LV City Council looks for ways to fund parks

Monday, May 10, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council will face some tough choices at a special meeting Tuesday when it considers funding for 16 top-priority capital parks projects for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The city is nearly $6.6 million short of funding for all of its capital projects, including city facilities and roads. A shift of money to pay for those projects could reduce money for parks.

The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. and the capital projects item will follow a hearing into whether to hold a special election to fill the vacant Ward 2 City Council seat.

As the situation now stands, the 22 capital improvement projects at the top of the priority list would get some or all of the money they need. Five of the 15 projects considered second priority would split $4 million, and none of the five projects considered third priority would get money.

At a budget workshop last month, the City Council directed its staff to allocate $59.9 million, including $20 million in new park bonds, for capital projects. But that still left the city $6.6 million shy of funding everything the City Council wants for new buildings and other structures.

"We have covered as much ground as we can," City Finance Director Mark Vincent said. "I will be giving the council some additional options (on Tuesday)."

Another potential sticking point is that $50.7 million of the $53.5 million set aside for top-priority parks is earmarked for Wards 4 and 6 in the growing and affluent northwest. But Councilman Michael Mack of Ward 6 in the northwest makes no apologies for taking up so much of the pie this year.

"We do not have a community center, while other wards in older parts of the city have two or three," Mack said.

The proposed capital budget would utilize $26 million to build the Centennial Hills Leisure Center Complex at Buffalo Road and Elkhorn Road in Mack's ward. It is the most expensive top-priority project on the list.

Ward 6 stands to get $31 million for parks projects while Councilman Larry Brown's Ward 4 would receive $19.7 million, including $15 million for the first phase of the Alexander Hualapai Park at the southwest corner of Alexander Road and Hualapai Way.

Councilman Gary Reese, whose Ward 3 stands to receive $1.25 million for three top-priority parks projects, including $750,000 for the master plan of Freedom Park at Mojave Road and Washington Avenue, said the council cannot be ward specific on this issue.

"I feel just as responsible for a new community center or park in Ward 6 and 4 as I do for those in my ward," said Reese, who two years ago got funding for a new community center on Eastern Avenue.

Reese said the Centennial Park community center has "waited its turn" and now deserves funding even if that means leaving less money for other projects.

In recent meetings, however, other council members have questioned the distribution of these funds.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly, whose Ward 5 stands to receive $960,000 for four top-priority parks projects, with $260,000 going for Lorenzi Park upgrades at Washington Avenue and Rancho Drive, expressed his displeasure last month, commenting: "I guess this is not one of those feel-good times."

Councilwoman Janet Moncrief, whose Ward 1 is getting just $150,000 for Harmony Park near U.S. 95 and Decatur Boulevard, questioned why the two northwest projects should get so many millions of dollars.