Stop encroachment on vital Nellis base

Jan Crouch, Mesquite

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Regarding the Las Vegas Sun’s Dec. 8 story headlined “Area’s growth a threat to Nellis”:

Frank Fiori, director of planning and zoning of North Las Vegas, was quoted as saying: “The Air Force would like to see very low density, if not no density, where planes fly, but I’m not sure if that’s reasonable because we would have to stop development where we’re at and not proceed further.”

Hello! The Air Force base was there first. This is a classic example of not understanding what it would mean to North Las Vegas and Las Vegas if — because of the asinine attitude of the city fathers — Nellis were to close.

When are you people going to get the picture? When are you going to take a good look at the city as it now stands and say, “Let’s fill up these empty houses and commercial buildings first before building any more?” Empty houses equate to neighborhood blight. Empty houses invite vandalism and squatters. What kind of city are you trying to promote? It’s way past time for a building moratorium.

It’s way past time to take care of the existing population without adding more and protect what viable living standards are still in place. Why add to the population when crime is high, why add more housing when the values are down, why bloat our school systems when the school district can’t get qualified teachers, why add to the medical institutions when they can’t get qualified medical professionals, and why encroach on Nellis when their specific training programs, unique to here, are so vital to our nation’s protection?

If Nellis is forced to move its operations to another state, local government officials will be held directly responsible for job losses adding to the unemployment rate — and Nevada’s is one of the highest in the nation — and to the overall degradation of the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Are you ready for that title?