Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.
Deal made for Rhodes school
The Rhodes Ranch community should finally get a new elementary school, ending seven years of limbo over a promised school for the subdivision in southwestern Las Vegas.
The Clark County Commission, acting as the board of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, approved Tuesday the plan to provide water for a site agreed to by the Clark County School District, the developer and the Water District.
"We've been going back and forth for years," said Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, who put a halt on the processing of new building applications for Rhodes Homes in an effort to get the developer to find a site for the promised school.
The $4 million cost to bring the water to the site will be covered by Rhodes Homes in the agreement between the Water District and the developer. The County Commission was expected to approve the land-use portion of the deal during its regular zoning meeting today.
Money approved for triage center
The Clark County Commission approved $453,630 for WestCare to continue to operate its Community Triage Center, a move that should help keep the mental health intervention open through June 2005.
Local hospitals and the cities of Clark County have also agreed to contribute to the WestCare center, said Don Musgrove, a Clark County lobbyist who helped broker the deal.
The county and cities hope that the Legislature also will contribute to the center when it meets next year.
The lack of beds for people with psychological or substance-abuse problems prompted Clark County to declare a state of emergency in July because those patients were taking up emergency room beds, meaning some emergency patients had to wait for treatment.
"This is really an interim solution to get us into the Legislature, to keep it open and working," Musgrove said.
Expansion at UMC approved
A $56.9 million expansion at University Medical Center received the go-ahead from the Clark County Commission on Tuesday. Officials plan to expand the county-operated hospital's burn unit and add new laboratory facilities, private rooms and doctors' offices in the expansion, which will add about 25 percent to the floor size.
Approval was unanimous.
"This is a very exciting day," Lacy Thomas, UMC chief executive officer, told the board.
County and hospital officials believe that expansion is needed to attract patients with health insurance, part of the effort to have a better "payer mix" at the hospital. Two years ago the county was forced to provide $38 million to cover debts at the hospital, a move that prompted a restructuring at UMC, cost-cutting and other changes.
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