North Las Vegas City Council briefs for Jan. 3, 2003

Friday, Jan. 3, 2003 | 9:08 a.m.

Hospital may open within 18 months

A long-planned hospital will open in a year to 18 months on Tropical Parkway at Losee Road in North Las Vegas, a lawyer for the development company that owns the property said Thursday.

The $200 million Meadows Hospital will have 200 rooms and sit on 14 acres across from the Shadow Mountain Golf Course, the lawyer, Matthew Callister, said.

The Meadows Hospital group already has financing in place for the hospital, Callister said. No public money is being used to pay for the hospital, but the company might seek federal loan guarantees for the project, he said.

Because the government might become involved in the project, the company is required to have a needs assessment done for the planned hospital, Callister said.

On Thursday, the North Las Vegas City Council unanimously voted to allow the needs assessment and to have the Meadows Hospital LLC pay for the study.

There have been plans to put a hospital on the property for years, and previously developers have said a new hospital would open by the end of 2002 or sometime in 2003.

Callister said he wasn't familiar with previous claims of earlier opening dates.

Campaign sign fees considered

The North Las Vegas City Council is considering charging political candidates $25 to put campaign signs within the city.

Candidates would also have to identify someone as being responsible for their campaign signs in North Las Vegas, said City Clerk Eileen Sevigny, who recommended the new policy.

The fee is intended to offset the city's cost of picking up discarded or damaged political signs, she said.

Also, having the name of someone responsible for a candidate's signs will help in dealing with damaged signs or signs in the public right-of-way, she said.

Sevigny said the proposed fee and registration are similar to rules in place in Las Vegas and Henderson.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the proposal raises some practical and constitutional questions, such as how it could be enforced against people putting signs in front of their homes.