Merton Elswick Domonoske Oral History

Merton Elswick Domonoske Oral History

Merton Elswick Domonoske Oral History

Churchill County Museum Association

Churchill County Museum Association

March 6, 1991

Analog Cassette Tape, Text File, MP3 Audio File

English

Recording 1, 1:02:50
Recording 2, 13:43

128kbps/44100hz

CHURCHILL COUNTY MUSEUM & ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
an interview with
MERTON ELSWICK DOMONOSKE
MARCH 6, 1991
OH
Dom
This interview was conducted by Marian LaVoy; transcribed by Pat Boden; edited by Norma Morgan; first draft and final typed by Glenda Price; index by Gracie Viera; supervised by Myrl Nygren, Director of Oral History Project/Assistant Curator Churchill County Museum.
PREFACE
Merton Domonoske is a tall, friendly man seldom seen without a long cigar clenched between his teeth and a smile on his face. He is a man of community service having served Fallon residents as a councilman for three terms and as mayor for four terms.
He cares deeply about improving the community and is extremely knowledgeable about the arsenic problems which have plagued the community water system. He can give a concise history as to how the problem started and how the city fathers tried to defuse it. While he was in city government many improvements were made in the city--some of these included upgrading the sewer plant, water system and electrical system. He was one of the men responsible for the recommissioning of the Fallon Naval Air Station which in turn helped the financial base of the city and the county. He was one of the six men who had the foresight to bring a golf course to the city--not only did he work on the plans but helped the other men and their friends do physical labor on the golf course fairways.
Merton Domonoske is an extremely intelligent man with a remarkable memory. The city is fortunate to have had him at the helm for so many years. His one sorrow is the illness of his beloved wife, but both he and she declare that they will be back at the head of the company that they have owned for so many years. The Hursh Insurance Agency is one of the oldest businesses still actively operated in the city of Fallon and owned by the founding family.
The historian will be able to confirm the growth of the city of Fallon for a period of over forty years and receive a projection of what the growth problems may be for the coming years.
1
Interview with Merton Domonoske
This is Marian Hennen LaVoy of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project interviewing Merton Elswick Domonoske at his home, 376 West Williams Avenue, Fallon, Nevada on March 6, 1991.
LaVOY: Good afternoon, Mert.
DOMONOSKE: Good afternoon, what's your name, Marian? (laughing)
LaVOY: Would you please give me your full name?
DOMONOSKE: Merton Elswick Domonoske.
LaVOY: And where were you born?
DOMONOSKE: Berkeley, California.
LaVOY: And when?
DOMONOSKE: January the 11th, 1923.
LaVOY: Now, suppose you tell me something about your parents. We'll start first with your mother. What was her name and when was she born?
DOMONOSKE: Gladys Eloise Boydstun. She was born December the 7th, 1889. Pearl Harbor Day. And she lived until the day before Pearl Harbor Day until almost her ninety-seventh birthday.
LaVOY: So she died December 6 . . .?
DOMONOSKE: December 6, 1986, right.
LaVOY: And your father?
DOMONOSKE: My father was born January 1, 1884 out on a ranch in Glen County. Actually it was in Germantown now Artois, Colusa County now Glen County, California. And he was raised, as he always said, a stable buck until he was sent off and educated down in the Berkeley area.
LaVOY: What was his name?
DOMONOSKE: Arthur Bouque Domonoske.
LaVOY: You said he was sent away to school?
DOMONOSKE: Well, his mother died when he was quite young and
2
Sam Chinaman, the cook, raised him for a couple of years or more 'til he reached about ten years of age. He used to ride his horse something like eight or nine miles to school. He went to the White Bank School, which was a small country one room school and he had the highest scholastic record of any pupil that had ever attended that school. The second highest scholastic record was a young man named Sproul, who later became the president of the University of California at Berkeley.
LaVOY: Did your father go on to school in Berkeley?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, he stayed with his aunts in Oakland and attended the technical high school in San Francisco, Lowell High School. Graduated there about 1901, with honors, then went on to the University of California at Berkeley. Graduated with honors with a B. S. degree in mechanical engineering and that would have been approximately 1904. Then he stayed on and taught as professor at the University of California. He also, in between teaching, got his masters degree in electrical engineering. Then he was married to my mother in 1912. Then approximately, 1916 he was engineer for Holt now Caterpillar Tractor Company in Stockton. My brother was born. Then he went east and taught at University of Illinois at Urbana, came back as a professor at California until 1927. I have to take one time out--in 1923 he occasionally went to work for companies--he worked for Doble Steam Cars as their chief engineer.
LaVOY: I was interested in this Doble Steam Car, would you go into that a bit?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, it was the Cadillac of the steam cars in its time, a very beautiful car, a very expensive car. Dad was making three hundred dollars a month as chief engineer and therefore, he and Mother decided they could afford to have another baby and
that's why I was born. My father said about the
Doble Steam Car, the only problem was there wasn't enough water. They couldn't condense the water fast enough to run any great distances with the steam cars. If they could have carried a tank trailer of water behind them they would have been fantastic vehicles.
LaVOY: Was this car of the same era as the Stanley
3
Steamer or later?
DOMONOSKE: No, it was a little later--they're the same era-but Stanley Steamer was built before the Doble. As I say, the Doble came along later in 1923 and was the Cadillac of steam cars. The Stanley probably came out in about 1915 or 1916, I would guess. They had both the Stanley Steamer and the Doble at Harrah's collection when my dad went through there with my brother a number of years ago and he was telling my brother all about it.
LaVOY: Oh, that's very interesting. Did your father serve in World War I?
DOMONOSKE: No, he was in the Army, but he didn't see active duty. He was in the reserve in World War I and he was on the shipping board during World War I. Then in World War II he was called back to active duty in 1940 as a lieutenant colonel, and went to Washington D. C. and I, of course, went to the University of Nevada. I didn't leave home, the home left me.
LaVOY: Oh, I see, that's how it went. Tell me, where did you attend high school?
DOMONOSKE: I attended grade school at Stanford University, the intermediate school of Mayfield and the Palo Alto High School, graduating there in 1940.
LaVOY: Why did you choose the University of Nevada?
DOMONOSKE: Well, it was either that or the University of Oregon and my brother had suggested that I might enjoy the University of Nevada since it was in Reno. I thought that it sounded like an exciting place to go, so I chose the University of Nevada.
LaVOY: And got caught by the World War II?
DOMONOSKE: World War II, right. Remember it well.
LaVOY: Did you have to leave school before you graduated?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, I enlisted in the service October 18, 1942. I went to the University in 1940 and I had completed my junior year before leaving University to go into the service. Then after the War I came back and completed my senior year, graduating I may say with honors. I was always pleased with that.
4
LaVOY: Well, I'd be very happy with that too. Did you join a fraternity at the University?
DOMONOSKE: No, I just belonged to the Sigma Rho Delta which was the Lincoln Hall Association.
LaVOY: Who were some of the people that were in the Hall with you?
