Last week, Mayor Joe Hardy shared details in his opinion piece (“The Gift that Keeps Giving”) about Boulder City’s purchase of more than 100,000 acres of the former Eldorado Valley Transfer Area from the Colorado River Commission in 1995.
Opinion
This week is back-to-school week in Boulder City, the first time in 27 years that I don’t have a child in public schools.
Unhappy with lawsuit
Boulder City may be considered a small town with a population around 15,000 people, but our land mass of 212 square miles makes us the largest city by geographic area in Nevada and the 41st largest in the United States.
Choosing the right market
The last time I filled this space, I talked a little bit about my professional path —if you can even call it a path —that led me to my gig as a reporter here in Boulder City. Without going back into those weeds, the germane part for this story is that, after spending my entire adult life working in newspapers and magazines there was — starting in 2013 — a too-long detour when I was working for Apple.
Employment numbers make up a large part of the economy. Are there many jobs available? Are there many unemployed individuals seeking work? Are they qualified? Veterans are often at the forefront of those seeking work.
Fall is a wonderful time to be outdoors in Boulder City. Milder weather is an invitation to gather outside with family and friends and encourages us to venture out and make new acquaintances as well.
Garrett Junior High School’s Flight and Space teacher, Ryan Pusko, invited his brother, Dr. Matthew Pusko, to speak with our sixth-grade students on Friday, Sept. 29. Dr. Pusko teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Engineering and came to inspire and educate our STEM students. Dr. Pusko’s visit was part of an effort from UNLV to expose students to the careers of the future and to ignite their passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
With a focus on maintaining Boulder City’s close-knit community and offering preferred improvements, we are always eager to hear from engaged Boulder City residents. Because of this, I encourage staff to find ways to keep residents involved and active in providing feedback. In the past two years, we’ve made greater use of surveys and suggestion forms to hear what the Boulder City residents would like to experience. Surveys have assisted in many ways, such as confirming the allocation of funds received, gaining a grassy dog park after several years of consideration, and deciding if short-term rentals are appropriate for the city.
This week, I’d like to take some time to appreciate Boulder City’s Utilities Department, which provides power to residential and business customers.
Just about everybody remembers their first car. It was that first real sense of independence while feeling like something between still wanting to watch the occasional Saturday morning cartoon and being an adult.
I moved to Boulder City with my family in 1981, 20 years after the city became incorporated. Boulder City had about 8,000 people at the time while Clark County had less than half a million people. Do 8,000 citizens constitute a small city? I don’t know.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, volunteers donate more than 4.1 billion hours annually, contributing $122.9 billion each year to the U.S. economy.
A wise man (OK, it was George Carlin…) once said that life is just a series of dogs. I told my wife before that it may be easier to gauge the length of our union by the number of boxes of doggie ashes on the shelf than to remember exactly how many years (39 days short of 35 1/2 years as of the date of this issue of the newspaper for those keeping track at home).
LISTEN TO THE TOP FIVE HERE
It was just the opening salvo, but it appears that lost patience with riders of e-bikes and scooters are to the point that they are ready to go well beyond the “Well, how about more education” approach they opted for back in April.
For those who may have seen any of the recent social media posts put out by reps of the firefighters union calling out the city about pay and benefits, they might have been surprised that one collective bargaining agreement covering fire department personnel was approved by the city council this week without any discussion at all.
With staff and administrators from all five of Boulder City’s public schools together, BCHS Principal Amy Wagner explained in one sentence why they were all gathered last Friday.
Had the Clark County School District gone through with its plan, a new K-8 campus would have been welcoming students this week.
