By Mike Trask (contact)

Fri, Nov 21, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Plans to convert Henderson International School classrooms into dorms for as many as 60 foreign students abruptly ended this week, to the relief of anxious neighborhood residents.

They had complained the students would disrupt the quiet residential area.

“It was just totally out of place,” said Arlan Rathke, a neighbor. “The idea of a boarding school is not new. But it shouldn’t be in this location.”

The school had insisted the foreign students who would move to Henderson for an American high school experience would adhere to a strict academic schedule and be forbidden to leave campus without supervision.

The program would cost more than $30,000 for tuition, room and board and would have been geared to elite students, mostly from the Far East.

But at this week’s City Council meeting, the school withdrew a request for a special use permit for the dorms after it became apparent that council members had no intention of overturning a Planning Commission denial of the proposal.

The school is now pursuing backup plans to have the international students housed at UNLV and bused to the Henderson campus each day.

The campus on Sandy Ridge Avenue, which is surrounded by residences, serves about 220 students in grades five to 12. Another 600 younger students go to a pair of affiliated school elsewhere in Henderson.

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Boulder City has moved one step closer toward a trash-to-energy plant, but it may not benefit the man who came up with the idea.

After having discussed entrepreneur Mike Little’s idea for more than a year, the city is now preparing to solicit proposals to build it.

Such a plant would alleviate the need for a new city landfill.

Little’s plan is to mechanically digest trash into compost that produces methane gas, which, in turn, can fuel a power generator.

But it’s not his technology alone. Several companies across the country have designed similar plants, and city officials say at least two have shown interest in building in Boulder City. Legally, the city must solicit proposals from the public and cannot award a contract to Little without competitive proposals.

Boulder City’s small landfill is nearly full, making the plant a desirable alternative to building another.

Councilman Travis Chandler, the most vocal proponent of the trash-to-energy plant, and his four colleagues say the city will not provide any financial support for a plant. It will provide the land and trash.

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The largest and most expensive road improvement project in North Las Vegas has been completed.

The $34 million project is intended to ease heavy traffic along Lamb Boulevard between Interstate 15 and the Las Vegas Beltway.

The work included new street lights, traffic signals and a bridge over Donovan Way and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Lamb now has eight lanes from Interstate 15 to Centennial Parkway and four lanes north of Centennial to the Beltway.

Lamb has previously run south from the Beltway to a dead end.

The new roadway will help travelers from the north make a smoother drive to and from downtown North Las Vegas.

The 5-year-long project was funded by the Regional Transportation Commission, the Clark County Regional Flood Control District and the city.

City Manager Gregory Rose said the project was completed ahead of schedule and within budget.