$900,000 committed to Metro training facility

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1999 | 11:46 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas chipped in $900,000 in capital project funding for a Metro Police training academy and one or more area commands.

During the 1999 budget process, Metro divided its budget into an operating component of $69,166,201 and a capital component of $1,075,000. The capital component was for the cost of expanding the existing Metro Communications Facility.

The city and the county, in conjunction with Metro's Fiscal Affairs Board, approved the construction of that communications facility, called MetroCom, and entered into an interlocal agreement to issue medium-term bonds for construction and related equipment.

Since that time, Metro has indicated a need to construct a new training academy and adjacent substation on current Bureau of Land Management land at Cheyenne Avenue west of Fort Apache Road.

The facility is estimated to cost $7.5 million to design and build. The funding will be handled in a similar fashion to the MetroCom facility.

The BLM lease on the land should be obtained within the next four or five months.

The funding was approved 3-0, with Mayor Jan Laverty Jones absent. Mayor Pro Tem Michael McDonald, who is also a Metro police officer, abstained from the vote.