A year ago, Boulder City resident Vicki Brown was finishing training for her first triathlon — the 2007 Pumpkinman.

As this year’s Pumpkinman approaches on Oct. 18, she’s more experienced and eager to see how she does.

“This is what I’ve been training for since last year,” Brown said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how I do and how much I’ve improved.”

This is the fifth year the Pumpkinman has taken place in Lake Mead and Boulder City. About 1,500 triathletes are expected to participate.

The triathlon starts at Boulder Beach for the swimming portion. Competitors will then bike along Lake Shore Drive until reaching their turn-around point and then bike into Boulder City to Bicentennial Park. From there, they will run through Boulder City, returning to the finish line at Bicentennial Park. The first groups start at 7 a.m. The event is broken into three distance classifications.

Brown, 34, last year competed in the short distance — a 0.75K-swim, 12.4-mile bike and 3.1-mile run. She finished 102nd in 1 hour, 59:07 minutes and ninth overall in her age group.

“It was such a feeling of accomplishment when I finished,” she said. “It wasn’t like anything I had ever done before.”

She undertook the race to support a friend, Lesley Harvey, who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Some friends were putting together a team to support her and asked me to join them,” Brown said. “As great as it was to finish the race, it was nothing compared to showing our support for Lesley.”

After finishing one triathlon, Brown knew she wanted more and began to train with Frank Lowry’s Multisport team in Henderson.

“She’s put in a lot of work the last year and has really improved as an athlete. I can’t wait to see how she does,” Lowry said.

She competed in two triathlons to prepare for this year’s Pumpkinman. Her first triathlon of 2008 was the Lake Havasu Triathlon on March 22.

She competed in the sprint distance (500-meter swim, 12.4-mile bike and 3.1-mile run) and finished in 1:32.00, which was first in her age group and 70th overall out of nearly 200 competitors.

Her next event came four months later in Flagstaff, Ariz., where she competed in the Mountain Man Triathlon on July 20.

Brown said she wanted to push herself, so she competed in the Olympic distance, which consisted of a 0.93-mile swim, 24.9-mile bike and 6.2-mile run. She finished 163rd of 264 competitors in 3:02.01.

“It was tough to move up to the longer distance, and we were up in the mountains, but it showed I was ready for the challenge,” Brown said.

source: lasvegassun.com

The city’s new airport manager, Kerry Ahearn, met the city’s Airport Advisory Committee Oct. 7, her second day on the job.

Community Development Director Brok Armantrout, who had acted as the manager for four years as part of his job, introduced Ahearn to the committee members during their meeting. The committee last year recommended a full-time airport manager be hired to accommodate the four tour operations and more than 200 private planes stationed there.

Ahearn is a graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and a licensed commercial pilot.

“She’s already got two things on me right there,” said Armantrout, who will maintain supervisory authority over the airport as director.

For 10 years, Ahearn worked in operations at Morristown International Airport in New Jersey, and recently worked at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn.

She told the committee that in New Jersey, she handled grant writing, managed tie-downs and leases, and was in charge of security.

In Connecticut, she managed a sound abating program.

She came to Boulder City, she said, because she “missed the general aviation side and was sick of snow.”

Next month, Ahearn will help hire an airport operations technician— another full-time position converted from the contracted airport coordinator position Mike Minshall fills.

Minshall said he plans to apply for the job.

source: lasvegassun.com

Grass surrounding ballfields at Hemenway Park and Veterans Memorial Park will be replaced with trees and shrubbery that consume less water.

The city predicts the change will save $3,400 and 5.7 million gallons of water every year — 55 gallons per square foot.

Work began last month and should finish in mid-December on the $231,380 project, which will remove 104,400 square feet of turf, City Engineer Jim Keane said.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority and Clark County Regional Flood Control District will refund the city $200,159, he said.

The balance will come from residential construction tax revenue.

Keane said grass on slopes outside the fences of fields at both parks was difficult to mow and wasted water, which flowed downhill.

At Veterans Memorial Park, trees and shrubs will cover half of the area the lawn did, and landscape gravel will fill the rest.

At Hemenway Park, the area to be converted is a storm water detention basin, so half of new look will be trees and shrubs and the other half will be larger rocks.

The city last month replaced a smaller grassy area at the Public Works shops on Railroad Avenue, and a year and a half ago converted lawns at ABC Park to desert landscape.

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.

Source: lasvegassun.com

One woman died and a man was critically injured Oct. 1, when their truck veered off U.S. 93 at Pacifica Way.

The driver, 50-year-old Theresa Lynn Bettler, of Pahrump, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 51-year-old passenger was taken by helicopter to University Medical Center trauma.

The 1995 Toyota pickup heading southbound on U.S. 93 swerved off the road and rolled just after 6 p.m. No other vehicles were involved, Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Kevin Honea said.

Bettler was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle, he said.

About 6:45 p.m., traffic both ways was halted for 20 minutes while the helicopter landed on the highway, Boulder City Police Chief Thomas Finn said

He said the truck was driving erratically and at a high rate of speed.

A cat was badly injured when it was ejected from the car and was euthanized by Boulder City Animal Control, Finn said.

source: lasvegassun.com

Despite a storm damaging 30 booths and lower spending amid a nationwide economic crisis, Art in the Park made much more money this year than last year, Boulder City Hospital officials said.

Though revenue tallies hadn't been finalized Monday, Wendy Christ-Kyser, the Boulder City Hospital Foundation director and fair organizer, and Yvonne Waggner, the hospital's chief financial officer, said the event brought in more than last year's $143,000.

The 46th annual Art in the Park, a two-day show benefiting the Boulder City Hospital Foundation, drew about 100,000 people to browse 360 artists, food booth and bands throughout downtown parks.

The event Saturday and Sunday overcame more than the weather and the timing of the presidential campaigns, always a less fruitful period for art shows, Christ-Kyser said.

Neither she nor Waggner heard any complaints about the cost of shuttles to downtown parks from overflow parking at the old airport hangar on Nevada Highway, they said. The rides cost $1.25 each way.

This year, because of federal charter laws, the Regional Transportation Commission couldn't provide the bus rides for free as it had for seven years.

Also, ArtEve, the inaugural pre-festival reception at Boulder Dam Hotel on Friday, drew about 200 people, and raised extra money for the Boulder City Hospital Foundation.

Storms Saturday night had Christ-Kyser and company up until 2:30 a.m. Sunday calling artists whose booths had been toppled, she said.

Rain and wind destroyed some artist's collections, forcing them to pack up that night and ditch the second day of the show, she said.

Others reported decent sales this year, though as Christ-Kyser noted, "People are leery of spending $2,000 or $3,000 on a painting this year."

Bob Wilfong, who brought his work to Art in the Park for the third year, said his bronze pieces survived the storm, and he even sold a couple.

The Las Vegas banker-turned-sculptor with a background in biology said, considering the current political and economic situation, he was content with the show.

"People can justify buying functional art," he said, motioning to next door booths selling pottery and jewelry boxes. "My work is functional, but it performs at a different level."

Wilfong said his figures and shapes are healing and allude to a different consciousness. "But people don't see that when they're hungry."

Even if he hadn't sold a thing, he said, his goal as an artist was realized if his sculptures had a positive effect on people.

"There are places, like this festival, to go to enjoy art," he said. "Because of what art gives (artists,) we have a responsibility to give back in a public place."

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.

source: lasvegassun.com