LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

CARSON CITY - The "boneyard" wants $270,500 from the state Cultural Affairs Commission.

The boneyard, formally known as the Neon Museum, is a collection of outdoor signs of Las Vegas casinos, wedding chapels, restaurants, motels, dry cleaning and other businesses dating back to the 1940s.

The museum is one of 42 historical places across the state that submitted $11.3 million in requests to the commission. When it meets in March, however, the panel will have only $3 million to award.

The $270,500 would be used to help move the lobby of La Concha motel, built in 1961 on the Las Vegas Strip.

Dorothy Wright, a board member of the nonprofit group, said the La Concha lobby was designed by Paul Revere Williams, a noted black architect nicknamed "Architect to the Stars" in Hollywood.

The move and the restoration of the lobby with its swooping arches will cost about $1 million. It has to be cut in pieces and reassembled because it is too large to fit under the overpasses in Las Vegas for the move to the museum near Cashman Field.

The commission already allocated $270,000 for the project this year. The Las Vegas Convention Center also donated $300,000 and the museum received $100,000 from the Las Vegas Centennial Commission, a figure that is to be matched with private donations, Wright said.

She hopes the project can be completed by mid-2007.

There are more than 100 neon signs at the site, which has become popular among musicians looking for an unusual location to shoot videos, museum facilities manager Dan Romano said.

Although it does not have weekly hours when it is open to the public, tours can be arranged.

The biggest request also came from Las Vegas - a $1.5 million application for redevelopment of the historic downtown Post Office.

Other Clark County applications include North Las Vegas' request for $558,642 for the Kiel Ranch adobe restoration project; a $259,914 bid from the Boulder City Museum Historical Association for energy-efficient windows at the Boulder Dam Hotel; $50,000 for a design study to preserve the Mesquite High School gym; the Junior League of Las Vegas' request for $21,329 for Morelli House preservation and the Society for the Preservation of the Old Overton Gym's request for $48,600.

Construction costs apparently are rising faster than the state Transportation Department can estimate. And the biggest single project in the history of the department just got bigger.

When the department opened bids last week for the 8.5-mile freeway project between Reno and Carson City, the low bid was $75 million higher than the state's estimates.

Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. of Dickinson, N.D., submitted the lower of two bids at $393.3 million. That was more than $21 million less than the $414.8 million bid of Kiewit Western Co. of Concord, Calif.

Deputy Transportation Director Susan Martinovich said the high cost may be attributable to the rising price of building materials.

"We may look at repackaging and re-advertising," she said, adding that a portion of the contract might be rebid later.

The freeway project stretches from south of Reno to the Winters Ranch north of Carson City. The department has 30 days to decide whether to award the contract or to rebid it.

Mel Close has served 20 years as chairman of the state Environmental Commission, probably longer than any present chairman of a state board or commission.

But Close, a Las Vegas lawyer and former state legislator, says it's time for a new person to run the panel to "give it some new attitudes."

"Nevada is a much cleaner and safer place because of Mr. Close," said Allen Biaggi, former administrator of the state Environmental Protection Division and now director of the state Conservation and Natural Resources Department. "He (Close) has been the State Environmental Commission."

Environmentalist Glenn Miller said Close has done an "excellent job. He's moderate and straight-forward. He's been a leveling influence over the years."