By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
New banners were posted on light poles up and down Moapa Valley Blvd. in Logandale and Overton last week as part of an initiative to welcome visitors to the community. The initiative was carried out by the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“We wanted to illustrate to visitors just what all there is to do in and around our community,” said Chamber President Marjorie Holland. “There is just so many attractions and events that people can enjoy, all while using Moapa Valley as their home base. That is what we were going for.”
There are a total of 100 new banners with eight different styles, each one depicting a different Moapa Valley attraction. Wildlife is featured in one style with a photos of a big horn sheep. Major local events such as the Clark County Fair are also depicted. In addition, ATV and dirt bike riding at Logandale Trails and other areas is shown in a banner style. Others attractions include Valley of Fire, Lake Mead, and even the new skydiving tour operation at Perkins Field Airport in Overton.
To help fund the banners, the Chamber wrote a marketing grant through the Nevada Commission on Tourism. The portion of the grant devoted to the banners totalled $4,500, according to Chamber board member MaryKaye Washburn who did much of the work applying for the grant.
“The idea was to put some color in our main community thoroughfare including the downtown area,” Washburn said. “We have been trying to make things more eye-catching and appealing to visitors in the valley.”
Washburn said that the banner grant was done to coordinate with another effort in which she is involved. The Moapa Valley Revitalization Project (MVRP), of which Washburn is a founding member, received a grant to install street benches and shade structures along Moapa Valley Blvd in the downtown Overton area. That project is nearing completion, Washburn said.
“We are still working on getting permits from Department of Transportation,” Washburn said. “That shouldn’t be too much longer. We are hoping to get them installed in the next 2-3 weeks.”
Holland said that she is excited to see the banners in place over Moapa Valley’s main highway. As of last week, she said that only a portion of the new banners had been installed. But the rest were expected to be up soon.
Holland expressed appreciation to Moapa Valley Telephone Company (MVT) for devoting staff work hours to installing the banners for the community. She explained that for many years, MVT has been putting the banners up for the Chamber, and the Overton Power District has been taking them down to be replaced by holiday banners during the holiday season.
The Chamber plans to install the new banners on alternating street poles, allowing the holiday banners to be posted in between the permanent banners. This will require less efforts in changing them out each year, Holland said.
“We want to recognize MVT and the OPD for their willingness to do that work for us,” Holland said. “We know that it takes considerable man hours to get that done, and they have been very generous to the community over the years.”
