Many of Las Vegas' visitors and residents make the 30-mile trek down to Nevada's southernmost city that houses entrances to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.
Boulder City will soon lie along the first portion of the new Interstate 11 highway project to connect Las Vegas to Phoenix. The massive undertaking will include a 10-mile streach of highway to bypass Boulder City from the Hoover Dam Lodge up to the Railroad pass.
Boulder City's mayor Rod Woodbury said the finish date should come by 2018, and residents have some concerns about whether businesses in Boulder City will suffer.
"There's always speculation on what the future might hold," Woodbury said. "The apprehension is still there somewhat."
With the project also comes opportunity for new industry, however, and Woodbury said the city's master planner is currently drafting a plan for an industrial park of their own.
Another issue Boulder City faces, according to the mayor, is the aging of its population.
"One of the alarming things, to me, is that our school-aged population is decreasing rapidly and our home values, although we like to keep them higher, is becoming unaffordable," Woodbury said.
The median home per sqare foot price is on average about 35 percent higher than the Clark County average.
"That makes it difficult to replace families who grow up and then move away," Woodbury said.
Boulder City's municipal election will be held April 1, followed by the general election June 13. The city council is currently considering a ballot question to use future revenues from solar leases to pay for a new city swimming pool.
Woodbury said that while the city has had its sights set on a new pool, he wasn't convinced this was the right time.
"You're talking $20-25 million, at least, to do something like that, so it's not something you jump into all at once," Woodbury said.
Although the majority of Nevada voters approved recreational marijuana in the state beginning Jan. 1, Woodbury said it still isn't favored in Boulder City.
"We were one of the only municipalities that passed an ordinance that prohibited the medical marijuana dispensaries, and we'll probably do that with recreational as well."
Rod Woodbury, mayor, Boulder City