LVCVA hires consultant for I-15 tourism work

Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 10:19 a.m.

Big Stan

The largest drill in North America -- nicknamed Big Stan -- will arrive next week to begin digging holes for footings for the $140 million Convention Center expansion south of the existing convention center.

The rig is owned by Anderson Drilling, Lakeside, Calif., which has a Las Vegas office.

The Disney Channel plans to take a close look at Big Stan on the Las Vegas project for a television special on monstrous machines. The drill, which has a 92-foot tower, is capable of creating holes 30 feet feet in diameter and 200 feet deep.

Scott Cram, construction manager for CRSS Constructors, said Big Stan will drill about 450 holes about 60 to 70 feet deep for the LVCVA project.

LVCVA officials also said a special camera may be set up to allow customers to monitor progress on the two-story center addition, with picture updates appearing on the LVCVA's website, www.lasvegas24hours.com.

A contract that will help the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority monitor improvements to Interstate 15 was approved Tuesday by the agency's board of directors.

The LVCVA board, through its partnership with Las Vegas Parties, signed off on its share of a one-year $156,000 contract with the Skancke Company Ltd. The contract commits $13,000 a month to Skancke, a lobbying and consulting company, with the LVCVA and the Nevada Resort Association chipping in $5,000 each and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce adding $3,000 a month.

Skancke will monitor and lobby the California Legislature and municipal and county governments along I-15, the primary highway between Southern California and Las Vegas.

LVCVA President Manny Cortez said not only does I-15 carry the lifeblood of the Las Vegas economy -- Southern California tourists -- it's also the main supply route for goods and services used by Las Vegas resorts.

About 5.4 million cars use I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas every year, the LVCVA says, making it the city's most important ground source of visitors. The highway runs from Mexico to Canada, from San Diego on the south end to Sweetgrass, Mont., on the north, and is the main route through the state of Utah.

As the amount of Southern California traffic grows, traffic bottlenecks on I-15 occur frequently. On holiday weekends, a trip that normally takes about four hours can take as long as 14 hours.

President Tom Skancke and his support staff monitor funding to improve the highway and ease the choke points. The company lobbies for funds to widen and improve the road.

In other business Tuesday, the LVCVA board handed off the sponsorship of a major golf tournament to a British conglomerate and approved marketing programs for two events in Laughlin.

The Las Vegas Invitational golf tournament will become known as the Invensys Classic at Las Vegas with the transfer of title sponsorship to the London-based global electronics and engineering group.

Cortez said the tournament's purse would grow to $5 million a year within three years as a result of the switch and the LVCVA would save about $3.9 million over three years. Cortez said that will allow the agency to fund other special events for the community. He said it is the agency's philosophy to provide seed money for events and hand them off to private companies once the events become established.

The Las Vegas Invitational has become the premiere PGA golf event for the city with a unique five-round, three-course tournament conducted in October.

Cortez said Invensys plans to have corporate meetings in Las Vegas in conjunction with the golf tournament and will offer it as entertainment to important business clients.

Board members also approved spending $445,000 to support the 2000 Laughlin River Days celebration June 2-4 and to sponsor the 2000 Professional Racing Outboard Performance Tour during the event.

The event generates about 5,700 room nights for Laughlin in June, providing an economic impact of $3.4 million for the community on the Colorado River. The P.R.O.P. Tour boat race is televised on ESPN2.

The board also approved third-quarter payments of room tax collections to Clark County and its municipalities. Payments were authorized to Clark County ($1.1 million), the cities of Las Vegas ($954,093), North Las Vegas ($230,806), Henderson ($344,651), Boulder City ($62,303) and Mesquite ($113,279).