School site too close to cop firing ranges

A police lieutenant suggested the school be named "Little Beirut."

Plans to build a new middle school in northeast Las Vegas were shot down after police told Clark County School District officials the site is dangerously close to two firing ranges.

Located on the east side of the Las Vegas Valley at Alto and Burns avenues, the land is about 300 yards and 200 yards away, respectively, from firing ranges for the Metro Police and the North Las Vegas Police Department.

Between the two departments, about 2 million rounds of ammunition are fired there annually, said North Las Vegas Police Lt. Chris Larotonda. The site also is used for military firings and bomb detonations.

"They fire every kind of caliber you can think of, including military rounds," said Larotonda. "When there's a bomb or anything that can explode, that's also brought there. They explode them in a container. Police cars have been sprayed with shrapnel when that happens."

Larotonda couldn't believe the site was chosen. The noise alone should have been a deterrent, he said.

"What would they call the school, Little Beirut?" he asked.

After seeing construction equipment preparing the site, then learning the district was planning to build there, police scheduled a meeting with school officials.

"We as a police department were very concerned about children being on the backside of a firing range," said Metro Police spokesman Steve Meriwether.

Dirt berms serve as buffers for the firing ranges, but police were fearful a wayward bullet might find its way to the school.

"One argument I'm never going to use is, 'What's a few stray bullets?' " said Patrick Herron, assistant superintendent of the school district's facilities and transportation division.

Grading of the site had already begun.

But after meeting with police, the district decided to ditch plans to build on the Alto Avenue land -- for now. Herron believes growth will eventually cause the firing ranges to relocate.

Due to the cost of acquiring new land, moving them and cleaning up the site, Meriwether and Larotonda both said a relocation seems unlikely.

Current plans call for building a new middle school on land the district owns at Lake Mead Boulevard near Lamont Street. Herron said the middle school was set to open in January or February of 2001, but the school opening now has been pushed back to August 2001.

"We're studying what to do in the interim," Herron said.

The district plans to hang on to the Alto Avenue land, with hopes to construct there in the future, Herron said.

"The people who select the sites didn't see an issue with the rifle ranges," Herron said, pointing out that there also is a park nearby.

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