DOMONOSKE: Well, the first man I met was Louis Peraldo from Winnemucca, very charming gentleman. He was President of the Hall when I first got there, and the Lincoln Hall roster were mostly engineers and geologists and "not the love and loaf" side of the campus. We were the hard workers. The reason I didn't join a fraternity, I'd taken two years of mechanical engineering with twenty-one credit hours and, believe me, you have to study a lot. The Hall gave us a chance to do that.
LaVOY: Well, I can understand that. What were some of your activities on the campus?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I was on the wrestling team, I got my letter in wrestling. I was on the rifle team. I went out for track, played tennis. I wasn't a particularly good athlete but I enjoyed what I did and with less than a thousand students, it was great. We knew everyone up there at the time. Then, of course, I was in ROTC, I was the bugler there. (laughing)
LaVOY: You were?
DOMONOSKE: Yes.
LaVOY: Then after you graduated from the University did
you continue on with your education?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, I went north to State College of Washington at Pullman and put in a full year of graduate study. I could have gotten my masters except that the Korean War was on and I was still in active reserve. And I decided I'd better marry my wife first. So I came home against her protestations and married her rather than completing my thesis.
LaVOY: Oh, I see. You were in service in World War II, what branch of service?
DOMONOSKE: I was in the infantry. I went in as a buck
5
private and I came out as a first lieutenant. I completed infantry school at Fort Benning,
Georgia. Served in the Pacific Theater of Operations as combat platoon leader. Fought along side the Marines in the Mariannas. My outfit was known as the "Fighting Irish" in World War I and World War II.
LaVOY: With a name like Domonoske that's an interesting unit to be in.
DOMONOSKE: Sure and begorrah it was Ryan, Bryan, Donovan and Domonoske marching and chowder club. 'Twas a
"foin" outfit.
LaVOY: (laughing)
DOMONOSKE:
LaVOY:
DOMONOSKE:
By the way, when I came back to the University, I became the regional representative of Scabbard and Blade, a military fraternity, and I had Nevada, California and Arizona as my territories. A corps area inspector they called me. Very interesting.
That's nice. Then after you left the service and returned to school and graduated, what was your first job?
Well, I had worked my way through school working in service stations around Reno and-different areas and I went back. I made more money going to work for a Shell Service Station at three hundred a month at South Virginia and Mary Street than going in for a summer job with my BS degree in agricultural economics. The reason I did that, I wanted to go on the next fall to my graduate study. Before I completed my graduate study, I was offered a job as county supervisor in the Farmer's Home Administration in Reno, Nevada. This was mid year of my first year of graduate
study. I was getting a little tired of going to school by that time, and I'd ..ad so much responsibility in the service I thought I'd get out and try my wings. By the time I got down for the interview the job in Reno had been taken leaving only one job left, in Nevada, in Caliente. They said, "I'm sure you don't want Caliente, we have a lot of good jobs in California." And I said, "No, if the only one in Nevada is Caliente, I'll take it." So, I went to work in Caliente. Noel Clark was in Reno and the two of us ran the State of Nevada. We travelled five thousand miles a month. Carried our briefcase and typewriter,
6
made loans, foreclosed loans, did lien searches, had my office in Caliente and he had his in Reno.
LaVOY: Tell me exactly what FHA does.
DOMONOSKE: Well, Farmer's Home Administration was the outshoot of the old Farm Security Administration. We replaced six former county supervisors handling the state of Nevada because in that year, in 1948, the Republican Congress was cutting back on things. So we did quite well. We made money for the Farmer's Home Administration. We made farm loans, water loans, in fact I put the first water systems in Panaca and Alamo--domestic drinking water. We drilled wells all throughout Nevada. My territory was everything south of Highway 50 to the southern borders of Nevada.
LaVOY: You say you drilled wells.
DOMONOSKE: I put up the money to drill.
LaVOY: You loaned money to farmers that wanted to drill wells?
DOMONOSKE: Farmers or cities, or towns, or districts.
LaVOY: I see. When did you come to Fallon?
DOMONOSKE: Well, the county supervisor in Fallon was relieved of his duties here. He would have been the third supervisor in the state. But at the time I went to work he was no longer here and the girl that ran the office, Jean Ashton, continued to run it but they had no supervisor. So they had me coming every two weeks from Caliente, Nevada to Fallon, Nevada and back again, handling two offices. So, I moved to Fallon September of 1948, not permanently, but that's when I first came here and then every two weeks back and forth from Caliente. I met Nadine the year of the big snow storm-twelve, fifteen feet of snow out east in Nevada-the big blizzard. I was out making disaster loans for all the farmers for livestock and hay and so forth. I worked quite hard, I didn't take coffee breaks, and I rarely took off holidays. I was a pretty serious young man, and Jean Ashton kept telling me she had a single girl she drank coffee with she'd like me to meet. She told Nadine that she had a boss that she ought to meet, so eventually, this one day was a terrible day. It was twenty-six below zero, it was miserable, and I
7
said, "Jean, I'll have a cup of coffee." So we walked down the street and Nadine came out of the office and she'd managed to get the heat up to about thirty-six degrees and that was about as warm as she could get the office. Her father was in the hospital, so she was running Hursh Agency. So we stepped across about eighteen inches of snow in the middle of the street, went over to Kick's Place [125 S. Maine Street] across the street and had a cup of coffee. I courted her for two years and finally got her to marry me.
LaVOY: Well.
DOMONOSKE: I was still working for the Farmer's Home Administration.
LaVOY: When you came up here for your two week stint
every two weeks, where did you live?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I lived first in hotels, but then I got an apartment from Eli Cann. It was on 356 South Taylor Street, and Norm Shuey's wife had fixed it up as a honeymoon type of apartment with blue lacy curtains. It was a very fancy place, not for a single bachelor but, at least it had a stove and a refrigerator and a bed and a living room. So I rented that and stayed there during my first period in Fallon. After awhile I didn't have to go back to Caliente so I was full time in Fallon. I don't recall how that occurred but anyway, that was rather delightful, I guess because the big snow storm and everything we were cut off from going back and forth.
LaVOY: What year do you recall that snow storm was?
DOMONOSKE: It was 1948-1949. Got down, as I remember, about thirty-six below zero here in Fallon.
LaVOY: Is that when they got hay and dropped it to the cattle?
DOMONOSKE: Yes. I went out on those hay lifts. The Army flew in large cargo planes and we loaded hay on out here at the Naval Air Station which was not an air station at that time. It had been placed on standby. And we flew out all over Eastern Nevada with bags of groceries we dropped to miners, and hay that we dropped to livestock. It was quite exciting, you were roped in, of course, you stood back by the doors and had the jump lights, the red
8
and green, and when the green came on you started buckin' hay bales. And we'd make a low flight, you could look down and it looked like you could just reach out and touch the ground, they were coming in so low. Then that night you came home and you weeped hay for a week. (laughing)
LaVOY: Was Newt Crumley [Newton Crumley, Jr.] involved with the flying at that time?
DOMONOSKE: No, not that I know of. Newt was killed later on in his own private plane. But the military and volunteers out of Fallon did the hay lift here.
LaVOY; Do you recall who any of the Fallon pilots were?
