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Sep 27

From Las Vegas Weekly:

Vegas Strong Fund set to launch fundraising efforts for permanent October 1 memorial

Shannon Miller Thu, Sep 26, 2024 (2 a.m.)

Light can emerge from the darkness. Las Vegas knows this from firsthand experience. It’s demonstrated by our Vegas Strong ethos, our belief that no matter the adversity we face, we as a community can overcome.

On the seventh anniversary of the Route 91 Harvest music festival mass shooting, Vegas is still going strong. This resilient community awaits the creation of a permanent memorial to honor the 58 lives lost on October 1, 2017. The Vegas Strong Fund, the nonprofit tasked with fundraising and overseeing the completion of the memorial, is working with JCJ Architecture to finalize the design, which was selected in 2023.

“It really captured everything. And I think in a beautiful way, it memorialized the lives lost. It remembered all of the people who were there that night,” says Jan Jones Blackhurst, chair of the Vegas Strong Fund. “It captured hope that things go up and go to a better place. … And it does it in a very complementary way on the Las Vegas Strip.”

The nonprofit is hosting a campaign launch event at the Clark County Government Center amphitheater on September 30 to introduce board members to the community, unveil a public website and announce fundraising details. As of press time, the total cost of the memorial was unknown, but will be known “in the next couple of months,” Blackhurst says.

Before ground is broken for the memorial, the Vegas Strong Fund must coordinate with the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, which in 2022 bought 13 of the 15 acres of land near Las Vegas Boulevard where the shooting occurred.

“We’ve had conversations with the tribe. We’re going to be meeting with them soon. … There are also some logistical things we need to understand—water lines, energy lines, what they’re looking to do. So of course, we will be working with them,” Blackhurst says.

The Three Affiliated Tribes did not immediately respond to a request for comment on plans for the land and whether it would be in coordination with the memorial.

Derek Sola, design principal of JCJ Architecture, says the memorial—dubbed the Forever One Memorial—will have a “strong and significant” presence on the Strip. The firm conducted informal meetings as well as seven listening sessions for victims’ families, survivors and the community to weigh in on what they wanted the memorial to be.

“Through our listening sessions, we heard from many family members that they didn’t want the memorial to be lost on the Strip,” Sola says. “How do you do that when you’re surrounded by so many large-scale integrated resorts? We felt that illumination plays into that.”

The 2-acre memorial, located at the corner of East Reno Avenue and Giles Street, will essentially be a pathway in the shape of an infinity symbol—a striking imprint on the grounds where the shooting took place. It will be visible to those flying into Las Vegas, and is meant to represent “eternal love and infinite memory.”

“There are over 18 million people flying into Harry Reid International Airport, and when they’re flying in, one of the things we want them to see is the shape of the infinity symbol,” Sola says. “During the day, they’ll be able to see the imprint. But at night, it will take illumination of that symbol to make it more noticeable and become that imprint in your mind that you see before you ever touch down in Las Vegas.”

Light features in many other ways throughout the memorial. Its pathway will contain different elements and experiences, including a piece called 58 Candles at the heart of the memorial, as well as a 58-foot-tall Tower of Light.

But it’s not all light and illumination. The memorial’s pathway will provide moments of shade and shadow, ideal spots for reflection and healing. Rammed earth walls will minimize the sightline to the Mandalay Bay hotel tower, from which the Route 91 shooter fired into the crowd. Soil from the site of the massacre will be used in the walls, symbolizing a sense of permanence and connection with the site.

A community plaza is meant to serve as a place to gather for ceremonies, memorial services or even intimate concert events. Arcing pathways under the shade of trees represent different groups—musical artists, concertgoers, emergency responders—who were profoundly impacted by the shooting.

And while the number 58 is significant throughout the memorial, as that is the number of people who died on the night of the shooting, there were two additional victims, Kimberly Gervais and Samanta Arjune, who died of their injuries years after the shooting. Blackhurst says she’s unsure whether they will be acknowledged in the memorial, but the Vegas Strong Fund is considering it.

“We will look at that and consider that. We want everyone to be remembered,” she says.

Ultimately, the goal is to remind visitors of the outpouring of courage, selflessness and love that followed the Route 91 shooting, Sola says.

“We hope that memorial design meets the expectations and needs for those that have lost loved ones and can honor the angels in a permanent, meaningful and sacred place. It’s really meant to show the greater side of humanity that occurred in really a kind of a dark time of our history here, and showcase the random acts of kindness that came out of total strangers that were helping strangers that night.”

Blackhurst says the Vegas Strong Fund hopes for the memorial to have a ribbon cutting in 2027, on the 10th anniversary of the Route 91 shooting.

Millions of acres could be opened up for solar development in Nevada

The Bureau of Land Management is revamping a policy for how industrial solar could expand to nearly 12 million acres in the Silver State and nearly 31 million acres of public land throughout the west.

By: Geneva Zoltek

Posted 6:12 PM, Sep 29, 2024 and last updated 9:33 PM, Sep 29, 2024

The Bureau of Land Management is revamping its policy for industrial solar development on public land in the West.

It's called the 'Western Solar Plan' and the latest draft shows a proposed allocation of nearly 12 million acres in Nevada and over 31 million acres across eleven states. Nevada would hold the largest stake at 37% of the total acreage.

