The past year has been a busy one for news events in the Moapa Valley communities. What follows is a brief recap of some of the major news highlights for the year 2018.
JANUARY:
Wesley’s Becomes Green Valley Grocery
In a sudden transformation, Wesley’s convenience store in Logandale was bought out by Green Valley Grocery, a regional corporate chain out of Las Vegas.
Green Valley Grocery took over the reigns at the store on January 10 and has been serving the local communities well ever since.
MVHS Quiz Wins First Title
The trivia masters of the Pirate Varsity Quiz team made it to the playoffs for the first time in school history. In the final championship round against Bishop Gorman, the Pirates fought to a close victory of 140-120.
It was a historic moment and the team was honored with a fire engine parade on its return into the valley.
Team members included Evan Conger, Gabrielle Shiozawa, Anson Call, Morgan Aikele, Gary Leavitt and Grady Call.
Eagle’s Landing gets underway
In January, Mesquite city leaders and other officials celebrated the beginning of construction for a major travel plaza at the I-15 exit 118. The $10 million project was anticipated as a great economic boon for the region.
The project continued construction throughout 2018. It reach completion and opened its doors for business on schedule in October.
The facility features an 18,000 sq ft building which houses a Flying J convenience store, Wendy’s restaurant, a liquor store, full truck-stop amenities and much more. A tire shop is also on site with more ancillary businesses expected to come.
FEBRUARY:
Parents battle CCSD board over transgender policy
Parents were outraged when the Clark County School District Board of Trustees tried to hurry a decision on a comprehensive gender diversity policy at a February meeting that could not accommodate the concerned public.
Scarcely a month before, the board had held a similar meeting on the same subject which had jam-packed a large school auditorium with people wishing to speak on the topic.
But the February 22 meeting was held in a 100-seat board room. The crowd filled that room to capacity, spilled out to fill an overflow area and more than 250 people were forced to stand outside in the parking lot, unable to get in.
Eventually, concerns over open meeting law violations delayed the agenda item to allow for a change of venue.
This chaotic event launched a series of board meetings where the public diligently showed up en masse to be heard. The overwhelming majority of comments in each of the meetings were from parents opposed to the new policy which they feared would violate the privacy rights of their mainstream children. A minority of comments, mainly from members of activist LGBTQ groups, were in favor of the policy.
It was not until June that the CCSD Board finally voted to approve the transgender policy. This was done with a split 4-3 vote of the board, over the opposition of a clear majority of parents.
MARCH:
“Every 15 Minutes” held for MVHS students
Area law enforcement agencies and other officials worked together to give students at Moapa Valley High School a dose of reality on March 15-16.
Staged for the students on a real street adjacent to the school was a convincing mock auto accident scene meant to portray a drunk driving incident. Professional make-up artists provided a realistic mock fatality, portrayed by one of the local students.
The student body was brought to witness the scene immediately after the accident. They heard a recording of an actual 911 call, and then watched as various emergency units responded to the scene.
The experience ended the following morning with an assembly where students viewed and discussed video footage showing the events of the previous day.
In lieu of a walk-out
In the aftermath of a tragic shooting which took place on February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, many students around the country staged protests and other acts of unrest. But at Moapa Valley High School, the kids stayed in school. A special memorial service was organized and held on March 14.
Organized by the MVHS student council, the event began with a slide show displaying a photo of each Parkland victim. With each new slide, an MVHS student came forward and quietly lit a candle in the honor of the victim.
APRIL:
CC Fair gets a windy start
Attendance at the 2018 Clark County Fair started out a little spotty in the event’s first two days. High winds on Wednesday and Thursday kept many people home. But by Friday, the winds began dying down and attendance rebounded. By Saturday, the weather was perfect and crowds packed the fairgrounds throughout the day.
Paiutes sign agreement to connect Travel Plaza to grid
The Moapa Band of Paiutes entered an agreement with Overton Power District on a transmission line to connect the Paiute Travel Plaza to the Overton Power District (OPD) Tortoise Substation in Moapa. This would link the facility to the electrical grid for the first time and open the possibility of significant expansion on the remote reservation land.
The tribe began the process by advancing $200,000 to the OPD to start the engineering process.
The line is planned to span about 15 miles along an existing transmission line corridor, through BLM land, crossing railroad tracks and finally crossing the interstate. The project would include an endpoint substation.
The line would carry roughly 20-40 megawatts in capacity. For comparison, all of the Moapa Valley including Overton, Logandale, Moapa, Warm Springs and Lake Mead use about 30 megawatts of electricity.
MAY:
Developer reveals plans for Logandale Mesas project
The developer of the Mesas Logandale project presented revised plans for a residential development which incorporated a number of concerns voiced by neighbors in the area. The development is proposed for 167 residential units on a total of 79 acres in the area south of Gubler Ave. and east of Yamashita Street.
