Four years ago on October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on a concert on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more.

Now an effort is underway to create a place of remembrance and healing.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and additional supporting sponsors.

(Kipp Ortenburger) Welcome to Nevada Week.

On October 1, 2017, Metro police officers raced to respond to an active shooter on the Strip.

Now four years later, lessons learned from that day being used to better train first responders.

What seems like a regular construction site in North Las Vegas is actually going to be home to a new state-of-the-art training facility for first responders.

(Andy Locher) Well, it doesn't look like a very exciting room.

The reason it's built the way it is is so we can change it out quickly, at will.

We can recreate those real scenarios that we find in the real world.

Andy Locher with Las Vegas Metro Police walked me through the facility.

So this room looks like a garage because mainly it is a garage.

This is where they store all their equipment.

The idea for the facility started before the October 1 mass shooting, but lessons learned from that tragedy have informed the creation of some of the training that will be carried out here.

What October 1 did was give us some real-life, real-world lessons in how this works and how it does not work.

We were very successful that day from a first responder standpoint, in that we responded quickly.

We had multiple agencies there.

Everybody did their job, they did it well, they did it quickly.

The issues that we've found is it could have been better if people had known what other people knew.

The new training facility aims to bring police, fire, medical and federal agencies to train together and build better relationships that will improve how everyone responds together to an emergency.

What we found is when the people are working together, they actually communicate.

This area is very specifically set up so that all the different agencies have to talk to each other.

To build that cooperation, the new facility will have a high-tech flexibility not seen in other training centers.

A lot of the other training agencies or training venues around the nation, they're built very specifically to address one need.

We decided early on that we just couldn't do that.

We don't know what's going to happen in the future, and we don't know how it's going to happen so we've designed true flexibility within this entire building.

Right now it's just a cement foundation, but eventually it will house a village designed to look like a Las Vegas street, a controlled environment that can mimic almost every type of condition seen in the real world.

We can do large-scale events within this area or we can do smaller-scale events.

It's built so that we can break it out.

Individual squad training can just take up a house or we can do large-scale, area-wide events where we use the entire building, multi-jurisdictional, for whatever type of scenario that we need.

And it's not just police and firefighters who will use this facility.

Locher envisions a time when community-based classes will be held here as well.

When I say first responder, first responder is really the first person there.

A lot of these high-profile incidents, say the active shooter, the police are not the first responder.

The first responder is the custodian in a high school.

The first responder is the office worker who sees something happening.

The community-based part of the facility goes beyond who will train here.

The entire facility was paid for with community donations, not tax dollars.

The tragedy of the Route 91 shooting has been far-reaching.

Besides the 58 people who died that day, two other victims died from their wounds more recently.

Thousands are still dealing with injuries, both physical and emotional, they received that night.

Now, the County is working on a memorial for the victims and the survivors.

Joining us to talk about the memorial are Tennille Pereira, the chairwoman of the 1 October Memorial Committee; Jim Gibson, County Commissioner, and Robert Fielden, architect and commission member.

Well, thank you for joining us; we really appreciate it.

I want to start the conversation and talk a little bit about why this is important.

Commissioner Gibson, I want to start with you.

Why is it important to have a permanent and also a physical memorial for Route 91?

(Jim Gibson) Well, on all levels there was a pain that swept through this community as a result of what happened.

The day was a long day, and it seemed like a month.

Just every week, every-- excuse me, every hour was a week.

People were running around trying to figure out what they can do.

It was really interesting how many people reached out to us and said what can I do?

What can I do?

And they felt guilty because there was so much pain going on.

All of that was real and justifiable, and I think that validation can happen sometimes when we do something like a memorial.

It was real, it was justified, the people that are-- there are so many that continue to suffer.

It changed lives forever.

Just in thinking about being here today, it conjured up in my mind things I hadn't thought about for a long time and things I'd never thought about.

I think that happens to everyone.

So this is an especially important opportunity for us to do a little more healing, bring a little more peace to people who need it.

I think it shows an-- it gives us an opportunity to respect the different responses that people across this community gave.

-Yes, really important, and to your point, a memorial obviously allows us to reflect upon those moments that we might not think about in our day-to-day lives.

