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I Nellis Air Force base, now 1 numbering a personnel of 4,000 will double in size within the next f e w months. Senator Fat McCarran declared yesterday afternoon, in predicting that the base will have 8,000 men station­ed there as soon as housing j facilities are available.1 ^ vX*'3' The prediction was made in a ! short address the veteran Neva­da solon made to a joint meet­ing of, the board of directors of the Las Vegas Valley , water dis- I trict and Nevada ' Colorado River commission explaining, the import of- the approval he had been able to gain for trans­fer to the district of the pump­ing plant and pipe-line bringing water into Las Vegas Valley from Lakfe Mead. “ This is one of the greatest i moments in t h e history of ', southern Nevada,” th e , senatort said after reading the letter, . from Jess ;Larson, director of General Services administra­tion, approving the plan in prin­ciple,” and I can well say to you ‘Las Vegas is made’. For water is everything and now we have ! a ll that will ever be necessary [fo r the development of this ! area.” , „ McCarran then .. urged the : people here to work toward the establishment of basic payrolls, and used the example of the air ‘ base to point up his remarks. “ Every building out there from now on will be a perman­ent structure,” : he declared. ! “ The base will be a permanent ; contributor to th f future growth ; and prosperity of the valley.” He said payrolls and industry t are vital to the future of any 1 community, and urged that this f is particularly true here “ where we may not always be able to depend on the sources of income I that are now our greatest indus- 1 try.” - , . “ You can’t tell what may happen, and we should build | solidly so as to be ready to ; meet any changing conditions,” McCarran suggested. During the course of the meeting, Chairman Tom Camp-jj bell of the water district board [ of directors, paid deep tribute to j Senator McCarran for his ef- 1 forts in behalf of the project, | and the senator in turn gave John V. Mueller, General Ser - , "i vices representative, most of the credit for-the successful ob-taining of Basic plant in the be­ginning and the water facilities more recently. Campbell also praised A. C. Grant and Carl Hyde, two of ! the original sponsors of the water district plan, for their work. . Las Vegas Review Journal-May 10 , 19 5 1