While Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman maintains that title, Reno's mayor, Bob Cashell, could be a close second and seems just as happy.

Elected in 2002 after stints with the university system's Board of Regents (1979-82) and as lieutenant governor (1982-86), Cashell has a 35-year career as an entrepreneur and heads Cashell Enterprises, a resort management company. He also owns the Alamo Travel Center in Sparks and the Topaz Lodge in Gardnerville.

Cashell first made his mark in Northern Nevada in 1967 when he bought a small truck stop west of Reno, expanded it over 18 years into a development called Boomtown. Although Cashell sold itt in 1988, the site grew in stature and importance and is now the site of a major outdoor sports retail center operated by Cabela's.

Cashell, who's quick to give credit to his city council colleagues, talked with In Business about what's on the horizon for Reno and Northern Nevada's perspective of Las Vegas in an interview at Reno City Hall last month.

Bob Cashell PHOTO BY RICHARD N. VELOTTA

Answer: I think our climate, our living atmosphere that we have up here, the mountains and the skiing are attractive. We have the different seasons. Our sister city in the south has a lot going for it, but we have a certain quality of living that's different than it is in Las Vegas, and some people would be attracted to it. Some people are attracted to the desert and the sun, so I think our state is lucky to have the diversity.

I probably don't have any real achievements. My council, I think, has a lot of achievements. The mayor gets the bully pulpit, and I get to control the gavel, but really I think the council is what's doing it. You've got to go back and give previous councils a lot of credit for staying the course. When they started redevelopment, nobody wanted to come to Reno. We had a lot of problems. When I was lieutenant governor, they didn't want to come to Reno or Las Vegas. I was involved with a lot of companies that moved to Las Vegas. Working with the development authority down there, it helped us set up a development authority up here and in the rural counties.

We used to have an old parking garage along the river, all contaminated and everything, and no developer would touch it. So the city did, and it tied up all its money doing that. Lucky for me, I get to be mayor when we finally built up a pot again after spending all our money building theaters and parking garages, lowering the train trench through town. So I came in after a lot of other people had paid the price. The poor mayor before me had so many arrows in his back with people shooting him and stabbing him for being forthright with them ... I got to come in when all that was over with. All we had to do was bring it in under budget and ahead of schedule, and we did that. So the foresight of these people has been proven.

After I got elected, this council was very fortunate to have Phil Satre from Harrah's and Don Carano of the Eldorado and Silver Legacy to give us a bridge loan to build a white-water rafting and kayak course right in downtown Reno. Where else in the country do you have one in the heart of your town? That helped start the momentum going.

So the council here, these people, were focused on what we wanted to do. For 30 years we've been fighting over the homeless and trying to help them. Lo and behold, by the third year, we identified some property because of the train trench. We ended up with a four-acre parcel. We've already built Catholic Community Services St. Vincent's Dining Room because we had to. We were charging for air rights over our streets. We didn't own the streets. They were owned by Stanford University and the University of California, and so everybody lost the lawsuit. Well, part of the settlement was that we had to move those two places out of the core - so we had to do those first. We moved those over here, and we built that shelter after 30 years of fighting, and we're finishing up the family shelter now, trying to do those things that let the less fortunate people get back on their feet.

Some of the people mentally need help, and I'm sorry that back in the Reagan administration they did away with state hospitals because some people really need a permanent care facility. Some of the people, because our economy right now is in the bucket, have lost homes. They're engineers or contractors or good workers, and they've lost homes. So they needed to have a place. You can't ask them to move out of a park or off the street unless you have a place to send them. So, fortunately, we've been able to do that.

Yeah, that's true. Somebody threw me a softball - and again, I don't mean me. This isn't an "I" game, it's a "we" game. We, as a team, have come in and addressed these issues. We've remodeled Virginia Street, cut it down from four lanes, widened the sidewalks. We've put lights in all the way up and down the main street. It's like daylight, even in the dark, so your people feel more comfortable and friendly. It's like what you all did down in the south with the downtown area and Fremont Street. You feel safe. You can walk from one end to the other. And those are the nice things about it.

