Special license plates clear Assembly panel

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 | 10:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A bill allowing the sale of special vehicle license plates to help finance preservation of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, formerly known as the Big Springs Archaeological District, easily cleared the Assembly Transportation Committee Tuesday.

Janie Greenspun Gale, president of the Las Vegas Springs Preservation Foundation, and Richard Wimmer, deputy general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, predicted thousands of plates would be sold for the benefit of what Gale called a "biological sanctuary."

The greatest significance of this 180-acre site, Gale said, is that it's the "birthplace of Las Vegas," which will be celebrating its 100th birthday in 2005. She said she hopes the preserve will be ready for public tours by then.

The site's free-flowing waters attracted humans as many as 6,000 years ago. Until the mid-1950s, it was the primary water source for the city. Depletion of the ground water stopped the flow of the artesian springs.

Senate Bill 204 permits the supporters of the springs and the state Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety to design a special license plate. It would sell for $35 extra above the regular vehicle registration fee, with $20 going to the preserve. The annual renewal of the plate would be $25 with $20 going for the project.

The license plate would not only raise money but also increase the awareness of the community about the site, about three miles from downtown Las Vegas near Valley View Boulevard and U.S. 95, said Gale, a Las Vegas Sun columnist and member of the Greenspun family, which publishes the Sun.

Gale and Wimmer said they had not worked up a design for the plate. But Gale said she would like to see it portray some of the small creatures found in the area.

A special license plate for Lake Tahoe has already sold 12,000, said Committee Chairwoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, and many other special plates are also making money.

The 180-acre parcel, placed on the National Historic Register in 1978, is owned by the water district, which has turned over the preservation effort to the foundation. Gale said the foundation is a public-private venture and that no preservation plans have yet been decided upon.

The springs still provide habitat for rare Mojave Desert plant and animal species. Among its inhabitants are the red-tailed hawk, coyote, kit fox, mourning dove, peregrine falcon and the red-shafted flicker.

Its plant life includes the Las Vegas bear poppy, honey mesquite, rubber rabbitbrush, desert mistletoe and the screwbean mesquite.

Money raised from the license plates would go for such things as surveys of small mammals, birds, and vegetation. Preliminary plans call for the eradication of salt cedar and the Russian knapweed in the area and restoration of the structures on the site.

The bill now goes to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. The bill has already cleared the Senate.

Before the plate would be manufactured, there must be 250 requests over a four-year period. Assemblyman Doug Bache, D-Las Vegas, sought to raise that threshold to 1,000 requests over a two-year period. Wimmer said he would not object to that because he was confident of the sale of several thousand plates.

Bache's proposed amendment, however, died for lack of a second.