Supporters cheer as a parade honoring members of the Henderson Little League heads south on Water Street in downtown Henderson Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. The Henderson All-Stars won the Mountain Region championship and competed in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. finishing among the top 16 teams.
Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Nevada is a sprawling state with most of its people in two population centers. But beyond the reaches of Las Vegas and Reno is a land filled with attractions and history. Some of them, of course, might not be familiar to most Nevadans. The Sun has reached out to mayors and representatives of the Silver State’s 19 cities, giving them a platform in our pages to talk about their area’s history and attractions and to describe what makes them special and what challenges they face.
Today, we present a Q+A with Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero.
Give us a history lesson. What makes your jurisdiction unique?
Henderson proudly celebrated its 70th birthday this year. A lot has changed, even since I was a young girl growing up in this community.
When Henderson was first incorporated in 1953, we had a population of just 7,400. Today, almost 336,000 residents choose Henderson as “A Place to Call Home.” Our city was formed on just 13 square miles and now we span more than 118.
We are the largest full-service city in Nevada, among the 100 largest cities in America and comparable to major metropolises like St. Louis, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. And yet we can boast one of the highest quality-of-life ratings in the nation.
President John F. Kennedy dubbed us the “City of Destiny” in the 1960s and I think we have lived up to that. I believe the major force behind our success is our long-running commitment to strategic planning. Henderson has a strategic plan that guides the decisions and investments we make as a city, and we have taken a leadership role to steer planning efforts for the entire region, through Southern Nevada Strong and other initiatives.
Henderson was forged in support of World War II and because of that, we have deep-rooted patriotism. We are also ranked as one of the best cities for veterans to live. We seek ways to honor our veterans and active-duty service members throughout the year and we work closely with the veterans organizations that serve our heroes.
What kind of attractions and events do you have that people may be interested in visiting?
At the heart of our downtown Water Street District is the Water Street Plaza, where we hold concerts, festivals, watch parties and more. We were proud to welcome more than 6,000 passionate fans to watch the Vegas Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup in June, and continued to invite residents to watch our Henderson Little Leaguers and the inaugural Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, with more on the way.
Along Water Street we celebrate a robust selection of special events all year, such as our annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Henderson Hot Rod Days, WinterFest and more. Many of our events and diverse arts and culture programming are free or very low cost for families across our community to enjoy.
We boast 71 world-class parks, including our first-ever community garden at Pumpkin Park, which opened this year, and over 220 miles of hiking and walking trails. One of our hidden gems is our Bird Viewing Preserve, visited by birders from around the globe.
We’re also proud to be the home of professional sports teams including the Henderson Silver Knights, Vegas Knight Hawks and G League Ignite, who play at the beautiful Dollar Loan Center, which holds more than 120 events each year. Additionally, the Las Vegas Raiders and WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces have their headquarters here. And don’t miss a Silver Knights practice or the chance to take the ice at America First Center, located in the Water Street District.
What new development opening in 2024 has you excited? Why?
Our new forensic lab and evidence vault will open this spring. Henderson’s crime lab is one of only three accredited, publicly funded forensic laboratories in Nevada, and we offer multijurisdictional support with evidence analysis.
I’m also looking forward to new entertainment offerings in our community, like Dave & Busters inside Union Village and Chicken N Pickle on St. Rose Parkway, with indoor and outdoor dining and pickleball courts.
And we’ve begun planning for a future indoor fieldhouse in West Henderson, and the 35-acre former Fiesta Henderson site. We’ve completed a public survey and several open houses and received input from thousands for the master plan of that area, which will likely include investments in recreation opportunities, like an indoor recreation facility for youth and adults.
What is the biggest challenge facing your jurisdiction?
We are tackling a lot of big-city challenges to ensure that we maintain our high quality of life even as we grow. In addition to other challenges mentioned, these are a few of our top priorities:
Housing: Henderson has been America’s fastest-growing city several times in our history, and our entire region has seen strong growth for decades. One downside of this success is that affordable housing is not keeping pace with demand and is becoming harder to find in our community.
