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March 28, 2024 1:42 pm
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Kirkpatrick Highlights Flood Control Issues At Cleanup

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick (2nd from right) takes a moment from picking up trash to speak with residents of the area about flood control issues during a Clean Up Project on Saturday near the Lewis Ave. crossing of the Muddy River. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress.
County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick (2nd from right) takes a moment from picking up trash to speak with residents of the area about flood control issues during a Clean Up Project on Saturday near the Lewis Ave. crossing of the Muddy River. PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress.

A crowd of local volunteers gathered along the Muddy River channel on Saturday morning near Lewis Avenue in Overton to do a trash cleanup of the area. About 40 people attended the project which was organized by County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick in coordination with the Partners in Conservation organization.

Kirkpatrick showed up to the project early and immediately set out, trash bags in hand, to pick up trash along the roadway.
Kirkpatrick said that she had planned to have County Public Works equipment operators in the area for the project, to clear out some of the thick vegetation. But on Friday, Public Works officials had told her that heavy equipment in the area at this point was not possible because it would interrupt the nesting of migratory birds in the area.
“The good thing about doing this clean up, is that we have gotten the Public Works Department’s attention now,” Kirkpatrick said. “We told them what we were doing and we show photographs to them of this area to highlight how overgrown it has become. They had no idea it was like this, because they don’t ever get out of ther cubicles to see what is going on.”

Once the migratory bird period ends, Public Works officials committed to a new schedule of maintenance for the area, Kirkpatrick said. That would include cleaning out the river banks twice per year and continuing to keep the roads through the area maintained.
“We want to get it to the point where we are being proactive with this problem, rather than reactive,” Kirkpatrick said.
Throughout the morning, volunteers spread out along the riverbank, scrambling over, under and into the dense brush on either side of the road. They collected a dumpster full of large trash items that had floated down the river in past flooding events and had been lodged there amidst the brush.

“All this thick brush is a lot of the flood problem,” said Jeff Visoky who lives in the neighborhood on Lamar Street. “It has been allowed to grow up down here and it really just blocks off the flow of the water. So the flood spreads out from there. It just can’t contain that much water so the thing ends up a half mile wide when the flood goes through.”

Jim and Melanie Vallet, who live nearby on Alma Street, had irrigation boots on and were wading down amongst the overgrown stream to pick up trash items. When they moved to the neighborhood more than a decade ago, the river banks were not so overgrown, they said. That’s because property owners could come down with equipment and clear the area out.
“Nowadays, they aren’t allowed to do that, even if they wanted to do it,” said Melanie Vallet. “There is always some sensitive bird species nesting somewhere. If it is not a bird it is a dace; and if it is not that it is something else. Meanwhile we are under water everytime it floods down here because the water has no place to go.”

The Vallets yard and home has been flooded several times over the past decade. They have asked the county staff for help over the years and have felt like they have gotten nowhere. But lately they feel like there might be hope that their long-expressed concerns might be heard. They have found an attentive listening ear in Commissioner Kirkpatrick, they said.
“She has been tremendous,” Jim Vallet said of Kirkpatrick. “I never got a single response to phone calls, letters and emails about this for years. But she has responded right away and opened up the communication. Even if nothing has happened so far, at least she it trying. She didn’t have to come out here today and do this. But at least someone is doing something.”
“Yeah, finally somebody cares and is listening,” said Melanie Vallet. “What a novel combination!”
Kirkpatrick said that she had been working hard to bring some additional on-the-ground awareness of the Muddy River issues to the engineers and staff who most need it.

“We have been out here a lot with Flood Control District folks,” Kirkpatrick said. “We have made them get out of their offices, put their boots on and take a first-hand look at things. So they have gained a different perspective on it.”
She pointed out that Flood Control District officials are on the agenda of the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board meeting on Wednesday night, March 9, to present a draft of the 2016 Flood Control Master Plan update for the Muddy River.
Kirkpatrick said that she had urged Flood Control staffers to discuss some specific and immediate objectives that would bring noticeable results to residents of the area that have waited so long for progress on these issues.

The MVTAB meeting will be held tonight (Wednesday, March 9) at 7:00 pm in the Overton Community Center. Members of the community are welcome to attend, view the presentation of the new Master Plan update and give input.

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