During a recent round of cuts to the state budget, lawmakers asked the public for suggestions about where to trim. The I-Team has obtained those ideas and finds the most popular suggestion is a four day work week for state employees.

Above cutting services for illegal immigrants and raising taxes, the four day work week is the most frequent suggestion.

One lawmaker said who wouldn't want a shorter work week; another asked how many state employees participated in the survey. Kidding aside, several Southern Nevada cities already save money this way. We took a look at how they do it.

Before John Q Public walks in to Henderson City Hall or makes his way to a city office, he or she encounters Lizet Elias.

“I'm the first stop here.”

A long-time city employee who says with a straight a face she likes mostly everything about her job.

“The four day work week is just, I just love the four day work week,” she said.

Lizet, like the majority of Henderson employees, works four days a week – 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m, with a half hour unpaid lunch. That means the city pays her for a 38-hour instead of a 40-hour work week.

Shave two hours off the time sheets of some 2,000 city workers and the savings adds up to nearly $5.7 million a year.

“Honestly I don't see a downside,” said Assistant City Manager Bristol Ellington. “If you ask 10 people are they getting the best bang for their buck, they probably wouldn't know that we worked a four day work week. They would know that we are open five days a week, and we are providing all the services for them.”

Staggered schedules allows Henderson to provide essential city services like business licensing, passports and building inspections five days a week.

North Las Vegas too staggers some shifts to meet the needs of its customers. But unlike Henderson, it pays for a four day, 40-hour work week. North Las Vegas derives its cost savings by closing city offices on Fridays, thereby cutting its utility bills by more than a $100,000 a year.

“It works well for the city, it works well for the employees and we believe it works for the community as long as we continue to strike a good balance,” said North Las Vegas City Manager Gregory Rose.

Back in Henderson, the clock ticks 5 p.m. and Lizet and her colleagues are still at their desks.

“Even though it's a long day, we do work 10 hours, it's totally worth it,” said Lizet. For her, a shorter week means a longer weekend with her family.

For the city, it means millions in savings at little expense to the taxpayer.

Utah just went to a four day work week and expects to save $3 million a year by closing state buildings on Fridays.

Here in Nevada, a five day work week is actually written into state law. So, it would take legislative action to make a change. But several lawmakers the I-Team spoke with said in these tough times, it's certainly worth taking a look at.

If you'd like to see the list of suggestions so far, click here. If you want to make a suggestion of your own for cutting the budget, click here.

The foreclosure crisis has left thousands of homes in Clark County sitting empty. Those vacant properties soon become eyesores.

A North Las Vegas man is doing his part to try to prevent an abandoned home from becoming a neighborhood nuisance. Now, he says he was threatened with jail time.

The owners abandoned the place a few weeks ago because they couldn't afford it. The grass was overgrown and the pool collecting debris. The man next door had enough, so he decided to spruce up the place. But the bank that owns the home threatened him with jail.

For the past two weeks Ken Gifford has taken care of a home that isn't his own. Although it seems like a noble deed, it's in his best interest, “I don't want my property value going down.”

His neighbors couldn't afford to keep it and while the foreclose notice wasn't posted on Gifford's front door, the crisis hit home, “I have seen it dotted in the neighborhood and all of a sudden it's right next door.”

The home will likely sit empty for months, “There are three houses right around there that are. Their yard has been that way for two years — no landscape, broken windows, and I don't want this house to turn out like that.”

While the owners walked away, their neighbors are now the ones who must pay.

“This almost looks like corn here growing up,” said Gifford. “So the pool's going to turn green and the yards going to turn brown unless somebody does something.”

Worried the pool might become a breeding ground for mosquitoes, he called for help.

“I called U.S. Bank. They said call the owners and I said they aren't here,” said Gifford. “Then he basically said, “Sir, I am not going argue with you. Goodbye.' Click.”

So Gifford started keeping up the property, but he says the bank told him to stop, “They said if I come on the property, I am trespassing and I can be arrested and put in jail.”

North Las Vegas code enforcement says the owners are responsible for upkeep until the bank takes over. That could be a year or more. That's too long for Gifford to live next to a mess. He says he's willing to risk going to jail.

“All they need to do is turn on the water and electricity and the neighbors will take care of the rest, but nobody will do that,” he said.

North Las Vegas code enforcement officials don't recommend neighbors clean up foreclosed property. It is against the law to trespass. But if you need help getting a property in your neighborhood cleaned up, call code enforcement to find the owner or they will clean it and the owner will have to pay for it.

Email your comments to Reporter Travell Eiland

The battle over a shooting park in the northern part of the Las Vegas valley has now moved to federal court.

