By Stephen Tool, MCIN Staff
The petition to recall Mineral County Commissioner Paul MacBeth fizzled out on April 7. Glen Inlow, the petition organizer, failed to gather the required 205 signatures to initiate the recall.
The unsuccessful petition gathered 116 signatures, or about 4 percent of the Mineral County’s 2,803 registered voters.
MacBeth, the subject of the recall, said, “I really felt the initial recall was a real blow to the people who entrusted me to do my job as commissioner. I’m glad it’s over and the truth prevailed.”
Commissioner Cliff Cichowlaz said in a written statement, “Not sure what the real purpose of the recall was for, but my observation is that Paul strives to give value to the taxpayers of Mineral County. Paul works really hard to be actively engaged in the community and stays involved in current events. Bottom line, it’s a pleasure serving with MacBeth on the board.”
Sheriff Stewart Handte said: “I think it’s a great thing. I’m glad to see the recall effort failed. The people spoke, so it’s time to move on to bigger and better things.”
Glen Inlow was philosophical about the petitions failure: “To me, it made no difference one way or the other whether it made it or not. I pushed to try and get the signatures until I seen it wasn’t going to happen. I really used this recall effort to inform all the people about what the Nuisance Abatement Ordinance is all about.
“I never had anything personally against MacBeth; as a matter of fact, as far as I’m concerned, all three of those commissioners should have been recalled. Cliff (Cichowlaz) didn’t vote for the ordinance because he wasn’t there that day. It would have been ridiculous to do a recall for her (Jerrie Tipton) because she was up for election this November. Why do a recall for her when no one would run against her anyway? MacBeth was the only politically feasible one to do.”
Tipton had not returned calls from the Independent-News for comment at press time.
The petition was organized by the Mineral County Recall Committee, of which Glen Inlow is a part, but there are more people that worked on this recall and many more helped finance it. The writer of this article did not correctly state the registered voter numbers. Although the current number of registered voters currently may be the number stated in the article, the stated number is far more than the Mineral County Recall Committee was allowed to work with, according to the NV State Recall Guide. The real purpose of the recall was 1) Paul MacBeth voted to put the current Nuisance Ordinance in and 2) to send a message to the commissioners that people are not happy with the same said ordinance. Sadly, MANY Mineral County Residents stated the only reason they would not sign the petition was because they fear repercussions from the county. It is absolutely wrong that people in Mineral County are living in that kind of fear.
It’s obvious the clowns down in Mina have to much time on there hands. Your always reciting your a socialist this and socialism that and we are all tired of hearing it. What you need to do is turn off all the psycho talk you listen to on the radio everyday such as Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. You need to come down to earth with truth, facts, and reality. The people of this county are tired of looking at your junk and garbage and want to clean the place up. Hawthorne has been noted as the armpit of Nevada for to long, it’s past time to clean the place up. If you don’t like what the majority of the people want to do then pack up and leave.