DOMONOSKE: Oh, there were no Fallon pilots, these were regular military pilots from Hamilton Field or wherever they came in from.
LaVOY: Oh, I see. That would have been a very interesting thing to have seen.
DOMONOSKE: Well, it was interesting. I've never seen so much snow out in eastern Nevada--the drifts were fantastic. The cattle and sheep were all bunched together where they had managed to stamp down the snow and they had no field and the miners out in the boonies had no food.
LaVOY: You were really doing works of mercy by taking food and . . .
DOMONOSKE: Oh, very much so, it was a serious situation.
LaVOY: It saved the ranchers from going under?
DOMONOSKE: Oh, yes. I don't know how many tons of hay went out of Fallon but it was a tremendous operation.
LaVOY: Well, you should be very proud of yourself for being a part of it.
DOMONOSKE: Well, I certainly am.
LaVOY: Now, getting back to your meeting Nadine and dating her for two years. What were some of the places that you went and some of the things that you did while you were dating?
DOMONOSKE: Oh, we went to a lot of dances, we loved to dance. We did regular dancing and square dancing and went
9
to all these old school houses around the community where they used have dances on Saturday night. Then we went to football games down in Sacramento and San Francisco and where the University of Nevada was playing. Basically, most of our dating was done here locally because she had a job and I had a job.
LaVOY: Tell me, Nadine was working at that point in time, in her father's office?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, she was working in her father's office and he'd been ill for quite some time, but she was working with him, yes.
LaVOY: I understand that she was one of the first ones to join an organization for insurance?
DOMONOSKE: You mean the Federated Independent Business Group? It was started about the time that she and I were going together. This must have been about 1948, and she was approached to count the ballots. What happened, they would go out and recruit or get people to sign up and pay their dues to be part of this small business group that the main purpose was to tell Congress and the Legislature the needs of small business. And those days there were hand ballots that were sent out every month and they would come to her. She would count them and tabulate them and send them in to San Mateo or wherever the office was in California. Then they were sent back to Washington to be used for their lobbying purposes. She was one of the first in Nevada. By the way, she was one of the first Young Republicans in Nevada. Nadine was cochairman of the Young Republicans State of Nevada in 1946-47.
LaVOY: Now getting back to you, you stayed with the FHA
all the time until you were married?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, as a matter of fact when I went to work for them I told them I'd work for them two years and then I would go back and complete my masters degree at which time then I would come back and go to work for them again. So in 1948 I completed the first part of my graduate study. Then I went back in January, 1950 to finish the last half of it. This was the time the Korean War was coming on and, as I say, I was active reservist and I figured being a combat platoon leader and familiar
with the Pacific, I'd be called up. Having never
10
been married I wanted to get married. I was quite in love with my wife so as soon as I finished my semester I came down here and we arranged our wedding for August 19 at the Methodist Church in Fallon, and we were married 1950 at eight o'clock at night.
LaVOY: At night.
DOMONOSKE: At night. I'll never forget that night.
LaVOY: Tell me who the attendants were at your wedding?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I'll have to think a moment--my best man was my brother.
LaVOY: And his name was?
DOMONOSKE: Henry Arthur Domonoske. Warren Hursh, my brother-in-law, and Douglas Hoover were my men and then on Nadine's side she had Norma Cooper, I believe, as her matron of honor and Pat Summerbell was the other one. Nadine was beautiful. Her wedding dress was just absolutely gorgeous. It was a delightful wedding at the Methodist church, the reception here at the home. Ernie and Cora [Ernest and Cora Hursh] gave us a delightful reception.
LaVOY: Well, I imagine from reading the article in the paper it was a beautiful wedding. Then, how long did you continue with FHA?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I continued until fourth day of July, 1952.
LaVOY: And what prompted you to leave?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I was making good money at the time, at least it seemed good, I think it was around six hundred a month. Ernie Hursh hadn't been well and offered me a chance to go to work for him, at three hundred a month plus half of what I sold in commissions. That would, of course, mean cutting my salary in half and beside that I'd been offered a job as appraiser for California, Nevada and Hawaii for the Farmer's Home Administration. I was on my way up. But I loved Fallon, we loved to dance and the people here so I gave them my notice and quit. My Independence Day as the fourth day of July, 1952.
LaVOY: And you went into the office and have been there
11
ever since?
DOMONOSKE: That's correct.
LaVOY: It was such a change, from what you were doing, to the insurance business, how did you react to that?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I practically starved to death the first year. I had never sold anything in my life other than in a gas station, when I was working my way through college, and it was most difficult. But I finally got the knack of it. Nadine helped me a lot, and pretty soon I was selling real estate and insurance and we were making a pretty good living.
LaVOY: Do you remember who you sold your first insurance policy to?
DOMONOSKE: I have a feeling that it might have been a ten dollar policy to the Fallon Standard to the Smiths. I think it was a health and accident policy to Claude Smith and Ethel. That's just vague but it seems like it was. It was a big transaction.
LaVOY: A ten dollar policy?
DOMONOSKE: Yes.
LaVOY: Now what do you mean by a ten dollar policy?
DOMONOSKE: Well, that was the total premium they paid per year. My commission, I think, was two dollars.
LaVOY: How things have changed. When did you decide that you were going to go into politics?
DOMONOSKE: Well, actually I didn't decide to go into politics. Fred Stiverson had been elected from Nadine's and my ward, which would have been Ward 2 at that time, and a month or two after he was elected he was transferred--he was in the civil service--up to Oregon which left a vacancy on the City Council. Jack Tedford came down to the office and said, "Mert, the council and I would like to have you replace Fred and serve as councilman from your ward." I said, "Gee, boy, I'll have to think that over," I said, "I don't know anything about city government, or politics." So I talked it over with Nadine and Ernie, Ernie of course had been mayor and Nadine's always been quite political. So they suggested that I would
12
enjoy doing it and it shouldn't hurt my business any. I'd lose a few, but they'd be off-set and
gain a few customers. So I accepted.
LaVOY: Was Jack Tedford mayor?
DOMONOSKE: Jack Tedford was mayor at the time. I had been writing the City's policy of fire and casualty insurance and autos and it was quite a large policy, I think it was close to six thousand a year, which was a big policy for me. But once I became a councilman it was a conflict of interest so I just walked it down the street to Deal and Miller who also handled the Hartford--it was in the Hartford--and said, "Here's your policy. I no longer have anything to do with it."
LaVOY: Very commendable.
DOMONOSKE: So for the next twenty-eight years I never wrote anything for the City of Fallon.
LaVOY: Twenty-eight years is a long time.
DOMONOSKE: Right.
LaVOY: What were some of the problems that you had to deal with as a councilman your first term?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I don't know that there were any real problems other than the leash law which came probably later on than my first term, but we had a lot of things that needed doing. For example when I first went in the street lights were old incandescent lights with round corrugated metal tops on them--very little light on the street corners. I was instrumental in getting the florescent lights in and we relighted the City which cut down on crime and vandalism and made it much more pleasant.
