IFC accepts planning funds for Guard training facility but declines additional 3,900 sq ft scope change

The Interim Finance Committee approved the receipt and expansion of federal planning funds for a Nevada National Guard Regional Training Institute project but rejected a scope change that would have added 3,900 square feet to the planning documents.

Will Lewis, State Public Works administrator, and National Guard representatives explained the project’s federal planning appropriation (approximately $5.49 million, federal) was newly available and must be obligated by the end of the fiscal year to avoid returning the funds to the National Guard Bureau. Guard staff said the timing of construction funding is uncertain and federal construction dollars may not be available until 2035; in that case the Guard intends to pursue state funding in the 2027 CIP cycle.

Committee members raised three concerns: (1) the existing architect/consultant contract was written to the original square footage and no work had yet been produced under that contract, (2) construction costs and building codes can change over a long timeline making distant construction funding uncertain, and (3) obligating planning funds now without a firm construction funding plan could leave the state carrying future cost escalation. On a motion to receive the federal planning funds but not approve the additional 3,900 square feet, the committee approved receipt of the federal funds and left the original design square footage unchanged.

Why it matters: obligating federal planning funds preserves the grant but leaving the design scope unchanged means the National Guard and state public works will proceed with the previous approved footprint; the Guard warned that failure to obligate planning funds could result in losing the congressional appropriation.