Utah
Tale of two cities: Nevada town’s employees paid more than those across Utah border
The story of West Wendover, Nevada, is a tale of two cities, one told in part by the pay of its city employees versus those in adjacent Wendover, Utah.
A white line on the main street — and a canyon-sized gap in pay — divide the twin towns.
The city manager in West Wendover, population roughly 4,600, earned $170,000 in 2023, city pay records show. The city administrator in Wendover, population about 1,200, was paid $41,000, according to the Transparent Utah website.
There seem to be no hard feelings. “Whether it’s fair or not, I don’t make that judgment,” said Glenn Wadsworth, the part-time city administrator of Wendover, established in the early 1900s as a railroad town.
“They have legal gambling on the west side, which generates a lot of money” that can be used to pay higher wages, Wadsworth said.
Five hotel-casinos allow the number of people in West Wendover to balloon to 30,000 on weekends, and create a need for 24/7 police protection and other services, said Chris Melville, West Wendover’s city manager.
“We’re a gaming community,” Melville said.“We have marijuana. That is also a factor, where folks come from Utah to use the cannabis. The same with liquor.”
Gambling and non-medical marijuana are illegal in Utah, and laws surrounding alcohol are more restrictive.
“We depend on that,” Melville said. “If Utah wasn’t doing that, we likely wouldn’t exist.”
The two towns view themselves as one community, but municipal services for the most part are handled separately, Melville said.
He grew up on the Utah side of the border in Wendover, where he went to school with Wadsworth’s son. Business began to flourish on the Nevada side in the 1980s, he recalled. West Wendover was incorporated in 1991.
City ‘takes care of its employees’
The community’s remoteness makes it challenging to recruit employees, Melville said. The city offers pay and benefits more in line with those of Elko, the county seat two hours away with quadruple the population, he said.
“We have to be a little more competitive to keep people here or get them here to start with,” Melville said. “I’m not going to say that our city doesn’t take care of its employees, because we do.”
Among the city’s top-paid employees are police officers, who records show are amassing lucrative overtime. Several times a week, officers need to transport a person who has been arrested to Elko, a four-hour, round-trip trek, Melville said. West Wendover has holding cells but no jail.
In 2023, the top-paid employee in Wendover was in the police department and earned $55,000, records show. In West Wendover, the third-highest paid employee, after Melville and the fire chief, was a police lieutenant who made $117,000, records show.
Melville said it has become harder recently to hire officers, as has been the case in much of the country, because of some negative attitudes about police work. Most officers are recruited from Utah, with some, he acknowledged, being poached from Wendover.
Once in a while, the tide flows the other way, with an officer going from West Wendover to Wendover. The chief of police in Wendover took the position after retiring from the West Wendover force and getting his pension from the state of Nevada, Melville confirmed.
In 2023, nine of West Wendover’s 82 employees – or 11 percent – were paid more than $100,000 during the calendar year. All but two of Wendover’s 26 employees made less than $50,000.
Costs of living expenses for a single adult in West Wendover in 2020 were about 16 percent higher than average for Nevada, according to the financial news website 24/7.
‘It keeps me alive’
The Transparent Nevada website has incomplete pay information for small towns in Nevada. The Transparent Utah site shows that communities of comparable size to West Wendover, albeit without the city’s unique characteristics, pay considerably less.
The top official in Utah’s Elk Ridge, La Verkin and Kanab, earned $128,000, $120,000, and $119,000, respectively.
Melville, who also is the director of community development and heads up the human resources department, said he hasn’t gotten pushback from members of the community about his pay.
“They know me. They know the work I’m doing” and have enjoyed the improvement in the community’s quality of life, said Melville, who has worked for the city for 26 years, 22 of them as its manager.
Wadsworth said he took the job as Wendover city administrator after retiring from the mining industry.
“I was called to this position,” the 80-year-old said. “They needed to have somebody to help the city. It was only supposed to be for a short period of time, and it’s been 23 years now. It keeps me alive, I think. It gives me something to do.”
Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MaryHynes1 on X. Hynes is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.
The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City issued red flag warning Friday morning as emergency workers continued to battle one of the state’s largest wildfires in its history.
