The upcoming completion of the Cooper Street Bridge in Overton should be a cause of celebration in the Moapa Valley community. This impressive structure which now spans the river channel at the Cooper Crossing has been a long time coming.
It is a well built project, constructed with some of the most vital needs of the community in mind. The staffers at Clark County Public Works and Regional Flood Control; as well as our County Commissioner Tom Collins; deserve congratulations for getting the project funded and completed.
Equally deserving of praise is the contractor, Meadow Valley Construction, which has faced overwhelming hurdles throughout the course of this project. Because of last year’s flooding the company lost a considerable amount of money in the process of construction, yet they have still seen it through to completion for the community, taking pride in the quality of their work. Meadow Valley’s role on this project; along with the countless little unseen and unheralded community-sensitive extras which they have provided along the way; has been exemplary!
There are some that will point out that the Cooper Bridge, as grand as it is, falls far short of what the community needs in flood control. Indeed, despite its $13 million price tag, this one project does not address the majority of issues that have plagued the Moapa Valley.
For example, it does nothing for the folks a mile downstream who have been looking down the barrel of a gun for decades now, every time it rains. Sadly, the new bridge will give these residents no comfort. In fact, some down there believe that the new river improvement may even exacerbate their neighborhood’s problems.
The bridge also won’t help the people just upstream, in the area below the Yamashita crossing. There the flood water has repeatedly breached the channel and spread out in a rapid flow over fields and yards leaving damage and destruction in its wake.
Neither does the new bridge address the concerns of more distant Logandale residents who live in a newly-created flood zone, designated just a few years ago by FEMA after an inspection of an earthen dike in the area revealed it to be inadequate.
Likewise, the new bridge doesn’t offer any help to the fairgrounds, Bowler Elementary and the downstream neighborhoods that seem to frequently become inundated with flood water coming from the northeast bench of the valley.
Finally, the persistent flood problems in the upper Muddy community; along the Henrie Road neighborhoods of Moapa, in the Warm Springs area and at the Moapa Band of Paiutes tribal village; are, of course, far outside the scope of receiving any help from the far away Cooper Street structure.
Let’s face it, this community has many, many flood control issues that are still out there. These are major problems in their own right. But the Cooper Bridge was never expected to address all of them. It is just one component part in a much larger county flood control plan. And it was chosen to be completed now, above all others, simply because there was sufficient funding available, and property acquired, to do that piece. It is meant to provide benefit to the stringtown neighborhood which has had a long, storied history of flooding. And, in the last flood, it seemed to have done its job there.
In the end, the new bridge is just one step in a long road; albeit a step in the right direction. And after so many years of standing still at the back of the line in regards to flood control, this community should see any step forward as a cause to celebrate.
Of course, there is always a price to be paid for progress. And paying the price can be hard. In this case it is heartbreaking to look at this new urban-style landscape of forbidding chain-link fence and drab concrete surface, and remember the natural, inviting, rural beauty that this bend of the river once offered. Recognizing that Cooper Street is a different spot on the river, with unique engineering challenges; it’s still hard not to wish that this area might have had similar treatment as the river channel beneath the Gubler Street Bridge. There the placement of gabion baskets instead of concrete are allowing a gradual return to a natural re-growth of the river channel. A similar arrangement would have been welcome at Cooper Street. But that is all over and done now — water under the bridge, as it were.
However, as there are so many more river channel projects in the queue for this community, we hope that the natural value of that unique community resource; our one-of-a-kind Muddy River channel; will be appreciated and upheld in future projects. We hope that this scenic river, such a vital and valued amenity to our community, won’t be destroyed forever by future flood control projects. We hope that the long-held traditional public access to this remarkable community resource will be maintained, developed and encouraged in the planning of future projects along the river channel.
We urge that a healthy balance might be struck between meeting the inevitable needs of progress and preserving and accessing this rare, precious green belt which is truly the life force of the Moapa Valley.
May we never live to see this cherished community prize transformed, top to bottom, into an urban concrete channel; or held captive from us behind a padlocked chain-link gate.
