By Cy Ryan (contact)

Wed, Aug 27, 2008 (5:14 p.m.)

CARSON CITY – Building a giant prison and constructing two medical buildings in the university system appear to be the top choices for Nevada’s public works program for the next two years.

Because there is a shortage of state dollars for such projects, a lot of attention will be focused on maintaining the present buildings of the state.

“We’ve got to take care of what we’ve got before we talk of new buildings,” says Gus Nunez, manager of the state Public Works Board that concluded two days of meeting Wednesday hearing the construction requests for 181 projects from state agencies.

There won’t be any cash available but there is an estimated $500 million in bonds that could be issued to finance the projects. There were requests for more than $1 billion.

Board Chairman Renny Ashleman says, planning for future major projects may be delayed “because of the shortness of funds.”

“We will probably put a good deal of emphasis on your smaller projects’’ involving deferred maintenance or life and safety issues, said Ashleman of Las Vegas.

Nunez will make his recommendations to the board on Sept. 10. And then the board will develop a final list to present to Gov. Jim Gibbons before Oct. 1 for inclusion in his budget to the 2009 Legislature.

Nunez said $60 million-$80 million must be spent just “to keep things running” in the existing buildings of the state. He also said there’s the possibility of state or federal court mandates to build a new prison.

The state Department of Corrections has proposed a $286.5 million prison to house 1,500 inmates at Indian Springs in Southern Nevada. It would include a regional medical center for inmates plus an execution chamber to for death row convicts.

Howard Skolnik, director of the corrections department, says inmates are now sleeping in day rooms and other places and he needs the new prison.

But constructing a facility in Las Vegas to evaluate and treat the criminally insane apparently won’t be funded in the next two fiscal years. Ashleman said he got word from the state Human Resources Department that it could wait another two years.

The number of persons committed to Lake’s Crossing, the treatment center for the criminally insane in Sparks, has dropped, Nunez said.

Two big projects in Reno and Las Vegas in the university system should get on the priority list. They were approved in 2007 but then their budget was reduced to allow only the planning. One is a $59.6 million project for an academic, clinical, training and research center on the Shadow Lane Campus in Las Vegas. It’s part of the health science system and will house the UNLV School of Nursing and the medical school.

The school received $33 million in 2007 but was allowed to keep $4.4 million for design when the budget cuts came. It now is asking for $29.4 million from the state and it must raise $25.8 million in matching funds.

The other building is the Medical Education Learning Lab at Reno that will house the school of medicine and the Orvis School of Nursing. The project cost is $51.9 million. It was authorized about $39 million in 2007 but was permitted to keep only $3 million for design. It is now asking for $36 million and will have to raise $12.9 million in outside funds.

Ashleman, who has been on the board for seven years, said this lack of money isn’t anything new. “We don’t have enough money when there are flush times,” he said.

Typically, he said there is enough money for one-fourth of the projects requested. This time he said the staff told the agency with “dream projects” to “stay home.”