In the May 9 meeting, the developer sought additional public input on the project. No application with the county had yet been filed. That application was not filed until much later in the year.
The project came before the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board for approval on November 14. The board approved the request with several strict conditions including holding the developer to a full one-acre lot size on all exterior lots and full offsite improvements to exterior access roads to the property.
The request was scheduled to go before the Board of County Commissioners on December 5. But Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick asked that the item be postponed while she further familiarize herself with the final plans. There has been no word on when it will reappear on the agenda.
MVHS Boys Swim Team Makes History
For the first time in school history, the Moapa Valley High School Boys Swim team took home a team medal from a State Championship meet. The boys’ 400 yard freestyle relay team; which included Tyler Holmes, Zane Lamping, Chase LaCroix and Nathaniel Thompson; took third place in their event in the State Swim Meet.
NV Energy announces new solar plant on Moapa Reservation
NV Energy released plans to build a major solar generating facility on the Moapa Paiute Indian Reservation. The plant was among six new solar facilities being proposed by the utility throughout the state. Planned on the reservation is a 300 megawatt photovoltaic facility on 2200 acres directly west of the existing First Solar plant currently in operation. Once built, it is expected to replace the First Solar facility as the new largest solar installation to date built on tribal land.
The project was expected to commence construction in mid-2020 and to be operational by the end of 2021.
JUNE:
Primary elections held, Mills wins local JP race
Local voter turnout came in at around 41 percent in the primary election which was held on June 12. That was relatively high compared with the 20 percent which turned out in Clark County and the 22.8 percent state-wide.
The biggest race in the primary election turned out to be the one for MV Justice of the Peace. In that contest, Gregor Mills prevailed against opponent Kyle Waite with 52 percent of the vote. That was enough to call the race for Mills with no general election running necessary.
County Commission OKs Public Lands Resolution
The Board of County Commissioners called on Nevada Congressional delegates to introduce a new public lands bill for southern Nevada. The suggested measure would open more than 44,000 acres of public land for new development south of Las Vegas in the area of Jean.
At the same time, more than 300,000 acres of new conservation land would be set aside throughout the county. Most of that conservation land was aimed at areas surrounding northeastern Clark County communities. These included roughly 10,000 acre for a Mesa Milkvetch ACEC directly east of Logandale/Overton; 37,000 acres for a new Muddy Mountains ACEC to the west of Moapa Valley; and 9,000 acres of a new California Wash ACEC.
JULY:
Dismantling Reid Gardner
After several months of preparatory work, the demolition of the Reid Gardner Coal-powered Generating Station in Moapa went into full swing. The project has continued on throughout the year. The final demolition of the boiler units and smoke stacks, by implosion, is expected to take place in the coming weeks in early 2019.
State Engineer Holds Regional Water Meeting in Overton
Nevada State Engineer Jason King brought his staff to a meeting in the Overton Community Center on July 24. The meeting, involving more than 100 regional stakeholders, was held to discuss how to manage the overallocated Lower White River Flow System, a huge super-basin taking in a vast area including the Muddy River and its Warm Springs source.
The meeting was only the beginning of the discussions. A second public hearing was held again in Overton in October on the subject. Negotiations are still ongoing.
AUGUST:
Overton McDonald’s opens time capsule
The local restaurant celebrated its 20th anniversary by opening a time capsule that had been placed in the building when it opened in 1998. Time capsule contents included photos of the grand opening, essays written by local elementary school kids at the time, pictures of employees, old menus, Happy Meal toys and more.
Disagreement over future of Moapa Valley Fire District
In a town hall meeting held August 21, County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick laid out a proposal to beef up Emergency Medical Services in the community. She had released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for private ambulance services to provide a team and vehicle on call Monday through Saturday during daytime hours to fill gaps left by volunteers.
The plan ran up against an alternative proposal presented by the local fire district board to increase its volunteer rolls by providing paid paramedic service from within its ranks.
Many in the community expressed opposition to Kirkpatrick’s plan, though the Commissioner insisted that it would be enacted. However, the RFP stalled in the weeks after and both plans have been shelved for a time.
SEPTEMBER:
Local FFA Chapter Gets National Attention
The Moapa Valley FFA Chapter was featured in the September edition of the national FFA magazine New Horizons. Appearing on the magazine cover was local chapter advisor Denise O’Toole holding a large basket of locally-grown pomegranates. Inside, local FFA students are featured taking care various parts of the MVHS Agricultural Farm.
The PROGRESS starts new teen feature
The Sept 12 edition of the Progress included the premier edition of “From the Crow’s Nest,” a bi-monthly feature produced entirely by a team of local teen-agers. The page has continued to be published ever since, highlighting content aimed at teens in the community.
Contention over the cannon
The time honored tradition of firing a the Pirate cannon with each home-team touchdown at MVHS football games came under fire when a local resident who lives near the school filed an excessive noise complaint with the police. Metro officers approached those firing the cannon at the September 21 game and gave warning that a citation might be issued if the action continued. No citation was actually issued because the complainant refused to come forward and sign the citation.
But the issue caused something of an uproar in the community. A large group of cannon fans launched an initiative to “Save the Cannon.” A petition was circulated, collecting more than 1,200 signatures in only a few days, voicing support for continuing the cannon-firing tradition.
OCTOBER:
Mesa View Hospital closes delivery room services
All in-patient obstetrics and delivery services were discontinued at the Mesa View Regional Hospital on October 1. Hospital officials said that the number of births in the local delivery room had decreased dramatically over the past 10 years, with only 63 births performed in all of 2017. With so few births performed, the concern was that it opened the door for safety concerns among hospital specialists who were not getting adequate experience, officials said.
The hospital continues to provide outpatient obstetrical services in case of emergency. Also gynecological and women’s health services are still being offered.
Post Office Burglarized
The US Post Office in Moapa was burglarized during the late night hours between October 10 and 11. Several parcels addressed to Moapa customers were lost in the incident.
The burglary caused a brief shutdown of the post office building while repairs were made and security measures implemented.
Five years for the Logandale Fall Festival
The Logandale Fall Festival celebrated five years of family fun on October 18-20. The festival offered non-stop Bluegrass Music programming with a lineup of bands well-known throughout the country.
Also on the schedule was a locals BBQ Contest, a bluegrass instrument petting zoo, a huge Kids Zone, a ‘Craft and Stuff’ vendor fair and plenty of great food options.
NOVEMBER:
A busy weekend
The first weekend in November is a busy one in Moapa Valley.
The major event, of course, was the 23rd annual Pomegranate Arts Festival which brought more than 100 vendors of hand-made wares, along with a host of local entertainment, to the Logandale Fairgrounds for two days of fun.
While that was going on, the 37th annual Hump N Bump offroad event was held. Owners of rock-crawling Jeeps and other vehicles spent the weekend taking on challenging paths in the Logandale Trails area.
Finally, near the Paiute Travel Plaza, the Southern Paiute Veterans Association held its 27th annual Pow Wow event bringing traditional Native American dance competitors from across the region.
Elections are a wrap, Hof wins posthumously
The 2018 elections resulted in an almost total victory for Democratic candidates in the state. Nearly every state-wide office went blue. The Democrats increased their majority in both houses of the State Legislature.
Perhaps the strangest twist was the surprising death of Assembly District 36 candidate Dennis Hof, just a couple of weeks before the election. This factor cleared the way for many local voters hesitant to give the brothel-owning Nye County businessman their votes based on moral objections. Posthumously, Hof received 80 percent of the local vote and won the election district-wide with 63 percent.
This victory caused a vacancy in the District 36 seat which had to be filled by a conference of the three county commission bodies making up the district.
During the first week of December, that vote took place. Gregory Hafen II, general manager of Pahrump Utility Company was appointed to fill the seat.
Mourning the death of a Missionary
Many in the community mourned the suprising death of 19 year-old Zane Lamping, of Moapa, who was serving in South Africa as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lamping had departed from home less than a week earlier. He collapsed while exercising at the Church’s Missionary Training Center in Johannesburg.
Travel Center approved for Glendale
The Moapa Town Advisory Board approved plans proposed by Terrible Herbst to build a large convenience store/fuel station just off of the I-15 Moapa exit on the east side of Lewis Ranch Road.
The plans indicated a 15,000 sq ft building with multiple fuel lanes on the nine acre site.
DECEMBER:
Holiday festival and parade
The Old Logandale School Historical and Cultural Society held its annual Festival of Trees which has become a local holiday tradition. The grand hall of the historic school building was lined with beautifully decorated trees. The room was also packed at times with attendees listening to holiday music played by local performers and also bidding on the trees and other decorations.
A week later, OLSHACS revived the Moapa Valley Parade of Homes, an event which hadn’t been held for twenty years. Ticket holders could tour six local showcase homes which had been fully decorated for the holidays.
Logandale Stake adjusts ward boundaries
Local members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered in a large meeting held Dec. 16 for the announcement of the redrawing of several ward boundaries, as well as the renaming of all wards in the Logandale Nevada Stake. In the process, one ward, the Overton 4th ward, was dissolved and the boundaries of three existing wards were expanded to add strength to their membership.
Three area McDonald’s restaurants under new ownership
After two decades of operation under a single owner, the three McDonald’s restaurants in northeastern Clark County changed hands. Mesquite residents Dave and Collette Price, who have owned the restaurants since they were built, sold the businessses to WBF Management, an organization out of Las Vegas.
