Silver Dollars and Wooden Nickels: How long you wait in Vegas, stays in Vegas

The Nevada Appeal's "Silver Dollar" and "Wooden Nickel" feature recognizes the positive and sometimes dubious achievements from the Capital region.

Silver dollar: The Silver State's north-south rivalry entered a new arena with recent news from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.

Southern Nevadans are waiting up to six times longer at the DMV than drivers in Northern Nevada. According to February figures, wait times at one Las Vegas office jumped from 42 minutes a year ago to 69 minutes. During the same period, the Reno DMV office wait inched up slightly more than two minutes. However, in the capital city, the wait time decreased.

As far as we're concerned, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Wooden nickel: There's no way " no convenient way " around this dilemma.

From May 3 through July 2 the Nevada Department of Transportation's $5 million roads project east of Lake Tahoe on the main pathway that links the lake to Carson City will cause major travel headaches for area motorists.

During one period, May 3-22, a three- to four-mile stretch of Highway 28 east from Sand Harbor to the U.S. 50-Spooner Summit Junction will be completely closed from Monday morning through Thursday night each week.

No matter how you look at the map, motorists face a long detour as another brutal mountain road construction season gets under way.

Silver dollar: The census is here! The census is here! It's not often " once every decade " we get to shout that out.

About 50 temporary workers hired for the 2010 Census began work in Carson City last week. State officials urge residents to comply by filling out the necessary forms. Every missed person, according to the state demographer, costs the state more than $900 in federal funding.

In these economic times every person, and every dollar, adds up.