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OPD Bill Signed Into Law

OPD Bill Signed Into Law
By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Published June 10, 2009

One of the many bills signed into law by Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons earlier this month made a significant change to the Board of Directors for the Overton Power District #5. The bill, SB 124, will add two new seats to the OPD board making it a seven, rather than a five, member board.

The bill was unanimously approved through the State Senate on April 15 and the State Assembly on May 20. Gibbons signed it into law on Monday, June 1.

The idea of the bill was originally brought by the City of Mesquite in an effort to reconcile the OPD board with a general shift in population that has taken place in the district.

When OPD was created by state law in 1935, it was formed with five board members. This allowed one member to be elected from each of the five original communities in the district: Bunkerville, Logandale, Mesquite, Moapa and Overton. Those districts are still in use today.

But since that time, the distribution of population has shifted. Census documents indicate that the population of the city of Mesquite is approaching 20,000 people. By some counts that is nearly twice the population living in all the rest of the OPD combined.

The new law will address this by adding the two new seats to the board. The first new seat will represent a newly-formed district in the City of Mesquite. The second seat will be elected at-large by all of the residents of the districts across all five communities. The five existing seats on the board will remain as is.

“This is a well balanced piece of legislation,” said OPD General Manager Delmar Leatham. “It isn’t everything that the City (of Mesquite) wanted and it isn’t everything that the OPD board wanted. But in the end, I think it strikes a good middle ground.”

An election for the two new seats will be held in the next general election in November 2010. The seven member board will then begin operating in the term beginning 2011.

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