Henderson City Council briefs

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 11:50 a.m.

City Council honors Henderson Rotary Club

The Henderson City Council opened its Oct. 21 meeting with a special commendation for the Rotary Club of Henderson.

A proclamation given to club President Barrett Adams thanked the organization for its work in the community, specifically mentioning service projects to create and stock a reading room for the Henderson District Public Libraries, donate books to Robert L. Taylor and C.T. Sewell elementary schools, create an air museum at Henderson Executive Airport, and donate hundreds of bicycles each year to local children, among others.

"The Rotary Club has been an integral part of everything that has happened in Henderson for many, many years," Mayor James B. Gibson said.

City increases funding for new infrastructure

The Council unanimously approved a $391,000 increase in the budget for infrastructure development in west Henderson, pushing the project's total cost to $1.8 million.

West Henderson is an area of roughly 3,500 acres that the city annexed from Clark County in 2006. It is mostly undeveloped, though one major project — the M Resort, located at St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard — is already under development.

The infrastructure project is Henderson's effort to get water and sewer services into the area so that it will be ready for development. The $391,000 increase will cover additional expenses associated with main lines for water and sewer, as well as the engineering fees to design and build them.

Volunteer Boulevard to be extended

In another major step for the development of west Henderson, the Council unanimously awarded a $1.8 million contract to Las Vegas Paving to extend Volunteer Boulevard.

The contract calls for Las Vegas Paving to extend Volunteer from where it ends at Executive Airport Drive, west to Gillespie Street — a distance of a little more than a mile.

According to the proposed comprehensive plan update for west Henderson, which the Council is expected to consider Nov. 4, Volunteer Boulevard is planned to be a major arterial street in the area.

Funds set aside for emergency management

The City Council unanimously agreed to set aside the required matching funds for a federal emergency management grant, but there's a catch — the city hasn't received the grant yet.

For more than 10 years, Henderson has received the annual grant, which now comes through the Department of Homeland Security, to help fund the salary of the city's Emergency Management Coordinator, Mike Cyphers, and a secretary.

The grant requires a 100 percent match from Henderson, which in the 2007-20008 budget year totaled a little more than $235,000.

However, in a memo to the City Council, city staff pointed out that the grant from the federal government has come in late the last two years, not until near or after the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. For budgeting reasons, Council agreed to release its share of the money based on last year's award, then adjust as necessary when the grant is actually awarded.

Compiled by Jeremy Twitchell