Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 10:45 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The tiny community of Cold Creek 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas may have won its battle with the state to rename a major prison being built close to the unincorporated town.
The state Prison Board has scheduled a meeting for July 13 to consider renaming the Cold Creek State Prison that eventually will house 3,000 inmates.
Prison director Bob Bayer informed the board in a memo Thursday that Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas, requested the name be changed.
"The residents of this unincorporated town of Cold Creek are quite upset and feel that naming a prison after the creek and their community is disparaging," Bayer said.
Koivisto wasn't the only assemblywoman who raised the issue. Kathy Von Tobel, R-Las Vegas, also voiced objections to naming the prison Cold Creek. The prison is several miles from the community nestled in the foothills northwest of Mount Charleston.
Bayer has offered several alternative names, such as the Snake Ridge State Prison, which he said was recommended by an unidentified legislator. It could be called the Cold Canyon State Prison, he said, because, "There is no such place in that vicinity, thus no controversy."
Bayer said it might be christened the Silver State Prison, which is "uniquely descriptive as Nevada's but differing from NSP (Nevada State Prison). Or it might be called the Desert View State Prison because it overlooks the Desert View range. Or it could be named the Southern Nevada State Prison, but then it might be confused with the Southern Nevada Correctional Center at Jean.
In the meantime, it is being called "Prison No. 7."
archive
