Public Works lays out $610 million construction plan

Public Works Manager Gus Nunez laid out a $610 million construction and planning program Wednesday for the coming two years that includes construction of a new $225 million prison at Indian Springs and puts $148 million into the university system's top projects.

He said all of the state money in the capital improvement projects budget this time is bond money. Because of the tight budget, he said, there is no general fund cash available for construction.

Any final vote on the recommendations was put off while public works and university officials try work out a disagreement over their project priority list. Executive Vice Chancellor Dan Klaich said Nunez didn't include the Hotel Administration building, a $50 million project, replacing it instead with several items the system and Board of Regents regard as lower priorities.

"I really object to the managers recommendation," he said.

Klaich said not funding that project now jeopardizes a $25 million pledge from Harrah's Corp. that covers half the total cost. He said that pledge expires at the end of next year if the state doesn't move forward.

He said that "sends a message to potential donors that the state is not willing to step up" and match grant money.

"That would destroy our ability to get money from the private sector," he said.

Klaich asked the board to back the system's priorities instead.

Nunez said the projects he moved up include seismic reinforcement of Manzanita Hall at UNR, a 100-year-old dorm made of unreinforced brick. He said refurbishing the old Getchell Library at UNR is a cost-efficient way to get more space. He said repairs at Western Nevada College are necessary to comply with ADA requirements before someone files a lawsuit.

He said furnishings, fittings and equipment needed to open the Davidson Math & Science Building and the Center for Molecular Research at UNR.

Nunez said his priorities put opening completed buildings, refurbishing existing ones and doing life safety maintenance ahead of putting up new buildings.

The board instructed Nunez and Klaich to get together and try resolve the conflict in the next two weeks.

Klaich said the system was happy that the recommendations restore funding for the three Health Sciences Center projects cut from this year's budget to meet mandated budget reductions.

Nunez said he and Director of Corrections Howard Skolnik have devised a sort of "shell game" moving inmates around over the next several years as prisons are expanded and built that will put off construction of yet another major prison at least until 2017 and possibly later.

It includes expanding Warm Springs Correctional Center on Fifth Street in Carson City to replace Nevada State Prison when it is finally shut down. In the north, Nunez told the Public Works Board, the plan includes $48.9 million to add two housing units and expand core facilities such as culinary and the infirmary at Warm Springs. Tentatively, as Skolnik has said in the past, the upper yard of the prison would remain open and become part of Warm Springs until new, more efficient units can be built to replace them.

That would also keep a large percentage of the correctional staff jobs at the prison in Carson City.

Construction of those new units could be speeded up by delaying the completion of the final units at Prison 8 project in Indian Springs.

In the south, plans are to put some $69 million into expanding the former men's prison at Jean. Then women inmates, now crowded into the North Las Vegas prison, would be moved to Jean and their current prison converted to a geriatric prison for older male inmates.

At the same time, construction would begin on Prison 9, a new and larger women's prison. Once that prison is open for business in 2015 or so, Jean would again be available for male inmates, relieving crowding and allowing the state to delay construction of Prison 10, which Nunez estimated at $300 million, until at least 2017.

After the board reviews the recommendations and votes on them, the list will be submitted to the governor's office and Legislature which will make the final decisions.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.