What the 2019 Nevada Legislature Did For You

The State Legislature meets for 120 days every other year. The hard work of volunteers during the campaign season got Labor allies like Governor Steve Sisolak elected. The hard work paid off when bills were passed that will bring more jobs and better pay to the entire State’s workforce. Labor has a big part in setting the agenda in Nevada because of the positive impact job security, equitable pay, and economic development brings to the entire Community. The best way to ensure more jobs in Nevada is to register to vote and participate in the process.

Assembly Bill 385

Assemblyman William McCurdy took leadership of Assembly Bill 385. This bill requires the Executive Director of the Office of Economic Development to meet with the Southern Nevada Enterprise Community Board. Created in 1994, the Board is directed by a designation by President Clinton to identify projects that may be eligible for government funding, and request appropriations for those projects from the Clark County Board of County Commissioners, the Las Vegas City Council and the North Las Vegas City Council or the governing boards of their respective redevelopment authorities. The Board ensures that the needs and opinions of the residents of the Community are reflected adequately by the Project and any additional projects assigned to the Board. Increasing communication between the Southern Nevada Enterprise Community Board and the Governor’s Office will help identify new opportunities.

Senate Bill 358

Many members are working on renewable energy projects. Senate Bill 358 sponsored by Senators such as Chris Brooks and Nicole Cannazzaro will bring more jobs like these. Passing Senate Bill 358 makes it official State Policy to encourage and accelerate the development of new renewable energy projects for the economic benefits provided to the people of Nevada.

Senate Bill 207

Also Supported by Senators Brooks, Cannazzaro, and Denis too, Senate Bill 207 directly addressed Nevada’s Workforce. Senate Bill 207 affirmed that a skilled workforce in construction is essential to the economic well-being of this State. Continuing, to express that apprenticeship programs are a proven method of training a skilled workforce in construction. The legislation enacts requirements for using apprentices on the construction of public works to ensure the availability of a skilled workforce in construction in the future. This means there will be more opportunities to improve membership involvement on public works.

Senate Bill 350

The Nevada Promise Scholarship provides financial aid to students attending any of the state’s four community colleges: College of Southern Nevada, Great Basin College, Truckee Meadows Community College, or Western Nevada College. In order to be considered for an award, interested students must complete the Nevada Promise Scholarship application, apply for admission to their college of choice, file a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), and work with mentors and perform 8 hours of community service all by set deadlines.

Assemblymen Edgar Flores, Richard Carrillo, and others joined Senator Mo Denis’ efforts to improve the Promise Scholar by no longer requiring the scholarship to be renewed each year of eligibility, and changing the required amount of community service from 20 hours to 8 hours before receiving a scholarship and 8 hours each semester among other clarifying changes. To earn a promise scholarship, a student must be a Nevada resident when enrolling at the Community College in which the scholarship is being used and must have a high school diploma or General Equivalency Diploma (GED) before starting College, by age 20. Once enrolled in the program, students must participate in mentorship, training meetings, and community service to stay eligible. Applicants are strongly encouraged to file the FAFSA documents at studentaid.ed.gov as soon as possible. Students receiving the Promise Scholarship need to enroll in at least 12 credit hours in an associate degree program, a bachelor’s degree program, or a certificate of achievement program.

Important Classes to Take at the Training Center

The Local 872 Traing Center is not just classrooms. Many classes are hands on training to get you prepared for the job.

Signing up for classes at the Training Center must be done IN PERSON in advance of the class. It is important to complete OSHA 10 and 1st Aid classes to be dispatched to any job. It is also required to keep OSHA certifications current to be dispatched to any jobs. Refresher courses are available for individuals to keep an OSHA 10 or 30 card current. If you have received an OSHA 10 and or 30 card within the last 5 years you need to only take the refresher. If your card is older than 5 years you must take the full course. OSHA 10 refresher is 6 hours and OSHA 30 refresher is 24 hours. There is no grace period on expired OSHA cards so preregistration is suggested before a card expires. Taking classes of any kind is the best way to stay competitive and become eligible to be dispatched to more jobs.