Tennille, I want to get your perspective too, and maybe you can give us a little more perspective being that not only are you the chairwoman of the committee, you're also the director of the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center as well, very, very important work there.

How does this help maybe with resilience and recovery in dealing with trauma?

(Tennille Pereira) So this process is actually very interesting.

The way the County has set this one up is really leading a process of community engagement, and that process in and of itself is healing.

It allows people to voice how they were impacted, voice how they're feeling, and to Commissioner Gibson's point, that's acknowledgment, it's validation, it's saying we hear, you know, the pain that you went through, and we're going to create this beautiful space where everyone can go and remember that day.

It's acknowledging, validating, and a way to voice how you were impacted.

-Let's talk more about that, Robert.

One of the things the committee has done and done such a good job of is reach out to the community, ask for that engagement, that perspective through surveys and focus groups.

Phenomenal response on some of these, over 6,000 respondents, and then if you look through the comments here, it does read almost like a narrative of every single perspective throughout Southern Nevada and out of state of people that were touched by this in so many different ways.

Reflect upon that for a second.

(Robert Fielden) Well, you know, you're absolutely correct, and when we think about this, our primary goal is to establish this memorial for those who lost their lives, and that is sadness in all of our hearts and it brings sadness in all of our hearts.

But there were also so many heroes that evening that this is a memorial to them as well.

My son is a physician.

He was called in to work the night of the event, and his stories about everything that doctors and nurses and ambulance drivers and police officers that were bringing people to the hospitals is just remarkable, and what work they were able to do and perform in saving so many more lives that evening.

-Yes, really, really important.

Commissioner, I want to come to you.

We've talked about this on the show before, and it's already been talked about here.

This impacted so many people in so many different ways.

Being that we are a tourist hub, so many people were touched upon it.

What is your hope?

What would you like to see the memorial present there and represent that community?

-Well, I think there are a couple of things.

I think that we do well for ourselves, even in the context of tourism, if we are able to really demonstrate we're a community.

The folks who live here need to feel part of a community, and we've grown so fast.

I've loved and known my neighbors for years and years, and I've felt their love and interest in my family and me, but we've grown so fast that we've lost a lot of that just simply because of the growth.

So on the tourism side, I believe it's still important for the rest of the world to understand that this is a real community.

Now, on the tourism side, we need for folks to understand that we take this seriously.

We really took it seriously, and what's interesting is I know people who didn't have a family member or a friend who was involved, but they just watched television and then called and were so concerned about what was happening.

It touched all of our lives.

It was an unthinkable act by a deranged person that caught people's attention, and I think another thing the whole memorial experience will do is lead us to a place where people can see we took it seriously, and this community, it welcomes all people and we're here for you when you come here.

You're going to have the best experience you ever had.

So I think there's so many levels.

It's hard to imagine all of them.

-Yes, absolutely.

We're going to talk a little bit more about the community engagement aspect and then some of the results of the surveys you've done and what the public has been giving as far as recommendations go.

But community engagement is so important to this, and within hours of the shooting, makeshift memorials popped up.

One was at the festival grounds, and there was another just down the road at the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign on Las Vegas Boulevard.

People left candles and trinkets and notes containing messages of love and hope and of healing.

The Clark County Museum has collected and catalogued those items, and the Nevada Week team checked out that collection.

On October 1, 2017, tragedy struck in Las Vegas and almost immediately makeshift memorials began forming across the valley.

(Cynthia Sanford) The one that became the largest was at the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.

It was built around 58 white wooden crosses that were left there as a memorial to each of the victims of the shooting.

People left items on the crosses or just around the general area there.

What we heard from a lot of people was it was their way of showing that they cared and being part of the community and, you know, all of us healing together.

A lot of people were grateful that we were preserving it, that feeling of community, that we were going through this together.

Two weeks after the shooting, the Public Works Department began transporting items from the memorial site to the Clark County Museum for safekeeping.

The museum accepted the Remembering 1 October Collection as an effort to show how we mourned after our tragic mass shooting and how the community came together.

Over time the museum collected 22,000 items, including everything from flowers and beads to cards with personal, heartfelt messages like this one: "Although we never knew you, "we will never forget you.

"10.1.17 made us family forever.

