Weekly making sure he speaks residents’ language

Jace Radke

Friday, May 12, 2000 | 2:17 a.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly says he wants to make sure all of the residents in Ward 5 understand what the city has to offer them, and that means speaking their language.

Thursday evening Weekly held the first of three neighborhood meetings designed especially for the city's Hispanic community, with speakers talking to the residents in Spanish.

"We wanted to reach out to the Latino community and explain all the services the city has to offer them," Weekly said at the meeting held at Ruth Fyfe Elementary School, 4101 W. Bonanza Road. "We were finding as we'd go out into the ward that some people were having trouble understanding what we were telling them."

As city staffers spoke to citizen's in Spanish, English speakers weren't cut out of the meeting because of technology that the city and neighborhood groups often use.

A simultaneous translating system was set up at the school complete with small receivers and headphones. As a speaker talks another staffer translates into another microphone that sends the translated signal to the headphones, city staffer Maria Castillo-Couch said.

The system can be used for translating any language, and is used by the city and community groups like the Downtown Central Development Committee, city spokeswoman Andrea Reitan said.

"It's kind of like what they use at the U.N.," Reitan said.

The system, which cost between $1,500 and $2,000, can also be used by people who are hard of hearing.

Weekly said he and his staff were looking for ways for his community meetings to be more inclusive when they learned about the translators.

"We just thought, 'What could we do to reach out,' and this fantastic gadget makes it a lot easier," Weekly said.

Thursday's meeting focused on safety for families and neighborhoods, home maintenance, neighborhood cleanups and programs and assistance offered by the city.

The meetings continue at 7 p.m. next Thursday, at the Twin Lakes Elementary School library, 3300 Riverside Drive; and at 7 p.m. June 8 at the Nevada Association of Latin Americans, Arturo Cambeiro Senior Center, 323 N. Maryland Parkway.

For information, call 229-6405.