Council nixes Medo’s monster (truck) idea

There was a lot of talking around the issue and trying to be diplomatic. For a while. But, while the discussion centered around the appropriate use of land, in truth the discussion was likely over with the first mention of the term, “monster truck.”

Aaron Medo, who owns the company BC Electric, said Tuesday he and his family have deep interest as well as not inconsiderable expertise in the general world of outdoor recreation. Readers may remember that before the city passed a new law substantially limiting where and how electric scooters and bikes could be used and mandating that minors wear helmets, Medo had proposed an alternative approach centering on education and certification, which the council never actually took up.

But Medo is a guy who thinks big and that may have just been the fatal flaw of this idea. Actually, the idea isn’t totally dead, the council just nixed any possibility of it happening in the kind of location Medo said it would need in order to succeed.

Medo’s idea? He wanted to start a nonprofit to purchase the Gila Beast monster truck. According the Medo, the vehicle, which was built in 2006 to hold the Guinness world’s record for the longest monster truck in the world with seating for 12 on-board. The idea was then to set up numerous activities revolving around the Gila Beast, including a bunch of proposed recreation and education opportunities for Boulder City youth and families including rides and photo opportunities. They would partner with sports organizations and charities and rentals as well as engineering and mechanical “tours” and a trade skill demo zone where kids (who are staring at a world where a typical high school to college to job path has already been heavily disrupted by emerging AI that is only going to become more disruptive) could be exposed to future career possibilities with a potentially longer robot-free timeline.

To be clear, this proposed step was the absolute earliest possible in what would have undoubtedly been a long and arduous journey. Staff came to council with two proposed locations. The council needed to approve one of them. At that point the idea for the actual usage of the land would have had to go to the planning commission and, had they signed off, another round with the council would have had to happen before the land could be put on the Land Management Plan. And after that would have come appraisals and requests for proposal and lease agreements. Even so, the council declined — without a vote — to even entertain that first, super preliminary step.

While the stated objections were largely about location, only Councilwoman Denise Ashurst appeared to offer a real alternative. The locations discussed were two parcels, one about 56 acres at the southwest intersection of Boulder City Parkway and Veterans Memorial and another much larger 200-plus-acre site closer to Bootleg Canyon. And comments by Mayor Joe Hardy and council members Steve Walton, Sherri Jorgensen and Cokie Booth all carried an unstated, yet obvious, distaste for the idea of a monster truck running so near the city’s entrance and the high school sports sign.

There were, to be sure, other issues. The smaller lot preferred by Medo lies under transmission lines and in the flight path of airport runways, which severely limits what can be built there. And multiple members of the council objected to the noise of a giant truck anywhere near any homes or the Veterans Home.

Booth did suggest an alternative. But it is the same one she has offered for other activities (e.g., pet breeding) that she would like to see not happen, saying it should be out near the horse properties and stables. Ashurst did say that the idea seemed a good fit for the coming Adventure Center near the headquarters of the chamber of commerce. On the other side of the coin, Walton said from the outset that he could not support this as a land use concept while the mayor invoked not only “clean, green Boulder City” but also “quiet Boulder City.”