MV0310-B1 LAUGHLIN, NEVADA INSIDE: WEDNESDAY w CLASSIFIED MARCH 10, 2021 WWW.MOHAVEDAILYNEWS.COM times MOHAVE VALLEY DAILY NEWS B SECTION HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION TOUTING SAFETY One man dead, another under arrest following altercation that Gov. Sisolak promises Nevada will rebound as a safe place for turned violent on tribal land. — B2 conventions, vacations. — B2 Church celebrates past, present, future Garces Center opens at St. John the Baptist By KANE WICKHAM LAUGHLIN NEVADA TIMES LAUGHLIN — The doors of the new 6,500-square-foot Garces Center Parishioners Hall at St. John the Baptist Church in Laughlin opened to the public in a COVID-observant ceremo- ny to bless the new building as well as celebrate its comple- tion. With an occupancy rating of 274 people, the ceremony was limited to 96 attendees as per the governor’s latest decree allowing up to 35% capacity. After taking all guests’ tempera- tures as they arrived and check- ing them in off an attendee’s list, everyone assembled in the Great Hall, which is the main room of the Garces Center, named after Francisco Her- menegildo Tomas Garces, a Spanish Franciscan friar who served as a missionary and explorer in the colonial Viceroy- alty of New Spain. He explored much of the southwestern region of North America, including present-day Sonora and Baja California in Mexico, and the U.S. states of Arizona and California. Historical accounts suggest KANE WICKHAM/Laughlin Nevada Times PAST AND PRESENT: At left, one of the original priests in Laughlin, Fr. John McShane oversaw St. John the Baptist Catholic Church that Garces was the first Catho- when it was holding mass only at Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino in 1992. At right, current St. John pastor Fr. Char- lic priest to come through lie Urnick, who still conducts services at the Riverside in addition to the church building. Both spoke during the recent blessing of the Nevada as well as the first to new Garces Center Parishioners Hall at the church. Below, attendance at the blessing ceremony was limited to 35% of capacity read and write a European lan- because of COVID-19 restrictions, meaning that 96 people were able to attend the event. guage in Nevada. There is a sign along Needles Highway just south of Big Bend State Recre- ation Area that marks where Garces is believed to have crossed the Colorado River and wrote what a fine place for a big church it would be looking back across the river into Arizona. Garces conducted extensive explorations in the Sonoran, Colorado, and Mojave deserts, the Gila River, and the Colorado River from the Gulf of Califor- nia and Lower Colorado River Valley to the Grand Canyon. He encountered and recorded accounts of the Native Ameri- can tribes in their desert and riparian valley homelands, and established peaceable relations for the crown, including with the Quechan, Mojave, Hopi and Havasupai. Many journeys were explorations on his own in the deserts. He accompanied soldier-explorer Juan Bautista de Anza partway in both his large overland expeditions: the 1774 De Anza Expedition, first w See CENTER, B3 Some Laughlin residents receive second vaccination NEWS WEST were for residents who received their LAUGHLIN — While many Tri-state first dose a month ago. residents are scrambling to find their Nevada health officials reported first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Monday that about 1 in 6 people state- others received their second dose in wide has received at least a first dose of clinics last week on both sides of the a COVID-19 vaccine since shots Colorado River. became available in mid-December. In About 320 people received their sec- Clark County, that was the case with ond doses of the Moderna vaccine in a the first dose — 16.2% vaccinated — drive-through clinic in the parking lot while 1 in 12 — about 8.5% — had of Anderson Auto Group Fieldhouse in received the second dose, according to Bullhead City while about 1,000 the Nevada Department of Health and received their second shot in a two- Human Services. day walk-through event at the Statewide, the number of first-doses E-Center at the Edgewater Casino was nearly 16.5%, and full vaccina- Resort in Laughlin. tions almost 9%. The Laughlin clinic provided second On March 2, Clark County officials doses for those who received their first expanded the vaccination eligibility to shots in early February in a Southern include frontline community support Nevada Health District-sponsored ini- personnel and people in positions of tiative at the Aquarius. frontline supply chain and logistics. On the Arizona side, a second-dose Other groups currently eligible to clinic is scheduled today in Kingman receive the vaccine include people 65 while a first-dose clinic is set March 17 years of age and