NV State Treasurer Visits For “Listening Sessions”

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Career and technical education, affordable housing, utility infrastructure, mental health resources, economic development, child care facilities, adequate health care: these were just a few of the community needs identified in a pair of community listening sessions which took place last week in Mesquite and Moapa Valley.

Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine made a stop in each of the two communities as part of a 75-day Nevada Recovers listening tour throughout the state.

The session in Mesquite was hosted by the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce at the Cucina Italiana restaurant and had about 30 people in attendance.

The Overton session was held in the board room of Overton Power District offices where about a dozen community leaders had been invited to discuss community needs.

Going to the people for answers
At both meetings, Conine explained that the Nevada Recovers effort aims to get feedback from state citizens on how best to spend the $6.7 billion in federal COVID-relief funding coming to the state.

To put this amount of money in perspective, Conine explained that the entire budget of the state is normally a little more than $4 billion. So the flood of federal funds will be about 150 percent of the state’s annual discretionary budget, he said.

“It is a lot of money,” Conine said. “So we felt that such an unprecedented amount of money demands an unprecedented response. We couldn’t simply do the same thing that we have done in the past.”

Conine said that conceptual conversations had taken place in the Governor’s office last year about when and how things would get back to normal.
“Then there was this moment of clarity where we said, ‘Was normal really good enough?’,” Conine said. “Should reaching what we had before really be the target? Was that the Nevada that we all deserve?”

“I’d offer as an opinion that normal was not good enough,” Conine added. “Where we were was not where we deserve to be: 47th in education, crumbling infrastructure, an economy that we’ve been trying to diversify for years but not where it needs to be, a revenue structure that is functionally broken, social safety nets that weren’t there. That is not the Nevada that we deserve.”

With the appropriation of an unprecedented amount of federal funding, the decision was made to criss-cross the state and seek feedback in numerous listening sessions. But there was also a drive to receive input from the general public online. A website was created at nevadarecovers.com where all residents of Nevada can provide input and submit ideas for ways to improve communities with this funding, Conine said.

“These listening session events are to germinate ideas and thoughts about how we can spend this money most effectively,” Conine said. “And more importantly to encourage people to go to NevadaRecovers.com to document their thoughts.”

After these introductory remarks, Conine opened the floor in each session to input from attendees.

Education and Career Training
Participants in both sessions brought up the need for more career training and trade school offerings.
“We would like to see our children be able to stay in the community and live here as adults,” said Mesquite resident Donna Eades. “But we don’t have the higher education or trade school options here that are available in other places. We have a junior college but that needs to be expanded so that kids can become certified in trades even while in high school.”

City Councilman George Gault talked about his work with the Frias Trust on creating a STEAM center in the Mesquite Plaza. “We have an excellent relationship with CSN and their new initiative to provide short-term certificate-based training to get into the trades,” Gault said. “That will need funding.”

In the Moapa Valley, participants pointed out that funding for infrastructure and/or transportation would be needed to bring Moapa Valley kids into that STEAM center – either physically or virtually – in order to take advantage of its benefits.

Rural housing crunch
Participants expressed concerns about a lack of affordable housing in rural communities.
Gault pointed out that a study had shown that Mesquite currently has a deficit of 1,700 workforce housing units currently. And projects are currently in the pipeline that would bring nearly 200 more employees and their families to the area.

“The problem is that there is no place for them to live here,” Gault said. “So we have to crack that nut pretty quickly.”

In the Moapa Valley session, this problem was just as urgent.
“We are seeing multiple families living together in very small areas, maybe even in small trailers together,” said Norita Espinoza, President of Moapa Valley Family Resource Center board. “This is a very big issue for us here.”

Moapa resident Chad Leavitt pointed out that the community is surrounded by BLM land that could be used for lower-cost starter housing. But that land is not being made available for such projects.

“If there was a program, and funding available, where we could have some of that BLM land to build starter homes, it would be wonderful for our area to grow,” Leavitt said.

Utility infrastructure
The subject of infrastructure needs for water, power and wastewater utilities came up repeatedly in the meetings.

