Residents trash garbage proposal

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, June 16, 1998 | 4:05 a.m.

Teller may be known as the silent half of the famous Penn and Teller duo on stage, but bring up the subject of his new neighborhood and he is more than willing to talk trash.

The magician is joining his neighbors to battle Silver State Disposal Service's proposal to build a transfer station on 10 acres near Blue Diamond Road and Rainbow Boulevard.

"I spent three years building this house, and the best thing about it is its views," Teller said Monday. "Now I'll have a view of the glittering Las Vegas Strip at night with silhouettes of garbage trucks."

Teller said it took him five years to find the perfect place to build his architectural dream home, which blends into the jagged mountains southwest of the Strip.

Just months after he moved in, Silver State submitted its plans. The disposal company's proposal is in the early stages but will ultimately include a transfer station, maintenance yard and truck wash on Gary Avenue.

"I'll look right down onto garbage alley; it's like the architect aligned the view," Teller said. "You put a dump in an industrial location; you don't put it where people live."

Silver State spokesman Keith Lynam said the rural parcel is ideal for the facility because garbage trucks could collect their loads and make a short trip to the transfer station.

The garbage, to be collected by 25 to 30 trucks, would stay at the enclosed transfer facility for no longer than eight hours before being shipped to the Apex landfill.

The Gary Avenue site would replace the Cheyenne transfer station, which has reached its capacity, Lynam said.

"The closer we are to residents without being in a residential area, the better off we are," Lynam said. "This site is handmade for that. They don't have an argument because they can't even see it from where they're at.

"To keep our rates low, we need to keep trucks as close to the customers as we can," Lynam said, adding that the company would save on gas and wear and tear on vehicles.

Teller isn't the only resident who disagrees with Lynam's assessment.

Amy Blocker's home may be more modest than Teller's, but she too saved money for years so that her family could build their dream home in the rural neighborhood, where lots are no smaller than a half-acre.

"The reason we bought here was so the children could go out the back door and ride their horses," Blocker said. "I'm not going to let my daughter out with garbage trucks going down the street.

"It was supposed to be a dream house, but it's turning into a nightmare."

Randy Grigg, who has lived on Landberg Road for 22 years, organized the "Stop the Dump" campaign weeks ago, and the group has collected more than 500 signatures from people who want Silver State to look elsewhere.

Grigg said residents are concerned about the smell and the roads being too narrow for the trucks, but most important, they feel there is not enough water to supply the transfer station.

While homeowners, who have wells, are permitted to use only 1,800 gallons of water a day, the transfer station would be permitted to use 200 gallons a minute, Grigg said.

His neighbors fear Silver State will suck up their well water, forcing them to undergo the expensive process of redrilling.

"We drill wells; we'd love to make the money," Richard Swearingen, a salesman with Water Well Services on Gary Avenue, said. "But the fact of the matter is, there isn't enough water here."

Lynam said Silver State hopes to have the facility built in 1999 but hasn't determined exactly how large it will be, what route its trucks will take or how much water the station will use.

"They are throwing out all these figures," Lynam said. "We don't know what kind of facility we're going to have out there, so how do they know how much water we're going to use?"

Silver State is scheduled to appear before the Clark County Planning Commission at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Clark County Government Center, 500 S. Grand Central Parkway.