MVTAB To Discuss Roads Paving List At Oct. 11 Meeting

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) will be doing its annual review of its road paving and maintenance list at an upcoming meeting on October 11, 2017. The board is seeking input from interested local residents on which roads in town should be added to the list.

Though the roads paving list is reviewed, prioritized and sent to the County Commission at every year, there will be one major difference this year. The list is going to actually see some significant changes.
The road paving projects are funded by the community’s allotment of the state gas tax. Thus, each year the community accrues funding for paving and road improvement projects.

But in past years those funds have been slow in being released. Very few, if any, paving projects on the list have been cleared for completion. Thus, without completions, the MVTAB usually sends the annual list back to the commissioners unchanged.
But this year has seen some progress. Over the past eight months, the Moapa Valley communities have seen a flurry of paving projects done.

The lower valley communities of Overton and Logandale have seen five paving projects completed. Rice Road in Logandale was paved between Brothers Ave and Wittwer Ave. A small segment of Wittwer Ave near the high school was paved between Yamashita and Ash Street. In addition, St. Joseph Street was paved between Cram and Bunnell. In Overton, Lewis Ave. was paved, as well as Deer Street north of Lewis.

Finally, a major paving project was completed in Moapa when Henrie Road at last received attention. This important street also received a new bicycle/pedestrian trail.
County staffer Janice Ridondo credits the completion of all of these paving projects to a combination of two different elements.

First of these is the hard work and advocacy of County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick for the community, Ridondo said. “The Commissioner works very hard pulling for Moapa Valley,” Ridondo said. “And she has gotten a lot accomplished.”

The second element is good timing in going out to bid for the paving jobs, Ridondo said. The county was able to stretch the gas tax dollars further because the bids came in well under what was expected.
“We started with thinking that we might get done with just three roads on the list,” Ridondo said. “But the bids were low enough that we were able to add others.”

Having five items completed means that there is room for new projects to be considered. The MVTAB is encouraging residents to prepare to attend the October 11 meeting and give input on what those should be, and why.
“This will be people’s chance to come in and talk about their ideas for road projects, and why they might want their roads paved,” Ridondo said.

Ridondo added that, with limited gas tax funding in the local account, the priority items would have to be selected carefully.
“There will be plenty of criteria that have to be considered including connectivity to other roads, school bus routes, how many homes that the road services and how much travel occurs on the roads,” Ridondo said. “But this will be the time for the community to talk about it.”

Another factor up for discussion on October 11 will be the county road maintenance list. Having the five roads paved this year has created some empty slots on the county maintenance schedule as well. Thus, roads that are not currently being maintained by the county might have a chance of making that list, Ridondo said.
“Again, there are a lot of criteria to be included on the maintenance list,” Ridondo said. “But if people have an idea of a road that should be included, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to bring it up to the MVTAB and have it considered.”

The MVTAB roads paving list will be discussed on Wednesday, October 11 in a meeting beginning at 7 pm in the Overton Community Center.