Scaffold Builder

From mudsills up this class teaches how to safely erect, walk through, frame, tube and clamp, system scaffold and be in compliance with OSHA regulations. Identifying hardware components for different job settings is a crucial part of this 40 hour class. Skilled scaffold builders are needed on every vertical building project.

Concrete Walls

Learning how to safety form and place walls and columns is the emphasis of this class. Proper consolidation and identifying correct hardware will be covered in this 40 hour class. Completion of this class will improve qualification for both heavy highway and building labor jobs.

Pipe Pressurized

Students will learn the responsibilities of being on a crew working on pressurized pipe, correct use and selection of pipe hardware, pipe flushing, as well as hydrostatic testing procedures. Students will also learn how to mill pipe ends to assure proper fitting of C900 water pipe. Completing this class will help enable individuals to be dispatched to underground utilities jobs.

Concrete Flat

This class will begin with the safety practices of forming and placing concrete. Proper techniques used throughout the finishing process will be demonstrated. Included elements are concrete estimation, tool recognition and how to apply final finishing. At least one method of curing concrete will also be covered. This is a 40 hour course and will prepare members for work on heavy highway projects and building labor jobs.

Pipe Gravity

Safe procedures and techniques of sewer pipe placement, trench excavation, backfill, compaction, and trench protection will be fully demonstrated. This class will prepare students to mill pipe ends to assure proper fitting of SDR35 sewer pipe. This class will prepare members for work on underground utilities.

Traffic Safety Priority

County Commissioner Micheal Naft is joined by other local government leaders to sign the Traffic Safety Pledge. Pictured: Mayor John Lee, Clark County Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick, Deputy Chief Andrew Walsh, Commissioner Micheal Naft, Mayor Debra March, & Mayor Carolyn Goodman.

Clark County Commissioner Micheal Naft hosted County Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick, and Mayors from North Las Vegas, The City of Las Vegas, and Henderson to sign a Traffic Safety Pledge. The newest County Commissioner raises awareness and recognizes the value of well constructed safe roadways because “as a western state we have wide roads, we have long roads and we have fast roads.” The goal of the Traffic Safety Pledge is to “promote safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.” The challenges of maintaining the high standard of infrastructure that Southern Nevada is known for comes down to a quality of life issue for many Nevadans and guests who use it every day according to Andrew Bennett of the Nevada Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety.

Tech Solutions Guide Roadway Safety

Southern Nevada is one of the best places for development of road safety innovations because of its excellently constructed roadways. One approach Planners from the Regional Transportation Commission and Clark County are considering is The Complete Streets Program for street and sidewalk improvements. A specific suggestion is to make both sidewalks and streets wider to accommodate multiple means of transportation and promote pedestrian safety. Clark County Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick encouraged having a general standard of ten feet for sidewalks as a way to improve traffic issues.

Craig Raborn is the Manager of Planning at the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and prioritizes job sites as an important safety issue. As he said “In Southern Nevada one of the critical road safety issues for us is all the construction that is happening so we partnered with some technology companies to actually put devices on cones, vehicles and even some workers that are in work zones so that movement is tracked and identified and is able to be signalled out so the traffic control devices can help” make for safer conditions. Innovations like these make it possible for smartphone apps like Waze to be able to alert drivers where road work is being done in real-time to prevent crashes in the first place.

Clark County and the Traffic Safety Coalition agree that there is a need for a new outlook to road safety. The Board of County Commissioners, which Marilyn Kirkpatrick and Micheal Naft are members, directed the Department of Comprehensive Planning to find a new vision to logistics in the County. One way this will be accomplished is a directive to reevaluate a code developed in 2000 to bring Clark County into the 21st Century with new infrastructure developments. Similar to the Complete Streets Program, the Traffic Safety Coalition would like to see the multi-national traffic safety project called Vision Zero implemented. Vision Zero has been successful in other areas and focuses on fixing pedestrian issues, because improvements to pedestrian conditions improves the road in most other aspects too. While each Department and entity see different approaches to improving Southern Nevada’s roads, each agree it will take years of road work to make progress.