Las Vegas City Council briefs for Nov. 6, 2003

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2003 | 9:41 a.m.

Sewer increase proposal introduced

The Las Vegas City Council introduced a sewer rate and connection fee increase Wednesday, which clears the way for it to be adopted at the Nov. 19 meeting.

The sewer and connection fees in Las Vegas are to increase by 40 percent over the next two years. The connection fee of $1,200 will go up to $1,680 over two years, and sewer customers' annual bill will from an average of $138.80 to $204.04 over two years. In addition to the sewer rate increases, the city will assess a fee, which officials are calling a right-of-way assessment, of 5 percent, meant to offset the cost of the city's use of the streets for the sewer lines.

Massage parlor decision delayed

The City Council delayed for two weeks a decision about the license of Joyful Massage Therapy, 2009 Paradise Road. The city claimed that past incidents of prostitution at the business made the owner unsuitable to hold the license. The council first voted to pull the license, but a legal technicality persuaded them to revisit the issue in two weeks.

After the first discussion, when the council voted initially to take the license, Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has talked about the issue of legalizing prostitution, said that when the discussion takes place, it ought to include escort services, which are "an inch thick in the phone book," and said "let's also talk about massage parlors."

Council mediates goat dispute

"Goat droppings are the same as rabbit droppings," said Kay Landwehr, explaining why her animals at 4809 Ricky Road were not a neighborhood nuisance.

Her neighbors disagreed at Wednesday's meeting.

"I would rather take the lid off my septic tank than live with what I lived with this summer," said neighbor Edna Reed.

The City Council ended up compromising, telling Landwehr she could only have three goats at a time, and they must be female goats. The council was informed that male goats smell, but females do not.

The Las Vegas Leisure Services Department

was recognized before Wednesday's council meeting for recently receiving accreditation from the National Recreation and Park Association. "I am unabashedly proud of my department," said director Barbara Jackson, thanking the 200-plus people under her, and the 500 to 600 seasonal employees.

The City Council approved the sale

of property downtown for $1.2 million. The land, at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Clark Avenue, is to be developed into an $18 million, six-story office building.