Things Mielke wants you to know

At board time this week, Clark County Commissioner Chairman Tom Mielke asked Mary Keltz, director of public information and outreach, if she could compile a list of everything commissioners have done to help spur economic growth. People don’t know what the county has done, he said. If people knew how hard the county commissioners were working, he said, they wouldn’t complain that the county’s not doing enough.

I have written about, among other efforts, a plan to revitalize Highway 99, a fee holiday, vital infrastructure projects and how commissioners have tried to simplify rules for businesses.

I also know that a story like this one is what sticks in people’s minds. (Speaking of Chuck’s Produce, Mielke said Wednesday that the traffic impact fee won’t be anywhere near $1 million; Administrator Bill Barron told him he should be sure of what he’s saying before he makes comments in the presence of a reporter.)

But there was another thing the county did recently that I did not write about. I don’t have a good excuse. So file this under “better late than never,” which is what readers will probably think of what the county did.

As of Sept. 1, the county has new fees for the Department of Community Development. The fees were recalculated to reflect the cost of staff time; some fees went down, while others went up.

The director of the department, Marty Snell, released a statement: “We are working harder and smarter to avoid making it more difficult or expensive to do business in Clark County,” Snell said. “In addition, we’re paying close attention to costs faced by property owners with tight budgets for improvements and maintenance.”

Keep in mind these are development application fees, not impact fees.

If you want to see the new fee schedule, go here.