The red flag warning, issued when critical fire warnings are occurring or imminent, was to be in place through midnight Saturday.
“This is the FIRST Particularly Dangerous Situation Red Flag Warning issued in NWS Salt Lake City history. This is an exceptionally rare event,” the federal agency said in its warning.
A map of the area under the warning covered much of central and southwest Utah, with an area of the southwest, central and southern mountains also outlined as “particularly dangerous red flag.”
The particularly dangerous area includes the Cottonwood Fire, near the town of Beaver, which started Monday and had grown to covering almost nearly 71,000 acres by Thursday, 15 News reported. The fire forced evacuations.
The NWS warned that gusty winds and dry conditions would lead to rapid fire growth.
Utah also was dealing with the Iron Fire, which started June 19, and nearly destroyed the town of Eureka. The fire was about 27% contained Friday morning.
The fire danger led Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to issue executive order restricting fireworks statewide during the July 4 holiday, which marks the nation’s 250th birthday this year. The ban is in effect through July 5.
“Nothing about this decision was easy,” Cox said in a statement issued by his office Thursday.
“This is unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory. We’re seeing fires spread farther and faster under conditions that defy historical expectations” Jamie Barnes, Utah state forester and director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, added in the statement.
Cox allowed cities and local communities to set aside areas where fireworks could be safely used. The city of Provo announced it would enforce a citywide prohibition on fireworks and would not designate a safe area for fireworks.
“This year is different,” Provo Mayor Marsha Judkins said in a statement. “The wildfire danger facing our community is real, and protecting lives, homes, and our natural spaces must come first.”
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Earlier this month, 2News Investigates brought you a former inmate’s federal lawsuit alleging Utah Department of Corrections leaders failed to address reports of alleged sexual assault by correctional officers. Now, 2News Investigates examines another key claim in that lawsuit.
MORE: Federal lawsuit alleges Utah prison leaders covered up guards’ sexual assaults on inmates
The lawsuit alleges a mass cross-gender strip-search operation – women being viewed by men was intended to further silence female inmates.
Federal law generally prohibits cross-gender strip searches of female inmates except during emergencies or when conducted by medical personnel. UDC says that during body-search procedures, male correctional officers are not allowed in the immediate area and inmate privacy is maintained. Former inmates say that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Three former inmates agreed to speak with 2News Investigates but asked that their identities not be revealed.
“It was very traumatic.”
According to the lawsuit, on May 13, 2025, UDC carried out a large-scale operation known as a “reset” in women’s housing units at the Utah State Correctional Facility (USCF) in Salt Lake City.
Wendy: “They call it a reset. What do you call it?”
“A violation.”
“It’s like a rape.”
The lawsuit alleges UDC Deputy Warden Derick Zorn and Warden Sharon D’Amico directed the operation, along with more than a dozen members of the Critical Incident Response Team, or CIRT.
According to the plaintiffs, officers stormed dormitories, shouted profanities, and issued conflicting commands.
The women say and the lawsuit states they were ordered to pack their belongings into totes and change into state-issued uniforms in front of male CIRT officers. They were then marched to the Emerald Building for processing.
“It felt almost like we were at a concentration camp.”
The lawsuit alleges the women were required to undergo body scans and then strip completely naked. Plaintiffs claim they were ordered to lift their breasts, spread their buttocks, and cough while visible to male staff.
Women who were menstruating allegedly were instructed to remove menstrual products in full view of others.
“Just use one hand to remove it. Hold it up in front of you.”
“I felt really small and worthless.”
The lawsuit alleges some women were forced to hold soiled menstrual pads while performing physical maneuvers.
“I just did what I was told. I just wanted to get it over with.”
The plaintiffs also claim they were required to sit on toilets or squat to provide urine samples while completely naked and visible to male officers.
“It was humiliating. It was degrading.”
The lawsuit further alleges cell doors were left open, exposing naked women to other inmates and male staff.
An overhead observation booth with reflective glass overlooked the strip-search area. Plaintiffs say they observed movement inside and believed they were being watched from above.