Then our next chore, not that particular term, but not too far down the road was signing the streets. The Lions Club had concrete pyramids--well not pyramids I'd guess you'd call them obelisks or whatever the Washington Monument is on all the corners with the street names painted on both sides of them. We replaced those with our modern street signs today, which was quite an upgrading. Now, looking back on it, it doesn't seem like a big thing but money was hard to come by and these were expensive projects. But we got those
13
accomplished.
Then as we went down the road of expansion in the City--people were coming in--we had to enlarge our sewer plant, build a new sewer plant. Actually, that was later on that we upgraded the sewer plant but in the meantime we had to increase the size of sewer lines and generally upgrade our utilities. Add substations to the electrical system. We did a number of things that were interesting, particularly after I was mayor, but during my councilman days we were constantly trying to improve the quality of life in the City. We finally got us some resources from the Regional Street and Highway Fund and we started our curbing and guttering and street paving program. We ended up paving about eighty percent of the streets, with contributions from the individual property owners. Those that wanted their street paved and curbed and guttered, they paid for the curb and the City did the rest of it. So there was no big argument. Who got it done first is who got their money in and signed up first. We did it on that basis for a number of years and, as I say, as a result of that about eighty percent of the City is now curbed and guttered and storm drained.
LaVOY: Now, tell me, your first three years were probably your appointive years.
DOMONOSKE: That's right.
LaVOY: So then when you ran, that would have been your first term that you ran, did you have any opposition?
DOMONOSKE: Yes. There were three people running against me. Bernard Ponte, Larry Goone and there was another one. There were three running against me. But I was successful, I was elected.
LaVOY: Who served with you on that particular four years?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I'll have to think here a moment. The first term we had Leo Lewis. He was from the third ward and the first ward would have been Earl Nygren, I believe. Well, at any rate the second term we had Earl Nygren. About my third term we had Joe Lister and Paul Scholz. Earl Nygren was in the first because the next time I ran for office they had changed the wards and I had to run up against Earl Nygren. He felt sure that he could beat me
14
in his own ward. He didn't, I beat him. So served as councilman in two wards, Wards 2 and 1.
LaVOY: Then what prompted you to run for mayor?
DOMONOSKE: Well, Jack Tedford's wife had died from cancer and he was not going to run again and I'd been serving as mayor pro tem for a number of years. We had the big arsenic problem and because of Elizabeth Tedford's cancer Jack had asked me to handle the arsenic problem which was quite controversial and traumatic, and which I did.
LaVOY:
DOMONOSKE:
Now that is something that I really want to get into so if you'd like to do that now you certainly may.
Well, my third term before I ran for mayor, we heard on the radio that Fallon had been told to cut this water system off that it exceeded the arsenic requirement and we knew nothing of this. Here we were on the City Council and no one notified us from the State Health Department that this was the case. Dr. Crippen, State Health Officer, was trying to make a name for himself and we never previously had any problems with arsenic nor had they ever tested for it, apparently, in our water. So we told them that we would continue serving our water supply and I went on the local radio, and announced to people that there was no concern. We'd been drinking water from these wells for twenty-six years. There were no detrimental affects coming from the water supply and I had, of course, checked with Dr. Dingacci [A. J. Dingacci] and some of the local people who were knowledgeable on the subject. So in effect, we told them to "blow it out their barrack's bag." And we continued to hold this position. We hired Dr. Frost, a biochemist from Dartmouth College, an outstanding specialist on arsenic and selenium and we had to testify before the State Health Board in Carson City, so we had the Doctor with us. Went over there and had a whole day testimony on our arsenic situation. And at the time, since the State was running the health standards we were granted an exemption from the arsenic standard. As a consequence we also talked to Governor Paul Laxalt about it, and some of our senators and assemblymen, Virgil Getto and Carl Dodge talked with him. As a consequence, Dr. Crippen found that he was no longer employed by the State of Nevada, which was certainly a good thing because,
15
as we had said, if he had simply picked up the phone or sent us a letter saying that we were exceeding the limits and that he wanted to come down and discuss it with us this would be fine. But to have him go public on the radio and newspapers without even notifying the City was inexcusable. So, we were glad to see him go. Then later on of course, when the Federal Government took over the water standards, through the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] we continued to fight this problem for fifteen to seventeen years, in fact we're still fighting it. Basically, the only problem is we found and have determined is the standard. We have no deleterious results from the small amount of arsenic and the type of arsenic being pentavalent arsenic rather than trivalent in our water here. In fact it makes people apparently live longer and is more healthful than it is harmful. But the problem is that the EPA has a standard and we don't meet the standard. It's boiled down to that simple.
LaVOY: How did the EPA come about to this standard?
DOMONOSKE: By guess and by gosh. Well let's see--the standard is five hundredths parts per million. If it said one tenth of a part per million we would have met it. Russia at the time had two tenths. Some of the other countries had one tenth and they said, "Well, if one tenth is safe we'll cut it in half and make it twice as safe." So they had no basis in fact on it. They never had any studies to prove that it was deleterious. All their studies that they ran proved it was beneficial but the way the law reads, if the secretary thinks that there may be deleterious effects he can just become a dictator and that's what happened.
LaVOY: Are you still having problems with them or has it been settled?
DOMONOSKE: No, it hasn't been settled. Right now they're reevaluating their standards, and if they come up with a higher arsenic level standard then we don't have a problem. If they continue on with the same one, then I guess we'll have to go through the court system on it.
LaVOY: Did I see that you have recently appointed someone as your representative here in Fallon on arsenic?
16
DOMONOSKE: Oh, yes, we have one of the greatest specialist in arsenic in the country and that's Ben Bartlett, my former city engineer and city manager. He made a study of it.
LaVOY: How did he become so proficient?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I guess, self preservation you might say, we were constantly--the State Health Department and the Federal Government were on us--and he and I have been threatened with fines up to twenty-five thousand a day and ten years in prison if we didn't comply with certain things--absolutely ridiculous. For example, on our sewer plant, we submitted a report, a timely report and required for the government funding we had gotten on it, but since it wasn't on their form--if we didn't do something right now we had twenty-five thousand a day and ten years in prison staring us in the face. It was some of the most despicable harassment you can think of. But generally, our position was, we told 'em all to go to Hell and the people that voted on it said they didn't want to spend three million to build a plant that would induce aluminum, the cause of Alzheimer's disease, in the system. What they wanted us to do was take hydrosulfuric acid, raise the PH of our water where we could run it through activated aluminum, and then after it ran through the activated aluminum pour in a basic substance such as plumber's friend and let the people drink the water. Well, you've introduced another element, aluminum, which is detrimental. And Lord knows, in running a plant like that you're liable to get an acid shower or a basic shower and we refused to do it. Of course, let's not say refused, we declined (laughing) and we fought it all the way because we did not feel it was beneficial nor did the people in Fallon feel it was beneficial for us.
LaVOY: You had other problems, I imagine that arose during the years that you were there, with the Navy Base coming in and all the personnel, did that affect the City?
DOMONOSKE: Well, not badly, as a matter of fact I was partially responsible for bringing them in when I was president of the Chamber of Commerce.
LaVOY: When was that?
