State leases old Fireside restaurant near Nevada Capitol

Monday, June 29, 1998 | 4:27 a.m.

The state Board of Examiners approved a 10-year lease of the 8,150-square-foot building from owner George Halyak, who plans to have the building's interior remodeled by October.

The commission will pay $6,186 for the first year. The lease will jump to $10,187 in July 1999 and go up in increments of about 3 percent each year after that.

The location is midway between the Nevada Capitol and the state Tourism Commission's new office, in what was once a federal courthouse and post office on Carson's main street.

The state's economic development and tourism programs are connected. But Budget Director Perry Comeaux said an agreement on the old federal building restricts its use to education-related activity, and only tourism could qualify.

In other action, the Board of Examiners approved a 1-year contract of up to $236,832 between the governor's office and Leo Penne, to run Nevada's lobbying office in Washington, D.C.

The contract wasn't bid. The board was told Penne has done a good job in helping with economic development efforts and in assisting the state and businesses in Nevada to get federal contracts and highway funding.

The board also approved nearly $1 million in contracts to handle health care claims for Nevada prison inmates over the next two fiscal years.

One contract, for $632,272, is with American Benefit Plan Administrators of El Monte, Calif. The firm will manage payment of claims to doctors, dentists and other medical care providers who see inmate patients.

The second contract, for $337,788, is with Capp Care Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif. The company will provide access to a preferred provider organization for the health care when treatment outside prisons is needed.