The Elko County Board of Commissioners on July 2 approved the roads infrastructure tax plan for fiscal year 2026, endorsing equipment acquisitions, engineering for Spring Valley Parkway reconstruction in Spring Creek, and a new annual $25,000 miscellaneous line to assist residents maintaining public-access roads not accepted for county maintenance.

Dennis Price, county road superintendent, described FY26 items that include two 10-wheel dump trucks, two crew pickups, grader engine rebuilds and other capital equipment requests. Staff and commissioners also discussed engineering work and an eventual reconstruction project for Spring Valley Parkway from State Route 227 through the Spring Creek mobile-home park loop; engineering for that reconstruction is underway and construction is planned in FY26.

Commissioners added a new, modest line item — “miscellaneous county public access roads” — initially set at $25,000 to provide materials such as culverts or road base to community groups or nonprofit associations that have formed to maintain roads that are not accepted for full county maintenance. Price said the county would not deploy personnel to these private or unaccepted roads but would track materials ordered and provide them as targeted assistance.

Staff also noted ongoing work on Palace Parkway (planned micropaving funded in part with Regional Transportation Commission dollars) and near-term completion of Lucky Nugget Phase 2. Board members asked staff to continue annual updates to the plan, noting priorities change year to year and that the plan is a flexible tool for capital programming.

Votes at a glance
- Roads infrastructure tax plan FY26: approved by voice vote; motion carried.

Why it matters
The plan schedules heavy-equipment and roadway work for the county’s unincorporated areas and allocates funds to help residents and small associations maintain access roads that the county does not officially accept for maintenance. The $25,000 set-aside establishes a tracked mechanism to deliver materials without deploying county crews to non-maintained roads.

What happens next
Procurement and engineering for listed equipment and Spring Valley Parkway reconstruction will proceed per the FY26 schedule. Road superintendent Dennis Price said the county will continue to update the plan annually and coordinate with Spring Creek and the RTC on funding and construction timing.