It's official

[DesertRat]

We're moving. Pull out your Rand Mcnallies and look up Panaca, NV. Sometime before June that will be our new abode. Not sure how it is going to effect my employment situation yet. Our initial plan was for me to use my Dad's address here and keep the resident gig and stay with him during my 4 on, then go up to the family on my 3 off. Sgt. says I can't play that game. Appearently, somebody already tried that up in the Logandale resident post moving his family to St. George Utah. I guess there is a policy with his name on it somewhere now.

We do have a town right on the State Line called Primm that is nothing but three casino's and two gas stations but they account for about 50% of our call volume. They have offered to put me up for free in a mobile home in their RV park if I will agree to be on call 24 hours during the 4 days I'm there. I got no problem with that. I'll have no life anyway with the family gone and get free cable and a pool. They're all for it becase right now the closest of us is still 35 minutes away from them if we're not busy.

If none of that works, I'll still crash with Dad and just go back to patrol in Vegas. I have enough seniority to get on any squad I want so I'll grab swings with FSS off and have weekends with the wife and kids. Either way, it will be a nice change.

If the Sheriff's Office up there ever gets a road opening and the Sheriff will bring me in at a higher pay step I'll probably go ahead and make the swith if I'm hating the commute. I also heard NHP is doing laterals now and will let lateral's specify the duty station they want. I haven't verified that yet and not sure I want to do just traffic for the next 10 years but we'll see. They have finally brought their pay scale up to close to parity with Metro so I could live up there well on their salary as my house payment will be 1/3 what it is here.

[MadMax]

Congrats on your new move. Panaca is in some nice country, especially if you like to go hiking.

[Don]

Hope things work out for you up there! I can't imagine that county even coming close to your Metro wages though. I don't have a map handy, and my memory is kind of fuzzy about the distances there. Would it work out for you to go to the Mesquite post?

All in all, traffic might not be so bad. Think you might be able to get back on a scooter if you went with NHP?

[Mitzi1]

Congratulations on your move! At first, I thought you said Panaca, NY...lol! I thought, "Wow, what a commute!" Just don't stress yourself out too much! Sounds like everyone will like the move.

[Pigskin]

Change in routine is hard to take but maybe things will work out well for you without a whole lot of trouble. Good luck!

[DesertRat]

quote:

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Originally posted by MadMax:
Congrats on your new move. Panaca is in some nice country, especially if you like to go hiking.

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And fishing, don't forget fishing. And it's one of the biggest off road motorcycle racing areas out here. And all three of our kid's schools, our church, and the grocery store will all be within a three block walk as opposed to an 1 1/2 bus ride, 7 miles, and 45 miles as they are respectively now. And trees, did I mention trees, and 6 bedrooms for $80,000, and two shares of irrigation water, and a shop, and a garage, and a green house, and a black walnut tree, and and and.... All in all, I think this is goign to be a good move.

[DesertRat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Don:
Hope things work out for you up there! I can't imagine that county even coming close to your Metro wages though. I don't have a map handy, and my memory is kind of fuzzy about the distances there. Would it work out for you to go to the Mesquite post?

All in all, traffic might not be so bad. Think you might be able to get back on a scooter if you went with NHP?

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Actually, their county pays very well for a small rural county because of the influx of DOE funds from the Yucca Mountain project. I have a friend up there who made $62,000 with overtime last year. I also talked with a kid who got hired there about a year and a half ago. No POST or anything and he made $36,000 with OT. They have 6 pay steps and by contract, the Sheriff has discretion to bring new hires in at up to step 4 based on experience. They also pay an extra 6% for a Bachelor degree, 5 for swing shift, and 5 for an advanced POST certificate so I could probably do all right. For now, I'll commute and crash with Dad until we know what the real budget works out to each month. To top it all off, we just got guardianship on a 16 year old boy from here in Sandy so the grocery bill just went up exponentialy

He'd been staying with us about 4-5 nights a week anyway and I couldn't see leaving him here to flounder when we left. One of those classic Sandy Valley loving family stories. His Mom is a mental patient in Idaho, his Dad is one of my regular customers and a tweeker. It always amazes me how some of these kids manage to stay normal out here with the families they have. A "goal" out here for probably 30% of these kids is inheriting Dad's meth distribution business or making it to the senior position on your shift at Burger King.

We don't do Mesquite anymore. They have their own PD now and it's a pretty decent small agency. Lots of toys. They all get take homes and a lap top and an assortment of guns. No detective bureau. The take it start to finish from a petty larceny to a homicide.

