Thursday, Jan. 2, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
As the remaining shell of the Hacienda hotel-casino fell with 10 swings from a wrecking ball, 800,000 pounds of debris from New Year's Eve revelers was hauled off the Strip.
Street sweepers early Wednesday swept up the trash -- 80 cubic feet -- left from partiers, said Lee McCurdy, Nevada Department of Transportation highway maintenance superintendent. Later in the day, it was hauled off to the dump.
Some of the debris left from the New Year's Eve implosion of the Hacienda also was hauled away.
A portion of the south tower, built in 1989, dropped a few stories during Tuesday's implosion, but it was not demolished because of its weightlessness, said Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition Inc. The south and north wings were built from steel framing and stucco, while the main hotel building was built with concrete block and steel, Loizeaux said.
A large crowd gathered in front of the hotel Wednesday as a wrecking ball bashed the remaining tower. Traffic was backed up on the Strip, causing a 1 1/2-hour delay for motorists, said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Steve Harney.
Thirty adults were cited New Year's Eve for misdemeanor offenses, mostly for disorderly conduct, Metro Police Sgt. Greg McCurdy said. About the same number of curfew violation and disorderly conduct tickets were issued to juveniles, he said.
Officials said it was a fairly quiet night considering that 400,000 to 500,000 people crowded onto the Strip.
Transportation crews were responsible for cleaning up remnants of the block party, which included party hats, horns, confetti, aluminum cans, beer and liquor bottles and plastic cups. Even after the street sweepers swept the majority of trash away, the gutters and median were still littered with debris.
This year, state transportation crews were helped by Clark County Public Works crews.
"They swept up the northbound side of Las Vegas Boulevard and we swept up the southbound side," NDOT's McCurdy said. "The closure of the Strip was much longer this year, so it was important to get it cleaned up."
The Strip was closed to traffic on a four-mile stretch from Sunset Road to Convention Center Drive.
Revelers also trampled the landscaped median, Lee McCurdy said.
"I didn't see landscaping pulled out of the ground, but it was trampled pretty good," he said.
While police stood by, partiers climbed atop pedestrian crosswalk poles, utility boxes and bus stop shelters, some mooning the crowd below. Several people dove into the crowd from the utility boxes, and one man did back flips into the crowd. Instead of citing people for having bottles, which is illegal, officers traded some people for plastic cups, police said.
One officer, standing in front of Treasure Island hotel-casino, said police weren't ticketing very many people because "we're worried about the big stuff."
NHP Lt. Larry Wolf, also patrolling the Strip, said, "This is the closest thing to a (New Orleans) Mardis Gras they've got."
The worst incident of the night was a stabbing on the pedestrian overpass between Excalibur and New York-New York about a half hour after the 9 p.m. implosion. Two men were injured, one seriously, Metro spokesman Phil Roland said. The man's identity was not released. Fistfights and shots fired into the air also occurred, but only minor injuries were reported.
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