In the March 22 City Council Meeting everybody was talking about the Crown, well more specifically Crown Holdings/Crown Cork & Seal which is moving forward with their plans on building a 350,373 square foot building that will manufacture aluminum cans. The building will sit on 63 acres of land in the Mesquite Technology and Commerce Center, in the light industrial zone.

What is Crown Cork & Seal? “Crown Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is a leading global supplier of rigid packaging products to consumer marketing companies, as well as transit and protective packaging products, equipment, and services to a broad range of end markets. World headquarters are located in Yardley, Pennsylvania.” For more information, visit (www.crowncork.com.)

The facility is expected to begin operations in the second quarter of 2023 and will create 126 new jobs. They are currently in the planning stages and recently submitted some architectural designs for approval. The designs didn’t exactly conform to the standard set by the Architectural Review Committee but closely resembles them enough so that it doesn’t upset the overall aesthetics of the Committee’s\ initial ideals.

Materials were already ordered and to change any design plans would put the project behind schedule. Nobody wanted that for Mesquite. The two major issues with the designs were that they weren’t the correct building materials specified for the complex and the building was 9’4” over what was allowed. Neither were worth stalling such a large project over. Motions for approval on both agenda items passed by unanimous vote.

The next big agenda item was the building that used to house the First Baptist Church. The city outright owned the property that used to house the Southern Nevada Health District and the church outright owned their building. There was a barter deal worked out, and basically the city and the church swapped ownership of the buildings.

This left the council with the question, “What do we do with it now?” Should they sell it or should they lease it. There was much discussion on many factors of consideration including the market value, the condition of the building and how quickly the city could expect a return on any investment that might be made. It was a thorough and lengthy discussion which brought up several key points.

Before the council votes on issues, the meeting is always open to public comment. When public comment came in, it came in, over the phone, from a representative of Crown Cork & Seal.

He asked council members to consider tabling the vote until he and his colleagues could present council with a proposal to use the building for initial office and training space while their building is under construction. The phone call was short and sweet and so was any further discussion. Council may have kicked around a few ideas about what to do with the building but they weren’t about to kick the can manufacturer’s proposal out the door. The motion to table the vote until further discussion with Crown Holdings was brought forward, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote.

One other important issue was brought forth by David Shropshall, an avid golfer. Shropshall is a retired Veteran who lives on a fixed income. One of the main reasons he retired to Mesquite was because of the golf. It’s one of the reasons many people retire to Mesquite. He asked the question, “Why is there not a municipal golf course in Mesquite?”

Inflation is not discretionary, it spreads its tentacles everywhere, even the golf courses. Cost of supplies and labor have forced the courses to raise their golf rates by 30% or more according to Shropshall.  Many Mesquite retirees who love to golf can’t afford it anymore. When they can find the funds to have some fun on the course, they get kicked off their scheduled tee time to accommodate any one of the many tournaments held here in town.

Shropshall isn’t complaining about the tournaments, he thinks they are a great revenue and draw to the city, but it doesn’t leave much time for the residents except for summer. It’s too hot to play in the afternoon so tee times are still limited and there are more and more people competing for them.

With the city’s administration having spent a lot of money investing in Pickleball courts, public parks & walking paths and the Sports and Events Complex, many of Mesquite’s regular golfing residents feel they seem to have forgotten what Mesquite retirement and tourism was initially built on, golfers.

Nobody wants either the championship courses or the residents to lose. A municipal golf course would be the solution to the resident’s issues, and it would open up those tee times for the existing courses. Setting fees like the rec center does for membership would ensure the investment would be able to pay for itself rather quickly. It may just draw some of the retirees that aren’t financially set enough to afford courses like Conestoga but could certainly give up enough per year to maintain a municipal golf course membership. Shropshall and other golfers in the community hope the city would consider the proposal to build a municipal course for the residents.

You can view the video of the March 22, 2022 City Council Meeting here: https://www.mesquitenv.gov/meetings-agendas