The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 346

ADVERTISING LAS VEGAS SECTION Bellagio It Is Realty, Really Big! BELLAGIO IS AND COUNTING The final price tag for Bellagio, a lavish Mirage Inc. single-destination resort scheduled to open on the Las Vegas Strip in September, is estimated at $1.6 billion. Rising labor costs and additions to resort features have increased the cost for the resort from original estimates of $1.25 billion. The theme of the lavish resort is inspired by the village of Bellagio, which overlooks Northern Italy's Lake Como. THE COST OF BEAUTY Motorists and motorcyclists now pay $5 and $2 respectively to cruise the scenic loop through the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area 16 miles west of Las Vegas.

The Bureau of Land Management has imposed the fee to maintain and finance roads, buildings, trails, signs, exhibits and historic structures. The fee is part of the BLM's Recreational Fee Demonstration Program, created by Congress in 1996, which supplements the government funding needed to keep pace with the needs of increased visitors to national parks. More than one million people a year visit the Red Rock area. The BLM, National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service all benefit from the program.

The National Park Service plans to begin charging a fee to use the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in the next few years. CHANGE OF OWNERSIIIP-Phil Ruffin, the Kansas industrialist who is buying the Frontier Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip from Margaret Elardi for $165 million, hopes to take control of the resort on Feb. 1. The Gaming Control Board is expected to finish an accelerated background investigation in time for a January approval Ruffin's application is scheduled to be discussed at the board's Jan. 14 meeting, with the Nevada Gaming Commission reviewing it on Jan.

22. The Gaming Control Board has already approved a request to allow Margaret's sons, Tom and John, to their one-third interests in the property to their mother. If all goes as planned, Ruffin says he wants to close the deal with Elardi Jan. 31 and assume control of the hotel the next day. SLICKER IMAGE The Boomtown hotel and casino on Blue Diamond Road south of Las Vegas has been renamed Silverton in an effort to portray the property in a "slicker more modern-day image." In addition to the name change, Ed Roski, chief operating officer of Majestic Realty Co.

which owns Silverton, says he would like to see the property become more attractive for the local market He spent some $10 million for new signs, employee uniforms and more for the hotel. Roski points to the Rio, the Hard Rock and the House of Blues. is ill roils a. I 0 -i 0 0 69.