By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Groups of residents in both the Moapa Valley and Moapa townships have been focusing their efforts in recent years upon establishing trails in their communities; both for pedestrian/cycling use and for ATV uses. The focus in the lower valley has been on making the Logandale/Overton community an “ATV-friendly” community. In Moapa, on the other hand, residents have voiced a demand for walking/biking trails that would connect the various focal points of the community together.
In both communities, the staff in Commissioner Tom Collins’ office has taken on the challenge of getting projects started. Collins’ staffer Janice Ridondo has listened to the wishes from both communities and has then set up meetings with county and state officials to discuss how to get started on the long process of bringing these ideas to fruition. In the process of these meetings, the communities have at least been able to forge a plan to move forward.
“Of course, we’d all like to see these things happen in the next few months,” Ridondo said in a recent interview with the Progress. “But the fact is that these things can take years to come about. Nevertheless, we have to get started somewhere and take the first step. If you don’t take that first step to start discussing things, it is sure to never happen.”
An ATV Friendly Community
About two years ago, the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) appointed a sub-committee tasked with finding ways to make the commercial areas of the community legally accessible to operators of Off-Highway Vehicles who may be travelling or exploring the desert areas surrounding the community.
The idea was to encourage tourism visitation to the community by facilitating ATV use in and out of the community. Once some of the restrictions on ATVs had been loosened, the community could be promoted throughout the southwest as an ATV-friendly place.
“We originally were hoping to designate certain areas where ATVs could cross and travel along the state highway,” said Elise McAllister, one of the people appointed to the subcommittee. “We just wanted to make it easier and legal for people to come in off of the Logandale Trails, or from the Mormon Mesa, and be able to get to the Northshore Inn or to the downtown shops and restaurants while riding their ATVs.”
McAllister explained that the committee did not expect to have the entire highway designated for ATV use. But they were looking for smaller segments involving commercial areas: from Whipple to Liston in Logandale, for example; or from Whitmore Street to Lewis Street in downtown Overton.
“It turned out to be a rather complex process,” McAllister said. “We spent some time going back and forth trying to find the right person to talk to and getting someone to listen to us.”
At the end of last summer, Ridondo got involved in the project. She suggested that she organize a meeting with a representative of Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), members of the subcommittee and local Metro Police officers to drive the routes, discuss what the community wanted and try to find a path forward.
Ridondo said that she had been encouraged by newly passed language in the state law which dealt with procuring OHV access on state highways for the purpose of encouraging economic development; especially in rural areas. She points out that the law states that such requests from communities should be dealt with in a timely manner to quickly facilitate the requests. The NRS states that NDOT “…must not unreasonable deny the request.”
“The community’s wishes on this seemed fairly reasonable and well thought-out,” Ridondo said. “So I was optimistic about it.”
Several weeks later, the meeting took place. Ridondo and other members of the community hosted a tour for a southern Nevada NDOT representative.
“We showed her around and gave her some details of what the community wanted to do,” Ridondo said. “At that time, she sounded very positive and willing to work with us.”
But in the weeks after the tour, things became more complicated. To designate segments of the highway as ATV accessible, NDOT required an Encroachment Permit to be filed. Ridondo requested that the paperwork for the permit be sent to her office. She was amazed to find a lengthy document which required detailed engineering to be done in order to complete it.
“It was, I kid you not, an 800 page document!” Ridondo said.
“Not something that a small community would be able to do. I guess that is how they facilitate things at NDOT. At that point I was done dealing with them. Since then I have called them DONT instead of NDOT; I think that is more appropriate.”
But Ridondo was far from being done with the project. She decided to begin taking a different approach. She noted that the state law also includes a provision that it is lawful for ATVs to cross perpendicular to the state highway from one side to another.
“According to the law, the community doesn’t need any special permission or encroachment permits for ATVs to just cross over the highway. You can’t drive alongside the highway in the right of way at all, but you can cross it and then continue on from there. So I decided that we would just do it without NDOT.”
Ridondo is currently working with county staff to draft language for a new ordinance which would make all of the county maintained roads in the community legal for ATV use. Under this proposed ordinance, people could drive ATVs wherever they want on county roads or rights of way; as long as they are following the rules of the road. Then when they came to the state highway, they could simply cross it and continue on to reach their destination.
“It may not be as convenient for people to get to where they want to go,” Ridondo said. “It might not be the most direct route. But they can get pretty much anywhere they want to go in town that way.”
Ridondo said that she expects to have the language for the ordinance drafted within the next few months. At that point, it can be taken before the County Commission for approval.
Walk/Bike Trails For Moapa
The residents of Moapa face an entirely different challenge in their trail proposal. In Moapa there is currently no place for residents to walk or ride bikes that does not involve use of the narrow roadways. This has recently brought up safety concerns from the community. Children walking from neighborhoods to school and people wishing to ride bicycles or walk with baby strollers must venture out into the dangerous roadway to do this.
Last fall, the Moapa Town Advisory Board formed a subcommittee to work on this problem. The committee was tasked with creating an informal plan giving an overview of where trails should be provided in the communities. The first item on the wish list that resulted was a trail alongside Henrie Road running north from State Highway 168. In addition the committee identified a need for a trail along the state highway south to access the Glendale area. Thirdly, the group expressed a desire for a longer trail connecting the central residential areas of Moapa to the Warm Springs area.
On this project, Ridondo also organized a tour of the community that would bring together county and state officials as well as elected officials who might be able to help in procuring funding for the plans. That tour took place on June 4 last month.
As a result of the tour, Clark County Public Works Director Dennis Cedarburg pledged some grant funding to get an initial start on the project, Ridondo said. This would allow work to be done to re-align Henrie Road for a 10 foot wide trail to eventually be built on the east side of Henrie Road from the State Highway up as far as Isola Road.
Ridondo projected that the realignment might be completed within the next 18 months. She explained that there was a detailed process that must be followed. This includes requesting comment from public utilities in the area as well as from the Clark County School District.
“There was some concern that CCSD may not be in full support of the trail,” Ridondo said. “They may have safety and liability issues with any increase in traffic near the school grounds. Of course a project like this would be a big help for the safety of the kids coming to the school from those neighborhoods along Henrie Road. So hopefully they will look at the big picture on it.”
In addition, the group discussed the more distant future plans for trails in Moapa. They talked about the possibility of a trail route from the end of Isola Road running to the west across the desert and eventually connecting back to the State Highway where it would then access the Warm Springs area.
“We wanted to at least address the Warm Springs route and get it in the thought process early on,” Ridondo said. “That seems to be where everyone in the community wants the trails to eventually access.”
Ridondo emphasized that the Moapa project was a long-term effort and may take years to complete.
“But at least we are getting a start on it,” Ridondo said. “It is the beginning of something that is very badly needed in that community. So it is worth starting down that path.”