This year, we created the Henderson Housing Advisory Committee to help us address the challenges associated with providing affordable housing options for workers in our city and our more vulnerable populations, including seniors and families.
This committee will explore national best practices and make recommendations to our City Council on programs, projects and regulatory updates that can help expand housing inventory in our city across the continuum of housing needs.
Homelessness: We launched the Henderson Homeless Response Team this year. Public response officers and neighborhood services staff work with Help of Southern Nevada to provide street outreach and shelter. The team has assisted more than 400 people in need and placed over 100 individuals into emergency housing.
In response to the growing concerns we’ve heard from our residents and businesses, we’ve also updated our city ordinance prohibiting camping in public spaces, including city parks.
Fentanyl awareness: Henderson is leading the way in our valley and bringing multijurisdictions together to educate and bring awareness about the dangers of fentanyl. Just one look at a ZIP code map and you will realize the danger is everywhere and impacts all of us where we live.
In May, the City of Henderson hosted a fentanyl awareness summit, gathering community leaders, public health professionals, law enforcement agencies and other community partners together to talk about this issue.
We’ve also launched the “Risk It All with Fentanyl” campaign targeted at our youth, offering a free toolkit of videos and other resources to all who want to help us share this critical message.
What industry is most important to your town’s economy? What about diversifying?
We’ve been focused on diversification for some time and have made great strides, welcoming Haas Automation and other advanced manufacturers, Google and other high-tech companies, health care leaders and other specialized companies that offer high-skill and high-paying jobs.
We’ve completed a target industry analysis for the city. To continue our efforts to diversify our economy, we are leaning into those industries that pay great wages, support our commitment to preserving the environment and are aligned with the highly qualified workforce we have in Henderson. Those industries are: logistics management and technologies, electrical equipment and components manufacturing, financial and credit services, media and sports production, and back-office management and support services.
We are focused on bringing new jobs and companies to Henderson. But that doesn’t always mean big — small businesses are the lifeblood of any community, and Henderson is putting our money behind this commitment. We’ve just invested $100,000 into a Henderson Small Business Assistance Program, in partnership with College of Southern Nevada and Grow Nevada. We are committed to startups and underserved founders who may not yet have had the opportunities they deserve.
Sports have also been a game changer for us. Henderson is home to the headquarters and practice facilities for the Las Vegas Raiders and Aces. We also have plans for significant investment in youth sports in the future.
What opportunity does your community provide for public education? What challenges does it face?
Even though public education falls under county jurisdiction in Nevada, quality education is one of our five strategic priorities. Since 2015, we’ve invested over $15 million to support teachers and students in Henderson schools.
After the success of our Valley View preschool program, we will be investing $4 million to add a second preschool program in Henderson. We’ve also allocated $50,000 in scholarships for families in our redevelopment areas.
We are making plans for a first round of city-sponsored charter schools. And Ramona Esparza Stoffregan has been selected to serve as the new Henderson appointee to the Clark County School District Board of Trustees. As a former teacher and administrator and a community leader, she will be an excellent voice for the interests of our community.
Our efforts are making a difference. Henderson schools are outperforming the rest of the district in math and reading test scores, as well as graduation rates.
What challenges do your residents face with health care availability and cost?
This is a challenge facing our entire region. Nevada has the lowest Medicaid reimbursement in the nation, which makes it challenging to attract doctors, medical facilities, mental health resources and other health care services.
And yet, we’ve continued to expand health care services in our community. Henderson Hospital has doubled capacity in the past few years, West Henderson Hospital is expected to open in late 2024 and Valley Health Systems just broke ground on another free-standing emergency room, this one in the Cadence community. Development also continues at Union Village, with specialized health care facilities breaking ground in the coming year.
The City of Henderson was awarded a Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant and Substance Use Program (COSSUP) grant to create a new Mobile Crisis Intervention Team (MCIT).This is the only mobile crisis team in Southern Nevada that employs licensed mental health clinicians to respond to adults experiencing behavioral health crises. Our clinicians are able to meet the client where they are, and complete comprehensive mental health and substance use assessments to determine the best level of care. They can then provide links to community resources.
