Boulder City’s trash is one man’s treasure

Entrepreneur seeking council’s blessing to turn garbage into energy, money

Entrepreneur Mike Little has been trying to get his hands on Boulder City’s trash for eight months.

He hopes he’s now close to getting 50 tons of it, which he’s confident he can convert into cash.

On Tuesday, Little will attend the City Council meeting, at the invitation of Councilman Travis Chandler, to pursue the next step: getting city support to apply for a permit from the Southern Nevada Health District that would allow construction of a small trash-to-energy plant near the city landfill.

Little, president of Landfill Alternative, told the Boulder City Council in January that trash can be mechanically digested into compost that produces methane gas, which, in turn, can fuel a power generator.

He says rural Boulder City is an ideal place for his pilot project. The city landfill is nearly full and in need of a $5 million expansion — or a new one needs to be built. Little says he would save the city that expense because he would reduce the waste stream that needs to be buried.

Little is not asking the city for any money for the project. Just the garbage.

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Greg Danz emerged from Wednesday’s North Las Vegas redevelopment meeting with a blueprint in his hand and a smile on his face.

The owner of the Broadacres Swap Meet will be moving forward with plans to add an amphitheater and other facilities to the property on Las Vegas Boulevard North.

An overflow crowd turned out for the meeting, including hundreds of vendors who saw the fight to expand as a battle to keep their businesses. Danz was asking to be exempted from required 30-foot setbacks, as new codes require, because vendor spaces would be lost.

After the city Planning Commission turned him down, Danz successfully appealed to the City Council last week.

Danz said work will begin soon on improvements to the 31-year-old flea market as he made his way through swarms of well-wishers on his way to a celebratory dinner.

More than 20,000 people and 1,100 vendors attend the meet during busy weekends.

For George Moen, who has sold tools at the meet for 20 years, the decision brought a sigh of relief.

“It feels good,” he said as he strolled out of City Hall. “You’re under a lot of pressure when you’re trying to figure out your future.”

The future for Moen will be keeping his spot just inside the chain-link fence running along Las Vegas Boulevard North.

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The saga over allowing Boyd Gaming to build a casino near Interstate 215 and Losee Road in North Las Vegas will continue for about 90 days, at least.

A public hearing for the proposed gaming enterprise district in the undeveloped section of the growing city that began Wednesday has been continued until Nov. 5.

About 200 people wearing bright yellow “No More Casinos” buttons attended the meeting, some waiting outside in the heat for two hours for the chance to be heard. Others said the casino would bring entertainment and dining to the northern section of the city.

Boyd is asking to move previously approved casino plans from Centennial Parkway and Lamb Boulevard to the new site, part of the planned 60,000-resident Park Highlands community. Preliminary construction has begun.

The city’s decision on the 68-acre Boyd site will set the standard for gaming north of Interstate 215 in North Las Vegas. One casino, Aliante Station, is under construction about 3 1/2 miles west of the proposed Boyd casino, and is expected to open this year.

Station Casinos also owns 54 acres adjacent to the Boyd site. That area has not been approved for gaming, although a proposal is moving through city government.

City answers call for more dispatchers

Adding two new police dispatchers might not sound like a big deal, but for the five dispatchers at the Boulder City Police Department now on duty who are doing the job of eight, the extra personnel will be a huge relief.

The Police Department had fallen short of meeting its goal of having two police dispatchers on duty at any one time because of two vacancies and a dispatcher on extended sick leave.

"It's definitely minimum staffing, so we don't want to fall below five," Deputy Police Chief John Chase said. "If we absolutely have to, we have two trained officers, Jen Ford and Tiffany Driscoll, who can dispatch in a pinch. In fact, Ford was a dispatcher before she became an officer."

The department duty roster's loss earlier this year of dispatcher Sandy Anderson, who is waging a battle against cancer, added to the other dispatchers' woes of having enough coverage during the day, swing and graveyard shifts. Anderson is on an indefinite leave of absence.

"With us being short-staffed sometimes, it can be pretty hectic around here," said Rose Sandoval, a graveyard shift dispatcher.

To address the situation, the department currently is in the process of hiring one new dispatcher from Texas, with yet another hiring expected to occur in coming months, according to Chase.

"The applicant from El Paso has had her background check completed and we've offered her the job of dispatcher," Chase said. "She's done dispatching before and wants to relocate to Southern Nevada. We have a couple of other viable applicants who are from California and Alaska and are still in background checks. The applicant from Alaska worked there with the same computer system as we have that was installed last September."

The attempt to increase the number of dispatcher jobs to eight within the Communications Bureau has not been easy despite the increased need for personnel.

According to the 2007 fiscal year budget, there were six full-time dispatchers and one part-time dispatcher in approved positions and a request was put in to hire one more dispatcher. City Manager Vicki Mayes denied that request for the $58,879 position despite the department's justifying remarks that said, "(The dispatcher's) workload has increased over the years. Whenever one is sick, on vacation or in training, we have no one to cover."

Mayes, instead, approved call back and overtime pay for dispatchers that was far less than a full-time dispatcher's pay.

Then, in the fiscal 2008 budget, for the bookkeeping year that ended June 30, 2008, Mayes approved the creation of an eighth dispatcher position after Police Chief Tom Finn said in his budget request, "Vacations and sick days create an overtime issue and the need for meal breaks and bathroom breaks forces an officer to come off the road to cover the desk. Additionally, a recent 21 percent increase in uniformed officers due to the 'More Cops' funding program has proportionately increased the dispatcher's workload. Since the dispatchers provide services for police, fire and EMS calls, it is essential that the bureau be fully staffed by eight dispatchers."

The total of eight includes Anderson's position, which will remain unmanned indefinitely while she remains on sick leave, meaning that seven dispatchers will share the workload after two new employees join the staff.

Not only was a $61,074-a-year (the salary is $42,067 with $19,007 in benefits) position created for the 2008 fiscal year, but Mayes also approved $18,000 in overtime pay and $14,000 in call-back pay for dispatchers in the last fiscal year.

Both years, the request for a new dispatcher's position was the Police Department's No. 1 priority, putting it ahead of cars, computers, Tazers and other items needed to be replaced or acquired for effective law enforcement.

For the current fiscal year, covering the period from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, no additional funds for dispatcher positions were requested; however, Mayes again approved $20,000 for overtime pay and $15,600 in call-back pay.

According to a set of performance indicators for the dispatchers, the budget shows 92,279 calls are expected to be received this year, a 4.7 percent jump over the last fiscal year; 6,264 contacts with citizens are expected, an 18.5 increase from last fiscal year; and calls for service are anticipated to be 29,711, up 4.8 percent from FY 2008.

The dispatcher's position pay starts at $22.19 per hour. All new Police Department employees have to be certified to a 12-month probation period.