Columnist Jeff German: Relief still not in sight for motel

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 5:17 a.m.

COUNTY LEADERS have a lot of things to worry about these days -- fending off a state property tax grab, bailing out University Medical Center and finding money to put more cops on the street.

But wouldn't it be nice if they worried about the little guy once in a while?

William and Juanita Wilson, whose story was brought to you in this space two months ago, are at their wits' end trying to keep the Koala Motel, 520 S. Casino Center Blvd., in business.

They've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues because they had the misfortune of operating across the street from the county's 17-story Regional Justice Center, which is millions of dollars in the red and more than a year behind schedule.

The hardships the Wilsons have been forced to undergo since construction began in 1999 -- water main breaks, gas leaks and heavy equipment operating in the early morning hours -- have been well documented and presented to county officials, who are taking their time investigating the claims.

The Wilsons, meanwhile, keep slipping further into debt. They are two years behind in their mortgage payments and owe thousands of dollars in back property and room taxes.

Recently they lost their slot machine contract at the 48-room motel because they weren't generating enough revenue.

And last week, amid all of their financial troubles, the city of Las Vegas sent them a notice, saying it would place a lien on their property if they didn't pay $11,263 in back sewer fees by April 18.

Can you believe that? How hard would it have been for the county to ask the city to go easy on the Wilsons while their claims of hardship are being investigated?

Then there's the kicker.

After all of the complaints, and even the publicity, the Wilsons have generated about heavy equipment operating at the Regional Justice Center in the early morning hours, it happened again last week.

The Wilsons and their guests were awakened at 1 a.m. two days in a row to the sound of backhoes and cement trucks outside their windows. Someone on the construction site apparently felt the need to dig a trench while everyone was trying to sleep across the street.

It was the last straw for a couple of the Koala Motel's longtime residents, who have gone one too many nights without sleep. They vowed to leave and not come back, which means the Wilsons are losing still more business while the county sits back and watches.

Why is it so difficult to get these hard-working small-business people some help?

Do the Wilsons have to close their doors before someone in the county shows them compassion?

If topless-nightclub owner Rick Rizzolo isn't a supporter of the American invasion of Iraq, he will be after reading this.

Not only has the war pushed the FBI's investigation of the Crazy Horse Too operator off the front page of the newspapers, but it has temporarily put the investigation and other criminal probes on the back burner.

Last week we learned that FBI agents planned to interview 200 members of the local Iraqi community as part of a national effort to glean information about Saddam Hussein's regime and maybe learn something about future terrorist threats.

What we weren't told is that agents throughout the Las Vegas FBI office are being pulled off their regular assignments to conduct the interviews, which will take about three weeks.

That means agents investigating Rizzolo's alleged organized crime ties won't have time over the next three weeks to pore through the mass of evidence seized in a Feb. 20 raid on the Crazy Horse Too.

"These kinds of things have a ripple effect throughout the rest of our casework," FBI spokesman Daron Borst said. "The director made it very clear that terrorism is our No. 1 priority, and resources will be diverted from other programs as needed."

The bad news for Rizzolo is that it's only three weeks -- unless he can find some more Iraqis for the FBI to interview.