Nevada and the west lvrj.com/multimedia POLITICAL EYE 2B OBITUARIES 4B OPINION 5B COMICS 6B PAGE 3B LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL • MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2011 CITY DESK • 383-0264 INSIDE Elko County ready to end trout battle ON A ROLL a SECTION B Club to ride mob wave Lounge to morph into Mob Bar before museum opening By BENJAMIN SPILLMAN LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL JASON BEAN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL A new freshman at UNLV carts her stuff into her dorm room. Today’s freshmen, mostly born in 1993, have not known a world where the Las Vegas megaresort was a new concept, the Internet didn’t exist, or 911 was just an emergency phone number. GETTING A FRESH LOOK UNLV has changed a lot since new batch of students were born By RICHARD LAKE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL T hink about 1993. What you were doing, where you lived, the job you had and the clothes you wore, the music you listened to and the dead you mourned. And then think about how old you were at the end of 1993. Richard Chavez and most of the rest of the incoming freshmen at UNLV weren’t even born yet. Sobering, huh? “It’s always been a dream of mine to go to UNLV, ever since I was a little kid,” said Chavez, 18, who grew up in Ely. He and more than 900 other students, mostly freshmen, were moving into the dorms last week. Classes start today. Chavez said he’s going to major in political science. He wants to be a lawyer. He got jazzed about the legal profession while working in a lawyer’s office while he was in high school. He’s already figuring on attending UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, a well-established and respected institution that is Las Vegas’ city-sponsored shrine to its mobbed-up roots is making a mark downtown and it hasn’t even opened. Sidebar, a quiet, upscale lounge on Third Street, is planning a makeover into a 1920s-style supper club in an effort to capitalize on the scheduled February opening of the city-funded Mob Museum. When it opens as Mob Bar on Dec. 5 — the 78th anniversary of the repeal of the 18th Amendment that outlawed alcohol — the ambiance will include a dark, shrub-shaded facade, vintage decor and Italian food from recipes and ingredients that would have been common during the 1920s. The idea is to tap into the enthusiasm, and wallets, of ▶ SEE MOB PAGE 4B Now might be right time for organized crime theme to catch on ▶ SEE FRESHMEN PAGE 4B Times are changing CHANGING LANDSCAPE SINCE THE BIRTH OF MOST OF TODAY’S COLLEGE FRESHMEN IN 1993, LAS VEGAS HAS SEEN MANY CHANGES: UNLV’S student body increased from 19,600 to 28,000. Since 1993, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, Luxor, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, The Venetian, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Wynn Las Vegas, Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, Palazzo, the massive CityCenter and The Cosmopolitan have all opened on the Strip. Clark County’s population more than doubled, from 900,000 to almost 2 million. The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels’ only national championship came in 1990, before today’s freshmen were born. In 1993, Interstate 215/Las Vegas Beltway existed only as an idea. Growth scores give schools No Child Left Behind alternative By TREVON MILLIARD LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Orr Middle School Principal George Leavens isn’t surprised that only half his students tested at grade level in math and reading last school year. That’s not unusual for an urban school. He cares about the test results. But he places a higher value on a different measure of academic success. His goal for Orr: “I’d like our growth scores to be above every other school in Las Vegas.” When Leavens talks about growth scores, he means the rate at which the school’s students progress compared to other Nevada students. That’s important to him because many Orr students ▶ SEE SCHOOLS PAGE 3B Growth model tracks students’ progress from low to high JEFF SCHEID/LASVEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Seth Schorr, CEO of Fifth Street Gaming, predicts the mob theme will grow in popularity in Las Vegas. Everyone knows monopolies are bad, unless you are one W hat a difference four years make when it comes to the philosophy of bus contracts and monopolies. Many of the same people and companies who were opposed to splitting the bus contracts in Southern Nevada then are now for it. And vice versa. The arguments are much the same; they’re just coming out of different mouths of people whose positions have flipped. But it does raise questions about why in 2007, when Regional Transportation Commission General Manager Jacob Snow proposed splitting the bus route contract into two contracts, the idea went into Never Never Land when Veolia Transportation held the single contract. Yet in 2011, when Veolia is the highest bidder for the $600 million bus route contract and First Transit is the low bidder by $50 million, a number of board members are strongly opposed to continuing a monopoly. In 2007, Veolia argued a single contract brought cost Jane Ann Morrison COMMENTARY savings. Today, Veolia supports the idea of a split contract because competition is a good thing in the business world. Of course, First Transit also has switched horses. Four years ago, it was against monopolies. Four years later, it prefers holding the contract all to itself, rightfully contending that’s how the bid request was proposed by the commission board in September. Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, Boulder City Mayor Roger Tobler and North Las Vegas Councilman Robert Eliason are the only overlapping members, serving then and now. The other board members at that time were Clark County Commissioners Bruce Woodbury and Chip Maxfield, Henderson Councilman Andy Hafen, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and the late Mesquite Mayor Bill Nicholes. In 2007, Snow laid out reasons why competing contracts might mean fresh ideas and new approaches. At the time, Veolia CEO Mark Joseph cautioned against splitting the contract, calling it a serious and major change which was very risky from an operations and relationship standpoint. Costs always went up, he said, when a contract was split, because of redundancies. Laidlow, MV Public Transportation and First Transit were all for splitting the contract ... then. While no vote was taken back then, Brown and others raised enough concerns that it became obvious the majority of the board didn’t favor two contracts. The idea Snow had presented with such enthusiasm never was presented again, partly because radio frequency issues for communicating with buses couldn’t accommodate two contracts. (Now it’s possible.) So the idea of split contracts faded away until this year, after Snow recommended that First Transit get the fixed-route contract. First Transit also holds the contract for the public bus system for the disabled. Now Veolia wants split contracts for the fixed-bus route, and First Transit no longer praises that idea. Instead, First Transit is suing to force the commission to sign the contract. Today, some board members voice concerns about monopolies: Las Vegas City Council members Lois Tarkanian and Steve Ross and County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani. Brown has aligned with them, citing unanswered questions. Brown, the commission chairman, is trying to negotiate a compromise; but now that it’s in the court, compromise becomes less likely. Plus, there are federal laws against agreements between transportation companies, if they come close to price-fixing. Splitting the contracts may be smart. Or not. But it’s too late to change the rules now. If breaking a monopoly was important to board members, they should have brought it up before issuing the request for proposals. The anti-monopoly folks had their opportunity then, except for Tarkanian, who wasn’t on the board. Why was a contract for a single company fine in September 2010, but not in August 2011? What’s changed? The 4-4 split between the eight elected officials on the board has deteriorated into a head-butting contest that would do Nevada’s bighorn sheep proud. But really, big horns are the models of dysfunctional government, not effective government. Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday,Thursday and Saturday. Email her at [email protected] or call 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/ blogs/morrison. Page 4B • Monday, August 29, 2011 a { NEVADA & THE WEST } Las Vegas Review-Journal Obituaries Placement Information To schedule an obituary contact your funeral home or the Review Journal Obituary Representative at (702) 224-5504 for instructions. Online forms are also available at www.reviewjournal.com/obituaries You may visit our office in person MONDAY-FRIDAY (excluding holidays) 8:30 AM-4 PM ONLY. The Review-Journal publishes a Basic Funeral notice for deceased Nevada residents for a fee of $25. This notice will consist of formatted copy, including only the following information as space permits: the deceased’s name, age, city of residence at time of death, occupation, military status, visitation and/or service information. We also provide a Basic Funeral notice with a 1-year online guestbook for $50. Families who choose to present additional information are charged $100, which includes 23 lines of text and a 1-year online guest book. 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To view these enhancements log on to: www.reviewjournal.com/obituaries Please advise us if your loved one was an organ donor or recipient, and we will place this “Circle of Life” symbol in their listing. Must be submitted and prepaid for six days prior to the requested publication date. COLLINS, DANN DARDEEN, GEORGE DANN COLLINS Loving father, husband, brother and friend, “Big” Dann Collins, 47, of Las Vegas, passed away Aug. 24, 2011. We lost Dann too early, doing what he loved, helping a stranded truck driver on the 10 Freeway in Arizona. He was born Oct. 16, 1963, in Everett, Wash., and was a 21-year resident of Nevada. In his lifetime, he started two well-known towing companies in the Las Vegas area, D&D Towing Inc. and Vegas Heavy Haul, dba, Big Valley Towing. He was well-loved in the towing industry and was everyone’s friend. Dann was preceded in death by his mother, Janet; his younger sister, Carol; and his two younger brothers, David and Patrick. Dann is survived by his loving wife, of five years, Debbie; his daughter, Janelle, his younger sister, Kathy; his father, Tim; and his adopted children, the cats, Jack, Sylvester and Bristol and the dogs, Buddy, Cosmo and Bliss. Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave. Please consider making a donation to Opportunity Village in Dann’s name. Dann will be sorely missed. GEORGE DARDEEN George “Blackie” Dardeen, 93, a Las Vegas “old-timer passed away Aug. 24, 2011, at Grace of Monaco’s Group Home. Born in Vincennes, Ind., Oct. 6, 1917, Blackie was raised in and around Terre Haute, Ind. He began his gaming career as a traveling dice dealer, touring many states when his journey finally brought him to Las Vegas in 1948. Blackie was the quintessential gaming pioneer and host, who always knew the first names of his customers and their children. He knew every game a casino offered inside and out, because he had dealt them all before moving into the executive ranks. He also coowned the Silver Slipper and was even hired as a gaming consultant on some Hollywood movies. He worked at many of the top hotels with his last stop in the 1989 opening of the Mirage Hotel as a casino host. He retired in 2004. Blackie was always dapperly dressed and was spot-on with a charming personality. Popular author Tommy Thompson approached Blackie in the 1970’s about putting his life story in a book, but Thompson died just as they were getting started. “Just my luck,” Blackie said. “The story ended before it began.” As adept as Blackie was on the golf course, he was just as quick with one-liners, always delivered out of the side of his mouth and with a twinkle in his eye. “My wife could find a blonde hair in a yellow shag rug,” was one of his better quips. Another typical retort was, “If that’s not the truth, you can have my watch. And, it’s a Rolex ... at least that's what the guy said who sold it to me.” He leaves behind his beautiful wife, of 59 years, Wanda; sisters-in-law, Peggy Steil and Jane Wilson and their families; son, Howard (Carol) of Indianapolis; daughter, Denise (Danny) Spach of Las Vegas; grandchildren, Sean of Tampa, Fla., Dax of Indianapolis, Preston and Bryan, both of Las Vegas, and Jillian of University of Reno; and four great-grandchildren. He also leaves behind many cherished friends and co-workers, most who looked forward to their many exciting trips to Vegas, knowing Blackie would take care of them. Special thanks to his son-in-law, Danny Spach and niece, Ginger Steil Benson for all their help and support during his illness and to Grace and her staff of caregivers. “Rest in Peace Blackie and may you have many “eagles” in golf Heaven.” Consistent with Blackie’s wishes, services will be private. Donations can be made to the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute or the Shriner’s Childrens Hospital. A Grateful thought toward Heaven is of itself a Prayer. -Lessing JEFF SCHEID/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Triple George host Anthony Sandoval walks by the Sidebar, 201 N. Third St. The bar plans to transform into the Mob Bar to take advantage of the opening of the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, aka The Mob Museum. ▶ MOB: Now may be right time for theme to catch on CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B people who come to Las Vegas nostalgic for the days when a hostile takeover involved baseball bats and kneecaps, not boardrooms and stock purchase offers. LADY LUCK REDUX HOPED FOR It will be the first major change on Third Street since property owner CIM Group hired Fifth Street Gaming to operate the bars and restaurants near the shuttered Lady Luck. CIM Group and Fifth Street Gaming, which control Third Street between Ogden and Stewart avenues, are working to reopen the Lady Luck under a new name and attract more foot traffic from the Fremont Street Experience, and are betting the city’s Mob Museum will help. Fifth Street Gaming CEO Seth Schorr, 34, a longtime Las Vegan who spent part of his childhood living in the Golden Nugget, said he expects the mob theme to grow in popularity now that the mainstream gambling industry is far enough removed from the days when mobsters siphoned pre-tax cash from the count rooms. In addition to the pending Mob Bar, which has a license for unrestricted gambling, other mafia-tinged attractions tied to casinos include the Mob Experience at the Tropicana on the Strip and Oscar’s at the Plaza Hotel downtown, a steakhouse named for former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who rose to prominence as a defense lawyer for notorious Las Vegas mobsters. “You couldn’t do this in the early 1980s because there were still (mob) remnants in the early ’80s,” said Schorr, whose father, Marc Schorr, is a longtime associate of Steve Wynn dating back to Wynn’s days operating the Golden Nugget downtown. “Now I think we have the opportunity to look back from where we are to that era.” The Mob Bar will focus on the 1920s, an era that predates legalized gambling in Nevada and the rise of organized JERRY HENKEL/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Other new mafia-tinged attractions include the Mob Experience at the Tropicana. crime in Las Vegas. Some of the period decor will include vintage fixtures and old-timey