By Mike Trask

Mon, Jun 30, 2008 (2 a.m.)

North of Interstate 215 in North Las Vegas, Losee Road turns to gravel and then ends altogether at a chain-link fence. Beyond, in the empty desert, is where Boyd Gaming wants to build a casino.

It’s 3 1/2 miles east of another casino, Aliante Station, which will open this year.

On Wednesday, the North Las Vegas City Council is scheduled to review plans for the 68-acre Boyd site.

But the council’s decision will be about more than one casino. It will signal how it views gaming in the continued growth of the city. For years there has been chatter about where — and when — to put casinos in North Las Vegas.

The new Boyd site, which the company hopes for permission to develop instead of an approved site near Lamb Boulevard and Centennial Parkway, would be part of the Park Highlands community, the future home of 60,000 people.

This month the city Planning Commission recommended changing the zoning in the area to allow gaming. The development agreement between the city and the Olympia Group also calls for a resort in the area. North Las Vegas planners have no objection to the site.

The decision may trigger a request from Station Casinos for permission to build on a 54-acre site it owns near the proposed Boyd site, but which is not yet approved for gaming.

It may be politically hard to approve Boyd’s request without approving Station’s.

•••

North Las Vegas voters will decide in November whether to require that municipal judge candidates have a law degree.

It seems logical that the person overseeing the law would have knowledge of the law, said Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, who authored the bill that led to the ballot question.

“It’s not an on-the-job training position,” said. “It’s an important thing. You are dealing with people’s lives.”

The two North Las Vegas municipal judges preside over traffic ticket and drunken driving proceedings. Only one of the two has a law degree.

Judge Sean Hoeffgen, who took office in 2005, graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law. However, Warren VanLandschoot, who has served since 1997, does not have a law degree. He is a retired North Las Vegas police officer.

The municipal judges earn $147,000 per year.

Most municipal judges across the country are required to hold law degrees, Lee said.

• • •

Boulder City voters will answer a big question on the ballot in November: whether to pay additional property taxes to support the small town’s private hospital.

The proposal would lead to a $105 annual tax for someone owning a home with a taxable value of $200,000. The figure is based on 15 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Whether Boulder City voters will say yes is unclear.

“I don’t know,” said Rich Loudin, a real estate agent and a leader of a group of residents who work closely with the city. “People are a little gun shy about money.”

Boulder City Hospital wants to establish a special hospital district to help pay for new equipment and room improvements. The tax would raise about $1 million annually for the 67-bed hospital with a $19 million annual budget. The Clark County Commissioner would oversee the district and collect taxes.

Eight formerly private hospitals now have tax districts in the state, most in rural sections of Northern Nevada. Boulder City would be the first in Clark County.

Nancy Nolette, always one of the city’s more outspoken residents, said she’s volunteering to write the argument against the tax that will be used on the ballot.

“The population of 15,000 can’t support it,” she said. “Henderson is eight miles away and it has everything you would need.”