Meadows delay marks ‘one more broken promise’

Denise Cardinal

Monday, Nov. 17, 1997 | 12:47 p.m.

Almost six months after Meadows Village residents were promised by the Las Vegas City Council that the dilapidated Stupak Community Center would be replaced with new modular buildings, the old structure remains.

The delay comes as no surprise to those who work in the center. Meadows Village, the neighborhood surrounding the Stratosphere Tower once known as the Naked City, has long been plagued by high crime rates and decaying conditions.

"It's just one more broken promise made by the city," said Monica Perez, a volunteer with Clark County Legal Services who works with many of the Hispanic residents of Meadows Village. "We tell people, 'Really, they are going to put the new building in,' and they say 'yeah, right. I'll believe it when I see it.'"

The reason given for the delay this time: Water hookups took longer than expected.

"We've just been finishing with installing the water lines," said Ramone DelRio, senior project development officer for the city's parks department. "We had to get an engineer out here and install some extra valves."

The buildings are built, and scheduled to be installed Tuesday or Wednesday. A grand opening for the new center is slated for Dec. 8, and, according to DelRio, it should be ready.

"We're really only a few weeks behind," he said.

Perez begs to differ. Before this delay, the modules were promised to be installed in October. Previous to that, they were scheduled for completion in June.

First, the city didn't have the title to the land. Bob Stupak, former chairman of the Stratosphere Corp. whose father's name graces the center, had the title.

Then the city used the federal grant money earmarked for the center to build ballfields in eastern Las Vegas. In exchange, the city parks department would fund and manage the Stupak Center project.

Once the project's builder was chosen, it was discovered that the city didn't conduct the proper bid process. A different bid process was started, and the same builder, Williams Scotsman Construction Co., was selected the second time because it had already started the process and could finish the modules sooner.

"I'm not willing to put this off," City Councilman Michael McDonald, who represents the Meadows Village area, said at the June meeting where the decision was made. "We've been too long in the process."

Neighborhood Services Director Sharon Segerblom isn't happy with the project's delay -- despite the fact that her department isn't even in charge of it.

"Even though it's a park project, it was made clear that this would have to be done in a timely manner," she said. "We're most concerned about the delay, but sometimes with construction things happen."

The buildings, which are temporary, might not be standing for long. Just two months ago, the city was told an investment firm was looking into buying the Stupak Center, as well as the park across the street, to build a hotel and Disneyland-style theme park. No final agreements have been reached.