"Love, Linda, Selena, Ashley and Cindy."

So what I have here is I have one of the crosses and all the items that were left on that cross.

Overall on average, there were about 200 items left with each cross.

Each item was carefully catalogued by museum staff and volunteers.

Some have gone into displays over the past few years.

Many of the objects are now in storage.

The sort of push and pull of any museum and any museum collection is providing access to the material without damaging it.

So we're trying to walk that line between providing access to people and allowing the objects to be as safe as we can make them.

The Clark County Museum currently has a few items from the collection on display.

These objects will be rotated out once a year, and the rest of the collection will soon find a spacious new home on the museum property.

So this is our new storage building.

It's not quite complete yet but when it is, we'll be moving a lot of stuff here including the 1 October collection.

That way it will finally be here all at once together in one place.

The public is welcome to view objects from the Remembering October 1 Collection at the Clark County Museum by appointment.

Items are also viewable on their website.

For Nevada Week, I'm Heather Caputo.

-Thank you, Heather.

I mean, it's emotional.

It's emotional watching that.

I mean, the care that goes into the curation and the collection of these things, and we should mention the gentleman that made those crosses, Greg Zanis, unfortunately passed away; sadly passed away last year.

But let's talk-- I mean, this is what we're talking about, right?

I mean, this level of engagement we've seen all the way through.

Now let's get to some of the public comments on the survey.

What have you been able to uncover?

What is the public saying is really important that this memorial needs to focus on and needs to have, Tennille?

-So first and foremost, those that were lost that night, the 58, they want them memorialized and there's a number of different ways that could be done so we really had to do a couple surveys as well as focus groups to kind of dig into that a little bit deeper.

What we're hearing is they want to know who they were, right, some personal identifying information so it's not just a name or a picture.

They want to get to know them.

-Really important.

The items themselves, of course we've seen the amount.

The depth and breadth here, Robert, we can't have everything that's going to be shown, but do we think and is the public kind of reflecting upon maybe we are going to have some of the collections here, these items might be part of the memorial?

-Yes, and part of our work that we're just beginning to undertake, since we've gone through this analysis part, we're starting to put together the puzzle to make sure the puzzle fits and it works properly.

And part of that is the breadth of what this memorial undertakes in terms of programs and services and outreach and the way we go about doing that so that not only do we maintain community education from the results, or as a product of this, but also that we provide a basis for ongoing research into all of these areas that future academics will have in terms of interest in memorials and these kinds of events.

-So educational aspects are going to be part of the memorial as well.

-Yes.

-I wanted to ask you too; let's not take off the table you are an architect, and let's talk about the design of something like this, and let's remember this is going to be more than likely in the hub of one of the biggest tourist places in the world.

I'm saying that just because of flow of people and parking and logistics like that.

How much do those come into the design at this stage?

-Well, they do, but there are other aspects of this as well that we're going to be looking at and considering, and that is can all of these things function on this two-acre parcel and provide the kind of setting that's necessary for us to have this place of solitude and solemnity for those that lost their lives, or do we create a series of public-private partnerships where we can share in these things?

For example, the Clark County Museum is working with us; Parks and Recreation, I'm certain they can have opportunities to work with us and other agencies within the County so that we can ensure that every aspect of what we want to present is going to be accomplished and then use the site as the kind of central focus point for things that are happening through the memorial and its artistry.

Part of this is ongoing activities and events and, you know, there's ways to which we have to find to keep this alive over the number of years and decades into the future.

-Yes, so it's not only the site that we need to be talking about here.

It's a much larger and more global look at this.

Really, really important.

We should mention too, Commissioner Gibson, that we do have land that is donated.

It is part of the Route 91 Festival property that has been donated, those two acres that Robert mentioned, which brings me to this question.

We've already talked about it a little bit, but this is one of the biggest tourist hubs in the world where this is, and then of course the question is you have tourists that are there reflecting upon a memorial where the reminder is this could potentially happen again, and you might have some of the tourist industry not wanting something like this in this hub.

How do you balance both?

-I think it's important that we balance it.

The location is something that is responding to what the community is asking for, and I don't think you can distinguish between the community and these companies that operate in that industry.

We're all together.

