For Immediate Use: 

Contact jimmaniaci@centurylink.net or 505-879-3142.

Contributed

LAUGHLIN – Assessor Briana Johnson will explain the latest current figures of Clark County’s property tax system – including caps on increases -- as it affects Laughlin businesses and residences during an upcoming Laughlin Leadership Forum sponsored by the Laughlin Economic Development Corporation.

This will include the 3% and 8% caps imposed by the Legislature. It also will include exemptions for surviving spouses, veterans (including disabled veterans), and blind persons.

Her PowerPoint program will show the county-wide and local Laughlin figures for property and improvements in both the residential category and the Casino Drive resorts, plus overall county-wide numbers. The charts and graphs will go back to the 2005-2006 fiscal year.

The public is invited to the free presentation at 5 P.M. (PST) on Thursday, March 26, at the Spirit Mountain Activity Center in Mountain View Park on the Needles Highway in Upper Laughlin.

“Our vision statement is to be the most technologically advanced, user-friendly, Assessor’s Office in the country,” Johnson said on the Clark County website page for her elected office (clarkcountynv.gov/assessor).

She will cover all the duties of the elected office – “What the assessor does, and doesn’t do,” she said.

Johnson was elected on November 6, 2018. Prior to that she was the chief assistant to Michele Shafe. Johnson has served the public for more than 20 years in the Assessor's Office. She started in 1995 and held various positions in the Appraisal Division, including Manager of Property Appraisal, prior to being promoted to Assistant Director of Assessment Services in 2016.

She is a Clark County native who graduated from high school in the Vegas Valley and earned her degree at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. 

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 Use immediately/Contact Martin Knauss laughlinedc@gmail.com 725-867-8190 

LAS VEGAS – Clark County Commissioners on August 20 unanimously approved about $2 million for design of street, water, and sewer through a special improvement district for West Casino Drive in Laughlin. 

“The large-diameter water and sewer pipes finally will complete the missing link of the utilities in southern Laughlin,” said Martin Knauss, president of the Laughlin Economic Development Corporation which has supported the effort. 

“This will open up lots of commercial land for development along a stretch of Casino Drive that is twice as long as the famed Laughlin Strip Corridor. And it certainly will improve access for Laughlin’s main route for visitors from southern California,” Knauss added. 

The vote of 5-0, with Commissioner Michael Naft not present, to award the contract to CG Wallace was part of the consent agenda which will result in bonds being paid back by 29 property owners to widen and straighten 3.9 miles of South and West Casino Drive to 4 through lanes (from 2 lanes, and increase the speed limit from 35 MPH to 45 MPH) from Needles Highway in Upper Laughlin to Harrah’s Resort in Downtown Laughlin, and about half that length for water and sewer trunk lines for 19 properties that now lack the wet utilities. 

Originally $2.3 million was earmarked for the engineers to design the 3 parts of the project. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) allocated $1.5 million for the street portion that will include turn lanes, curbs, sidewalks, and streetlights. The Clark County Commission approved the Laughlin Town Advisory Board’s request to allocate $800,000 from the Fort Mohave Valley Development Fund (FMVDF) towards design costs for the water and sewer districts, whose boards of trustees are the commissioners. 

The $300,000 difference between the maximum allocation and the contract can be reallocated by the RTC Board, while all the unused water and sewer design money must be returned to the unique FMVDF which is limited to planning and construction of Laughlin infrastructure. Clark County is the community’s trustee for the 9,000 acres between developed Laughlin and the California border, only 13 miles from the BNSF Railroad’s main lines at Needles. 

In an adjacent project, the LEDC in 2012 initiated the idea of an aquatic-based SID to dredge the navigation channels of the Laughlin Lagoon, in which owners of 24 properties are paying back Clark County-issued bonds for SID 162-A. In turn, it is tied into the planned Laughlin River Park between the Lagoon and Big Bend of the Colorado State Recreation Park. The Lagoon and planned 40-acre Park are adjacent to the Casino Drive SID, and tie into the LEDC support of the Laughlin Town Advisory Board drive to get the Big Bend Water District (operated by the Las Vegas Valley Water District) and the Clark County Water Reclamation District to install backbone systems in the 14 square-mile Laughlin Southland that is immediately south of the Big Bend park and reaches to the California border. 

That would allow the BNSF Railroad to install a branch line to the Needles Highway in the Southland, only 13 miles from its main line in Needles.  

View of video of the Site

August 27, 2019

Laughlin Times  

Photo (L to R) - Lisa Hardin, Manager Nevada Made Marijuana; Cheryl Crow, Board of Directors LEDC, Owner Kruz N Kuts; Gina Mackey, LTAB Chair; Martin Knauss, President LEDC; Gail Anderson, Deputy Secretary for Southern Nevada, Office of the Secretary of State; Michael Naft, Clark County Commissioner District A; Melanie Sheldon, Director of Business Development, Governor’s Office of Economic Development; Robert Bilbray, Strategic Consultant, LEDC

Guests at the LEDC sponsored table included Gail Anderson, the Deputy Secretary for Southern Nevada for the Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and Melanie Sheldon, Director of Business Development, Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Invited guests Senator Joe Hardy and his wife Jill along with Dr. Brian Paulson, Laughlin Town Manager, were unable to attend.

 In attendance from the LEDC were Board members Gina Mackey, Cheryl Crowe, and Lisa Hardin along with Martin Knauss, President and Robert Bilbray, Strategic Development Advisor.

Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft stopped by the table for a group photo. LEDC wants to congratulate North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee being selected for the Chairman’s Award and Jeremy Arguero, Principal Analyst, Applied Analysis for the Leadership Award.