Famed ‘Welcome’ sign darkened by confusion

David Strow

Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

The famed "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign on the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard has been dark since Oct. 4 because of an unpaid electric bill.

How one of Las Vegas' most famous icons was shut down over a seemingly trivial amount of money traces back to a maze of confusion over exactly who was responsible for paying the electric bill.

"All of our bills are computer generated, so we don't specifically know it's the Las Vegas sign," said Sonya Headen, spokeswoman for Nevada Power Co. "It's hard to tell where we're disconnecting the power."

The sign, first installed in 1959, is owned by Young Electric Sign Co. (YESCO). The company leases the sign to Clark County and performs maintenance checks on it twice a week.

Since YESCO leases the sign to the county, it believes the county is responsible for handling the payments.

"It's like when you lease a house," said Steve Weeks, assistant division manager of YESCO. "The county leased the sign, so normally that's the way (the power bill) would go."

But the electricity payments on the sign were assumed in July 1998 by local company ESCN, as a courtesy by that company to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. According to Nevada Power, the account went delinquent in May.

The payments on the sign weren't much -- just a little over $400 a year, ESCN claims. But when the company was sold to Sacramento, Calif.-based Hospitel Inc. on Sept. 1, the new owners claim they weren't told they were responsible for the bill.

By October, the account on the sign was four months delinquent, and Nevada Power disconnected the sign. On Oct. 9, five days after the power was cut, Nevada Power discontinued the account.

"Without phoning anybody, Nevada Power just cut it off," said Ezzrett John Anderson, ESCN's vice president of sales. "For $58.76, Nevada Power shuts off our Welcome to Las Vegas sign."

Anderson, ESCN's vice president of sales, said the company wasn't notified it was the responsible party until Nov. 15, when an unknown party wanted to conduct electric line work in the area. The account was traced back to ESCN.

Headen said the $58.76 reflected the remaining balance on the overdue account, but said the actual amount delinquent was originally $500. She said Nevada Power received a payment for most of the past due amount on Oct. 22 and that $58.76 is the remaining balance.

In any case, everyone is now moving quickly to clear up the problem. Anderson said Hospitel is now sending a check for $58.76 via Federal Express and that the utility should have the cash by today. He said ESCN will assume payments for the sign from now on.

Once contacted by the company to establish a new account, Nevada Power will turn on the sign within 24 hours, Headen said.

"We want to expedite matters as soon as possible," Headen said. "That's a piece of Las Vegas history."