City of Las Vegas reviews report of unsafe Health District headquarters
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- The City of Las Vegas is weighing in on a decision made by the Southern Nevada Health District to move out of its headquarters after a report deemed it unsafe.
It's a building deemed unworthy to work in by the Southern Nevada Health District and also its headquarters. Back in April, the district's chief health officer Dr. Larry Sands made the decision to shut it down until a new building could be found for employees.
"Dr. Sands was a little eager and made the decision to vacate the building. We did vacate it. We moved everybody into these satellite locations," says Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak.
The controversy now is whether the building really was as bad as a reported by Walter P. Moore and Associates, a third party engineering firm. On Tuesday, the City of Las Vegas released their third party review of the report about the building on Shadow Lane.
"It is our opinion that the report is inconclusive and additional testing and calculations need to be
performed to determine the adequacy of the structure," says the report from John A . Martin and Associates of Nevada.
The City of Las Vegas Building and Safety director calls this property an "asset management issue." Whatever decision awaits this building, in the end the taxpayers will pay.
"I can't imagine it would be remodeled, because the costs would be so high especially considering there are some concerns related to that building. It is an older building," says Sisolak.
But if a second source ever finds this building to be unsafe, even tearing it down will cost money.
"No matter how you cut it, no matter how you sugar coat it, gift wrap it, the tax payers pay for it," says the commissioner.
And here's what the Southern Nevada Health District has to say about the City of Las Vegas findings:
"In the best interest of the safety and well being of our clients and employees, the Southern Nevada Health District made a decision to close its main campus based on a credible and comprehensive engineering assessment. The original engineering assessment was done at the request of our Board as a result of ongoing, major and costly repairs that were needed to maintain the building. Once the findings of the engineering assessment were made public, we could not in good conscience ask our employees to continue to work in the unstable environment identified in the report or ask clients to continue to enter the facility for services.
As of Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012, the health district received our Certificate of Occupancy for the facility we are currently leasing at 330 S. Valley View. We are in the process of moving services into our new location and hope to be fully operational within the next few months. Our new facility will provide a much more suitable and healthy environment for our staff and clientele.
The city’s report has been forwarded to the health district’s engineering consultants for their review and comment. We will continue to work with the Southern Nevada District Board of Health as we study the city’s engineering report and move forward in meeting the public health needs of this community."
Just last week the health district got the green light for employees to move into a building they're leasing at 330 South Valley View. They hope to be fully operational within the next few months.







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