Openings galore but work still to be done

GSteve Sisolak touted the major completion of Project Neon last week after the nearly $1 billion project was declared 96 percent finished, but there’s still some work left to do before the army of orange cones is removed from Interstate 15.

Monday’s openings of the I-15 high-occupancy vehicle lanes, the Spaghetti Bowl HOV flyover ramp and the Neon Gateway, which will connect the carpool lanes with downtown Las Vegas, mark the final major openings associated with Project Neon.

Still, the project won’t be fully finished until July, when a bevy of tasks are complete.

The area that is asked about most by readers — stretches of I-15 that are bumpy and uneven — will be addressed next month.

Crumb rubber asphalt overlay will be placed on

I-15, smoothing out the ride in the area. Restriping will be done after the overlay is in place.

Asphalt overlay entails applying a new layer of asphalt to a deteriorating surface instead of tearing up the old asphalt surface entirely. The rubber in the asphalt overlay is derived from used automobile tires and then mixed in with the asphalt. The process uses the existing layers

ty staff felt they could not investigate the allegations against Davis “without the fear of retaliation” so long as Lagrande chaired the board.

But Lagrande’s email states that she knew nothing about the allegations against Davis until after her term ended in August. She asked that the housing authority board or HUD OIG require everyone involved in the matter, including her, to “submit to a polygraph test.”

In a phone interview, Lagrande said Williams once asked her for feedback on the investigation during regular meetings the two had after

her term ended. On either Sept. 24 or Oct. 1, Lagrande said, Williams gave her a summary of the findings against Davis that did not include any mention of Lagrande.

Lagrande attached to the email she sent board members what she says is a copy of the summary document she had received.

During a brief phone interview Thursday, Williams said he had never given Lagrande a copy of the investigative report. He declined to comment further on the matter.

Lagrande said she believes the claim that she was protecting Davis was added in retaliation for a meeting she had with Commissioners Scott Black and Sanje Sedera on Feb. 19. During the meeting, Lagrande

raised concerns about phone records showing frequent calls and text messages made after hours between Williams and his new secretary on their private cellphones.

A summary of the phone records was included in a Review-journal article published in late April that revealed Williams was the subject of a separate human resources investigation. Williams released the completed fraud investigation report one week after the article published.

“He’s trying to deflect from the investigation that’s going on with him,” Lagrande said.

The fraud investigation report accused Davis of “possible abuse of power, fraud and embezzlement” involving the agency’s housing

choice voucher program. It was sent to HUD OIG and North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee.

Davis, an appointed board member who represents North Las Vegas, declined to comment on the investigation.

HUD OIG spokesman Darryl Madden would neither confirm nor deny whether the agency had received the report or had launched an investigation. North Las Vegas spokeswoman Sandy Lopez wrote in an email that city staff is “reviewing the report and evaluating options.”

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.