Hoover Dam sign hurt business, so it’s changed

By Jean Reid Norman, Jeremy Twitchell

Sunday, June 21, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Nevada Way, the main drag through Boulder City, is no longer a locals-only route to Hoover Dam.

Until a few weeks ago a large sign above the intersection with Buchanan Boulevard, where the Nevada Highway (U.S. 93) becomes Nevada Way, told motorists they should turn left onto the U.S. 93 truck route if they wanted to get to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. Continuing straight, they sign said, would take them into Boulder City’s Historic District.

The state Transportation Department had installed the sign figuring the town would be thrilled with it.

But business owners complained to the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce that the sign was doing more harm than good. They pointed out that both routes head to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, and before the sign started diverting all the tourists to the more expedient way, more of them were stopping in downtown Boulder City. After the sign went up, the downtown stores and restaurants saw a drop in business.

Chamber Executive Director Jill Lagan said she and Mayor Roger Tobler took the concern to state transportation officials, and they changed the sign to show that both roads lead to the lake and the dam.

“It was an amazing feat,” Lagan said. “All of our jaws are dropping. It was done in 14 days.”

Rudy Malfabon, deputy director of the Transportation Department, said the agency tries to change signs if they are confusing or aren’t working as planned. This was an easy and inexpensive fix that could be done in the department’s Las Vegas sign shop, he said, so it happened quickly.

“Sometimes we can be pretty responsive like that,” he said.

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Henderson’s City Hall will be closed on Fridays beginning in late August or early September.

The closure, unanimously approved Tuesday by the City Council, is expected to save the city $1.6 million a year in salaries and utility costs.

The Development Services Center, which handles building permits, business licenses and customer service for city utilities, will be affected by the closure, as will the City Clerk’s office and the Marriage License Bureau operated by the Clark County clerk. A few other city departments have some workers in the office on Fridays as well, but most of the city’s employees have been on a four-day workweek since 1983.

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Henderson’s share of consolidated tax revenues declined for the 25th consecutive month in March, leaving the city anxiously awaiting the next set of numbers.

If the sales tax revenue totals for April, expected to be released in the coming week, come in too low, they could force the city to make more budget cuts.

Mayor Andy Hafen said he is on “pins and needles” waiting for the April numbers.

The 20.9 percent decline from March 2008 to March 2009 was the seventh consecutive month of double-digit decreases when compared with the same month of the previous year, and was the second-worst decline recorded in the past two years — topped only by the 22 percent decline from December 2007 to December 2008.

The consolidated tax is a revenue collected from several sources, including sales, cigarette and liquor taxes. The money collected in Clark County from those taxes is divided among local municipalities based on population and local sales receipts. In Henderson it accounts for about half of the city’s general fund.

To cope with the economic slump, Henderson has frozen hiring, delayed several construction projects, cut the budgets of all departments (except for fire and police) by 10 percent, set up a furlough program, cut annual cost-of-living increases for most city employees and bought out 104 veteran employees. Together, the efforts are projected to cover the city’s estimated $57 million shortfall in the current year and save many millions more in the coming years.

In anticipation of further revenue declines, the City Council has asked all departments to come up with a three-tier plan to cut their budgets by 5, 10 and 15 percent. Those recommendations have been collected and city officials are expected to begin prioritizing them in the coming weeks.

“We cannot sustain 20 percent negative sales tax rates,” Hafen said. “If we go another few months with those types of deficits, we really are going to have to take drastic action — maybe beyond what we’ve already outlined in our five-year plan.”