The feeling I have had, I think the feeling that I've had reflected to me from members of the committee is the entire community is together on this, and they understand well the issues that are tourism issues.

The focus of this memorial is not going to be-- it's going to be completely away from the devilish act that was committed.

That isn't what we're going to memorialize.

We're going to remember people.

We're going to do what we can to find a thread of experience in everyone who experienced something and reflect it there.

So I think that it is-- and the positioning of it actually is very nice I think.

It is not right on-- excuse me-- the Boulevard.

We're not going to hear-- hopefully we're not going to hear honking cars and, you know, hundreds of people.

We're all about lots of conversation and movement and mobility along Las Vegas Boulevard, and that will remain the case.

This is just removed.

It's on the northeast corner of that property.

So our our hope and expectation is the site will be perfect because it is on a piece of the festival grounds.

There were people who started within weeks after the event, demanding that site be dedicated in that way, and we all need to be respectful of the decision-making process.

Everyone engaged in that process was affected personally too.

This is going to be a marvelous opportunity for us to focus the way we need to focus so we can help people remember, honor and heal.

-If I could... -Go ahead, please.

-If I could add to that, you know, it's important to look at what we've heard through the focus groups and the surveys.

People don't want this to focus on the horrific act, right?

It'll be stated as a fact because that's what happened, but they want it to be partly a celebration of what we saw throughout the community in the hours and days and months and now years after.

Amazing acts of love and kindness brought us all together to rally around those that were impacted.

The other thing that we heard from survivors that were there that night is they don't want it lost or forgotten what they were there doing that night before that act.

They were there celebrating life, enjoying life, living, you know, life to its fullest, and they don't want that lost.

So this isn't going to be about the act.

It's going to be about life and what happened after that act.

-What a great point, what a great reflection.

That's something we can lose sight of so easily, what people were there initially to do.

Robert, you had something.

-Well, I was just going to add not only to Tennille's but also to Jim's comments about location.

The fact is it's in close proximity to the existing church that serves the Strip, so I think it's in a setting and a location, as Jim says, that's important and valuable to what we want to be able to convey to the public because, you know, as nasty and terrible and horrific as the event was here, it's happened in other places, so I think if we can find a way to partner with those in any sense that have experienced those same kinds of horrific events in their own communities that it will help strengthen the country but also broadcast to the world that these are issues that we're working diligently to overcome.

-An unfortunate reality.

There's so many other municipalities, counties that are dealing with this too and establishing their own memorials.

I want to ask you that too.

I was reading through some of the minutes of the committee meetings, and I know one of the things that each committee member has done is gone and looked at what other municipalities, other cities and locations have done.

What have you drawn from that?

Are there some kind of key best practices here that you're bringing to the table?

-Well, the biggest thing that I've drawn from it is that this process is really important, that we cannot rush this process, and we want to make sure we get it right.

Some of those memorials have had a lot of controversy because they weren't necessarily engaging the public at the same level we are, and they would rush things or they weren't really looking at the financial side of things along the way also.

So we're gathering all of these lessons learned and really trying to incorporate them into our process.

So I think a lot of things we're getting right because of those lessons.

-And let's talk about then moving forward, and I want to start right with that, public engagement.

How can the public engage in this process?

It's not over by any means right now.

We're still kind of in that initial phase, and as you said, this is going to be a long process.

How can you engage in what's going on right now?

-We're having monthly meetings, and they're open meetings.

Please come and make your comments.

We are listening.

You know, I think sometimes people get a sense of separation from committees, and are they listening?

I'll tell you, we are listening.

Send us emails.

We read them every month.

And then as this develops, there's going to be opportunities for more public engagement with the creative side of things because we are starting that process now where we're going to be engaging our arts world and looking for a team to eventually give a proposal of, you know, a design.

So it's actually a great time to jump in and start engaging with the committee.

-Well, I'd like to thank our guests Tennille Pereira, chairwoman of the memorial committee; County Commissioner Jim Gibson, and Robert Fielden from UNLV.

And thank you, as always, for joining us this week on Nevada Week.

Now, for any of the resources discussed on the show, please visit our website at vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

You can also always follow us on social media at Facebook and Twitter at @nevadaweek.

Thanks again, and we'll see you next week.

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