Proposed Land Allocation - Western Solar Plan

Bureau of Land Management

This table summarizes the BLM-administered lands available for application by state and in total for the Proposed Plan.

Outside of both Pahrump and Amargosa Valley, two places where Channel 13 has reported resident pushback from the pressure of industrial development, the BLM is proposing around 220,000 acres be opened up for solar.

In the future, proposed projects would still undergo site-specific environmental review and public comment. If you’d like to weigh in, the deadline to provide feedback to the BLM on this solar proposal draft is Sept. 30th. You can provide your comments and also read the proposal in its entirety here.

Western Solar Plan current draft

Bureau of Land Management

Conservation Concerns:

“Nevada is the crossroads of the green energy transition, and I think it's really an open question right now about what the future of Nevada's public lands is going to look like," Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Channel 13.

"So the Western Solar Plan presents an opportunity to put these projects in the right places and exclude them from the wrong places," he said.

In recent years, Donnelly has been watching the Bureau of Land Management closely to keep tabs on any impacts to endangered and threatened species.

“You know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, it was isolated projects that we were concerned about and isolated impacts to specific places of land, whereas now we're talking about landscapes," he said. "Now we're talking about 10 projects from here all the way to those mountains there, wall to wall energy projects.”

He said, these days it's hard to keep up with the pace.

“For these projects, there's a sense to which this clean energy transition is like a speeding freight train, and no one really has control over it."

Donnely said just because these wide open landscapes might appear to be empty, doesn’t mean they don’t serve an important purpose.

“There's a lack of awareness about how special and how biodiverse the Mojave Desert is. Pahrump Valley is this enormous intact habitat for Desert Tortoise, Joshua trees, you know, all the wonderful organisms that make this desert such a great place," Donnelly said.

Meeting Federal Climate Goals:

Earlier this year, the Bureau of Land Management hosted an info session for the 'Western Solar Plan' in Las Vegas and Channel 13 spoke with Nevada State Director Jon Raby, who acknowledged some of the community concerns.

“The plan has been getting a lot of broad support. There has also been a lot of questions and some concerns by local communities, some conservation groups about going, you know, it's too much, too fast,” Raby said.

With this revamped policy, the federal agency is working to meet the national priorities for clean energy production - an effort to fight climate change.

“We want to make sure that we're in it for the long, long haul, and that we're meeting our goals of 2035 and a carbon-free energy portfolio by 2050, and so it is going to be a long game for us," Raby said.

New details of Tropicana implosion revealed: When, how and how to watch it happen

Tropicana Las Vegas

Photo by: Bally's Corporation

The storied Tropicana Las Vegas, built in 1957, is slated for implosion at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024.

By: Alyssa Roberts

Posted 10:39 AM, Sep 30, 2024 and last updated 38 minutes ago

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — We're learning more about plans to implode the historic Tropicana hotel towers in just over a week.

Monday morning, Bally's Corporation released additional information about the implosion plans, including how you will be able to watch it since there are no plans for public viewing areas.

The hotel, built in 1957, is being torn down to make way for a Major League Baseball stadium expected to become the new home of the Oakland Athletics. A new hotel-casino is also expected to be constructed on the property, which Bally's said would turn the property into a "world-class entertainment resort destination."

Plans outlined for A's stadium as countdown to Tropicana implosion moves forward

A's Las Vegas ballpark

What we know about A's ballpark construction

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"From its Rat Pack-era heyday and the glamorous Folies Bergère to now the future home of the Athletics and a cutting-edge entertainment complex by Bally’s Corporation, the Tropicana’s history reflects the spirit of reinvention and excitement that defines Las Vegas," Bally's stated in its prepared release.

Watch: Take a look back at the storied past of the Tropicana Las Vegas:

When will the implosion happen?

The implosion is scheduled for 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9 and is expected to be accompanied by several hours of fanfare leading including 555 drones and a fireworks display by Fireworks by Grucci, the company responsible for many such shows on the Las Vegas Strip.

How will you be able to watch it?

Because of safety restrictions, Bally's says there will be no public viewing areas for the implosion. There will, however, be multiple live streaming options, including a stream presented by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on X (formerly known as Twitter) and a stream on ballylive.com and the Bally Live app. It will also be shown on Channel 13.

How will the implosion work?

The implosion is being facilitated by GGG Demolition and Controlled Demolition, Inc., which Bally's notes "has a rich history of safely demolishing structures in Clark County."

Controlled Demolition, Inc. will demolish a total of 917,400 square feet in the Tropicana's two 23-story hotel towers. For the steel-framed Paradise Tower, 220 cut-point locations loaded with 490 pounds of explosives will be used, while the concrete-framed Club Tower will be fitted with 1,130 boreholes filled with 1,700 pounds of explosives.

A total of 22,000 lineal feet of detonating cord will be used to initiate the implosion in both structures at the end of the fireworks and drone show, Bally's notes.

Paradise Tower is expected to be brought down first. According to Bally's, both structures are expected to collapse within 22 seconds of the implosion button begin pressed.

Controlled Demolition, Inc. has brought down 35 buildings in Clark County since 1993, including notable projects like the Dunes North Tower, Frontier, Hacienda, Stardust and Riviera. Bally's notes that CDI also partnered with the film industry to fell the Landmark Hotel Tower during production of "Mars Attacks!"

S Hawkins