Oscar Goodman. Oscar and I are great friends. I think he's very sharp. And I'm not saying I'm sharp, but I'm saying Oscar is. I think Oscar has done Las Vegas a great job. He represents the city well. I kept joking with him during the last campaign: I said, "Are you running for governor or aren't you? C'mon now, let's get it out here." I think Oscar is good for the state, good for Las Vegas. You need somebody of his character and his personality, it attracts people. People have said, "But he's a crime lawyer." I have never had one agent of the FBI or anywhere else tell me anything derogatory about Oscar. They said if you go to trial with him, you better be loaded for bear, because he does his homework. If you've got those guys paying him respect ... what a guy! I love working with Oscar, there's a lot of things we do together. He and I look at a lot of the issues and we agree that we've got to come up with a better system. You can't run this state just on sales tax. It fluctuates too much. You're going to have these budget crises every year until you go back and look at it. I hate to say it, but the state's going to have to look at taking back some of the property tax, but they've got to give us something back, too, because we can't afford to give it up.

That's a tough one. Right now, it's just the overall economy. We've also got people saying we don't have any water, and they're telling you we're going to have 1.2 million population. On every committee I've been on, there's nobody in office saying there's going to be 1.2 million. We've projected out that there will be maybe - maybe - 610,000 or 612,000 people, 20 years from now or 30 years from now. We can't approve a project unless they show us their source of water, and we won't approve one. We've got one agency that approved something down in Pleasant Valley - 1,200 homes. No water, no sewer, no nothing. After fighting for years, we've come up with something that the regional planning governing board up here has a policy that says: If you want to build something, show us how you can do it, show how you're going to pay for infrastructure, show us how you're going to help pay for schools and everything that goes in there. A lot of people think I'm crazy, but we don't have the same problem that Las Vegas has with water. It's an issue that we have to address. There's a group running around that wants a vote of the people that they have to approve water before we can approve a development. And we can't import water. But if we buy water rights in Fallon or somewhere and move them to storage upstream, does that mean we can't bring them in? They say no, but it's very confusing. From a planning standpoint, we're very fortunate right now. We don't have that problem, but we've got to make people pay for the infrastructure when they come.

While Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman maintains that title, Reno's mayor, Bob Cashell, could be a close second and seems just as happy.

Elected in 2002 after stints with the university system's Board of Regents (1979-82) and as lieutenant governor (1982-86), Cashell has a 35-year career as an entrepreneur and heads Cashell Enterprises, a resort management company. He also owns the Alamo Travel Center in Sparks and the Topaz Lodge in Gardnerville.

Cashell first made his mark in Northern Nevada in 1967 when he bought a small truck stop west of Reno, expanded it over 18 years into a development called Boomtown. Although Cashell sold itt in 1988, the site grew in stature and importance and is now the site of a major outdoor sports retail center operated by Cabela's.

Cashell, who's quick to give credit to his city council colleagues, talked with In Business about what's on the horizon for Reno and Northern Nevada's perspective of Las Vegas in an interview at Reno City Hall last month.

I think it's going to be one hell of a fight unless everybody sits down and works it out together. There's no question the state government has to have a stable tax. It's been voted down several times, and I don't know of anybody who would support a state income tax. That's one of the beauties of this state is that we don't have that. But I do think the state's got to have something that it can count on or we're going to have this crisis, this shortage, every other (legislative) session. Anytime you have a burp based on the sales tax, it's going to be a problem. I look forward to working with Oscar and with (Henderson Mayor Jim) Gibson and (North Las Vegas Mayor Mike) Montandon. We've all sat and chatted about this, and we all have this same problem. They can't take all of our property tax, because then we'd become the fluctuating problem. Somewhere, there's got to be a mixture of the formula and the distribution system needs to be addressed again. So I'd say this session, they've got a lot of work to do.

