Lawmakers fuel fire-fighting funds by $3 mil.

Thursday, Sept. 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The Legislature's Interim Finance Committee approved the funding after state Conservation and Natural Resources chief Pete Morros, who oversees forestry, said "there are a multitude of these paychecks that have not gone out."

Morros also told the IFC Wednesday that many more bills will come in before the worst Nevada fire season in decades comes to an end.

"As we speak, we have at least four major fires burning in the northern part of the state," he said.

The IFC also gave final approval to the Nevada Tourism Commission to spend $2 million in room tax reserves to restore the historic Carson City federal building as office space.

Tourism Director Tom Tait said the money will cover costs of a seismic retrofit and for new heating, cooling and electrical systems for the four-story brick building.

"It's also going to be a phenomenal piece of architecture that is going to be saved," said Reno Hilton president Ferenc Szony, a Tourism Commission member.

The tourism officials said they hope to have the remodeling and restoration work completed by the end of 1997. The building, completed in 1891, was the first federal building in Nevada.

The IFC also approved $20,000 to replace a gate that regulates the amount of water in Spooner Lake in the Tahoe Basin; $45,000 for work on the sewer system at Sand Harbor State Park at Tahoe; and $28,500 to help cover costs of renovating a sewer system at Spooner Lake.

However, the legislators balked at paying Douglas County for $28,522 in various costs incurred in a China Springs Youth Camp water system project.