LV had sought $500,000 for post office

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 10:52 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas asked two of Nevada's congressional representatives for $500,000 to refurbish the historic downtown post office and turn it into a museum, but garnered just one-sixth that amount.

Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell said the city is not disappointed in the $75,000 approved in the VA-HUD spending bill that was passed by the House on Friday, noting that the project will cost in the millions of dollars and any amount helps.

"The reality is that there is a shift in spending toward homeland security," Fretwell said. "With that in mind, we'll take every bit we can get."

Last year Las Vegas set aside $1 million in capital funds to refurbish the neoclassical brick building that the federal government gave to the city in May 2002.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Monday a game plan from consultants should be revealed in the next two months that will determine what the final costs will be.

Fretwell said there is nothing significant about the $500,000 figure that was requested other than it was an amount the city felt it had a shot at obtaining.

"Grants are typically for that amount -- it is fairly common," John Scofield, spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, said today.

"We get tens of billions of dollars in funding requests. If everyone got the amount they requested, it would bankrupt the Treasury."

Rep. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev., and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., both put in requests for funding for the city's post office renovation.

Richard Urey, Berkley's chief of staff, said, "The philosophy is why ask for a little when there is a chance you could get a lot or a reasonable amount?

"This is an effort to assist in the city's revitalization plan for the downtown area, which clearly needs this project."

The city had negotiated with the federal government for ownership of the building for more than three years. In addition to being a longtime post office, the structure, built in 1933, was the city's first federal courthouse and one of the sites of the 1950 Kefauver hearings into organized crime.

Plans are for the museum to be operating in time for the centennial celebration of the city on May 15, 2005.