Editorial: Past misdeeds cloud public’s trust

Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005 | 7:07 a.m.

Residents' growing opposition to a proposed cellular tower at a retail site that was built under questionable circumstances shows how deeply one act of government corruption can damage a community's progress.

The proposed tower is to be built at the northeast corner of Buffalo Drive and Desert Inn Road. That also is the site of an existing CVS Pharmacy, which lies at the heart of a federal indictment against two developers accused of paying former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny $200,000 in 2001 for land-use approval to build the pharmacy.

Residents and Commissioner Chip Maxfield, who represents the area, opposed construction of the store, but it was approved anyway.

The Clark County Commission is poised to decide Dec. 21 whether Cingular Wireless may build a tower on the site. And, according to a recent Las Vegas Sun report, residents are fighting that, too. They liken the tower to "a Stratosphere" that adds insult to injury by providing a landmark for an ill-gotten development.

The commission was to discuss the tower last week. But Maxfield arranged for a two-week delay so that Cortel LLC, which is building the tower, could work out a compromise with residents. The company's agent told the Sun he was not aware of the property's shady past.

Anyone with a cell phone knows the frustration of being unable to obtain a signal while sitting in the center of a heavily populated area of the valley. We need these towers, many of which are going to end up in neighborhoods.

But the broken promises of former public officials -- whose claims that extensive landscaping would render the drugstore "invisible" to passers-by also turned out to be false -- are taking their toll.

Misdeeds by those responsible for the public's welfare leave a legacy of resentment and mistrust that is hard to overcome and obscures the path of our community's progress.