Columnist Jeff German: No heroes in a town without pity

Wednesday, July 16, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

Sometimes I think there's no one really out there in government fighting for the little guy.

Where's the compassion among our elected officials these days?

In January I first told you about the Koala Motel, which has had the misfortune of operating in the shadow of the still-unfinished Regional Justice Center on South Casino Center Boulevard.

For the past four years, the 48-room motel, which caters to weekly renters, and its owners, Bill and Juanita Wilson, have endured every imaginable hardship during the project's much-delayed construction.

They estimate that they have lost more than $600,000 in business because of a steady stream of water main breaks, gas leaks and street closures.

Many tenants have left because they couldn't stand the never-ending sound of heavy equipment operating across the street in the early-morning hours.

This week, with a completion date for the 17-story Regional Justice Center still up in the air, three more regular guests, tired of the inconveniences and untimely morning wake-up calls, moved out, leaving the Wilsons with only 14 rented rooms. The Wilsons estimated that their once profitable business is hemorrhaging $9,000 a month.

But there was more bad news for the Wilsons.

County officials, after studying the Koala Motel's predicament for seven months, said they won't help the Wilsons pull themselves out of their financial troubles -- which were caused by the county's own over-budgeted construction project.

Aviation Director Randy Walker, who is overseeing the so-called "project from hell," said he has concluded that the Wilsons were indeed wronged, but he laid most of the blame on the general contractor, AF Construction. The Wilsons have informed AF Construction about their concerns, but as with the county, they got little help from the contractor.

The bottom line, according to county officials, is that if the Wilsons are going to get any compensation, they'll have to file a lawsuit against the county and AF Construction and let the two fight over who's liable for the motel's losses.

But lawsuits take time, generally years, and time is not on the side of the Wilsons, who have been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for months because of this government boondoggle, which is now 17 months behind schedule.

Is there not one caring elected official in Sin City willing to come to the aid of the Wilsons and find a solution to their problems? Not one?

Where are our county commissioners, who just voted themselves a hefty pay raise? They have no trouble pouring millions of dollars into the Regional Justice Center to keep the project afloat. But they can't find a few bucks to save a small, upstanding business that has been causing no one harm downtown.

In a town where publicity-hungry politicians look for every photo opportunity and downtown redevelopment has been a hollow drum beat for years, why isn't someone stepping up to the plate?

Why isn't someone helping Bill and Juanita Wilson?