Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Commissioners keep park for disabled off funding list

CLELAND GROUP

County commissioners directed staff to look into other funding sources for “Sean’s Park” after recommending two other projects for $500,000 each in federal funding.

Click to enlarge photo

John Ensign

Steve Sisolak

Steve Sisolak

Chris Giunchigliani

Chris Giunchigliani

Click to enlarge photo

This rendering shows a "time management" area featuring a sundial and a computer check-in and record keeping station for park activities.

An effort to build a park for people with disabilities was set back this week when county officials decided not to put it on a federal funding list despite Sen. John Ensign’s all but guaranteeing he would secure millions more to get the park completed.

“Sean’s Park” would be located on the campus of Opportunity Village, and the design was expected to be a model for others across the nation. It was to include a way for patrons who use wheelchairs to use a playground swing and other innovations.

“I thought this would be a slam dunk,” said County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who pleaded with his fellow commissioners to approve the project.

They didn’t, largely because other commissioners have park-starved constituents in their own districts.

The Clark County Commission had to select two park proposals to get $500,000 each in federal money. Competing against Opportunity Village’s project were a park for Mountain’s Edge in the southwest, Walnut Recreation Area in the north near Cheyenne Avenue at Las Vegas Boulevard, and Hollywood Regional Park, on Hollywood at Oakey Boulevard.

So several commissioners pleaded their cases, which boiled down to the need for park space in areas with large populations that had not seen park development in years.

Mountain’s Edge moving forward was almost a foregone conclusion after angry residents of the southwest development this year raised a stink over a promised regional park that had never come to fruition. The other winner, Hollywood Regional Park, which is in Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani’s district, was a similar situation. Over more than a decade, just 20 of its 160 acres had been turned into usable parkland.

“How could I go back to my constituents and say, ‘You’ve had a park sitting here for 15 years with nothing built, but this new idea (Sean’s Park) is the one that should get the money?’ ” Giunchigliani said.

Sisolak countered that Sean’s Park wasn’t all that new. “A lot of effort and time had already gone into it, the drawings were prepared, and I was never aware that projects in the pipeline the longest are the ones that have to win,” he said Friday.

The distinction between the Opportunity Village park and the others, he added, is that those parks serve particular areas of the county. The Opportunity Village park would be used by people with disabilities from throughout the Las Vegas Valley, he argued. Estimates are that the number of people with mental disabilities alone is 20,000 in Clark County. Thousands more Southern Nevadans with physical disabilities could also make use of many of its features.

Sisolak said it seemed like Ensign’s support for the park — which Sisolak brought up during the debate — hurt its chances with a board whose members are all Democrats. “I don’t want to believe that,” Sisolak added.

Giunchigliani said the timing of Ensign’s sudden public support for a project he would later be able to cite as an accomplishment during a campaign seemed a bit too convenient to her. After the national scandal of his extramarital affair, Ensign is fighting for his political life.

“Why now?” Giunchigliani said of Ensign’s advocacy. “As far as I’m aware, (Clark County) hasn’t heard a peep from (Ensign) ’til this point. And I would ask the same question if is was (Sen. Harry) Reid or (Rep. Dina) Titus or anyone else. ‘What are you doing on this? Is this for campaign reasons? ... You’re out there in Congress. Don’t tell us we have to add something to our list back here.’ ”

Sisolak admitted that he knew about the park only because Ensign had called him about it.

After the call, Sisolak visited Opportunity Village, which provides job training and social recreation to people with disabilities. He reviewed the plans for the park. Among other things, it would include a “freedom swing,” to which a wheelchair could be secured, letting its occupant feel for the first time an experience that most people take for granted.

The park’s “learning and activity venues” would also include a “live” public street crosswalk to promote pedestrian safety; a public transit “bus” to teach the basics of transportation management; a walking/exercise path for mobility equipment training, balancing practice and walking skills; and a music and art venue.

The $500,000 would have paid only for initial work. Because of the interactive nature of “Sean’s Park,” its total estimated cost is $6 million to $7 million, said Ed Guthrie, Opportunity Village’s executive director.

The park’s name refers to the son of Mike Morrissey, an Opportunity Village board member and insurance broker. His son was born with Down syndrome a year after Morrissey joined the board more than two decades ago.

Morrissey said Friday he wasn’t overly disappointed with the commission’s decision. “This park will gain momentum,” he said. “It’s so unique and different. It will happen.”

Though Sean’s Park didn’t make the list, commissioners directed county staff to look at other possible sources of funding for the project.

Via e-mail, an “incredibly disappointed” Ensign told the Sun the commissioners missed a tailor-made opportunity to use federal funding.

The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, which I co-wrote, would have been the perfect vehicle to fund Sean’s Park and improve the quality of life for our citizens with disabilities,” he wrote.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy