By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

Nicki Kenndrick, gift shop manager at the Valley of Fire, adjusts a figurine in the store prior to the grand opening that is scheduled this Friday. Photo by Mike Donahue.

A new state-operated gift shop in the Valley of Fire State Park Visitors Center was officially opened for business on Friday, November 4, according to Eric Johnson, deputy state administrator of state parks.

The Nevada Legislature just this year enacted the necessary statutes that allow the Division of State Parks to operate gift stores and hire the necessary personnel to run them. Those new laws took effect July 1 and Nicki Kenndrick of Moapa Valley was employed as the park store business manager. She will run the day-to-day operations of the shop and others planned in the state.

“Right now this is the first of five that parks will open (in the next several months),” Johnson said. “Friday we’ll open a store at the Spring Mountain Ranch (outside Las Vegas); next will be Cathedral Gorge near Panaca and then the Old Mormon Fort in Las Vegas. Next spring we plan to open a shop in Tahoe.”

A gift shop operated by a non-profit agency was part of the Valley of Fire Visitors Center for many years. It was closed in August 2010 after the non-profit went out of business. At that time, authorities decided the Division of Parks would take over its operation, provided the Legislature could pass the necessary laws.

Once a decision was made on the Valley of Fire, it was further decided to include additional stores in other Nevada parks.

“We expect this to be the highest grossing of the five shops that will eventually be open in parks across the state,” Kenndrick said.

The 500-square-foot store at the Valley of Fire will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas, Johnson said. There is currently one fulltime employee besides Kenndrick, Michelle Lawrence of Overton. But plans are to have at least one more on board in the next couple of weeks.

Items for sale include t-shirts, books and other literature, figurines, Native American jewelry, rock art, walking sticks for hikers and various other things.

“Our intent is to funnel all the money made in these stores back so they’ll be self sustaining,” Johnson said. “Our goal is to see the results in the parks from all these stores through improved displays, and interpretive and educational programs. The funds generated will be available (to improve) all state parks.”

“Nearly all the money earned in the shop goes back into the park in one way or another,” Kenndrick said. “It will fund interpretive materials and signs and other educational materials and activities.”