Wood pursues third straight term in NLV Ward 3

North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Anita Wood faces an uphill battle as she seeks a third consecutive term, with challenges from a former Clark County commissioner, a retired police lieutenant, a youth pastor and a political newcomer backed by the mayor.

The five candidates will duke it out in the April 4 primary election to represent Ward 3, which runs along the city’s western edge and encom- passes the Crossroads Towne Center, a Department of Motor Vehicles office and part of the Aliante master-planned housing community.

If a candidate fails to win by more than 50 percent, the top two vote-getters advance to the June 13 general election.

The candidates agree that rapidly growing housing developments at Ward 3’s northern end must be tempered with improving older neighborhoods to the south, near Cheyenne Avenue.

More police officers, firefighters and city workers must be hired to address day-to-day quality-of-life issues, while libraries and recreation centers need to stay open longer, they said.

Nearly 62,000 people live in Ward 3, about 51,553 of whom are registered to vote, figures provided city officials show. ANITA WOOD

Two years into Wood’s first term, there was talk that the state was on the brink of taking over the cashstrapped city. The council pared