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March 29, 2024 8:00 am
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LETTER: Pig In A Poke

As the new Senior Center was coming to completion a Moapa Valley group wanted to obtain the old Senior Center for a youth rec. center. When this failed articles and talk about town prompted me to write an article that was printed in the Feb. 24, 2010 issue of the Moapa Valley Progress. This article was a satire to ridicule those who felt the youth then had so little as compared to unknown who and when.

In the years from then to now those and/or others have changed the need from an old structure which could neither house a gym or an indoor pool to something of grandeur.
It is nice to have a champagne appetite on a pine float budget if financed by others. Just ask Bernie Madoff!

The recent Progress article on the new concept and the need to rush into it (Committee Formed to Look Into New M.V. Rec. Center Tax: Progress, March 16, 2016)) has the earmarks of the “Obama Healthcare Act”: pass it before you read it, pass it before the people will know how it will affect them, and enact it before the machinery is in place to handle it.
The roughshod action has the pungent, acrid fragrance only a rose would welcome and was the summer trademark of the Moapa Valley during the dairy era!

The only fact given was the estimated cost of the structure ($35 million). What was not given: The cost of land, equipment, maintenance, operation and staffing and how this would affect the property tax increase and it’s length of duration. But we could have another empty and idle building.

There was nothing presented on what services would be offered, to whom and if it would bridge all age groups.
The estimated cost of the structure was based on the Mesquite Rec. Center; however, there was no comparison of the Mesquite property tax base and Mesquite population base to that of Moapa Valley. There was no projected use based on the Mesquite rec. center membership to the Mesquite population base to that of Moapa Valley. If an estimated membership for a MV rec. center is unknown how can anyone (voters) determine if a Moapa Valley rec. center should be funded and constructed?

It is not the time for the people (voters) to put up or shut up as a MVTAB member stated, but a time to wake up. It is the time to demand a complete and comprehensive study covering the pros and cons, alternatives, and a total package of costs, services and a projected use.

A complete and total package should be presented to the people (voters) before anything is put forth on a ballot. For voters to act on anything less and place a burden and commitment on others is not only foolish and unwise but just plain stupid!
I could be wrong now but I don’t think so!

Dr. Philip A. Long

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