A group of residents is calling the gun park a “Disneyland with guns” and the county is not commenting on this latest filing. The shooting park is located between Buffalo and Decatur at the far northern end of the valley.

“It's peaceful, quiet, beautiful view of the mountains, kids playing in the streets.” This is how neighbors who live in the northwest part of the valley describe their neighborhood. But they say this will all change because of a gun park that's being built near their homes.

On Monday neighbors walked from their attorney's office to the Lloyd George Federal Court building where their lawyer filed the paperwork on their behalf.

“All complaints are efiled and then there will also be a motion seeking a hearing for an injunction. An injunction would simply say let's stop and reconsider the environmental concerns, the nature of the use, the volume to people that will be traveling there every day,” said Matthew Callister, attorney.

Tyson Wrensch lives in a neighborhood and says he wants the park moved, but also asks that the county change the way it discloses major projects like this.

“The builders in that area are still not showing a shooting range near these homes. Why hasn't the county stepped in. I had to sign a disclosure for Aliante casino which hasn't been built yet, and that's five miles away,” Wrensch said.

Lorraine Lennard also lives in the neighborhood and says the county has compared the noise level to a barking dog or a helicopter.

Imagine listening to a barking dog, or a helicopter or constant repetition of gun fire for twelve hours a day, it's enough to drive a women crazy,” she said.

Neighbors say the county notified them that the 750-foot radius for a project is larger than McCarran International Airport and six times larger than Disneyland. The county says they can not talk about pending litigation.

A Las Vegas teen who lost his life because of an inattentive driver was remembered Monday night when loved one honored him with a candlelight walk.

The driver who hit and killed 16-year-old Keanu Irving Lee Davila told police he just took his eyes off the road for a second before he slammed into Davila, who was riding a bicycle.

Family and friends gathered at Alexander and Coleman where the deadly accident happened. 

“He was a great guy. He was one of my best friends and he would always make you laugh and cheer you up if you were ever sad or anything,” said Jazmine Mejia, Davila's friend.

Friends say Davila was a hero in his final moments because he pushed his young nephew out of the car's path. Many are now calling for a change. Saying something must be done about the road since so many students take it to school and there is not enough there to protect them or make drivers slow down.

“This is too much and we need justice for my son because they have to do something they have to do something about the streets, because this is ridiculous,” said Irving Davila, victim's father. 

“I think that it is ridiculous. They've got no reason to be driving that fast. It is a school zone so it should be pretty slow and apparently they were ignoring it,” said Bridgette Morales, Davila's friend.

Many of the students who gathered Monday night say too many drivers speed down the street and during school it's no better. One loss is already too much for them and they now want a crossing guard during school hours to keep them safe. They are also calling for a crosswalk and a stop sign to be put up.

Davila's father told Eyewitness News that he was planning to take his son to live with him in New York this week and now he will never get that chance.

The pilot of the experimental plane that crashed into a North Las Vegas home on Friday has been identified as 76-year-old Mack C. Murphree Jr. The coroner said he died from multiple injuries as a result of crash.

The family who lived in the house had three residents. One wasn't home and escaped injury. Lucy Costa's cause of death was acute carbon monoxide inhalation. She was 76 as well. Her husband Jack Costa was also inside the home and was killed in the crash.

SLIDESHOW: Plane Crashes Into North Las Vegas Home

The plane was an experimental aircraft that had just five hours of flying time. The tower noticed it was not gaining altitude and radioed Murphree. He then called back saying he was going down. Investigators are looking for clues to the cause to the cause of the crash.

The experimental plane had just taken off and had about 75 gallons of fuel on board. North Las Vegas Fire Chief Al Gillespie says that created the intense fire, “This one would be the equivalent to having a large SUV crash into the house with a large fuel tank at a high rate of speed.”

Earlier this year, Forbes Magazine called North Las Vegas Airport the most dangerous in the country. Now the county's aviation director says he is calling for a change, no longer allowing smaller aircraft around inner city airports.

At the time of the report, there had already been 63 runway incursions since 2001 resulting in six deaths. Since that time, we have seen one plane leave the airport and crash into Mount Charleston and now this deadly crash into nearby homes.

The small plane did not make it far from the airport before it became a deadly ball of fire, destroying a home in a near by neighborhood. Homes and businesses surround the North Las Vegas Airport automatically raising the stakes on any crash in the area.

Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker says he has called for smaller planes not to be allowed to use the airport before and plans to ask for it again.

“I think the regulatory process on airport systems need to be revisited in the coming weeks. I am going to ask to meet with the members of our congressional delegation to see if something can be done,” he said.

