News Staff

Thu, Oct 23, 2008 (midnight)

Hawthorn Suites still negotiating hotel

Two new appraisals on the land the city would lease to Hawthorn Suites for construction of a new hotel are less than the first appraisal of the golf course parcel.

The newer appraisals, submitted to the city in August and September, come in at $18.01 and $14.49 per square foot. The 2006 appraisal valued the land at $22 per square foot.

Tim Inch, finance director, said the lease value would remain about the same.

City Manager Vicki Mayes told the City Council Oct. 14 that the city hasn't "heard a lot of progress" about the Hawthorn Suites contract to build a hotel at the Boulder Creek Golf Course, but the company is still interested in the project.

The hotel would bring in $173,000 every year to the city to help with the struggling golf course.

Mayes said Morgan Burkett, president of Hawthorn Suites, told her about a month ago he still had funds to build the 70-room hotel.

Minutes on landfill issue left in error

The City Council declined to correct minutes that were previously recorded inaccurately regarding the hiring of a consultant at the municipal landfill.

The council and city staff have sparred since August over the recording of the February motion to hire a consultant made by Mayor Roger Tobler.

At the last meeting, the council voted 3-2 against including an official transcript of the Feb. 26 discussion in the Oct. 14 minutes, one legal way to officially set the record straight.

Tobler and councilwoman Linda Strickland voted yes. Council members Travis Chandler, Mike Pacini and Andrea Anderson voted no.

Though the measure failed, Strickland's transcript of the discussion and Tobler's motion as it was made on Feb. 26 will be included in the archived minutes for Oct. 14.

The minutes as recorded said the council voted unanimously to hire a consultant to study the landfill's contract, but Tobler actually called for the city to hire a consultant to study landfill operations.

Council approves Yucca agreement

The City Council approved an Interlocal Agreement with Clark County for the Nuclear Waste Repository Program regarding Yucca Mountain.

For several years, the U.S. Department of Energy has given Clark County money to educate citizens about Yucca Mountain. Boulder City puts that money into an economic indicators monitoring program, Community Development Director Brok Armantrout said.

It spends none of its own money on the program, which will track the impact Yucca Mountain will have on Nevada's housing prices and public safety issues, he said.

The city also sent its position to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board that the board should hold public hearings to consider a potential rail line extension or expansion to transfer nuclear waste through Caliente.