In Carson: Solutions sought for street gangs

Carson City has received a number of grants in recent days aimed at combating street gangs.

District Attorney Neil Rombardo announced Wednesday that Carson City has been selected as one of six jurisdictions nationwide that will participate in an initiative known as the Gang Response Model created by the National District Attorneys Association.

"The Carson City Sheriff's Office has identified at least nine gangs in Carson City, and various factors are drawing more gang members to the Carson City area," Rombardo said. In the application for the assistance, Rombardo noted that the city's location geographically makes it an ideal rest stop for Mexican drug traffickers and the estimated 400 gang members in Carson City are easy prey for large drug cartels looking for people to move their merchandise.

"We are optimistic that this program will bring new ideas to Carson City to assist us in addressing gang violence and related crimes," he said.

According to the association's Web site, the gang program is designed to help prosecutors understand their role when responding to criminal gang activity.

The initiative involves the development of a Gang Response Model, a quick response team made up of national experts in the field of gang violence and on-site training to provide prosecutors and law enforcement with a strategy to combat gang activity in their jurisdictions.

This is the first year for this program.

"I hope this (changes) the disturbing trend of what's occurring here in Carson with the gang violence on the rise and gang tagging on the rise," Rombardo said. "This will give us an entire plan (to combat gangs) across the community."

The Carson City Sheriff's Department also announced Wednesday that is was awarded two grants that will provide overtime money for the gang unit and education for parents, said Undersheriff Steve Albertsen.

He said a gang outreach grant worth $61,000 will be used solely to pay for overtime.

"This will allow us to go out there and be more active."

And a $24,000 grant will be used to produce an educational pamphlet modeled after the successful Southern Nevada Community Gang Task Force's handbook in

which signs of gang involvement are detailed.

Albertsen said the Carson City Sheriff's department's current pamphlet lacks the depth of the newer tablet and will be given only to parents, signifying the latest trend in gang suppression " education.

"A lot of this grant money is going into intervention," he said.

The wood-fired power plant that will eliminate nearly all of Northern Nevada Correctional Center's utility bills should go on line in July.

NNCC Facilities Manager Dave Long said the plant, which will provide both heat and electric power to the prison, is 95 percent complete. He said testing of its components will begin next week.

"We expect to start firing the boiler and begin some on-line testing the second week in July and expect it to be on-line by the end of the month," Long said.

The plant, built by APS Energy Services of Phoenix, is costing the state $12.5 million. It uses forest waste " mostly chopped up underbrush and limbs gathered from the hills west of Carson City " to fire two 900-horsepower boilers. It will provide heating, including hot water, as well as electric power for both the correctional center and the Stewart Conservation Camp.

"For 1,500 guys, you need a lot of hot water," Long said.

Once it's up and running, operators will shut down four 150-horsepower gas-fired boilers that now provide heat to the prison, "as well as zeroing out my $40,000 a month power bill," Long said.

In addition, excess electricity generated by the plant during low-demand hours will be sold to Sierra Pacific Power Co.

"That's what made the project so affordable to us," he said.

The biomass will be provided through a contract with Carson City Renewables.

Long said prison officials are considering using forestry camp crews to collect and prepare the wood chips while simultaneously reducing the danger of wildfires in the future.

The prison will pay Carson Renewables $1.78 per million BTUs of thermal energy in the form of wood chips. That is far less than the $11.90 per million BTUs the prison now pays for natural gas.

When construction began in September, Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, said he hoped the center's plant was just the first of several biomass plants in the area. He said there is a huge amount of burnable fuel in the mountains west of Carson City and biomass plants could provide power and heat to not only prisons but the Capitol Complex, school district and Carson City government buildings.

At the same time, Jay Johnson of APS said the center's plant would be the first they have built producing both heat and power.

In addition to the biomass plant, the project includes 30 kilowatts of solar electric power on the prison roof.

Nevada's Homeland Security Commission decided Wednesday that lawmakers and other state officials should get the same briefing about the Southern Nevada fusion center the commission received.

"It's very sad and concerning to me the legislative body had so limited information," said Dale Carrison, commission chairman.

The issue was raised during the legislative session after Gov. Jim Gibbons asked for a half-million dollars a year to create a supervising fusion center in Carson City.

That drew questions from Clark County law enforcement officials who said it would be redundant and could actually impede the flow of information during a terrorist threat or other emergency.

"I don't think anybody had a common idea in Carson City what a fusion center is," said commission member Robert Hadfield.

That confusion apparently extended to the governor's office as well. Commission members said Gibbons' primary concern was whether he would have access to the information he needs in case of emergency or threat.

Las Vegas Metro Police Department Lt. Tom Monahan told the commission that is actually the purpose of the centers in Reno and Las Vegas " to gather, analyze and disseminate information about terror-related and other emergency situations.

He was backed by former Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller, who sits on the commission.

"This is open to public knowledge," Keller said.

Because of the apparent dispute over the need for a Carson City center, lawmakers put the money for the project in an Interim Finance Committee account, directing the governor's office and law enforcement to work it out.

Monahan said part of the problem stems from the federal decision to change the name a little more than a year ago from counter-terrorism center to fusion center. He said another misconception is that the two centers being built in Nevada are separate and not interconnected. He said the northern center in Reno and the southern center in Las Vegas will have strong ties to share and spread any intelligence they collect and mechanisms to provide state officials " including the governor " with all the data they need to make decisions.

"The fusion center program, that refers to the entire state," said Monahan, who directs the effort in Southern Nevada.

He said the fundamental reason for the project is information gathering and sharing to prevent terrorist acts, not respond to them after the fact.

That information, Monahan said, will come from a variety of sources ranging from hotline calls, crime data, hazardous materials movement data and emergency medical service reports as well as reports from private sector security " which he said includes more than 6,700 security personnel in the Las Vegas valley alone.

The function of the centers, Monahan said, is to get that data to those who need it in a form they can understand and use to make decisions. He emphasized the centers are not classified, that their purpose is to get the intelligence information out to government, private industry and the public.

Law enforcement officials are to meet with the governor this week to discuss the issues.