Nevada reopens doors with new staff structure

After closing down for a day and a half, Nevada's city hall reopened its doors today, with a much smaller staff and the day-to-day implementation of a new structure of responsibilities for remaining staffers under way.

On Tuesday, Interim City Manager Harlan Moore announced that 30 positions had been eliminated and that dramatic changes would be taking place in the way city business is administered and in the distribution of duties, after discussing the matter with the city council in a special meeting held that afternoon.

On Wednesday, regional television stations got the word and conducted some on-the-spot interviews in Nevada.

Television news crews at one station interviewed a local man whose comment to reporters was "We spent more money than we brought in. Something had to be done."

Specific names of those who lost their jobs have not yet been released.

Little new, concrete information is available, but the shake-up at city hall is the talk of the town -- even though few are willing to voice a public opinion at this time. Some residents seem angry; others seem to see the events as just another factor with which to deal.

Moore's statement indicated that the citizens would probably notice a decline in some service but did not specify which services might suffer and which were considered vital.

The statement also did not specify criteria used to determine the new staff structure.

Many questions remain, however, ranging from how these changes will impact the city's day-to-day operation to how services like police and fire response or water utility service will be affected to questions about how these changes will impact the city's economic development efforts, now and in the future.

Meanwhile, many activities are moving forward. The pool's still open, calling 911 still reaches a dispatcher; and a campaign for the extension of a 1/2-cent transportation sales tax continues with proponents of the tax now emphasizing that the funds from such a tax are ear-marked for street improvements.