City Council briefs for June 19, 2003

Thursday, June 19, 2003 | 9:05 a.m.

Racing pigeons given support

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved an ordinance that will allow breeders of racing pigeons to keep up to 300 birds on their properties.

The move was a revision of a prior ordinance that limited the number of such birds to no more than 24 on a property.

"These are athletes with wings -- it is unfair to compare them" with common pigeons, said longtime Las Vegan and pigeon enthusiast Milton Schwartz. He said racing pigeons do not land on buildings or otherwise create a nuisance.

Schwartz said pigeon racing dates back thousands of years to when pigeons were used in Europe to deliver messages from battlefronts to kings.

In pigeon racing, each bird is equipped with a computer chip attached to its leg that registers when the bird crosses the threshold of small circular doorways in the roof of a loft. The first bird in is the winner.

About 20 local pigeon racing enthusiasts attended Wednesday's council meeting to support the ordinance change.

General fund use approved

The Las Vegas City Council approved a resolution to add about $15 million to its general fund budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The money, which comes from the current fiscal year's fund balance, is to be used to help cover the cost of construction projects including the rebuilding of Fire Station 8, Ed Fountain Park and the Mirabelli Community Center, several other parks, a records storage facility and the Washington-Buffalo soccer complex, officials said.

The money to augment the budget comes from the previous fiscal year's end-of-year balance, which from year to year generally runs about 12 percent of the total budget. Before the June 30 end of the fiscal year, the City Council is required to pass a resolution on budget augmentations and file it with the Nevada Department of Taxation.

Money approved for MASH demolition

The Las Vegas City Council approved the allocation of $200,000 to demolish the old MASH Village that closed eight months ago.

City officials say they many not end up bulldozing the prefabricated pink building but are merely seeking the availability of funds from the 2004 budget. Officials say the options of repairing the building at a cost of about $1.5 million -- which includes fixing the foundation and removing mold -- or finding another social service agency to utilize the site are still on the table.

City officials say the demolition would not include the Crisis Intervention Center on the same site -- the only remaining working element of the village.

City Neighborhood Services Director Sharon Segerblom said the decision to seek demolition funds was made long before the city decided not to fund the crisis center in the wake of other area municipalities' failure to help fund the facility.

Council decides on Frank Wright Plaza

The city finally has decided how to honor late historian Frank Wright.

Initially, erroneous paperwork from a city employee had a park-naming committee approving the renaming of City Park adjacent to City Hall at Fourh Street and Stewart Avenue after the former curator of manuscripts for the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society at Lorenzi Park.

Then city officials decided to name the finished portion of the park beside the historic downtown post office building the Frank Wright Pavilion.

The Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to name the area the Frank Wright Plaza.

Deputy City Attorney Betsy Fretwell said the term "pavilion" was misleading and the term "plaza" better describes the site.

Wright, who served on several city preservation committees, died of cancer in April at age 64.

A bill designed to prevent drug

and alcohol treatment facilities from being established in residential neighborhoods was allowed to die for failure of a vote Wednesday. City Clerk Roni Ronemus said the bill will be reintroduced and "fast-tracked" through the city's recommending committee to be heard possibly in time for the July 16 council hearing.