Metro Police plan northwest substation

Adrienne Packer

Monday, Nov. 23, 1998 | 11:09 a.m.

If discussions between Metro Police, the Bureau of Land Management and local governments go smoothly, residents in northwest Clark County could have a new police substation by the end of next year.

The city of Las Vegas is looking at a parcel near the intersection of Hualapai Drive and Cheyenne Avenue to service the fast-growing area.

"We are proposing it and doing a cost analysis to see if we have the dollars to pay for it," said Las Vegas City Councilman Larry Brown. "Nothing has been finalized; we still have to cross our T's and dot our I's."

Brown said the BLM has given verbal approval of the 30-acre site for the substation, police training facility and a passive park.

Officer Steve Meriwether, a Metro spokesman, said a new station is needed in the northwest, because the department has outgrown the Jones Boulevard substation and more police presence is needed in the northwest.

"There is just no room to go anywhere," Meriwether said of the Jones facility. "We need more supervisors, more officers, more cars, more parking spaces, more showers. Where does it end?"

Brown said the Jones substation will not be closed.

"The neighborhood has been adamant about maintaining police presence down there," he said.

The Cheyenne Avenue site is ideal, because it will eventually allow easy access to the Las Vegas Beltway.

Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone, who is also working on bringing the substation to his northwest district, said the police training facility will be the valley's second. The other one is in the northeast.

Malone said residents have been receptive to the idea of a police station in their neighborhood, where burglary is the most commonly committed crime.

"We don't see very many officers in the northwest," Malone said. "The crime rate is pretty low, but it's still nice to see a black-and-white driving around in the neighborhoods."

If the substation is approved, construction would begin during the first half of 1999, Brown said.