17
DOMONOSKE:
LaVOY:
Well, this was 1954, I believe. They wanted to reopen the Base here as an outlying Navy landing field, and we flew around and encouraged the use of it and also they needed the Black Rock Desert for training area. I flew with them to Winnemucca and Lovelock and made presentations on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce. We were successful in bringing in an industry that was non-polluting and the checks don't bounce so I felt it was a most successful endeavor. But, no, they didn't really create too many problems for us because we were planning ahead. We were planning for the enlargement of our water system, planning for enlargement of the sewer system, electrical system, planning for traffic routes. We introduced many things; new zoning laws, new ordinances relative to building standards. We tried to constantly upgrade the standards of our trailer parks and streets and all our facilities. We passed one trailer parks ordinance that's really a dandy. Fallon is unique in that every other lot doesn't have a trailer house on it. We never permitted mobile homes or trailers to be used for business or parked on lots in the City as living quarters. In our trailer ordinance, we required underground water, sewer, lighting, recreational facilities, laundries, different things that the Ideal Trailer Park [750 East Stillwater Ave.] is an example of what a modern trailer park should look like. [First City Code for a trailer park.] And this was one of only two in the City, the other was grandfathered in and it's right across the street on Stillwater Avenue. Well, there's Gibbs Trailer Park also, it was grandfathered.
I see. The City or County owns the telephone company, and it's my understanding that there was one point in time, probably before you came on as a councilman, where the council wanted to sell the telephone company.
DOMONOSKE; No, the City has never owned the telephone company. It's always been a County function since it was purchased back in the eighteen eighties. Old telegraph line out to Wonder. The County has always owned it. No, they were a group of local citizens that were trying to get it sold.
LaVOY: For what reason?
DOMONOSKE: Well, they thought that if they could get five,
18
six, seven million dollars and deposit it, drawing interest, that it could be used for governmental purposes and to the rest of us it was obvious two things would happen. It would soon be squandered and wasted and be gone. Plus the fact that our telephone system was outstanding and we were upgrading it continually it was costing us less money and giving us better service than if Bell Telephone were here. Now that's the only County utility, the City has four utilities, we have the sewer, water, garbage and electrical. But we never had any connection with the telephone
system.
LaVOY: How did you feel about them wanting to sell it?
DOMONOSKE: Absolutely opposed. In fact I was opposed to the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District selling their electrical system. Sierra Pacific came after the City's electrical system and I fought it tooth and
nail and we retained our system. They had offered to buy our system for what we made in profit in one year. So obviously it made no sense to sell our distribution system.
LaVOY: Do you still own the distribution system?
DOMONOSKE: Oh, yes, we still have our four utilities.
They're very essential to the City. It provides a larger monetary base in which to pay for our engineering services and part of our overhead that would relate to the utility portion of our budget. We can't use it in the general fund but in the utility fund we can use it, which would help pay some of the City Manager's costs, engineering, the utility building and clerical work in the clerk's office. Our utilities have been upgraded over the years. Our water system, for example, we had an old, probably about six hundred thousand gallon reservoir on Rattlesnake Hill that the WPA had built during the Depression. We went in an enlarged it to a million gallons and covered it. Built another two million gallon reservoir on top of the hill behind it. Ran a fourteen inch pipeline down Cemetery Road and gave us a circulating system coming in on Sherman Street. We upgraded the old spiral steel line from Rattlesnake Hill across the Getto property and down the Lovelock Highway into the north part of town, which improved our fire protection and certainly increased our water pressure throughout the City. On the sewer plant, it was enlarged,
19
doubled its capacity. We acquired additional property, built additional ponds, we aerated with floating aerators to increase our efficiency from old Imhoff tank system that was built back in the fifties. We increased our electrical system adding several more substations. Interesting point, Ben Bartlett--we hired Ben as an engineer--he's an electrical engineer and a very fine one, and he designed and built our west substation on the west alley. We probably saved fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars by building it ourselves rather than by buying it factory made. We have four, or at that time we had four very fine city electricians that did all the electrical system, repairs, maintenance and so on.
LaVOY: Who were they?
DOMONOSKE: Jimmy Parrish was one of them. I have a problem with my crew's names. I really can't remember the four names, but they did a real fine job. The reason I remember Jimmy, I hired him back when I was Mayor. He'd gone up to Alaska. We upgraded the electrical system throughout the City. We made several studies on it. We increased the wires, ran a new thirty-three thousand line down A Street to a new substation. We put in the new B Street substation, which helped us handle the load in the City and we distributed 2400 kv.
Eventually that may be changed but it's been an efficient way of doing it in the past. The sewer system as we expanded to the west, we had to put in lift stations because we didn't have a natural fall. The town is flat. In fact, putting in our curbs and gutters we had to do a shed roof kind of arrangement of our streets in order to get drainage. I remember one of the first deep drains we put in was down at the bottom of McLean Street. We had to dump into New River Drain and we had to cut down through a sand hill there about twenty-two or twenty-three feet, a very deep cut, and we were able to accomplish that. We had a contractor who did it without sheet lagging I presume rather a dangerous thing, but he got it done. So that was one of our big storm drains we put in and we continued to try to survey and run level shots of the City and put storm drains in which are now accomplished.
LaVOY: I believe that you did a lot of upgrading at the Courthouse too. I believe you were responsible for putting in a microfilming process?
DOMONOSKE:
LaVOY:
DOMONOSKE:
20
No. That at the Courthouse when my brother-in-law, Warren Hursh, hired a lady from Remington Rand or one of the accounting or microfilming services of that time, that transferred all the County records over on microfilm. No, I had nothing to do with that, though I was highly in favor of it.
I noticed that there's a picture of you and I believe, Joe Lister and a Kodak representative named Bill Smith in February 20th in 1968, and it said that a microfilming process was installed at the Courthouse and I thought that probably you had been involved in that.
No, we were just there to represent the City's concurrence. In our case, we haven't had the necessity in the City to microfilm our records because our records, basically, are only utility bills that could be destroyed. But we did go into a very modern computer system. We upgraded that several times in our billings. We had several things I don't want to forget. For example a most important thing, we fought to keep the railroad here in Fallon. And we got an ICC [Interstate Commerce Commission] hearing here in Fallon and were able to get the railroad and have a million dollar upgrading of it. And right now they've completed an unloading facility and . . .
LaVOY: For what reason were you upgrading it?
DOMONOSKE: Well, in order for the Southern Pacific Company to keep a short line in here it had to meet standards, otherwise they were just going to abandon it.
LaVOY: Why does the short line need to come into Fallon?