The Nevada Development Authority has done a great job. You look at the companies it's brought in. (It) lost a big one when (there was) the explosion down there - when PEPCON blew up - and it was a real tragedy. But they brought in lots of companies. (The authority) brought Citibank to the state. I remember that years and years ago because (Citibank) wanted its own ZIP code because it didn't want the Las Vegas ZIP code. I really admire what (the authority has) done down south and how it's put it together. We've been very fortunate up here, we've been able to pick up a few. Las Vegas has grown so fast. It's mind-boggling to think that there were 500,000 people in the whole state back in the '80s and now Las Vegas has about 2 million people. I flew in to Vegas the other day to meet with all the guys and, Jiminy, the traffic was unbelievable. I can understand where the governor is coming from, but there's got to be some better way to run the railroad than to say, "No new tax." We need a fuel tax or something because if you wait four years, we're going to be buried.

I am. Nobody likes to pay taxes. You don't. I don't. Nobody out there does. But as my father told me one time when I was complaining about paying a lot of income tax, he said, "Did you make any money?" And I said, "Yes, sir, I made some." And he said, "Pray that you can pay more the next time so that you make more money." You just can't stick your head in the sand and say, "No new tax." We haven't raised the fuel tax since the '90s and if we keep saying that, we're going to turn these streets into parking lots. You won't be able to get anywhere. And I'm not advocating that, but there's got to be some way. Everybody says, "Cut your budgets, cut this and that." Our budget's online and I'd invite anybody to go in there and tell me where I can cut it. You know what I mean? Give me what you want me to cut. Because public safety is 60-some percent of the budget. Do they want to cut public safety? I don't think I can get a vote for that. I don't think Oscar can. I don't think Montandon or Gibson could. Do they want to get out of the park business? Do they want to get out of the road business? So there's a fine line somewhere. I'm not saying raise it up, go crazy. But if you do pass a tax, make the elected officials spend it where they say they'll spend it. And I'd just leave it loosey-goosey.

Absolutely. I love these people who come in and say, "Raise gaming (taxes) 4 percent. They pay more in Louisiana or Illinois." There's no competition in Illinois! There's no competition in Louisiana! What's Louisiana got, nine casinos in the whole state? And they border a state like Texas? And seven or eight of those casinos are within 50 miles of the Texas border. Jeez, walk a parking lot in Shreveport, La., or go to Bossier City. Count the Texas cars. I guarantee you it's 70 or 80 percent. That's why I can't understand Texas, and that's where I came from. I can't understand why (Texas officials) haven't built a casino down there or come up with some way to do it. (Louisianans) don't have grocery stores with slots in them. They don't have drug stores, gas stations, bars (with slots). Clubs compete against each other here, but they compete with just about everybody else too. I think the only place they haven't put a slot machine is on the door of a toilet stall. Don't misunderstand me, with computer chips there may come a day when you go to the john someday, and you'll have a little screen in front of you and all you have to do is hit the button. The people who want to jam it to gaming aren't being very realistic. Sure, can gaming go a little bit and help with some room taxes? Absolutely, and gaming will tell you that right off the get-go. But for the teachers or anybody else to think, "They pay 19 percent in Timbuktu." How many casinos do they have in Illinois? Atlantic City, what do they have? Half a dozen? It's not a fair comparison.

The Peppermill, it's raised the bar for Reno. It sent out a real message. But you know what I think kind of triggered it a little bit - and Peppermill probably wouldn't agree with me - but all of a sudden, Station Casinos starts talking about coming to Reno. Now you're talking about Station Casinos is probably the best that I've seen in my 38 years in the business at running locals operations. I mean, it's tough. It's got the cards, it's got the aces. All of a sudden, Peppermill wakes up one morning and so does the Atlantis, so do the Caranos downtown, so does John (Ascagua of the Nugget in Sparks) and everybody says, "Whoa, what are they doing?" Well, the Peppermill got the jump on all of them and I don't know if you've seen its rooms, but those rooms are as nice as any in the state. (Its executives) upgraded everything - they've put in some banquet rooms. I've now seen how they're going to do the outside of the building, I know where the next phase is going to be and what they're going to do with it. They were very smart in acquiring land out there. Some of our boys downtown should have bought some of these blocks earlier so they could have been in a better position. All of them are starting to upgrade. John over in Sparks at the Nugget has upgraded the property. A lot of our guys sat on their hands for awhile.

