Heidi Bunch
Public Works director Eric Hamrey takes direction from three residents on a mock-budget for Mineral County transportation. Tim Mueller with NDOT Planning looks on.

The One NV Transportation Plan was brought to Hawthorne with only four in attendance to talk about Nevada’s Long-Term Transportation Plan.

The long-term plan allows Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) to prepare plans (which are required by the federal government) to set forth a 20-year preparation.

This hands-on plan allows those in attendance to voice their opinions into what area’s their town, city or county may find more feasible. Those in attendance chose safety as their top pick whereas planning groups in Las Vegas chose the opinion to get from destination to destination more quickly.

NDOT explains the importance of the One NV Transportation Plan, stating, “Transportation connects us all and is critical for our quality of life and the health of the state’s economy. Strategically planning for Nevada’s transportation future allows us to grow and thrive, attract new businesses and provides mobility in a way that maximizes the public’s investment.”

Partnering with the public, land management agencies, transportation providers, tribal governments, local/regional governments, federal governments and neighboring states, NDOT feels that the One Nevada Transportation Plans will seek to integrate the “visions, goals and ideas from other state and regional plans and programs. This will help to identify policies, recommendations, and opportunities for managing, enhancing and expanding Nevada’s transportation system.”

This will be achieved by creating a vision for the NDOT’s future and craft goals to help achieve them; prepare scenarios of what the future Nevada will be like in 20 years; identify challenges and opportunities for transportation; develop policies and projects to meet the needs of the One NV Transportation Plan and begin planning a framework, process and tools to achieve NDOT’s vision. These goals will be met in three phases: Phase 1: Visioning, Phase 2: Trends and Forecast and Phase 3: Performance Planning.

A discussion amongst those in attendance in Hawthorne discussed federal gas tax as well as state and local gas tax. With the development of the Tesla Gigafactory located outside of Reno, the tax to help maintain and build infrastructure may decrease due to the increased fuel efficiency of newer vehicles and the development of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Mineral County residents are urged to log onto the One NV Transportation Plan website. Here, under the “Participate” tab, you will be asked to take a quick survey. The survey can be found at onenvplan.com.

Here you will be asked to rank transportation trends, discuss how important travel is to you in your daily life and you will be able to spend a $100 million investment budget on categories which you feel Mineral County could benefit from.

Questions can be directed to info@onenvplan.com or you may pick up a comment form at the Independent-News.