By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Clark County Code Enforcement officers are going to work with property owners in Moapa to target certain areas of dead vegetation and clear them of fire hazards, according to a report given to the Moapa Town Advisory Board in a meeting on Tuesday, August 9.

For the past year, since the Warm Springs Fire, residents in Moapa have petitioned the Town Board to address fire hazards on private property in Warm Springs and other areas of the community. The Town Board sent letters to targeted property owners asking them to clear their properties of hazards or else be reported to County Code Enforcement. Those not responding were reported.

In response, Code Enforcement Officer Michelle Taylor reported her findings to the Town Board at last week’s meeting.

But Taylor cited many of the incidents as situations where little could be done. She explained that the county code only specified dead vegetation or non-native plants as violations. Many of the instances in question involved live green indigenous vegetation that had been allowed to grow thick in the areas, Taylor said.

Clearing out many of the areas in question would also create a serious dust control issue because of the vast territory in question, Taylor said.

“If I require a property owner to completely clear out an area they would need a water truck on hand to control the dust,” Taylor said. “That would be required by the Air Quality Dept. It would start to get extremely expensive for the homeowners. I’m worried that what you would end up with is a big dust bowl in the area.”

Taylor also said that there were also regulations regarding wildlife in the area. “There are a lot of animals that reside inside the thick brush,” she said. “In the case of migratory birds, there are rules in place that we couldn’t disturb the area until after a certain time in the fall.”

Rather than requiring people to remove all the vegetation at once, Taylor proposed that Code Enforcement work with individual owners, focusing on areas that were of greatest concern.

“We will work with the owners on clearing up a couple of spots at a time,” Taylor said.

She said that the focus would be on removing dead vegetation first. Also clearing blocked drive aisles and areas immediately bordering on adjacent properties.

“You know that you can get a lot more from people if you do it nicely this way than just come in and force them to clean it up all at once,” said Clark County Community Liaison Janice Ridondo from Commissioner Tom Collins office. “We will get better results that way.”