DOMONOSKE: Short line needs to come into Fallon because it increases Fallon's potential for industry and heavy transportation. Once you lose a railroad it never comes back. In the early days Nevada was criss-crossed with railroads. The old Beatty and Bullfrog, the Tonopah and Tidewater, the Tonopah and Goldfield lines, the Carson and Colorado, the Eureka and Palisade, the Nevada Central, Nevada Northern--the tracks are still in on that--but there were railroads just everywhere in Nevada in the old days. Once they're out, they never come
back. It's like the old V & T [Virginia and
21
Truckee]. I remember it was still running when I first went up to the University. So it's essential if you have a railroad to keep it because you'll never get it again. And as a consequence of keeping it, you're one of a few towns or cities in the State that actually have a railroad. What cities have a railroad? Well, along the mainline the Southern Pacific, Elko, Winnemucca, Lovelock, Reno. You go on the South you have Las Vegas and Caliente on the U. P. [Union Pacific]. Then what other railroads do you have? You have a short line that comes into Fallon, and all the rest of your cities don't have that. Oh, wait a minute I take that back, Boulder City does have a line that crosses through at Railroad Pass, but not through the town itself. Carson City doesn't have one. Of course, none of the towns like Eureka or Austin or Tonopah or Beatty or any of those have railroads anymore. Nadine's grandfather was responsible for bringing in the railroad. He told them if they didn't run a short line he'd build it himself and he could have. He had the money to do it those days. So it's been very important retaining that railroad service in here. Now, my understanding is that a mine out at Gabbs is bringing in material and we've put an overhead dump and a rail loading yard here in Fallon, now, probably cost in the neighborhood of three hundred thousand. Ben [Bartlett] and I first started that before we went out of office. We felt that it was essential to increase the use of the railroad.
LaVOY:
DOMONOSKE:
LaVOY:
Well now, what made you decide that you no longer wanted to remain as Mayor? You were doing such a marvelous job.
Well, I'm sure I could have been re-elected again and served another four years, and there was a lot I believe I could have done had I stayed another four years, but you get to a point where you feel that you've paid your dues and now it's someone else's turn.
Well, you're to be commended because you did a marvelous job. I'd like to ask you something about where your office is on Maine Street there. Could you tell me something about the evolution of the business north of your office?
DOMONOSKE: Well, basically, -Maine Street was laid out by Nadine's grandfather and John Oats and on the west
LaVOY:
22
side where our office is, used to be where all the saloons were. And the other side of the street, by ordinance, there could be no saloons. Women walked on the east side of the street and the men, of course, caroused on the west side. So it wasn't until recent years that it became respectable to even have an office over there. All the old bars were in there, the Barrel House [138 S. Maine] and Charlie Hoover's Corner Bar [Old Corner Bar, 198 S. Maine], there was--I'm trying to think of some of the old ones there-the Sagebrush, the Star Club [70 S. Maine], the Esquire Club [20 S. Maine] almost everything on that side of the street were pool rooms or bars except the far north end at Williams Avenue was the Williams' Estate Building in which the original post office had been. When I came to town, there was the Williams' Estate Building, there was a store and next to it was a restaurant. And then the saloons started on down the street until you got to the Woodliff Building, the Western Hotel and Ernie Hursh's office. There was kind of an island of respectability there. Then when you got down to the next block there was a service station and an eating place and Heck's Market, Frazzini's. So there was about a two block area above there that was saloon row, you might say.
Something that I was told recently there was just one bar that was on the east side of the street and it was the Hub. Is that correct?
DOMONOSKE: Nadine may know that, it's before my time. The corner of the old bank building apparently.
LaVOY: Where was the old bank building?
DOMONOSKE: Right across the street from our office where the Palludan Arcade is now. Nadine's grandfather owned and built that and it used to be old Churchill County Bank and was taken over and became [First National Bank of Nevada] and then they built a new office on South Maine Street [295 S. Maine].
LaVOY; Now, I thought that the Sagebrush building, when it was originally built was a bank that had been built by Bob Douglass.
DOMONOSKE: I don't know that, it used to be Burchell, I believe they called him, as a hardware company one
LaVOY: 23
time, Burchell's. Let's see, Douglass and Jarvis had a bank out at Fairview. The old vault is still there. But to my knowledge they never had a bank in the city of Fallon.
I believe that they did have one, but somebody bought them out and I don't recall who it was now. Well, I'm curious about what was in your office building when your father-in-law, Mr. Hursh purchased it.
DOMONOSKE: Well, I believe at the time it was a rental
building. It was vacant and prior to that there had been the Mecca Restaurant [Mocha Cafe] in it which Frank Woodliff and his sister, I believe, were associated. Frank Woodliff's sister and husband ran it. Originally, it started out as a liquor warehouse, it has a full basement in which kegs of liquor were stored and distilled, water added and bottled, this was about 1906. So for many years it was a liquor warehouse then became a restaurant or several restaurants over a period of time.
LaVOY: Then when your father-in-law bought it he had to remodel it?
DOMONOSKE: Right, now, of course, he was working on very limited funds, so he took plywood and closed the back portion of the building off. The building is a hundred feet long and he left approximately, I would say, forty feet in the front that was his office. Then when the War came and he was head of OPA [Office of Price Administration] he built another little office behind that to house his staff and handle the OPA duties.
LaVOY: The downtown of Fallon was always very vibrant. Now that the town seems to be growing to the west what are your feelings on that?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I think we still have a lot of life downtown, I'm hopeful that it can be retained. Usually, historically, shopping centers come in, the downtown areas run downhill. But low rent districts, which the downtown would be relatively low, say to a shopping center are very essential to a growth of the town because young people are starting new businesses. They need a place to go. I think that because of the Court House and banks and the general nature of our town, the downtown should for many years, still continue to be a
LaVOY: 24
DOMONOSKE: viable, excellent business district.
LaVOY: Well, with Palludan just going out of business, now, that is such a large building do you feel that something will come in there?
DOMONOSKE: We've been very fortunate in the past, as the buildings became vacant that things have come in. Yes, I don't know what it will be but I feel sure that it will be filled up and we will have another business there.
With downtown Fallon there's just the one theater now but it was my understanding that in years past there were more than one.
Well, there was a total of three theaters here at one time. The downtown area had the Fallon Theater, then down where Montgomery Wards was and is now a bicycle shop and so on was the Lawana Theater [360 S. Maine Street]. Then out on the highway they had an open air theater. Prior to that there was the Rex Theater which is across where the Palace Club is and I think there was a Palace Theater at one time in years past.
LaVOY: Now, this Palace Theater where would that have been, now the current Nugget?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, right. One of the buildings was the Palace Club building.
LaVOY: That Nugget, when did that come in to being in Fallon?
DOMONOSKE: Well, it started out small as I remember, Otto Lauf rented part of the Star Club which Frank Woodliff owns. And that's where the restaurant portion is now next to the Sagebrush. Then it seemed to me that there was a pool hall in another part of it. Then later on Otto took over that whole portion of the building and kept expanding until eventually he moved north into the Palace Building and then into the Owl Club Building and then into the little bar [Frankie's Club] at the end which was--I can't recall the name of that bar--but it was a cocktail lounge where the Steak House is. One of the fanciest clubs we had in town when I first came here was the Esquire Club which was next to the old Williams' Estate Building and it was a real fine cocktail lounge.
25
LaVOY: Who owned that?
DOMONOSKE: I really don't remember who owned it, I know that a brick layer friend of mine and Nadine's used to tend bar there, Davies--Bob Davies. And they ran a real nice club. The Esquire and the Sagebrush were two of the finest water holes in town in those days.
LaVOY: Now, the Sagebrush at that point in time was owned
• . ?
DOMONOSKE: By Al Powell and operated by Al.
