LOOKING IN ON: THE SUBURBS

Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 | 6:55 a.m.

By Mike Trask

Las Vegas Sun

More than 850 people spent $35 each last week to listen to North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon give the annual State of the City address.

The mayor touted the continued growth of the city and a wealth of city projects planned for the coming years.

He also offered a few glimpses of his dry sense of humor. After describing a 2,600-acre master-planned community being built by the Olympia Group that will have more than 15,000 homes, Montandon looked at Elko Mayor Mike Franzoia and quipped: "Does that look like your whole city?"

After a two-second pause - including the gasp of a woman shocked at the joke - the audience chuckled.

Montandon also threw a few gin and showgirls jokes toward Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who arrived at Texas Station sans scantily clad beauties.

North Las Vegas also used the event to announce a $300 million project at North Fifth Street and Craig Road.

The project will include 125 stores and restaurants, along with 800 housing units. The commercial section will be developed by Vestar Development Co. of Phoenix and the residential by the Athena Group of New York. It is expected to open in late 2008.

The project will be named through a competition open to all North Las Vegas residents. The person whose name for the 160-acre site is selected will earn a four-year scholarship to any college in the country.

Montandon, a father of five, again took the chance to crack another joke: "If I won I'd say, 'Sorry kids, you're out of luck. I'm going back to law school.' "

Last week, the Community College of Southern Nevada campus in Boulder City hosted a discussion of hot topics in town, including the future of Eldorado Valley and the much-discussed Boulder City bypass.

But with 250 people crammed into the atrium where the meeting was held, the organizers, including Councilman Roger Tobler, Assemblyman Joe Hardy and Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, skipped the question-and-answer session.

"We're honestly overwhelmed," Tobler said of the crowd's size.

Workers have been changing the traffic lights around Henderson lately, part of a $2.85 million project expected to save energy - and money - in the city.

City officials estimate that changing 62 lights, in addition to a few other minor changes, will save more than $250,000 annually. And changing the signals to a different kind of bulb will cut energy consumption by more than 90 percent.