Then came the Indian casinos. I remember going to a meeting a long time ago and people said, "Look at those cute little tents and those barges without motors. Isn't that something?" Well now, those tents are 18-story hotel-casinos that compete with Las Vegas and Reno. And those little floating riverboats suddenly got rooms attached to them. I would say that the northern part of the state slipped a little bit. I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but they just didn't think it was going to be. Then, all of a sudden a place 150 miles from here built a baby in Northern California and they hired a place called Station Casinos to run it. So if that doesn't send you a wake-up message, nothing will. So remodeling Virginia Street now, widening the sidewalk, putting up lights, putting out planters and flowers and stuff like this, we're changing the image of what downtown is.

And we need to marry more into our university. When I moved here 43 years ago, people up on the campus said, "We're not messing with those sinners, those gambling people." And people downtown said, "We're not messing with those educated people." And I think one of the first things that happened was that one of our young people went down south and worked for Las Vegas as an assistant football coach. Then he became the head football coach up here, and he started acting like he was in Las Vegas, going to get the community involved. Then, all of a sudden, everybody in the community got interested. And then the educators said, "Maybe this isn't that bad." It's my understanding that Pappy Smith wanted to build an Olympic-size swimming pool and all he wanted was a plaque at the bottom of the flagpole saying it was donated by the Pappy Smith family, and they said, "Oh, that's gambling money, we're not going to take that." Now, they wish they had. Now, working with Dr. (Milton) Glick and Dr. (Joe) Crowley over the years, we're trying to get that school to be more a part of our town. My staff is working with them right now, full-bore, developing businesses with them. That little Walgreens store that hangs over the freeway is one of the top retail stores in all of Walgreens nationwide, selling jackets and T-shirts and whatever else goes. We've got a great asset that we've been ignoring and that's our university and we need to do more with it.

No, I really haven't. It went through all the process and then all of a sudden, the economy goes to hell. So I really haven't heard anything lately. But it's time to rattle their cage again.

It did cut into business a little. I used to own Boomtown. When California first started the lottery, I thought somebody was stealing from me because my dollar slots went to hell in a handbasket. I mean they were just awful. So I'm asking my staff, "What's going on with our dollar action?" We finally figured out that in California, they have disposable income of $300 to $500. When you stop at the 7-Eleven, they'll say, "Hey, give me 20 (lottery tickets)." Then, all of a sudden, when they're ready to go to Reno, "I don't have that $300." Six months later, it's back because they adjusted it into their living. It's the same thing with the Indian casino. It takes business, but I guarantee you that six or seven months afterward, our rooms and our revenue started coming back. I really think that's what we're going to see with the Indian gaming. I just hope they don't get a bunch of them down in there. I'm trying to figure out where else they can build them so we can buy them first. (Laughs) I'm only kidding.

Thank goodness the Legislature passed legislation to have STAR (sales tax anticipated revenue) bonds where you can be competitive with other states. When I was lieutenant governor, there was no such thing as a free lunch. "You can't do this, you can't do that, no, we're not giving you tax breaks." Cabela's built on 20 or 30 acres of pasture generating not one penny of sales tax or income. Today, they've exceeded their customer counts and sales beyond what they thought they'd get. And they tried to be conservative. Cabela's is more outdoor. Sheels, you can buy anything from a golf club to outdoor stuff, but it's more of an all-around sporting goods store. Bass Pro - I just love Johnny Morris with Bass Pro. I think he's one of the smartest guys I've ever met. I really hope he comes to town. All three of these are class operations. I'm looking forward to Bass Pro coming because we would be the outdoor entertainment capital of the world. With the hunting, skiing and everything we have up here, it will be tremendous. It's going to be fun to watch them compete because they've never done it in the same market before. I think the outdoorsmen are going to get some great deals out here. Bass Pro is already in California, but Cabela's has so much catalog business, it's still working to negotiate on the sales tax on those items. Cabela's was going into California, but I'm very pleased that it's here now. It'll end up in California some day. It has to if it wants to compete with Bass Pro.

