Tuesday, June 6, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.
Family Promise, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless families, apparently has a lead on a new home and a private benefactor to help with moving costs.
Representatives from the group looked at space in the old Lied Senior Care Center at Washington Avenue and Jones Boulevard on Friday, Family Promise Director Terry Lindemann said.
"It's being offered, and I'm hoping it will be a good match for us," Lindemann said.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman directed Lindemann to the facility, which she said was recently bought by Rabbi Mel Hecht's Temple Beth Am.
For 10 years, Family Promise has worked with local religious congregations to provide temporary housing for homeless families.
The organization is being forced to find a new headquarters because the City Council, worried about establishing a precedent that could produce zoning headaches in the future, would not grant the organization the zoning approvals needed to remain in its Van Buren Avenue facility.
Family Promise's headquarters, which from the street looks like a residence, is a place where families can do laundry, shower and meet before being taken to a church, synagogue or mosque for the night.
In addition to the difficulty of finding a new home, Family Promise officials said they did not have any money to relocate, and feared the financial strain would hurt the program.
But the mayor, who has promised to help find Family Promise a new home within six months, said he has found a benefactor to help the organization.
"I've already reached out to the private sector, and money will be available," said Goodman, who declined to identify the donor.
Lindemann, while pleased with the assistance, said she was still worried about the financial future of the organization.
Hecht said he was confident that there are no zoning problems with allowing Family Promise to use space at the senior day care center, which is still in operation.
But Hecht said there is one bureaucratic hurdle. His temple receives grants from the local and federal governments to run the adult day care facility, and would need those governments to OK using some of the space at the center for Family Promise. The organization would be charged a nominal rent, if any, for the use of two apartments at the center.
The rabbi added that as a man of faith he is confident all will work out in the end, and Family Promise will have a new home.
Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo is expected to meet with representatives from the Las Vegas city attorney's and business licensing offices this week as city officials begin discussing whether to recommend that the City Council punish the strip club owner for his legal transgressions.
City Finance Director Mark Vincent, who oversees the business licensing division, said Rizzolo will meet with the city officials to discuss his guilty plea last week to felony tax conspiracy charges under a deal that calls for Rizzolo to sell the club within a year.
Vincent did not know who requested the meeting but said Rizzolo is "as concerned as everyone else is" and eager to see the process completed quickly.
The city has the power to revoke the strip club's liquor license or fine the business, which it did in January 2004 to the parent company of the Cheetahs topless club after Michael Galardi pleaded guilty to public corruption charges stemming from bribing San Diego elected officials. The council fined the La Fuenta company, which Galardi had been part owner of, almost $1.1 million.
A decision on whether Rizzolo should face a similar sanction is likely to be decided by the City Council, Vincent said. If the staff recommends a fine or other action against the club's liquor license, the council would have to decide whether to punish the business.
Vincent said the matter could go to the council as early as June 21.
On the lingering pro-sports front, Goodman now is "suggesting" that the current site of City Hall would be a good spot for a sports arena.
The mayor said he was talking to three groups that would like to bring a National Hockey League franchise to Las Vegas.
None of the groups owns a team, and Goodman refused to disclose the identities of any members of the groups.
The mayor has said that the prospective NHL owners are talking about building an arena on land provided by the city.
Goodman said he suggested to one of the groups that it consider the land where City Hall now sits, on the corner of Stewart Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, with U.S. 95 running along its northern edge.
The land, considered by some to be prime real estate because of its Las Vegas Boulevard address and proximity to the highway, would be free for other development if the city follows through with a proposal to build a new City Hall elsewhere downtown. The current proposal calls for building a new City Hall on Main Street at Lewis Avenue.
Goodman said the group he pitched the idea to seemed interested in exploring the possibility.
In the past, industry analysts and experts have said that an NHL team probably would not be able to financially support an arena on its own, and probably would need to be joined by a National Basketball Association franchise.
But Goodman has said the groups are looking at hockey-only arenas.
There "could be so many other events there" that a pairing with an NBA franchise would not be necessary, he said.
In the hockey world, the Pittsburgh Penguins currently are considered the franchise most likely to relocate in the near future.
Las Vegas' decision makers are getting some new seats to help them get through long City Council and board meetings.
And although the high-back chairs cost a little over $1,000 each, that is less than the ones being replaced cost 15 years ago - perhaps as much a sign of fiduciary restraint as is possible with such a price tag.
The chairs that council members have sat in since 1991 cost about $175 more per chair than the replacements, according to figures provided by a city spokesman.
The new chairs, made of imitation leather, are adjustable and ergonomic, which the old brown leather chairs are not.
The 25 new chairs, expected to be rolled out in time for Wednesday's council meeting, cost the city $25,368.
In 1991 the city paid $36,260 for 37 chairs - 13 of which cost $1,189 each, and another 24 priced at about $840 each.
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