Chemicals in soil may stall new NLV City Hall campus

Diana Sahagun

Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 | 10:12 a.m.

Toxic chemicals found in the soils of the proposed site have delayed plans for a new North Las Vegas City Hall campus, but plans for a new jail are moving forward.

City Manager Kurt Fritsch said the $3.2 million purchase of an 8.25-acre parcel next to City Hall -- at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Civic Center Drive -- have been put on hold since the contamination was discovered.

The preliminary City Hall Master Plan shows a $44.5 million project that would be built in phases over 10 years and stretch from Las Vegas Boulevard to Lake Mead Boulevard, bordered by two three-level parking garages.

Fritsch said a gas station was located on the property and there are also potential contaminants from a gas station across the street. Testing of water and soil samples are ongoing.

The city is still weeks away from determining the extent of the problem and what the cleanup costs will be.

Once a report on the problem is finished, the city will decide whether to proceed with the purchase, Fritsch said.

Plans for a new detention center, which will be part of the City Hall project, are moving forward, however.

In May, the U.S. Marshals Service awarded the city a $5.8 million grant for design and construction of a new 400-inmate detention center dormitory. The new building will house federal inmates for 15 years.

The project calls for design and construction of a 66,000-square-foot, two-story concrete dormitory, including a laundry facility and medical treatment room.

Domingo Cambeiro Corp. was chosen by the council earlier this month to design the building at a cost not to exceed $482,255. The firm recently designed a 400-inmate dormitory for Las Vegas that will be used as a prototype for the new facility.

The building is expected to be complete in December 2001.

Ganthner Melby LLC. is also remodeling four existing buildings within the detention center.

In February 1999 the city hired the firm for $221,490 and increased the fees by $58,392 last week because of additional services performed.

Lake said inmates will be moved to other units throughout the jail when the remodeling takes place.

Once the new dormitory is constructed, it will generate revenue to help offset the cost of other City Hall expansion projects, said North Las Vegas Police Sgt. Daniel Lake.

Lake said the Immigration and Naturalization Service will have a written agreement with the jail to house federal inmates for 15 years. In the past, there has only been an oral agreement that the city would hold federal inmates on a day-to-day basis, he said.

The written agreement guarantees the bed space for the INS, which currently pays the city $62 a day to house federal prisoners.