Sign of the times: BLM seeing dismal bids at land auctions

By Jeremy Twitchell

Thursday, July 2, 2009 | 1:59 a.m.

The string of dismal showings at federal land auctions in Southern Nevada continued last week when an online auction that lasted for two months sold just four of 14 eligible properties for a total of $1.6 million.

It’s a stark departure from auctions conducted in 2005 and 2006, some of which netted hundreds of millions in sales in a single day. The sales are authorized by the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, which allows local municipalities to nominate federal parcels located within their jurisdiction for auction to private parties.

As the economy has declined in recent years, so has the income from the auctions.

“This (recent auction) is pretty much keeping in line with the last few we’ve had,” said Hillerie Patton, public affairs specialist for the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the land act and conducts the auctions.

Most of the proceeds from the land sales -- 85 percent -- go into an account that funds local parks and trails projects. The remainder is split between the Southern Nevada Water Authority (10 percent) and the state’s General Education Fund (5 percent).

At their height, the land auctions funded dozens of projects in the Las Vegas Valley. As the take has declined, however, local park planners have had to temper their expectations as the funds have all but dried up.

“I think right now everybody has come to expect this,” Patton said. “They know what the economy is like right now, so I think people are focusing more on finishing up existing projects than looking toward future ones.”

In the current round, the participating municipalities proposed 18 minor parks and trails projects, most of them improvements to existing facilities, totaling $15.4 million.

Henderson Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Kim Becker said the city’s park planners “didn’t have any expectations regarding what the proceeds would be for the BLM land sales or what that means in terms of funding for us at this time.”