As an investment for city first responders and other staff, we created the Employee Wellness Center, the first of its kind in Southern Nevada, to provide a one-stop shop for our employees’ health care and mental health services.
And we continue to invest in workforce development to address the critical need in our community for more health care professionals. Henderson is home to Touro University and Roseman University of Health Sciences, and we supported the Betty Engelstad School of Health Sciences, a partnership between Nevada State University and College of Southern Nevada.
Nevadans have lived with historic drought for the past two decades. What initiatives are in place to save the valuable commodity of water?
Lake Mead water levels rose in 2023, a sign that water conservation is working. Over the past year, we worked together as a community to remove more than 2 million square feet of nonfunctional turf. And our parks and recreation team removed more than 140,000 square feet from five city parks, receiving almost $300,000 in rebates from the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Those efforts resulted in water savings of almost 120 million gallons a year.
Conservation and sustainability are top strategic priorities for the city and we continue to work closely with the Southern Nevada Water Authority to further efforts in our community to mitigate the ongoing drought.
We’ve created the Climate Response Initiative, a collaborative approach that will work together to reach specific goals including community education, outreach and engagement, with the ultimate goal of lowering our daily consumption of water citywide.
To help accomplish this, and to build on our legacy of water conservation leadership in Nevada and across the Southwest, the City of Henderson recently launched H2One — a call to conserve and sustain our water supply.
What issues are facing your community regarding roads and transportation?
Traffic congestion is an ongoing challenge as we grow, and we consider traffic impact for all major projects before they are approved. We are also focused on pedestrian and traffic safety, which influence our priority projects.
In partnership with the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) and RTC, approximately $650 million will be invested in Henderson infrastructure in the next couple of years, with the Reimagine Boulder Highway project, the widening of Interstate 215 between Gibson Road and Pecos Road and the redesign of the Henderson interchange. These investments will enhance mobility, reduce congestion and address safety issues in our community for years to come.
We also take road maintenance very seriously and every residential road in our community is resurfaced every seven years. We’ve recently employed a special vehicle equipped with 3D cameras to analyze cracks, potholes and asphalt conditions for every publicly owned road in Henderson to help us identify the areas of greatest need, estimate costs and set priorities for our most urgent road issues.
How can public safety be enhanced in your community?
Henderson has increased investments to ensure strong police and fire departments and to maintain our rank as one of the safest cities in America. Henderson police officers are specially trained at our own Police Academy and know they are appreciated and respected, as evidenced by the results of our community surveys and by the support they receive from city leaders.
We were pleased to welcome our new Police Chief Hollie Chadwick last April, and she is focused and dedicated to maintaining our city’s reputation as one of the safest in the country by addressing community concerns, minimizing accidents on major streets, prioritizing officer well-being through a new health facility, enhancing department morale and ensuring the overall sense of safety within the community.
We also just opened our fourth HPD station in West Henderson. The facility includes a state-of-the-art communications center and an HPD training facility for our police academy. The new station will serve to lower response times in a rapidly growing area of our city.
However, recruitment is an issue nationwide, and we recently designated critical shortages for our police and corrections officer positions. This will allow us to employ some creative strategies to help us fill the gaps, like the (Re)hiring our Heroes initiative and a new HPD Cadet program.
Our residents and businesses help keep the community safe. There are 32 neighborhood watch programs in Henderson and we also have a strong bench of HPD volunteers.
What is one thing you wish the rest of the state knew about your jurisdiction?
Despite our growth and the many changes of the past 70 years, we have been purposeful in honoring the hometown feel that makes living and working here so special. In Henderson, people gather for social events, they help their neighbors, and our residents know their elected officials. They feel comfortable reaching out to us with their questions and concerns, and know that we will respond.
I also like to brag about our employees because I think we have one of the best teams of any city, anywhere. Our employees care deeply about this community and it shows in the work they do and in the ways that they give back.
