Cities spend little money on New Year’s Eve

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 4:05 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS - While New Year's Eve seemed like a bust for the tourism industry, it may be just the opposite for local governments.

In the absence of major disturbances or Y2K computer glitches, many emergency workers scheduled to work throughout the weekend were allowed to go home early.

Computer specialists at the Clark County Government Center had been scheduled to work round-the-clock shifts, but that wasn't necessary. Henderson Police officers prepared for the worst but discovered business-as-usual.

"In reality, we had one of our quieter weekends," said Vicki Taylor, assistant to the city manager in Henderson, which spent about $94,000 over New Year's weekend, far below its budgeted amount of $315,000. "I don't think we were expecting anything big, but I think you have to err on the side of caution."

With more than 800 officers on the Strip, Las Vegas police had budgeted $1 million for the weekend's activities, most of it in the form of overtime pay for officers.

Police spokesman Steve Meriwether said final numbers won't be available for a week or so, but he said the actual cost could be as little as half that number. That would still be more than the $350,000 that police spent on monitoring 1998's festivities.

Clark County had more than 100 employees staffing its government center on Friday night, prepared for all manner of mayhem. When problems didn't develop, many of them were sent home.

Some of the savings are the result of lessons learned from previous years. Doug Bradford, Clark County spokesman, said the county will end up saving money with the purchase of $150,000 worth of metal barriers, which were erected along the Strip to keep revelers off the median. In 1998, vandals did about $250,000 worth of damage to landscaping on the median. Another benefit of the barriers, Bradford said, is that they can be used again for other large events.

In the city of Las Vegas, New Year's weekend set taxpayers back $134,000, most of it on overtime for fire and rescue personnel. Spokeswoman Darcy Hayes said the city did not have an official amount budgeted for the weekend, and simply took the money from its normal operating costs.