News briefs for July 9, 2004

Friday, July 9, 2004 | 9:28 a.m.

Car cuts off motorcycle officers

A North Las Vegas Police officer suffered minor injuries Thursday night after his cruiser collided with a car changing lanes, officers said.

Two North Las Vegas traffic officers were traveling east on Lake Mead Boulevard about 1:45 p.m. Thursday near Interstate 15 when a Ford Crown Victoria changed lanes at a high rate of speed without signaling, police said. The officer tried to slow down but struck the Ford, investigators said.

One officer suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene. The woman driving the Crown Victoria was cited for an unsafe lane change.

One lane of U.S. 95 closed

A stretch of U.S. 95 from Rancho Drive to Craig Road will be closed this weekend as state Transportation Department workers repave a northbound lane, a spokesman for the agency said this morning.

The construction will begin at 9 tonight and is expected to continue until 5 a.m. Monday, said Transportation Department spokesman Bob McKenzie. Although traffic heading north on the roughly six-mile stretch will be reduced to one lane, McKenzie said he did not expect drivers to be delayed more than 15 minutes.

Terrorist attack drill takes place

Parts of North Las Vegas may have looked like the scene of a terrorist attack this morning as part of an elaborate training exercise designed to test the city's response to potential emergencies.

The training began at 10 this morning at the North Las Vegas City Hall, 2200 Civic Center Drive, and was to continue through 2 p.m. City Hall was to be closed, city spokeswoman Brenda Johnson said.

Emergency vehicles were to be on site and theatrical smoke was to billow from windows of City Hall, Johnson said.

Civic Center Drive was expected to be reduced to one lane at times.

Three flood control projects OK'd

The Clark County Regional Flood Control District approved $13.1 million for three new projects at its meeting Thursday morning.

The projects -- improvements to Veterans Memorial Detention Basin in Boulder City, the Indian Springs Detention Basin and the Upper Las Vegas Wash Channel -- bring past the $1 billion mark the district's expenditures since its 1985 creation.

Clark County is now home to 62 detention basins and 350 miles of channels collecting and diverting floodwater. Another 64 are expected to be built in the county during the next 25 to 30 years.

Water main under Paradise Road fixed

Workers completed repairs to a broken water main under Paradise Road Thursday, clearing the way for crews to repave the damaged roadway with temporary materials before the start of the weekend.

The water main failed around 4 a.m. Wednesday morning after a device securing a joint in the water line broke, Jesse Davis, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Valley Water District, said.

The failure caused a 4-by-20-foot sink hole that spanned the southbound lanes on one portion of Paradise Road between Flamingo Road and Sands Avenue, Davis said.

Grant to help veterans cemetery

The Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City won a $1.6 million federal grant to expand its facilities by adding 7,500 new burial sites.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., announced the grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs today.