LaVOY: Al Powell had a son that was killed in World War II, did he not?
DOMONOSKE: Yes. My wife knew him very well, Riley Powell I believe his name was. Riley was a brother of Al's, not a son.
LaVOY: Bill Powell, I believe was the father.
DOMONOSKE: Oh, Bill Powell would have been Al's and Riley's father, yes.
LaVOY: That must have been quite a shock to the town? Now, one of these people in town that I'm certain that you probably knew was Andy Drumm?
DOMONOSKE: Yes. Knew Andy, I used to go down and get political contributions from him when I was head of the Republican Party here for ten years (laughing) and he would contribute, but he'd give me a little static in doing it. Nadine, of course, knew the family very well. Her very dear friend was LaVerne Drumm. And, of course, I knew Andrea Drumm in college before I came down here. Very attractive young lady. Yes, he was quite a character. The Dodge Construction and the Drumm Construction in those days were two very large non-union construction companies, brought a lot of business into Fallon. Kept Fallon quite prosperous when they were in business.
LaVOY: What was the other one?
DOMONOSKE: Dodge Construction, up on North Maine Street, where Sierra Pacific Power is located now.
LaVOY: Who owned that?
26
DOMONOSKE: Old Carl Dodge and his brother, Bob, had come down from the ranch in the Madeleine Plains [Susanville area) and settled here in Fallon, had the Dodge Ranch south of town, that's still the Dodge Ranch. They had a bunch of horses and those days contracting consisted of a lot of Fresno work which required horses and mules to make the roads, to dig the barrow pits and raise the road bed. So they got into the construction business and eventually ended up one of the larger highway contractors in the state of Nevada, with their headquarters on North Maine Street. When I came to town Ernie Maupin and Carl Dodge, Jr., the present Carl Dodge I should say, were running the business. They built the highways from here to Las Vegas to Reno, all through the state, they were very fine contractors.
LaVOY: Well, that's very interesting. Now, getting back to you, what service organizations do you belong to?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I've been a member of Rotary for many years, since 1950 so that would be forty-one years, a life member of the Navy League, a member of Shrine Club, a past president of Shrine Club, past president of the Navy League, past president of Rotary, past president of the Chamber of Commerce. I've been involved in many community activities. Instrumental in getting the local golf club started here.
LaVOY: That's something I wanted to ask you about. I noticed you said something about the So-Par-C- Golf? What does that mean?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, So-Par-O-Van is Paiute for tribal meeting place. We had a contest to name the golf course and I believe it was Helen Getto who won the contest and won ten dollars. But six of us put in ten dollars apiece and started the golf club years ago.
LaVOY: The one that's here now?
DOMONOSKE: Yes.
LaVOY: How did you happen to do that?
DOMONOSKE: Well, we advertised in the local paper and asked that anybody that was interested in a golf club come down to the City Council Chambers and have a
27
meeting with us. Seven of us showed up and we talked for awhile and we got no more than seven people we decided that we had to do something. One of the fellows said, "Let's each chuck in ten dollars and appoint one of us to find out how to build a golf club." So, six of us put up the ten dollars, the seventh fellow didn't, and he dropped out but we gave it to Dick Berney. Dick was running Wardrobe Cleaners [55 S. Maine St.] here at the time and quite an energetic fellow.
LaVOY: Who were the six men?
DOMONOSKE: Well, as I remember there was myself, Warren Hursh, Mario Recanzone, Jack Diehl, George Slipper was the one that didn't put the ten dollars in, John Show and A. J. Dingacci. Those were our six. So we gave the money to Dick and he went over to Carson. They were building a golf club. Bob Baldoc was the architect and we found out what we needed to do. We needed to have eighty acres of land so we subscribed a bunch of stock and put up two hundred shares at two hundred dollars a share to raise money. As we were selling that I went out and optioned a couple of properties, eighty acres from John Hannifan--that would be the John Hannifan that was with the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District. It was just raw sagebrush land and I think we got that for about four thousand. Then Ellis had about thirty or forty acres with water right on it down by the river. I think we paid nine thousand for that and we raised the money and got it paid off (laughing). We finally had to borrow some from the bank but we got it done. Then we all pitched in, spent weekends out there levelling off, we got farmers and farm equipment, spreading manure, levelling off the fairways. Bob Baldoc designed the course for us. The girls would come out there and rake the greens and seed them, and we'd have picnics out there. A crew and I built the bridge across the Carson river. We went up to Summit King [mine] and were given the old "A" frame there, tore the big timbers down to build the bridge. We got an old building from the Navy out there and started a club house. Mario [Recanzone] was responsible for that. Dingacci spent days out there putting pipe lines in to get the water system going. Bob Childers built a pump house down on the river. We installed pumps to provide water. We got a well drilled probably for a share of stock. We got the place roofed for a share of
28
stock. Bob Davies built the fireplace for a couple of shares of stock. We all pitched in.
LaVOY: About what year was this?
DOMONOSKE: I'm trying to think back, but it was in the fifties, I suppose 1958 or somewhere in there. Not knowing any better we did it.
LaVOY: It's such a going concern today, do you still play golf?
DOMONOSKE: No, I haven't had a chance to. I'd love to and will one of these days again. But, we bought our golf clubs and were quite active for a number of years out there. We feel that it was very worth while getting something started here in the way of a golf club.
LaVOY: Oh, I certainly think so. Getting back to your organizations. I believe you were a Charter Member of the Elk's Club, were you not?
DOMONOSKE: Yes. I was a Charter Member of the Elk's Club. I belonged to all the local Masonic orders, I've held high offices in most of the Masonic orders.
LaVOY: And you have one of the oldest real estate licenses in Nevada?
DOMONOSKE: Active real estate license. I was licensed in 1952 in both real estate and insurance and to my knowledge I hold the oldest active real estate license.
LaVOY: That's most commendable. I noticed also that you mentioned something about Mori and Mori Meadows. Would you explain that to me?
DOMONOSKE: Well, when I was starting out in the business I had my real estate license as well as my insurance license. Sam Mori came to me and asked me to sell lots off on his farm, which was the Mori Subdivision, which I did. Then we put together, with a builder, a housing project down in Mori Meadows.
LaVOY: Where is that?
DOMONOSKE: Well, that's where Cora Way and Nadine Drive are located in the south central part of town, between Fifth Street and Babb Lane. Russell Street would
29
come down into one end of it and Bailey into the other, I believe is the way it would be.
LaVOY: And one of the streets is named after your wife?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, I didn't do that, but the architect did (laughter), and Cora, her mother.
LaVOY: Now, when was this?
DOMONOSKE: This, I'm trying to think. When was the earthquake? 1954, yes. This was about 1954, 1953 Mori, 1954 was Mori Meadows. I was selling off eighty some odd houses down in a subdivision in Hawthorne, a Fanny Mae Liquidation Sale [Federal National Mortgage Association]. What I would do, I would work Monday through, oh, say, Thursday in insurance here in Fallon. Friday I would go down to Hawthorne, Friday and Saturday, come back Sunday. I'd stay overnight in Hawthorne in the model home. Come back Sunday and have open house in our model home at Mori Meadows, then back to work on Monday. But I sold all eighty-one of those houses and that's what got Nadine and me financially able to carry on (laughing).
