bureau doesn't give 'a dam about hoover's snack bar · bureau doesn't give...

Bureau doesn't give 'a Dam about Hoover's snack bar. '; ,

From all appearances, BertHansen's Hoover Dam Snacketeria is agoing concern. ",: I

His crew serves a vast abundance ofhot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream andcold drinks. Hansen's gift shop offersHoover Dam pennants, coffee mugs,pencils, refrigerator magnets, keychains, T-shirts and caps.

With about 750,000 tourists visitingthe dam every year, and the nearestconcessions stand some miles to thewest, Hansen's Snacketeria has some-thing akin to a captive audience.

It figures the government wouldwant a piece of the action.

Hansen, who is legally blind, hasserved snacks at the dam since 1975,when he took advantage of theRandolph-Shephard Act of 1936, a lawdesigned to promote the severely visu-ally impaired in operating concessionsbusinesses in government buildings.Over two decades, Hansen's crew hasgrown to 25 people - a third of whomsuffer from a handicap. It should benoted, however, that unemployment isnot among their disabilities.

Now the Bureau of Reclamation isinterested in claiming up to 10 percentof his gross revenues in the form of afederal street tax for the right to oper-ate at the dam.

John L.Smith

Who says the mob has a lock on theprotection racket?

The Randolph-Shephard Act wascreated to help provide job opportuni-ties for the blind. It does not allow rentcharges, hot dog taxes or outright ex-tortion.

Of course, that will be one of manypoints of contention raised when Hans-en and his fellow blind vendors beginarbitration with the bureau.

"We believe there's been a definiteshift in the circumstances here," Bu-reau of Reclamation Area ManagerBlaine Hamann says. "The situation aswe see it here is markedly differentthan it was. It's not our intention at allto evict them."

Only to collect a little rent now thatHoover Dam, with its new visitors cen-ter and parking garage, is on the vergeof becoming a mega-attraction.

Hansen's concessions stand has

grown from a small shack into a 50-'foot by SO-footbuilding, which Hansenoperates at a profit. \

"Now that we're successful, they'resaying 'We want a part of it,' "Hansen,54, says. "They didn't care when thereweren't 100 federal employees workinghere. Now all of a sudden they're usingit as a basis not to allow us to continuethere."

Dam officials will have some ex-plaining to do. It won't be easy for anagency strapped with millions in costoverruns for its Hoover Dam renova-tion to win popular support.

It's probably not the best time tostart stealing from blind snack bar op-erators.

After all, they appear to be payingtheir bills.

A percentage of profits from the 25blind-operated vending stations locat-ed in local, state and federal govern-ment buildings are responsible forfunding the business enterprise pro-gram of Nevada's Bureau of Servicesto the Blind and Visually Impaired.

For the record, Nevada's blind busi-ness operation is the only self-sustaining program of its kind in thenation. Its future is at risk ifthe fedsbegin skimming from the lucrativeHoover Dam Snacketeria, state Direc-

tor Mervin J. Flander says: "The facili-: ties at Hoover Dam are mainstay oper-ations that contribute largely to theself-sustaining status of the program."

The Bureau of Reclamation hasmore than the Randolph-Shephard Actworking against it. It also must fight ,-the perception that it is forcing blindoperators to help rescue the federalagency's own multimillion-dollar mis-calculation at Hoover Dam.

Talk about the blind leading theblind.

This isn't the first time the Bureauof Reclamation has attempted to ex-tract a piece of the action from the vi-sually impaired. Its officials lost a sim-ilar fight when attempting to oust theblind vendors at Grand Coulee Dam.

Will its luck improve at HooverDam?

'Not if Hansen and Flander have -their way.

Given all those cost overruns by theso-called experts, and Hansen's recordof success with hot dogs and coffee 'mugs, perhaps the Bureau of Reclama-tion ought to consider allowingNevada's blind businessmen to super-vise the Hoover Dam renovation.

John L. Smith'scolumnappears Wednesday,Thursday, Fridayand Sunday,