WINNEMUCCA — The Humboldt County Commissioners met on Monday (March 15) to discuss landfill appeals, changes to land-use designations, and receive an update from the Pine Forest WSA Working Group.  Below are briefs from the meeting.

•  Dolan/Mayo appeal:  The Humboldt County Commission reset to April 5 the appeal hearing requested by Robert Dolan and Massey Mayo on the five-year extension granted to Jungo Land & Investment for the construction of a landfill. The hearing previously scheduled was canceled after representatives from JLI indicated they wanted judicial review prior to the hearing to determine whether or not Dolan and Mayo have legal standing to appeal.  JLI representatives have since indicated they were not pursuing that course.  
• Owyhee Desert Canyonlands:  The Commissioners voted unanimously to draft a letter in support of the Elko County Commission’s efforts to oppose a change in land-use designation for the Owyhee Canyonlands. The Owyhee Desert Canyonlands were included on a list of parks that might receive national monument status; the list was part of an internal Department of the Interior memo that was leaked to the public.  The memo was described as resulting from a brainstorming session.  Under the Antiquities Act of 1906 the president is authorized to designate parks that are of historical or scientific importance as national monuments, and he does not need congressional approval to do so.  Critics of the proposal have called for public input on the change.  The Owyhee Desert Canyonlands are under the management of the Bureau of Land Management; representatives from the BLM declined to discuss the issue.
• Humboldt County's Conflict Counsel:  Judge Gene Wambolt addressed the commission in reference to the ongoing debate over the cost of conflict attorneys hired to represent clients in Union Township Justice Court who can't be represented by the Humboldt County Public Defender.  Wambolt previously told the commission he would not assign  Pershing County Public Defender Steve Cochran to those cases because Cochran's credentials did not meet the standards required by law. Cochran was a licenses attorney in another state and has a provisional license from the Nevada Bar that allowed him to practice law in Nevada until his admittance to the Nevada Bar.  On Monday, Wambolt said he reviewed the law, received additional information on Cochran’s credentials,  and indicated he was now willing to assign matters to Cochran when a conflict arose with Humboldt County’s public defender.  Pershing and Humboldt share the cost of the two public defender offices, but Humboldt County still incurred cost of outside attorneys during the time Cochran was not being assigned to represent clients in the justice court.
• The Pine Forest WSA Working Group:  Jeff Jeffress updated the commission on the progress being made by the Pine Forest WSA (Wilderness Study Area) Working Group. The interested parties agreed in totality they did not want to see the WSA go away altogether and there was actually more commonality than not among the various land-users, he said.  The primary issues were identified as road access and some boundary modifications – especially around the Alder Creek portion of the WSA. The group has been approached by land owners in the area for possible land trade or outright sale of private property on the Pine Forest, which would facilitate more public land use.    After that, the group will move their efforts to the field so everyone is standing on the piece of land under discussion. As Jeffress has noted previously, it takes an act of Congress to change a land designation, but in this case the change recommendations will have come from the land-users themselves.  Jeffress said the next meeting of the Pine Forest WSA Working Group will take place on March 24, 6 - 8:30 p.m. at the Winnemucca Inn.  For more information, contact Jeffress at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.