I did some more checking on the NHP thing last night and that won't be happening. They have pay parity, but, they have so many withholdings they never get to see it. I sat down with a trooper whose base would match my base without resident pay. Figuring the percentage differences, I would take home almost $600 every two weeks less with the same gross pay. I about fell over. For starters, he has a 14% withholding for retirement. What the heck is up with that????????

[Xanthorius]

Did you say your house would cost $80,000?? I gotta pack up the little lady! A small condo (like, say, ours) runs around $125,000 up here. Plus land, and trees, and...and....sounds like you got a good deal going on there!

[Steve in PA]

So whenever I get my *** back out west to LV can I get a free room at Stateline????

[DesertRat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Xanthorius:
Did you say your house would cost $80,000??

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Yes, and we bought the most expensive house on the market in that town right now. It is 50 years old, but that is what we wanted. There is a neighborhood of new homes that have sold in the $120,000 range. They would be in the $200,000-$300,000 range in Vegas. We met a guy up there selling a gorgeous custom built with a courtyard and three car garage on two city lots for $160,000 last summer. The thing looked like it should have been in Miami Beach, not the mountains of Nevada.

This area is the best kept secret for commuters to Vegas. We discovered the area going up there fishing. There are four "real" towns in the county and the one closest to Vegas, Alamo, is about 50% commuting cops and fireman from Vegas. It was wild. We'd look at a house and when the people found out what I did, they would point at half the houses in sight going, "That guys a Clark county fireman, and that one's a North Las Vegas Detective, ..."

Panaca is about another hour away but when my wife saw it, that was the place and nothing else would do. The house is about 1500 sq ft upstairs with 4 bedroom 2 baths and then there is a half basement with 2 small bedrooms and a pantry. What sold us on this one though was two things.

1: WOOD everywhere. The guy we're buying it from was the wood shop teacher at the high school for 30 years. He completely remodeled the upstairs and there is oak everywhere. The kitchen has 1 year old solid oak cabinets. No plywood or veneer on the faces anywhere. Both baths are remodeled. Most rooms have wood floors. It's kind of small compared to what we have now, but with the basement rooms, everybody gets their own room except two of them that don't mind so everybody is happy.

2: Water rights. In the summer, this place looks like a park. I just hope we can keep it up. The front yard has 5 flower beds and the entire West end of the property is a garden. It's all on irrigation (read FREE) water. He does the garden, she does the flowers. They let anybody come in and pick from the garden so I guess we will have to keep up that tradition.

I guess there's a three also. When we were up there last summer, it was about 95 degrees. These people thought they were all going to die from the heat wave. It was in the 100teens back home at the same time. Should be a nice break for the wife as the heat kills her.

Pack up the wife, your stuff, and come on out. Our mountains don't quite compare to those colorado ones, but the price is right.

[DesertRat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Steve in PA:
So whenever I get my *** back out west to LV can I get a free room at Stateline????

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If you do it before I move, I got the hookups at Primm. I can get you the room, the rides, a concert if there is one that weekend and probably a meal or two. All they ask in return is you feed their machines or lose your first born at the tables.

[Xanthorius]

That sounds really, really nice. My parents moved out of town to some really nice, scenic farm country while I was in college. I lived with them for a short while right before I got married, and I got too used to having land around me! Now we're in a condo and it's drivin' me crazy

If I could get used to the heat, I could move down there, or if my wife could get used to the cold, we'd move to Wyoming, where land and houses are somewhat cheaper. Heh, I'm sure we'll figure it out when the time comes to move.

[3/4s]

For fun I did look it up. How far time and mileage wise is it to Vegas? It looks pretty desolate on the map. I guess you hadda be there.

I`ve been to Nevada a couple of times. Laughlin, Elko, Reno, L.V. but I drove so I saw a lot of the area. In Vegas I met a bunch of casino people who were into Harleys and told me about the riding there.

I used to take 4-5 weeks off at a time. Nature of the detail I was on. I`d drive out west and look around trying to figure out where to retire. This was before I got sick. I figured either casino security or a small P.D.

[DesertRat]

quote:

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Originally posted by 3/4s:
For fun I did look it up. How far time and mileage wise is it to Vegas? It looks pretty desolate on the map. I guess you hadda be there.

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It's about 2 1/2 hours to the substation I plan on working out of. I'll leave home about 11:00 AM on my first work day. I'll get off at 0100 on my 4th day and be back home about 0330. Not a whole lot different than I do now with the call outs and what not.

It's is very desolate by PA standards, but I've been living in the middle of a dry lake bed in the desert for 8 years. I would consider 2 potted plants a forest at this point. I'll try to find a couple links to some of the stuff around there and post them.

[Don]

Your dry lake bed has some beautiful views though!

I'm glad things are working out for you. And it's nice to have the "built in help" (kids) to help with the lawn and garden!