Nevada

Nevada Motel at York Beach makeover almost complete: Landmark hotel reopens in June

Published

2 years ago

March 12, 2024

Nevada Motel at York Beach makeover almost complete: Landmark hotel reopens in June

YORK, Maine — The finishing touches are being put on the Nevada Motel as owner Joe Lipton prepares for its June reopening.

The motel, built in the 1950s, has been closed since the family that opened it put it up for sale in 2021. Lipton, who bought it with his wife Michelle Friar, has since been resurrecting the classic motel shaped like a World War II-style battleship.

Lipton has been working on projects at several hotels he owns over the last few years. This year, he hopes to build a new bridal suite and spa at the ViewPoint Hotel overlooking the Nubble Lighthouse.

Lipton has said he has been motivated in his hospitality ventures to preserve the historic features of the buildings while bringing updated amenities. He said the Nevada would have been torn down for a residential development if he had not bought it.

“Somebody else was going to buy it, making it into housing,” Lipton said. “To keep that motel building there, I think, was fun for us.”

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Nevada set for June opening

Lipton has said he bought the motel because it was a landmark he wanted to preserve at Long Sands Beach. The motel at 141 Long Beach Ave. first opened in 1951.

The original owner, Henry de la Pena, named the motel after the U.S. Navy ship he served on in World War II. He left the Navy in 1947 and was inspired on a visit to Florida, where his sister-in-law’s husband opened a motel in Pompano Beach.

De la Pena returned to Maine with the idea of opening a motel and found the empty lot at York Beach in 1951. He purchased the property and named the motel after his wartime ship and designed the motel to resemble the flying bridge of a battleship.

The Nevada was put up for sale in 2021 for $2.75 million after de la Pena’s son said staffing shortages were causing the business to struggle. Lipton’s Crane Group purchased the motel for $1.6 million to revitalize it.

The motel originally had two stories, and Lipton is now building a third. He is also reducing the number of units, making each room more spacious. The work also includes a new elevator shaft.

Even with updates, Lipton has said the final product opening in June will maintain the feel of a 1950s motel. He said they are bringing back the “art deco beach scene” with mid-century artwork and wallpaper. An image showing the future Nevada Motel has been posted by Lipton on Facebook to give people a glimpse of what is coming.

“We kept the integral parts, the overhangs, the decks, the color,” Lipton said. “I think a lot of people are appreciative of how we’ve done it.”

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ViewPoint Hotel seeks to add new spa, bridal suite

Lipton is also looking to make more improvements to the ViewPoint Hotel, which he and Friar purchased along with partner Chris Crane in 2017.

Since buying the hotel, Lipton has added seven new rooms to the side of the hill overlooking the Nubble with grass roofs to appear hidden in the environment. He has also opened a restaurant, A Little Auk, that was first available to the public last fall.

Lipton is now going to reopen A Little Auk this summer to the public and is looking to add a new spa, as well as a second-floor bridal suite above the bathhouse. He also plans to add a new building to make it easier for guests to check in and get to their rooms quicker.

Whether Lipton can start construction in time for this summer depends on its approval with the Planning Board, he said. He was scheduled to go before the board on March 14 and said he would be able to finish the work in time for the 2024 summer season if the project gains approval.

“Cutting it very close, but yes,” Lipton said.

Lipton said there is a chance he eventually builds an indoor restaurant space with outdoor seating, as well as a wedding venue across the street from the ViewPoint.

He said after the ViewPoint and Nevada are complete, he expects to take a break from major projects. He and Friar grew up in town and have previously owned other businesses like the Inn on the Blues.

Lipton said it’s been fun to update some of York’s classic structures, like the Nevada. He has described it as an homage to the town where he’s lived since he was 8.

“To renovate and bring back a part of history,” Lipton said. “It is a really exciting, fun thing to be able to do in your hometown.”

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Nevada

DOJ sues Nevada for allegedly withholding voter registration information

Published

5 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

DOJ sues Nevada for allegedly withholding voter registration information

The Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against Nevada on Friday, alleging that the state failed to provide statewide voter registration lists when requested, according to a news release.

Colorado, Hawaii, and Massachusetts were also sued, bringing the total to 18 states now facing lawsuits from the Justice Department. The department’s Civil Rights Division filed the complaints.

Francisco Aguilar, Nevada secretary of state, was charged with violating the Civil Rights Act after he responded on Aug. 21 to a letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying there was no basis for her request for certain voter information, asserting privacy concerns, according to the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, Aguilar provided a link to the state’s computerized voter registration list. However, the version shared contained incomplete fields, including registrants’ full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

Aguilar’s Aug. 21 letter said his office would follow up, but the attorney general never received the list containing all the requested fields, the lawsuit said.

