By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada –– A store owner next to the F1 race track in the Strip corridor says a Clark County worker recently dropped off a letter warning the market that there is a “prohibition of glass beverage containers” in the Strip corridor during days of the Las Vegas Grand Prix Thursday to Saturday.
“My manager handed it to me and I read it and I said, ‘You have to be kidding,’ ” Jay’s Market owner Wade Bohn told LVSportsBiz.com Wednesday afternoon.
Here’s the county Business License letter dated Oct. 30, but received only a few days ago by businesses.
Bohn said he usually gets this letter for New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July holidays, but the store owner said Clark County is applying business licensing holiday restrictions to store owners during the controversial car race that has taken over the heart of the Strip corridor.
Here’s how the county looks at it, according to spokesperson Jennifer Cooper: “It’s not a prohibition of selling glass bottles. It’s a notice/reminder to their customers that possession of glass bottles is not permitted during the special event.”
The F1 race — approved by Clark County commissioners after LVCVA head Steve Hill sold the county on the race — has divided Clark County.
Many locals, Strip workers and small businesses argue the race event on the Strip has financially harmed them and they have been forced to sacrifice revenues so that luxury hotels like Bellagio and Wynn can generate more revenue than usual on the typically slow weekend before Thanksgiving.
A representative for a group of businesses hurt by the F1 race said the store owners were advised by the county business license director about the glass beverage container restrictions in a move that will continue to “erode” their sales because of the race.
“Clark County and our public leaders once again appear to be ‘stretching’ the purpose of our laws to accommodate F1,” Lisa Mayo-DeRiso wrote to media today.
Bohn said F1-hired workers dropping off fuel to work a pedestrian elevator were parking on his store property and left debris on the property.
Even the local newspaper has been reporting about the business losses caused by the F1 race event and its weeks and months of road work to transform the public roads into a private race track. With this newspaper headline, how do Clark County commissioners justify approving a sports event that has harmed so many?
F1 denied LVSportsBiz.com a media credential, but our journalism on this event will continue to flourish without a media badge.