Senator Jacky Rosen visited Western Nevada College's campus in Fallon on Thursday to discuss the medical provider shortage in Nevada, especially in rural areas. Senator Rosen says that the nursing school will receive $2.3 million to help renovate their building, create better programs, and allow more students to enroll.
"It's important that we grow our own healthcare workforce, and this is where it happens. So, people who live in Fallon, who live around the community they can come here, they can train here, they can stay and work here where their friends and family are. So, this 2.3 million dollar grant is going to help secure that permanent space to create these nursing students and we hope even more going forward in the future," Senator Rosen says.
Due to Nevada's shortage in health care professionals, it's important to invest in rural communities. Especially when they have the infrastructure and colleges to provide the equipment and education to those who want to work in health care.
The president of Western Nevada College Kyle Dalpe gave the senator a tour of their facility and discussed future plans that they have for it.
"What we're going to do is renovate one of the buildings out here at the Fallon campus, the Pinon building, starting next year to bring state of the art nursing lab so we can expand the number of seats for nursing to help fill that healthcare shortage and also maybe ad in some other allied health programs so we're very pleased to have the senator's support with that," he says.
Afterwards the senator visited a field nearby, where she has secured a $4 million grant to turn it into affordable housing.
"We need affordable housing here in Fallon. We need it for growth of the base, we need it for growth of the city, and just for our young folks here in Fallon to be able to find a place to live. So, this road is the first step to building this affordable housing," Senator Rosen says.
Senator Rosen says that not only is this important for local residents, but this plan will also provide housing for men and women training at the navy base in Fallon. She tells us that this is the first step to more affordable housing developments planned in the future.
"It's right along the Carson River here in Fallon. It'll finally provide some much-needed alleviated stress off of our housing here in Fallon,"Â
Myles Getto, Churchill County Commissioner says. "So currently we have NAS Fallon here, huge driver force behind our housing here, and they need spots to live. My younger generation as well as yours need affordable places to live to get into the housing market."
Commissioner Getto says that this housing plan will have over 400 units along with multiple amenities such as a swimming pool, club house, and dog park.
