Clark County commissioners at their last meeting approved a series of Fiscal Year 2007 Emergency Shelter Grant funds that will ensure another $42,000 to Emergency Aid of Boulder City to aid in their homeless prevention program.
The amount was identical to what the nonprofit organization received last year despite its request for $48,000 this year.
According to the EABC application, "funds were requested ... for emergency assistance ... such as employment support, education scholarships, assistance with child care costs as well as paying for security deposits for families moving from shelters, motels or campgrounds into affordable housing."
Emergency Aid survived the county axe that swung in favor of a 20 percent cut as 11 of the 25 ESG requests went unfunded.
Nine received the same amount as last year, one was reduced and two garnered increases.
Conservation funds to aid easement
The County Commission at its Feb. 20 meeting approved a series of funding requests in support of the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. Under the plan, at least 11 independent projects will address environmental issues within the Boulder City Conservation Easement, Lake Mead and surrounding National Park Service lands.
The Boulder City Conservation Easement will be the focus of four projects amounting to $1.3 million, with $449,000 going to study burrowing owl population trends and $359,000 for studying raven population impacts on the desert tortoise habitat area.
The National Park Service and Lake Mead will receive $2.4 million for seven projects, the largest of which is $990,000 for the implementation of invasive plant control and native plant restoration experimental treatments in spring-fed wetlands and riparian areas. That will be in conjunction with four other plant and Relict Leopard Frog projects totaling $835,000.
CITY COUNCIL
Three bids get different actions
The City Council at its Feb. 27 meeting took different actions on three bid award items before them.
They awarded the bid for landscaping and irrigation work at Bootleg Canyon to McComb Contracting Co. for $182,398, but held awarding the low bid for the Municipal Court interior remodeling job and rejected CG & B Enterprises' bid of $85,843 for crosswalk and parking improvements at Ash Street and Nevada Way.
The court bid to repaint, re-tile and re-carpet will come back at the March 13 meeting after undergoing further review.
The street improvements bid to create two bumpouts and 19 parking spaces on Nevada Way was axed because public works department staff indicated the city can save $15,000 to $20,000 by splitting up the project even though it will take longer to complete.
City to move forward with two legal issues
City Attorney Dave Olsen informed the City Council Feb. 27 that the lawsuit with Boulder Sign Co. -- a lawsuit that the Nevada Federal District Court ruled in favor of the city on -- has been officially appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco so any action to address dismissal of the suit was moot.
"Last week, they went ahead and filed their opening briefs in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unbeknownst to us," Olsen said. "So, we'll go ahead and defend the case, which means this issue is no longer on the table."
The council also gave Olsen the authority to initiate negotiations with Fred and Phyllis Bachhuber over a property line dispute affecting the couple's Hillside Drive home.
The issue arose when the Bachhubers unknowingly built on a strip of property that was actually city right of way.
The residents filed the action to determine once and for all whether the property is theirs or is still owned as right of way even though the city has no plans for the strip of land.
Award nominations become a touchy issue
City Council members struggled with some of their nominations for the Nevada League of Cities Youth Award and Scholarship Programs.
It was no problem naming the only junior high school applicant -- Megan Purdy -- to the competition, nor was it difficult selecting Melissa Kehoe and Taylor Kathleen Adams as two of the three high school finalists.
But when it came to forwarding the names of two of three remaining high school applicants on to the High School Senior - College Scholarship category, the council wrestled with a decision.
Matt Richner was the only applicant in that category, so he was a shoe-in, but the council -- not wanting to pick a name outright -- resorted to having Mayor Bob Ferraro draw a slip of paper from a bowl above his head to name the third and remaining high school finalist.
As it turned out, Mike Booth was selected to move on in the statewide competition while Lauren Jacoby and Samantha Mackley advanced in the collegiate category.
The choice was important since the winner of the high school category can win a $500 check and three runners-up can receive a $100 check while the collegiate category brings winnings of a $1,000.
PARKS AND RECREATION
Golf course plan may be ready
For months, the Golf Course Green Committee and a subcommittee it formed have been silently studying and putting together a master plan for the Boulder City Golf Course, which drew comments from Dick Bravo, a Bermuda Dunes Drive resident whose home backs up to the course.
"Few people know about a master plan for the golf course and decisions are being made," he told the Parks and Recreation Commission Feb. 26. "At least 60 percent of the rounds are by residents who have a vested interest in the course."
Parks and Recreation Director Roger Hall said there had been a philosophy adopted by the committee "to put something together without the public being there ... (and) ... at the right time they said they'd put something out."
Bravo took exception to the specifics of the plan being debated in private saying, "I disagree about getting it to the public when it's done. The public should be there from the start."
In other news from the commission, member Scott Kahler announced that he had amended and revised the first three chapters of the Bootleg Canyon Recreation Area Master Plan and that he was working on Chapter Four, the implementation plan.
The plan, which was started nearly two years ago, sat idle for months just before master plan subcommittee chairman Pam Adams resigned from the commission last fall.
"We're not going to push it; we're going to do it right," Hall told the commission. "He's going to finish it, and then have a draft here to evaluate in two weeks, see if there's any heartburn, give it another two weeks and then put it on (your) agenda."
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