The location for a proposed federal detention facility has yet to be determined, but an optimistic town board Oct. 23 awarded one of the five interested firms, GEO Group, a conditional use permit for the one town-owned property being considered.

The facility is expected to house 1,500 federal detainees and must be within 75 miles of the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas.

Several sites are in the running, including the 40-acre parcel on Parque Avenue for which the permit was granted.

Philip Mosciski, GEO's vice president and design services coordinator, explained to the board that the company needed the permit to get a head start.

GEO Group is one of four companies that have expressed interest in building the facility.

An Office of Federal Detention trustee is expected to award the project in February or March and expects the building to be ready to receive inmates within 15 months of naming a contractor.

Mosciski, however, explained that his company (which has built facilities in several other states) estimated the project to take about 18 months to complete, and as such was requesting the town to issue the permit so they could get some of the preliminary work done ahead of time and meet the federal deadline.

Volunteer Economic Development Coordinator Al Balloqui told the board that if GEO Group is not chosen to build the detention center any information the company gathered (such as soil studies, grading, etc.) would be shared with the town at no cost.

In addition, Mosciski said his company would foot the bill for all of the preliminary engineering work.

Should GEO Group not be the successful bidder, the conditional use permit would be void.

The board approved the permit with the understanding that other interested firms might also apply for one as well.

Not everyone at the meeting was as optimistic as the board, however, and it wasn't long before Harley Kulkin stood at the podium.

"I'm opposed to the detention facility being put in a residential neighborhood -- it should be outside the valley," Kulkin said. "It's kind of human nature if someone locks you up to want to get out."

The parcel is located about a half mile east of Blagg Road, about a mile away from the nearest residences.

Kulkin also said the board should consider that the federal office still need to even pick a site for the facility.

In other detention center news, the board also decided to create a list of qualified appraisers and choose one to conduct an appraisal on the Parque Avenue site.

Al Balloqui explained that in order to come up with a price to lease the property, a fair-market value assessment of the land needed to be done first.

Since that could take up to 70 days, Balloqui urged the board to get an appraiser as soon as possible.

The question of whether the town needed to go out to bid for an appraiser was discussed, but ultimately it was determined that since the appraisal probably would not exceed the $10,000 minimum price that legally requires public entities to do so, that would not be necessary.