36 years ago this month

The Clark County Regional Planning Commission has estimated that Clark County population will increase from it present 322,915 to around 450,000 by 1980, 600,000 by 1990 and 800,000 by the year 2000.

The fastest growth in Clark County is in the unincorporated areas, gaining 24,925 people between 1970 and 1972; North Las Vegas had the next highest gain of 14.2 percent.

With the filling up of desirable areas of Vegas Valley, growth can be expected in Mesquite and Moapa Valley in Clark County as well as the Pahrump Valley.

30 years ago this week

Bolling Construction Co.'s newest venture, asphalt paving, is going full steam.

The new equipment purchased allows for construction of asphalt roads, parking lots and driveways. The system mixes gravel with oil which is then brought to the work site by truck. The mixture is poured onto the road where it is swept up into a conveyor system, fed through the compressing unit and applied to the roadway.

The final step involves packing down the cold mixed asphalt with a rolling compactor. Bolling plans to be doing a lot of road work for Calvada in 1979 as well as driveways and parking lots.

The Nevada Test Site appears to have a future even if nuclear testing is halted.

Alternate programs being considered include nuclear weaponry studies, major solar power research and other scientific projects, according to a report from the Nevada Committee for the Utilization of State Resources to Meet National Needs.

The test site is the only place in the U.S. now used for testing. The report says in the event testing is stopped, the national security interest would require that the facility be maintained to allow prompt resumption of nuclear explosion testing whenever required.

20 years ago this week

About 20 Western Shoshone Indians canceled plans to enter the Nevada Test Site to conduct a ritual over a reported Indian grave found at the location of a future nuclear test.

The Western Shoshone National Council said the group postponed its plans after the Shoshones failed to reach an agreement on the ritual with the U.S. Department of Energy, which manages the test site.

The federal government offered to allow the Indians to enter the range to conduct the ceremony after archaeologists discovered the remains of a small Indian child. The site is reported to be 50 to 3,000 years old.

The department later rejected plans by the Shoshones to allow anti-nuclear activists and the news media to attend the event.

President-elect George Bush said that while scientific considerations should take priority in deciding where a high-level nuclear repository is located, it's unwise to reopen the site selection process for the repository.

The investigative process chose Nevada as the only state to be considered for the project. Bob Loux, director of the state's Nuclear Projects Office, said Nevada could benefit from a review of the process which selected Yucca Mountain to be studied for the repository.

He claimed there were flaws in the system and that there were other possible sites that were far better than Yucca Mountain.

At least one study by a DOE scientist suggests Yucca Mountain's geology makes it an unsuitable location for the repository. Some government geologists believe the Energy Department is risking potential danger if it fails to adequately study the site.

10 years ago this week

A faulty extension cord has been blamed for a fire that destroyed a single-wide mobile home on Dyer during the early morning hours.

Firefighters were stunned to find over one hundred cats died in the blaze, despite the owners' vain efforts to shoo them from the burning home.

According to Assistant Fire Chief Cameron McRae, the man and wife suffered smoke inhalation and had to be sent by ambulance to University Medical Center. The man was bitten on the hand by one of the felines in addition to suffering smoke inhalation. Both people were treated and released.

More than 300 Pahrump Valley High School students missed enough school during the first grading period of this year to be held back a grade by attendance standards used by the Clark County School District.

By the time the grading period ended roughly a third of the PVHS student body had at least 10 absences, which is the maximum allowed for an entire year in Clark County.

"Our attendance rate is at about 89 percent, which is terrible," said PVHS Principal Jerry Hill, who had been tracking this and other trends at the school since the year began.