Letter: BLM shouldn’t whine over funds

Sunday, Jan. 23, 2000 | 9:03 a.m.

Isn't it ironic that Bureau of Land Management officials are complaining about a shortage of people and money to handle growth problems? After all, they help fuel the out-of-control Las Vegas Valley growth by selling acre after acre of protected land to developers, greedy for a profit. Just last week I noticed developers bulldozing the desert almost to the foothills of Red Rock. What a shame.

I was hoping that BLM owning the land surrounding Las Vegas would help control the growth situation -- something our city planners and officials haven't the backbone to do. Guess not ... silly me. Instead, they just continue selling off the land to developers, even if it means houses right next to Red Rock Canyon.

Then they complain about vandalism. Phil Guerrero, a BLM spokesman, characterized Red Rock now as an "urban park" with increasing problems of vandalism, which is true. While hiking I saw spray-painted swastikas and KKK symbols painted on the rocks. How sad. But BLM is to blame as their land sale policy is helping turn it into an urban park.

And now they want to increase the entrance fee to help pay for these problems? To an area that not long ago was free? Ridiculous! A typical government bureaucracy: It levies a tax, then continues to raise it to fund the bureaucracy's own ineptness. Maybe they should just sell all of Red Rock to the developers, too, and save the hassle.

JERRY FRIDDELL