OPD5 personnel were in attendance at both sessions advocating for more consideration of rural utility in the appropriation of funding and resources.

“The non-profit rural utilities have not been under the same consideration as the large investor-owned utility in the state,” said OPD Finance Director MeLissa Garcia during the Mesquite session. “The rural communities deserve reliable power every bit as much as the larger utility customers.”

Joe Davis, General Manager of Moapa Valley Water District, said similar things about keeping up with the rapidly increasing costs of water infrastructure.

Chad Leavitt emphasized that the community-wide sewer system is yet unfinished. “In many areas there is still no sewer service,” Leavitt said. “So it is kind of tough with only septic tanks to do multi-family housing. It is almost not even an option. But having that would relieve some of the housing problem.”

Both Leavitt and Davis expressed a need for better flood control in the communities. Davis said that flood control problems cause trouble to utility system as existing infrastructure is sometimes washed away at a major expense to the utilities.

“This is something that is in dire need throughout the Moapa Valley communities,” agreed Leavitt. “I think that is another reason why people aren’t building: because most accessible lands are in the floodplain and it is just so expensive to do the earthwork to raise it up.”

How to help small business
There were also lively conversations about economic development and help for small businessses.
Gerald Hamilton, of Beehive Homes in Mesquite, said that he would like to see a different approach towards incentivizing employees and employers to bring people back to work. Hamilton said that, because of the labor shortage during the pandemic, his facility has had to cut back on operations because he did not have adequate staff to take care of his residents.

“In too many cases, we have seen the programs incentivize people to stay at home and not go back to work,” Hamilton said. “I would encourage the state to use some of that money to incentivize people to get back to work.”

In the Overton session, Xtreme Stitch owner Vanette Christensen said that a good deal of small business grant money goes unclaimed because of the difficulty of applying for it, and because business owners don’t know about it.

“I can tell you that, for small business owners like me, ‘time’ is a four-letter word,” Christensen said. “I have none. And there is a disconnect with some of the business people on where to go and how to access the funds at the state level. That is something to work on.”

First responders
Funding for emergency response services was a need expressed in both communities. Christensen pointed out that Moapa Valley Fire District had recently won its independence from Clark County and is doing better than ever in its volunteer staffing and coverage.
“But we still don’t have full-time paramedic services,” she said. “And there are important pieces of equipment that our firefighters could use for better response in those situations.”

In Mesquite, City Councilwoman Sandra Ramaker also talked about the city being short on firefighters and police and in need of a new fire station in the city. She requested that funding be considered for those things.

Childcare and Recreation
Child care and after-school activities were also mentioned in both meetings.
Mesquite Chamber President Carol Kolson said that Mesquite lacks some of the non-profits that are seen in other cities like YWCA and Big Brother/Big Sister organizations that provide before and after school care.

Gault said that the city had made plans to use the old Baptist Church to develop a day care center. But there were not funds available to do that yet.

The conversation was similar in Overton. “Childcare is a big problem,” said Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board Chairwoman Lois Hall. “There is none available here in this town. The few day cares we have are limited and they are always full. So it is really hard for working parents. We need more.”

Parks and Rec Program Manager Lauralyn Robison talked about the need for updating and expanding recreation facilities for local families. She pointed to the fact that the community has the oldest pools in the county and they were unable to even be open for families this summer.

“It would be nice to make improvements to those, or actually to build a Rec Center with a brand new pool, similar to what is in Mesquite,” Robison said.

All ideas are welcome
Conine closed each meeting with an appeal to those in attendance to enter all of these ideas onto the NevadaRecovers.com website.

“I can write it all in my notebook here, but it will die there if you don’t enter it into the website,” Conine said. “That is where it becomes official and a matter of public record.”

Finally, Conine encouraged all those in attendance to share the news about the Nevada Recovers effort. “We are looking for ideas from every Nevadan,” he said. “The site is open to anyone to give us your input on this important matter.”

To learn about other stops on the Listening Tour, fill out a Nevada Recovers survey, or to submit ideas on how the federal COVID funding should be spent, click HERE  to visit NevadaRecovers.com.