LaVOY; Well, that's most commendable. You also were very active with the Republicans, and I believe you were a presidential elector, will you tell me about that?
DOMONOSKE: Well, I was county chairman here over a period of ten years which is the longest any county chairman has served to my knowledge. And those were the tough days, it was hard to get money. But it was interesting. At one convention in Las Vegas when President Ford was running for election the first time--he being appointed prior to that--they asked me if I would serve as a presidential elector for Gerald Ford and I said I'd be delighted to. I had never served as one before, but a very interesting process.
LaVOY: Would you explain it to me?
DOMONOSKE: Well, my first thought was that I'd have to go to Washington D. C., but that isn't the way it works. In Nevada at that time we were entitled to three electors, the Republicans and Democrats each had three appointed, depending who won the votes. One for each senator and one for our representative. So, what happens in the case in Nevada, Gerald
30
Ford received the majority of the votes for President. Therefore, the Republican electors were required to go to Carson City. They have what they call an electoral college of all the electors of all the states that actually cast the final ballots for President. And presumably in Nevada there's no question, you have to vote for the person who is the Republican candidate. In some states, I understand, electors can deviate which originally is the way it started out, the electors chose who would be President and actually named them, but in Nevada it's pretty clean cut. We went and we held our meeting. We had another gentleman, a fellow named [Leslie] Fry, an
attorney from Reno/Sparks area, was one of them, and there was a lady--can't recall her name at the moment but had been in the Republican party for years--the three of us were the electors. We went to the Secretary of State's Office, conducted our meeting in accordance with the state law, cast our ballots for President and Vice-President of the United States, and they were duly recorded and the minutes were closed until the next time. Unfortunately that year Jimmy Carter won--not in Nevada.
LaVOY: Didn't President Reagan brief you at one time?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, I flew back to Washington, in fact this was an interesting trip. I was one of the few people, at the time he was trying to get representative people from all the states. This time he had a group from the western states. There were about five or six of us from Nevada, mostly in the Las Vegas, Carson, Reno area and then I was the outlying area. I flew back to Washington, spent the night at the hotel that was right close in to the White House. Had a chance to visit my niece who is back there and her husband and my brother and his wife were visiting there. I wasn't just sure how to get to the White House, so the next morning I got a taxi and I had to be at the White House at a given time--eight o'clock I think it was, and to pull up to one of the gates there that they had designated. So, as the taxi pulled up I noticed a queue of about two hundred people standing there and I got out of the taxi-straightened my tie and I could hear, "Hi, Mert, how's it going, Mert?" "How are ya, Mert?" God you'd have thought I was the Pope or somebody arriving. All my friends knew me from all over the State of Nevada that were there were hollering
31
at me (laughter). I was the last to arrive apparently.
LaVOY: How wonderful.
DOMONOSKE: So we went into the White House and we sat in this large, very attractive room, I can't recall which it was at the moment. But they had a line of Secret Service lined up against the wall and I told the fellows afterwards, I said, "I was afraid to even reach for a cigar." (Laughter) Well I got some questions in and--but this was the time when the air controllers went on strike and I wasn't sure I was going to get back to my dear wife here. But I was fortunate. I got the last United plane out of Washington D.C. into Denver and we got one more out of Denver and I got home all right.
LaVOY: Well, good. How long did President Reagan speak to you?
DOMONOSKE: About an hour.
LaVOY: Telling you everything that he . .
DOMONOSKE: Updating us on what his administration was doing business wise, and what he was trying to accomplish. Very interesting briefing.
LaVOY: Well, you certainly have led a very, very interesting life. Do you have any other things that you want to tell me before we finish our interview?
DOMONOSKE: I don't know, there's so much I could say on the City of Fallon. All the things that we went through. The leash law of the dogs, the annexation of the western annex.
LaVOY; I would like to hear about the leash law because that's very dear to many pet lovers' hearts.
DOMONOSKE: Well, that was one of the most traumatic meetings I think I ever had participated in, because I had friends on both sides of the issue. Those that loved dogs and those that--I won't say hated dogs, but believed in the leash law. And while blood didn't run in the street, emotions were exceedingly high. We were finally fortunate in being able to pass the leash law that did help things here and we set up a pound and had a good pound keeper. We did things that seemed
LaVOY:
DOMONOSKE:
LaVOY:
32
traumatic--looking back on it seemed quite normal now. At least no violence occurred (laughter).
I know in interviewing one of your fellow councilmen, Harold Rogers, he said that was so traumatic to him, that's what made him decide not to run again (laughter).
Well, there are many traumatic meetings we had, our west side annexation, I didn't permit meetings to get out of hand, I was very strong in conducting the meetings. I had a feeling for when things were getting out of hand and hammering things to order and kept things going. But, you can't afford to let a City Council meeting become a town meeting, so I never did. That was fortunate because I learned the way over the years, that you have to keep order.
Well, you have certainly done a great deal for the city of Fallon and behalf of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project I want to thank you for all of the time that you have taken.
DOMONOSKE: Well, thank you Marian, I appreciate you taking
time out of your busy schedule to come here.
ADDENDUM
Governor Michael O'Callaghan appointed Merton Domonoske to the Nevada Real Estate Commission which hears all license violations, promulgates rules and regulations and polices the real estate industry. Hearings are held four times a year--two in the northern part of the state and two in the southern.
Arsenic problem MERTON E. DOMONOSKE Page
Ashton, Jean INDEX 14-16
6-7
Bars 21, 22, 24, 25
Bartlett, Ben 16, 19
Churchill County Bank 22
City planning 17
City relighting 12
City utilities 13, 18-19
Clubs - see Bars
Councilman 11-14
Curbs and gutters 13
Doble Steam Car 2-3
Dodge, Carl 26
Dodge Construction 25-26
Domonoske, Arthur Bouque 1-3
Domonoske, Gladys Eloise Boydstun . . 1
Domonoske, Henry Arthur 3, 10
Domonoske, Nadine Hursh 6-9
Drumm, Andy 25
E. H. Hursh, Inc 10-12, 23
Fallon 12-14, 16-25
Farmer's Home Administration 5-6, 7, 9, 10
Federated Independent Business Group 9
Golf course - see So-Par-O-Van
Hay lift 7-8
Hursh, Warren 20, 27
Leash law 31-32
Maine Street 21-23
Marriage 10
Maupin, Ernie 26
Mayor 14-21, 31-32
Mori Meadows 28-29
Nevada Real Estate Commission Addendum
Nugget - see Bars
Pesidential elector 29-30
Republican Party Chairman 29-31
Sagebrush Club - see Bars
Saloons - see Bars
Service organizations 26-28
So-Par-O-Van 26-28
Southern Pacific Railroad 20-21
Street Signs 12
Tedford, Jack 12
Telephone Company 17-18
Theaters 24
U. S. Naval Air Station 16-17
University 3-5
Williams Estate Building 22
World War II 3, 4-5, 25

Marian Lavoy

Merton Elswick Domonoske

376 West Williams