touches like tabletop cigarette lighters, Schorr said. AUTHENTIC AMBIANCE The food will come from the kitchen of the attached Triple George restaurant, but the Mob Bar will have its own menu. Triple George chef Ro Fernandez said the menu will include dishes such as Al Capone braciole, a steak pounded thin and stuffed with prosciutto, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese roasted and served with tomato sauce; and a chicken piccata sauteed with olive oil, lemon, white wine, mushrooms, parsley, capers and chicken broth. Fernandez and Schorr said the plan is to keep the dishes simple and fresh and the ambiance authentic so guests get a true taste of the period. “This is a place that a gangster would have gone to, not a theme place about a gangster,” Schorr said. It remains to be seen whether the property can accomplish more as the Mob Bar than it did as Sidebar when it comes to attracting foot traffic downtown. While the block of Third Street where it’s located is visible from the Fremont Street Experience canopy, it’s not yet as well-trafficked as Fremont East, the stretch of bars on Fremont between the canopy and the El Cortez. Tim Dressen, 39, a frequent Las Vegas visitor from Minneapolis who operates the website www.FremontStreetBars. com, said the makeover is a good idea because Sidebar doesn’t have a strong identity. “They each tend to have kind of a unique schtick,” Dressen said of Fremont East bars like Insert Coins, a video game lounge, and Beauty Bar, which features live music and a 1950s salon decor. “Whereas Sidebar, there’s not really anything in and of itself that is its own.” Monica Miranda, 25, of Las Vegas, a former Sidebar bartender and a customer, said the challenge will be to attract tourists drawn to the Mob Museum without alienating locals who already frequent Third Street. “As long as they don’t go too theme-y ... I don’t think the regulars would mind a little bit more action,” she said. Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at [email protected] or 702-229-6435. ▶ FRESHMEN: Times are changing CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B perennially ranked in the nation’s top 100 law schools. The law school opened as Chavez was getting ready for kindergarten. It has become a national pastime to gently mock college freshmen — and older folks — every year with the release of the Beloit College Mindset List, a compilation of pop culture trivia and other inane stuff that shows how things have changed over the years. The Internet has always existed! Ferris Bueller is old! Remote controls are everywhere! The list, put out by a small college in Wisconsin, is intended to remind professors that the incoming freshmen class doesn’t necessarily see the world the way the professors do. In 1993, UNLV’s enrollment was 19,682. It’s expected to be about 28,000 this year, where it’s been for several years. In 1993, the Strip did not exist as it does today. Since then, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, Luxor, Monte Carlo, New York-New York, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, The Venetian, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Wynn Las Vegas, Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, Palazzo, the massive CityCenter and The Cosmopolitan have all opened. “Yeah, back when my dad came here, it was just the Flamingo,” said freshman Alexa Terrazas, who also moved into the dorms last week. Terrazas, 17, is from the Los Angeles area, but she said she has family in Las Vegas. She’s visited many times. She wants to major in hospitality, which made choosing UNLV easy. “They’re the No. 1 school in the country,” she said. JASON BEAN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Classes start today at UNLV, where hundreds of freshmen moved into the dorms late last week. In 1993, UNLV’s enrollment was 19,682. It has been about 28,000 for several years. She’d like to be an event planner, a job idea she got after watching her mom plan parties at their house as a hobby. Terrazas said she was in fourth grade when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks happened. The United States has been at war almost as long as she can remember. Kalin Scott-Wright was in elementary school, too, back when everything changed. He went to Walmart the other day and bought supplies — Band-Aids and stuff — for himself for the first time in his life. “I feel like I’m an adult now that my mom left,” he said on dorm move-in day. “I’m on my own now.” Scott-Wright is from the Los Angeles area, and he chose UNLV because he’s hoping to join the football team. Yeah, a guy born the year NBC lost both “Cheers” and David Letterman is old enough to play college football. So does he feel young and naive? Does he feel like he’s barely lived, while everyone else is watching the years pass by and their hair turn gray? Of course not. He gets that he’s still a teenager. He gets that he has a whole lot of life left to live. But he also gets that there’s another generation coming up behind him, which will have its own list of things everyone else, including him, will probably marvel at long after’s he’s graduated from college. “Remember when people used to ... ?” everyone will say. Contact reporter Richard Lake at [email protected] or 702-383-0307.