Walker would like to have the system changed allowing airports to make the call on what aircraft are better suited for the area.

He would like to see smaller planes, including experimental aircraft like the one involved in Friday's crash, no longer be allowed at any of the inner city airports but rather be kept to rural airports were the population is less dense.

Walker says moves to make changes have been blocked by pilot groups, but he says that this crash is evidence that something needs to be done.

Email your comments to Reporter Amanda Hernandez

Today's plane crash is a frightening reminder for another North Las Vegas family who narrowly escaped the same fate two years ago. And the young children who witnessed that crash say they'll never forget what they saw.

Most of us go our whole lives without ever having to see something as awful as a plane crash. But it was right there on Jones near Rancho that one North Las Vegas family with five children saw a small plane crash and explode into a ball of flames.

“We heard the metal grinding down Jones before the plane exploded,” said Tina Montesano.

It was November of 2006.

“The noise was horrendous, the explosion was so loud it shook everything in the house,” said Tina.

The vivid memories of that day haunt this North Las Vegas mother of five — who says her young children were jumping on their trampoline in the backyard when suddenly….

“It went down, [spun] around and hit the wall and hit a gate and hit a pole, spun around — then people came running out and it exploded,” said Steven Montesano.

The six-seater plane came to a crashing halt on Jones — just three houses away from the Montesanos' home — strewing twisted metal, burning jet fuel and live ammunition that had been on board the plane all over the street.

The loud screeching noise that preceding the explosion prompted the whole neighborhood to run outside and see what happened — including little Ann Marie, who was only 3 at the time. “It was horrible!” she said.

And though nearly two years have passed, Ann Marie says she still dreams about plane crashes. Fortunately, no one died in this crash but the traumatic event left its mark on this family in other ways.

“Every time I see a plane go over my house, I worry that it's gonna fall on my home,” said Tina.

The sights and sounds of small aircraft are non-stop in this neighborhood just west of the North Las Vegas airport. In fact, while interviewing the family's oldest son, two planes could be seen in the background passing overhead in close proximity of each other.

“I never thought I was in the danger zone until one Sunday afternoon when a plane fell right out of the sky and blew up on my street,” said Tina.

The Montesanos say they were aware of the fact that they were buying a house near an airport — they say they just didn't know it was one of the most dangerous airports in the nation.

Across the street from the house where the plane crashed is a senior community. Several residents witnessed the plane crash and spoke to Eyewitness News.

The people who live there are used to seeing and hearing planes over their heads. But they never expected to come outside and see a house on fire just 50 yards away.

“I heard the engine and I said I knew this plane was in trouble. This is what it sounded like — picking up, cutting out and then I got a glimpse of it from where I was standing and then I heard the explosion and the place was on fire.” Early this morning, James Guiry rushed to the fence to see what he'd heard.

3 Dead After Small Plane Crashes Into North Las Vegas Home

“I could see a fireman banging on the window and then I saw a woman in there, a silhouette of a woman,” he said.

Firemen were able to rescue the woman out of the house. She was rushed to the hospital, where she later died.

Eva Saunders was walking her dog when she saw the smoke. As a former nurse, she said she wanted to help. “My first thought when I saw the fire was please God, help the people who live there.”

The pilot and two of the people living in the house died. Saunders says this is the second plane crash in two years in this community.

“I've always said since I moved in here, I said one of these days something is gonna crash because they come here real low,” said Guiry.

“I'm moving because I'm scared because these people in North Las Vegas can't pilot a plane,” said Saunders.

Earlier this year, Forbes Magazine named the North Las Vegas Airport the most dangerous in the U.S.

Forbes' report showed there have been 63 runway incursions since 2001 resulting in six deaths.

The plane that crashed into Mt. Charleston back in June which killed four people also took off from North Las Vegas.

Email your comments to Reporter Calvert Collins.

(NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nevada) — Three people are now confirmed dead after a small experimental plane crashed into a home near Lake Mead and Simmons in North Las Vegas around 6:30 a.m. causing the home to erupt in flames.

According to Ian Gregor, the FAA communications manager, the pilot was aboard an experimental homebuilt plane and was unable to gain altitude. The pilot radioed the control tower that he was going down. The plane crashed into a home which is a half-mile southeast of the airport.

FAA inspectors are enroute to the scene. They will be investigating the accident along with the NTSB.

Eyewitness News and LasVegasNOW.com will have the latest on this developing story.

North Las Vegas are on the scene of an accident that has killed a 16-year-old in North Las Vegas. The teen was riding a bike near Coleman and Alexander when he was hit.