And, I've got Tahoe. Oscar came up here one day and said, "Huh, I'll trade you the river for ..." And I said, "Oscar, don't be messing with moving the Colorado River through downtown Las Vegas. But Oscar got some good shopping built down there. That Premium Outlet Mall? That's second to none, it's first cabin. But we got the founder of the Premium Outlet Mall coming to Reno because he's bringing a Triple-A baseball team. That Triple-A baseball team, with developers that are doing that and what they're planning for the rest of it, we knock on wood that it all comes together.

We will never do anything to undercut ... Sparks. But the baseball guys called and wanted a meeting with (me) and the city manager. I didn't realize what they were wanting and I had to call the mayor of Sparks. We said, "Time out. Until you make a decision where you want to go, we're out of the game. Take us out." And Sparks tried to. My understanding is that RED Development tried to buy the same team and it got outbid. So they had a negotiations breakdown. When we got in, we had something like 90 days to put all the property together, transfer land, get titles and deeds and everything, but the staff was able to get it done working with everybody. We didn't make a full-court press until I got a phone call from (Sparks) Mayor (Gino) Martini saying, "We're not going anywhere with them." So then we started courting them. We wanted to get it before we lost the car-rental tax. That's the only money that's obligated from government, a 2 percent car-rental tax. We took some land that we had and moved a fire station to accommodate it.

Next April. I can't wait to call Oscar up when his team and my team play. Maybe we'll get a good steak dinner and a bottle of wine on the line. I will say Oscar pays up really well when our football teams play. When I was chairman of the Board of Regents and when I was lieutenant governor, people would say, "Hey, you've got to sit half time here and half time there." I'm not going to do that. I'm a Reno guy. I'm going to sit over here. Any other time, I'm going to pull for Las Vegas. If we're not in the same court, Las Vegas is my team. And that's the same way with Oscar or anyone else. We'll make a friendly wager for football. Luckily for me, my team prevailed this year, so Oscar had to wear my blue (UNR) Wolf Pack jersey signed by the team. Then Oscar sent it back, and I'm going to use it for an auction at the university. So, technically, Oscar sent money for the athletic department, and he sent me a nice bottle of wine, too. He pays well, and I love to do business with him.

It's going to be good for downtown. They're buying a lot of acreage over here to build stores and restaurants and stuff like that. We're really excited about it. We think we can get some good friendly rivalries with Sacramento and Las Vegas and some of the other teams on the West Coast. When they announced it, (Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher) Randy Johnson was here to kick it off and there were 10,000 people here for opening night. We'll probably send a group down to meet the players and everything else because we want them to feel welcome when they're up here. If a player gets injured or something and needs some rehab, he'll get to do it in Reno. Look at the roster, there's some great guys there. And it's going to be a great opportunity for our young people to be able to go watch professional baseball. So it's really exciting.

Well, that's where Las Vegas is very fortunate to have a guy like Oscar. He's got those contacts. He's got contacts with baseball and contacts with basketball. He brought the (National Basketball Association) All-Star Game down there, and it went over big. Las Vegas is such a large city now. Everybody's got to get this petty "Well, they gamble there, we can't go there" attitude out of their head. The NBA or Major League Baseball would be very fortunate to land a city like Las Vegas because I think it would be very supportive.

Richard N. Velotta covers tourism for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4061 or at rick.velotta@lasvegassun.com.