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March 29, 2024 6:34 am
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EDITORIAL

Three ‘Big Wins’ For Moapa Valley


Last week was a banner week for the Moapa Valley! Local residents experienced a series of ‘big wins’ on three issues of tremendous community importance. These three triumphs, though unrelated to each other, had been simultaneously simmering for several years. All three of them, at one point or another, had threatened to boil over and be spoiled. But all three issues dealt with things that were desparately important for our future well-being. All three represent a tremendous amount of work by local leaders in catching the attention of mammoth county organizations and in getting these organizations to cater their complex operations to fit the unique needs of rural Moapa Valley. And it is, perhaps, by remarkable coincidence that all three of these things came to beautiful fruition last week.

The first ‘big win’ took place on Tuesday, May 6, when the County Commission approved a plan for universal sewer rates throughout the Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD) customer base. This action made updates to the Overton sewage treatment facility and its expansion throughout the lower valley a financial possibility. It will ensure a high standard for clean water in this community. It will also provide the infrastructure for future growth without the necessity for package sewage treatment plants being scattered throughout the community. Kudos go to the county commissioners, CCWRD staff and the volunteer citizen advisory committee members for coming up with an innovative solution to a very complex and difficult problem.

The second big win for Moapa Valley residents was the announcement on Wednesday afternoon that the Moapa Valley High School had been selected to be an Empowerment School. This was a huge gain for education in the community. Local schools, already performing high in comparison to their peers, need only to be set free from CCSD bureaucracy and red tape to really begin to soar. The empowerment plan put together by MVHS principal Grant Hanevold and his twelve person empowerment team will not only bring to the high school a more focused effort on the goals of college preparation, but can also now set the standard and pave the way for all of the local schools to follow suit. We recognize the herculean efforts of the Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board and local school administrators in doggedly pressing their vision for local Empowerment on the CCSD leadership. We also applaud the CCSD brass for finally hearing and heeding these repeated local requests for local autonomy. It is good to know that someone up there is actually listening.

The third ‘big win’ was the approval of a Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) cooperative agreement with the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). This agreement cements a stronger alliance between the two agencies in providing for the future water needs of the Moapa Valley. It provides water enough to accomodate at least a decade of future growth and saves the local ratepayers millions of dollars in capital improvements for Muddy River surface water treatment. We celebrate the efforts of the MVWD Board members and staff who have been vigilant in seeing to the interests of their customers and their community. We also commend SNWA officials in their apparent willingness to looking out for the little guy even while they are seeing to the awesome responsibility of providing for water to the urban Las Vegas valley.

It is often easy to criticize the vast county bureaucracy for its inability to serve the unique needs of small rural communities like ours. But with these three ‘David and Goliath’ stories coming to a happy conclusion last week, we should give credit where credit is due.

It takes a huge amount of effort by local leaders to turn the great head of the cyclopean county machine our direction and to focus its eye on solving our particular rural needs. This feat is often so difficult that one wonders, along the way, whether it is worth the trouble. It is encouraging that, at least in these three cases, it was.

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