”
Grants Administrator Phyllis Robistow said the SNPLMA money (about $400,000) is for building a city park, not a medical facility, “and if we don’t have that park, it will nullify the whole grant,” Panaca’s part included. A paragraph in the grant award lists the project be done as a whole, she said. “If I go back to SNPLMA and say I’m only going to do half a project, they are going to say ‘No’. You do the whole project or you do none of the project.” Both projects have to be completed by June 30, 2014, she said.
About $47,000 has already been spent of the grant money on some septic tank work at the park, removal of old fencing surrounding the grounds, and the purchase of some on-sale playground equipment.
County Building and Safety Director Cory Lytle said the Panaca park project is ready to move with approving the plans and start with the bidding process. “It’s a park upgrade, same thing as Rachel. Improve the fencing, new restroom facilities, new cooking facilities, new playground equipment, and a mix of other improvements.”
But, with the protest by the Day family in Rachel, moving forward with the Panaca park has been put on hold.
Barlow said the Day family and supporters will need to decide whether or not, they will withdraw all the conditions which keeps the County from gaining clear title, and be able to invest the grant money into the park. “If you want a park and if you want the $400,000 the grant would provide, you’re going to have to give up right to reversion, in order to satisfy the grant requirements and the requirements for the County.”
All the immediate Day family would have to do, Barlow said, would be to sign an appropriate waiver of their rights under the deed, and that takes the requirement out of the deed, then the County has clear title.”
Day replied by saying that he had talked to his attorney, and did not want to change the deed until the County built the park and agreed to their proposals.
Hornbeck said the money for the park is guaranteed now, but without the County having clear title to the ground, the park will not be built and the grant will be lost. “But what I can’t do is put my County in jeopardy over this to put money into the park right now, and then have you decide in a couple of years to take that land back. The County would have to pay that $400,000 back.”
Day, who seemed a bit disgusted at the end of the discussion, said he would talk again with his family members and other residents of Rachel to discuss what they want to do after hearing the problems that exist, and come back to a future Commission meeting.
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