Small town with big problems.
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11/10/2020
Elko is like all small Nevada towns - limited in many things and the only change as far as the eye can see are over priced housing starts, drugs and crime. I really like Elko however. I'm preferential to small towns and I get by without a ton of services. We have resigned ourselves to driving back to Reno or Salt Lake for medical things. Which sucks but I end up saving money that way. Elko has really had a hard time with supply chain issues - long before Covid. The mining companies make things work out for them but they have an abundance of resources. For an average person, you will find expired and rotten food at Raley's, empty shelves at Walmart, crowded nasty people at Smiths and Albertson's. Some know when to show up after a shipment comes in and buy out as much as they can. There is some small town friendliness here. It's a great area if you like to be outdoors in the mountains or fish or hunt. However - you need to either fly fish or have a boat. Shore fishing is very tough except maybe the Spring Creek marina. You have to tolerate the LDS here also. Before the pandemic they are relentless for knocking on doors, stopping you on the street and just general pestering until you agree to let them help you or go to one of their "gatherings". They infiltrate the business structure here which is why I suspect we don't have more options in town for goods. Internet has been identified as one of the worst areas in the nation but fiber is being put in as I write this. However - I recently found out the prices and I'm not paying $200 per month for high speed internet. Frontier and Zito are super bad - ask anyone. We recently had an emergency with our dog and nobody in Elko could treat him. Not a single vet. We had to go to Reno (5 hours away) for an emergency vet hospital. For follow up care back in Elko - vets were saying they could see our dogs months from now... this is so unacceptable I don't know how to make sense of it. Elko is pretty much a very limited island. For major things and sometimes basic things - be prepared to drive to Twin Falls ID or Salt Lake City UT. Reno is 4-5 hours away but we have family there so that's where we go. But I can't afford to live there.
Josie | Elko, NV