older, health care in Lake Havasu City. Albertsons/Safe- workers, and those in the public safety way is conducting those clinics in and security frontline group. Profes- cooperation with the Mohave County sions included in the new designation Department of Public Health; it also include people in essential public ran the Bullhead City clinic last transportation, agriculture and food KANE WICKHAM/Laughlin Nevada Times Wednesday. processing, utilities and communica- CLINIC: Laughlin residents receive their second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 Area residents eligible for the shots tions infrastructure, frontline airport vaccine during a clinic last week at the Edgewater E-Center. The clinic specifically have been frustrated trying to book operations and Nevada Department of was for area residents who received their first shot during a clinic at the Aquarius in appointments. That was magnified Transportation and local emergency February. because both major clinics primarily road personnel. MV0310-B2 A2 w WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2021 LAUGHLIN NEVADA TIMES MOHAVE VALLEY DAILY NEWS A year into pandemic, Sisolak urges safety Man arrested following CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — One year into the pandemic, Nevada “Mark my words: Nevada will be the safest homicide on FMIT land Gov. Steve Sisolak still is attempting place to have a convention or to come and LAUGHLIN NEVADA TIMES to strike the right balance between LAUGHLIN — One man is dead and another accused protecting lives and livelihoods — visit.” of his murder following a stabbing on Fort Mojave keeping the state’s tourism and — NEVADA GOV. STEVE SISOLAK Indian Tribal land last week. hospitality industry afloat while According to the Nevada Department of Public Safe- also containing the coronavirus. tively, betting that the recent down- older. At one point in December, ty, 20-year-old Ethan J. Bright was But after multiple sets of restric- trend in cases, deaths and hospital- the state had the highest per-capita arrested by tribal police on March 2 in tions on businesses including izations mark the turning point in hospitalization rate in the U.S. at the Desert Springs senior housing hotels and casinos, he plans to use the pandemic. 588 per every million residents. community, near the Mojave Resort Nevada’s safety protocols as a sell- But not Sisolak. Sisolak said Nevada’s heavy reli- Golf Club in southern Laughlin. Police ing point to bring conventions and “If I’m going to take a vacation ance on tourism and in-person had been called to the scene for an trade shows back to Las Vegas. with my family — the people that I activities like conventions, concerts altercation and found a man dead, “Mark my words: Nevada will be love the most — I’m going to go and trade shows made his decision apparently the victim of a homicide. the safest place to have a conven- where I feel safe,” the first-term to shut down the economy in The Clark County Coroner’s Office tion or to come and visit. It will be Democrat said. “I saw a picture of a March particularly painstaking. Ethan identified the victim as Oscar Marti- nez, 35, and said Martinez died from safe for the tourists; it will be safe Texas basketball game the other “I knew I was putting a majority Bright for the hotel operators and for night. It was full, and nobody was of workers in the state of Nevada multiple stab wounds. Investigators employees and their families ... wearing a mask. I mean, that’s not out of work,” Sisolak said. did not immediately release the home- We’re going to continue to have our going to work.” The state’s unemployment rate towns of either Bright or Martinez. numbers improve. We’re going to The effects of the virus have not spiked to a nation-topping 30.1% in After FMIT police detained Bright, the Nevada vaccinate as many people as we been abstract to Sisolak, 67, who April. The state’s Economic Forum Department of Public Safety’s Investigation Division possibly can. And we’ll continue to tested positive for COVID-19 in reported in December that the was contacted to conduct the investigation. The divi- open our economy back up,” he November. He said he remembers number of visitors in 2020 had sunk sion was assisted by tribal, local and federal law said in an interview on Friday with feeling exhausted, but never had to to levels not seen since 1993. enforcement agencies. the Associated Press, exactly one use any supplemental oxygen or Now, he said he hopes the mass Bright was booked into the Clark County Detention year after the state reported its first prescriptions to recover. distribution of vaccines will allow Center in Las Vegas on one count of open murder with coronavirus case. As of Monday, he’s one of 296,393 the state to contain the virus and enhanced deadly weapon.