According to the news release, Congress assigns the attorney general primary responsibility for enforcing the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, both enacted to ensure that states maintain accurate and effective voter registration systems.

The attorney general also has authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to request, review, and analyze statewide voter registration lists, according to the release.

“States have the statutory duty to preserve and protect their constituents from vote dilution,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the release. “At this Department of Justice, we will not permit states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections laws. If states will not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.

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Nevada

Police: Deadly crash closes all lanes at I-15, Charleston

Published

18 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

Police: Deadly crash closes all lanes at I-15, Charleston

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — A deadly crash has closed all lanes at I-15 and Charleston Boulevard, police say.

Nevada State Police posted on social media after 7 p.m. about the crash. Police say drivers in the area should use other routes.

Police have not immediately shared details about the victim or if other people are involved. It’s not yet confirmed if impairment is suspected.

This is a developing story. Check back later for details.

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Nevada

Top Interior Department official has ties to Thacker Pass lithium mine – High Country News

Published

1 day ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Top Interior Department official has ties to Thacker Pass lithium mine – High Country News

This story was co-published with Public Domain.

Karen Budd-Falen, a top official at the Department of Interior, has financial ties to the controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada — a project that the Trump administration worked to fast-track during its first term. In recent months, the administration took an equity stake in the mine and the mine’s parent company.

After an unexplained delay, Public Domain and High Country News obtained Budd-Falen’s financial disclosure earlier this month, which details her family’s extensive land holdings. Among them is Home Ranch LLC, a Nevada ranching operation valued at over $1 million. Nevada’s business search database shows a Home Ranch LLC that listed Frank Falen as the manager in February 2022. Frank Falen is also the name of Karen Budd Falen’s husband.

Karen Budd-Falen, senior partner at Budd-Falen Law Offices LLC, speaks at the 2024 Western Ag and Environmental Law Conference. Budd-Falen is a top official at the Interior Department. Credit: uacescomm / CC via Flickr

In November 2018, not long after Karen Budd-Falen joined the first Trump administration as a top legal official at the Interior Department, Home Ranch LLC agreed to sell water rights to Lithium Nevada Corporation, the company developing the Thacker Pass mine, for an undisclosed amount of money, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Frank Falen is listed on the document.

A Home Ranch also appears in planning documents that Lithium Nevada submitted to federal regulators during Trump’s first term. A monitoring plan for Thacker Pass, dated July 2021, notes that the company intended to use existing stock water wells owned by Home Ranch LLC to “monitor potential drawdown impacts” from its mining operations.

The water purchase agreement and other records raise questions about potential conflicts of interest. Budd-Falen was appointed in March as associate deputy secretary to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — a position that does not require Senate confirmation. She also served as a high-ranking legal official at the Interior Department during President Trump’s first term.

It was during that earlier government stint that her official calendar lists a November 6, 2019 meeting in which Budd-Falen was scheduled to have “lunch with Lithium Nevada.”

In 2019, Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining firm Lithium Americas, was seeking speedy approval for its Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada. In the waning days of the first Trump administration it received just that. In January 2021, the Bureau of Land Management approved the mine project, which includes some 5,700 acres of public land.

The $2.2 billion, open-pit mine project has drawn fierce opposition from area tribes and environmentalists, who argue it threatens water resources, endangered species and sacred cultural sites. Thacker Pass, known as Peehee Mu’huh to the Paiute Shoshone people, was the site of an 1865 massacre of at least 31 Paiute people.

Budd-Falen was being considered to lead the BLM during Trump’s first term, but turned down the director job when she learned that she and her husband would have to sell their interests in their family ranches to avoid conflicts of interest, she told The Fence Post in 2018.

Since returning to power, Trump and his team have again worked to move the project forward, as part of a broader push to boost critical mineral mining in the U.S. In September, the Trump administration struck a deal with Lithium Americas to take a 5% equity stake in both the Thacker Pass mine and the company, in exchange for the release of loan money from the Department of Energy.

Budd-Falen has largely worked behind the scenes at the Interior Department. Little is known about what issues she has focused on since returning to the sprawling agency. Notably, Interior officials have yet to release her ethics agreement, which would detail any companies or projects that are off limits.

“Did she have any oversight of the environmental review process regarding Thacker Pass? It is a big question,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, a water conservation group in Nevada. “If she didn’t recuse herself, it would fly in the face of the impartial decisionmaking that Americans expect from government officials.”