Tuesday, April 2, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Clark County officials have managed to head off a protest of several hundred angry, elderly residents upset about being forced out of their mobile homes over an airport runway expansion.
Frustrated over a lack of contact with officials since their first meeting seven months ago, residents of Treasure Lodge and Las Vegas mobile home parks were threatening to march on the Clark County Government Center today.
But after a meeting with county and aviation officials, leaders of the two mobile home parks said they will try to postpone any action until after they've met with officials to discuss their buy-out terms.
"I think we're going to be able to work things out," said George Ginter, chairman of the Treasure Lodge displacement committee. "Now, hopefully, we'll be able to get things straightened out."
Concerns flared last August when aviation officials met with residents to explain that their parks were being bought to accommodate the expansion of the general aviation runway at McCarran International Airport.
The airport conducted environmental studies showing that the noise levels would be incompatible with residential use on the north side of Tropicana Avenue, where the two mobile home parks have been for more than 20 years.
Officials gave residents what they took to be a buy-out proposal for their mobile homes, which they found inadequate under current market conditions. They got Clark County Legal Services to represent them.
Commissioner Lorraine Hunt and Aviation Director Bob Broadbent met with about 100 residents Saturday, promising to take their concerns into consideration.
"I'm in total support of let's get the facts and nothing but the facts," Hunt said. "These people should not be disrupted. I'm here to help."
Mike Dreitzer, the legal services attorney who helped residents come up with their own relocation and buy-out proposal, said the meeting Saturday was a good, but overdue, step forward.
Dreitzer said he believes the county has made a "good-faith first step" to sit down and discuss the residents' concerns and get them the best deal possible.
The airport is still negotiating the purchase of the Las Vegas park, and has just bought and taken over management of Treasure Lodge, a deal that gives residents the next three months rent-free while they decide their relocation options.
Meanwhile, the County Commission has given the airport permission to negotiate with the Bureau of Land Management for property near the Paradise Spa on Las Vegas Boulevard South for a new mobile home park site for the residents.
Broadbent said it could take three to nine months to get title to the land and urged the residents to write to their Nevada congressional delegation to try to speed up the proceedings.
Broadbent also said he will spend whatever the county's legal counsel and Federal Aviation Authority say can be spent to help the people relocate.
The airport has about $27 million for buying the mobile home parks and trailers, and move everyone to a new park or buy their homes, Broadbent said. An additional $6 million could be available from passenger facility charges or slot profits, he said.
"That's about the limit we have," Broadbent said. "We are willing to spend every dime of it."
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