Area briefs

A 30,000-square-foot facility to house a Storey County fire station, sheriff's substation and general offices will be built in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center by the developers, according to a news release.

As part of the original development agreement with Storey County, the facility will be built on five acres of land near the intersection of Peru and Denmark avenues near USA Parkway, 10 miles south of Sparks.

"Right now we envision the facility to be a north county anchor," said Pat Whitten, director of administration and budgets for Storey County. "We expect to break ground shortly and be open and in operation by July 1, 2008.

How much staff will move down there remains to be seen, but the way TRI is growing, we definitely need the fire, sheriff, emergency services and also a public works facility with a snowplow during the winter months for the center's many roads."

With the new building, the Storey County deputies that work in the area will no longer have to borrow space from the fire department.

"We're excited to be in a facility that can adequately accommodate our growing personnel," said Sheriff's Sgt. Ken Quirk.

Southwest Gas lowers prices

The price of natural gas will go down somewhat for Nevada customers of Southwest Gas starting next month.

The Public Utilities Commission approved the reductions this past week, just as many customers begin to see their monthly bills increase because of increased heating demands as nighttime temperatures drop toward the freezing mark.

A spokesman said the reduced rates were made possible primarily because the prices Southwest paid for gas on the wholesale market went down between April 2006 and March 2007. A Carson City area residential customer using a winter average of 99 therms of gas will see the monthly gas bill drop about $14.87 to an average of $134.17. Southern Nevada customers, who use an average of 66 therms during the winter, will see their bills drop about $8 a month.