LV officials take post office, homeless issues to D.C.

Diana Sahagun

Monday, Jan. 28, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.

As Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman lobbied his fellow mayors in Washington last week about Yucca Mountain, two city officials who traveled with him worked behind the scenes on projects that have captured the city's interest.

City Manager Virginia Valentine and Assistant City Manager Betsy Fretwell lobbied federal officials to acquire the historic downtown post office building and to get nearly $2 million released to the city to help local displaced workers.

Goodman spent much of the weeklong U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington in an attempt to educate other mayors about dangers of transporting nuclear waste near their cities to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Goodman said it was the first step in the educational process, but he admits it will be a tough sell to the mayors who represent cities where nuclear waste is currently stored.

"There's this 'not in my back yard' type situation with mayors who have it close to their cities, they weren't particularly interested in the ramifications of transportation," Goodman said this morning. "At this point they see themselves as a sitting target rather than a moving target."

Goodman said he had an easier time convincing the voting members to hold the annual conference in Las Vegas in 2006.

Meanwhile, Valentine and Fretwell were trying to bring home funding for displaced workers. The city is not scheduled to get $1.75 million recently allocated to help them until July, Fretwell said.

But the need is immediate. Since an announcement was made earlier this month that the money would be available, the city has received more than 500 calls from people wanting help, she said.

Fretwell and Valentine met with Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., to see if the money could be released sooner.

"They know there is a need to get the money released as soon as possible," Fretwell said.

The senators also are exploring the possibility of the city advancing the money and being reimbursed by the federal funds.

The city has agreed to send some of the money to the Community College of Southern Nevada in exchange for tuition breaks and discounted book prices for displaced workers needing additional training.

Valentine and Fretwell also talked to the senators about projects for which the city will seek federal money next year, including transportation, downtown beautification and relocating Metro Police Department's downtown substation, they said.

The two city officials also met with the U.S. Postal Service to discuss the transfer of the historic downtown post office. The city is negotiating to get the building, which has been declared surplus.

The Postal Service has said it needs the first floor to remain a post office until 2004, when its lease expires. But the city wants immediate occupancy of the whole building once it acquires it.

The building, at the corner of Stewart Avenue and Third Street, was the city's first federal courthouse. Goodman has talked about turning it into a museum or arts school.

Both sides agreed that the city needs to find the post office a new location if it wants full use of the building before 2004, Fretwell said.

The work on Yucca Mountain that was begun last week will continue, Goodman said.

Goodman said he will start a massive phone and letter-writing campaign to the mayors who share the city's concerns about transportation of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. He will also invite them to Las Vegas for a reception and may travel to other cities with the city's message. The hope is that the opposition from mayors across the nation will build political momentum to defeat the project.

"It's going to be a very long, arduous process, but after speaking to them, I know it is an argument that will sell," Goodman said. "It's the kind of argument we have to make personally."com