The lawsuit alleges the female inmates were being watched from above during a mass strip search on May 13, 2025
“I could see in the overhead, the two-way mirror. There were multiple men walking around up there who had direct vision inside those cells.”
The lawsuit alleges Captain Jared Beers and Lieutenant Matthew Coombs were inside the booth and that Deputy Warden Derick Zorn observed women in various states of undress.
“I made eye contact with Officer Arroyo, and I also saw Deputy Zorn.”
“I knew if I could see the male officers, they could see me.”
One former inmate described the experience as state-sanctioned sexual violence.
“When that happens, and you’ve gone through the same kind of thing as a child, it’s very traumatic.”
The lawsuit alleges Warden D’Amico knew male officers were viewing naked female inmates and “ratified, condoned, and failed to stop it.”
An allegation in the lawsuit filed on May 15, 2026
“You’re pretty much a hostage.”
UDC Executive Director Jared Garcia declined repeated requests for an on-camera interview. A letter sent said:
“During the body search process in female living areas, male correctional officers are not allowed in the immediate area, and privacy is maintained. In general, resets are conducted routinely, according to UDC policy and under strict protocols designed to ensure safety while also preserving the privacy and dignity of incarcerated individuals.”
“The manner matters.”
Walter Mason represents the plaintiffs.
He told 2News Investigates, “The law protects inmates from being exposed to members of the opposite sex viewing their naked bodies unless there’s an emergency. Unless there’s what the law calls an exigent circumstance, the prison can take necessary actions to protect safety. There was no emergency. There was no exigency.”
UDC says the reset involved approximately 150 trained staff members and was conducted according to department policy.
UDC’s letter goes on to say:
“Every effort was made to treat belongings with care and document confiscated items appropriately. UDC stands by our methods and policies, which are intended to maintain the highest standards of integrity, safety, and efficiency during the reset process.”
Written response from the Utah Department of Corrections regarding 2News investigations
I asked UDC whether any exigent circumstances existed on May 13, 2025, during the reset operation.
The response:
“No exigent circumstances occurred on May 13, 2025.”
I also requested information about what items were confiscated. UDC said it could not provide a specific list.
Response to questions posed by 2News Investigates to UDC regarding mass strip search and if exigent circumstances existed that day
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and accuses the defendants, all supervisors, of participating in a “coordinated effort to humiliate, mock, and psychologically degrade the plaintiffs … operating with a brazen and intentional disregard for clearly established law, fueled by an institutional custom of impunity.”
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Utah
Utah Royals FC Announce the Addition of Assistant Coach Jessie van den Broek to 2026 Coaching Staff | Utah Royals
HERRIMAN, Utah – (Thursday, June 25, 2026) – URFC announced today the addition of assistant coach Jessie van den Broek to the 2026 technical staff.
The Dutchwoman brings experience from several levels of soccer across Europe. Her coaching journey has steadily progressed through commitment to player development, making her a strong addition to the Royals as the club continues to build for the future.
After gaining coaching experience at various levels, van den Broek made the jump to professional soccer in Germany’s Bundesliga, joining as an assistant coach and second in command to head coach Robert de Pauw and helping to support the club in its sixth place finish during the 2023-24 season. After a year and a half in Germany, she followed de Pauw to England, joining the coaching staff of Aston Villa Women, continuing to expand her experience in one of Europe’s top leagues.
In 2025, van den Broek returned to her native country of the Netherlands to join the coaching staff of HERA United, the country’s first stand-alone women’s soccer club. Her work with HERA United further strengthened her coaching abilities and her dedication to the women’s game. Following the conclusion of the club’s season in May 2026, she has now accepted her first position overseas, joining the Utah Royals, bringing the international experience and diverse coaching background with her.
Away from the pitch, van den Broek attended Radbound University in the Netherlands, earning a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration. She also earned an A Licence through the Union of European Football Associations in 2025. Her combination of education and coaching credentials, along with her experience in Germany, England and the Netherlands gives Utah Royals FC a coach with high-level experience and a proven commitment to the game of women’s soccer.
The Royals return to NWSL play on July 5 to take on the Chicago Stars at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium with kickoff set for 3:00 p.m. MT. The match is available to watch on CBS Sports Network and KMYU.
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