Columnist Susan Snyder: Be heard on airport noise study

Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005 | 9:04 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

This will be one of those days when Mom shoots out an e-mail accusing me of simply cleaning out the in-box.

Yeah, so? Granted, some of it consist of offers to get me the prescription drugs and home of my dreams. And others promise vast improvements in body parts I don't even possess.

But other notices are important, such as the one about this week's first public open house regarding McCarran International Airport's noise study.

The meeting is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Clark County Government Center cafeteria. The government center is that asymmetrical, reddish building at the corner of Grand Central Parkway and Bonneville Avenue.

The meeting will include displays explaining the Federal Aviation Administration's study process, and members of the study team will be there to answer questions and take people's comments. McCarran is among the nation's six busiest airports, and promises to create more noise as it continues to grow. The study will result in a new noise plan under which the county could be eligible to use federal money to purchase and later demolish property in the noisiest areas.

For more information, long onto www.mccarrannoisestudy.com, or call Elaine Sanchez, airport public affairs manager, at 261-3094.

Now if discussing airport noise isn't enough to elevate your pulse rate, then perhaps a little historical discussion about the Civil War and Gen. George Custer will do it.

Jerry Hickman, formerly of Custer National Battlefield Park, will discuss the role Custer played in the Civil War at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the visitor's center of the Old Mormon Fort State Park. The park is on the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue, near Cashman Field.

Hickman, who also is a volunteer docent at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, hopes the free lecture will enlighten those of us familiar with Custer's American Indian dealings about the general's role in "The War of Northern Aggression."

Any lecture that starts out calling the Civil War by its Southern moniker is sure to be as lively as people griping about airport noise.

For more information, call 743-3932.

Artists or curators of collections looking for a place to show their works are invited to submit queries to the Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services.

Exhibit proposals will be considered for the 2006-2007 season at Charleston Heights Arts Center and Reed Whipple Cultural Center galleries. (Download gallery floor plans from www.lasvegasnevada.gov/ information/ 3005.htm.)

Submissions must be postmarked Oct. 15 and include a one-page written synopsis, 15 to 20 supporting images on slides or CDs with an identification list, the artist statement and artist resume. Press clippings, color prints and past exhibition cards are optional.

Send to Catherine Borg, Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St., Las Vegas, 89107. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of materials. For information, call 229-4674 or e-mail cborg@lasvegasnevada.gov.