MEET THE CANDIDATES: Moapa Valley TAB

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

For the first time ever, the residents of the lower Moapa Valley communities of Overton and Logandale will be offered a binding choice on the November general election ballot of who will represent them on their Town Advisory Board (TAB).

Since 2015, state law has given unincorporated communities the option to elect their TABs. But none of the northeast Clark County communities has ever taken the option. That is because not enough people have filed with the Clark County Elections Department for candidacy. According to state law, in the absence of a slate of candidates, the decision goes back to the County Commission to appoint TAB members.

But this year, there were enough who filed in the Moapa Valley township to allow for a local election.
Last week, The Progress spoke with each of the MVTAB candidates to find out who they are and where they stand on local issues. Here is what we found.

Brian Burris
Brian Burris has lived in Moapa Valley for around 13 years. He grew up in Las Vegas, graduating from Bonanza High School. Attracted by the small-town friendliness of the community, Burris and his wife eventually moved their family here to enjoy a better quality of life.

“This is one of the most welcoming communities I have ever seen,” Burris said. “It is really amazing.”
Burris has served two, 2-year terms on the MVTAB. He said that the big difference in his second term is the open line of communication he has been able to establish with County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick and the county staff.

“I’ve been able to develop relationships with county officials which allows me to better advocate for the community on things,” Burris said. “I think that I can do a better job of taking our citizens concerns and then make them be heard at the appropriate levels to get things resolved.”

Even so, Burris calls for patience with county officials and the commissioners in meeting the needs of Moapa Valley.

For example in the area of flood control, Burris acknowledges that there is a lot of work to do. But the solutions are expensive. And with a small community, it will take time, he said.
“We have detention basins in the queue right now,” he said. “So help is on the way. But these are $30 million projects! With our tax base we don’t even pay for 10 percent of that. Yet everyone wants to build them all at once.”

Burris points out that even if you count both Moapa Valley and Moapa, there is less than 10,000 people in the community. The same dollars that are being proposed for certain local flood control structures, if employed in Las Vegas, would benefit 100,000 to 200,000 people, he said.

“It is kind of a balancing act and Commissioner (Marilyn) Kirkpatrick has done a good job of getting us more money than probably what we are entitled to,” Burris said. “The problems are being looked at and we are trying to resolve them. It is just a money thing. We are working on it, but we know it is just going to take a while.”

Lois Hall
Lois Hall is the current Chairwoman of the MVTAB. She is nearing the end of her second term on the board.
Hall and her husband Cal are the owners and operators of Cal’s Auto Repair in Overton. They have owned the business for 11 years now.

Hall said that her motivation for serving on the board is devotion to the community.
“For me it is all about just helping my neighbors and fellow business owners,” Hall said. “That is really what I am here for is to help them.”

Hall counts the development of O’Reilly’s Auto Parts in downtown Overton as one of here accomplishments on the TAB.
“That was a big one, I think,” she said. “Helping them get here to town, and open, was big.”

In addition, Hall mentions the coming upgrades to parks and recreation infrastructure. There is funding and design lined up for the buildout of the Logandale Sports Complex. In addition, other improvements will be added at the Fairgrounds, she said.
“I think this is the furthest we have been ahead in our budget,” Hall said. “We are actually finally seeing things happening now.”

Hall felt an urgency about the need for flood control. Her business, and her home right next door is right in the path of flooding each time it rains.
“I am tired of being flooded out,” she said. “This last month was the third time that it has happened and it is tiring. It has been going on for way too long. We have got to have flood control!”

Hall says that she is an advocate of “controlled growth” for Moapa Valley.
“We do need some more affordable housing, and we desperately need rentals,” Hall said. “But I don’t want to see major developments. We don’t need 200 homes in one project.”

Hall added that she would be open to some moderate economic growth in the lower valley communities. “I’d like to be able to get some light manufacturing in so that young people have a job that they can actually afford to live with,” Hall said. “Nothing big like a Walmart warehouse or anything. But light manufacturing where they employ 100-150 people would be good.”

Hall finally adds that she has recently given up her real estate license to focus on more important things. “My priorities are my family, my community and my business,” Hall said. “That is where I want to focus.”

Lori Houston
Lori Houston has been living in Overton for nearly 25 years now. She and her husband Rick moved here to raise their children in a small town environment.
“I grew up in a small town,” Houston said. “I moved here because I wanted my kids to have that same personal freedom that I had growing up.”

Houston said that she would like to work on restoring a host of services that were once available in Moapa Valley but have since disappeared. These include basic health services, WIC well baby checks, childrens’ immunizations, medical providers, dental wellness checks and more.
What started her thinking about this was having her real estate office right next to the Quick Care Clinic in Logandale.

“One day I was there and a good friend of mine came to the clinic,” Houston said. “He had been waiting to get test results on cancer. And the clinic was just closed that day. He is sick and he is anxious and now he is going to have to wait another week. That upset me so bad.”

Houston acclaimed the work of Andy Rose who is currently the only Physician Assistant staffing the clinic. “Andy is wonderful for this community,” she said. “But he is just one man. He needs help to serve this community.”

Some administrative services that have disappeared from the community include the monthly DMV services, any county staffing at the Community Center, and most importantly a lack of building department services, Houston said.
“When they took the building department away that really affected us,” Houston said. “That has been a huge hardship. It is an hour and a half to go to the building department. That is a huge problem.”

Houston acknowledged that the loss of services are partially due to complacency from the community. “It is our fault to some extent,” she said. “We haven’t fought for those things. We have just accepted it.”

Houston said that she would take it as her duty to educate herself and advocate for bringing those services back. “We are a seriously underserved community,” she said. “What we have lost here would never go over in Las Vegas. There would have been a major outcry.”

Houston said that she would magnify her position on the MVTAB to include these things. “To me, the role is not just about sitting there and approving agenda items,” she said. “I have had enough of being passive. People need to step back in and assert themselves. I am stepping in!”

Shanna McPheters
Shanna McPheters filed her candidacy for the MVTAB back in March. Since that time she has decided to withdraw her candidacy. Her name will appear on the ballot, but she is no longer a candidate.

Megan Porter
Megan Porter is coming to the end of a second term on the MVTAB.
S

he has spent the past two years serving on the Community Development Advisory Committee (CDAC) for Clark County. This group reviews and makes recommendations on projects to receive federal, state, and local funding including affordable and low income housing projects.

Porter said that she had joined with CDAC members from other northeast Clark County communities to advocate for low income housing to be built in Mesquite.
“We brought it to their attention that there is really not any low income housing in northeastern Clark County,” Porter said. “So we kind of got some attention drawn to that over the past couple of years.”

Porter said that she would support multifamily housing projects being built in Moapa Valley as well, if it is done in the right place. “You wouldn’t want to put that kind of housing next to farm land,” she said. “And you wouldn’t want it where there are only 2-acre lots, like up in my neighborhood.”
Porter resides near the far east end of Gubler.

“You would maybe put that kind of thing next to Valley Heights, for example, because that is already an HOA, and it has smaller lots at higher density,” Porter said.

Porter recalled a situation when a developer proposed to build a large development right across the street from her home in the area between Gubler and MVHS. In the early drawings, Porter and each of her five neighbors on 2-acre lots, would have had seven homes directly across the street from each of their properties.

“We had to work with that developer for quite a while trying to get the density down in those lots as a buffer to our larger lots,” Porter said. “They agreed to do one acre lots there. Then the lots got smaller as they built toward the middle of the project from there. That fit our community better. I think that is a model for what should be done.”

Porter also acknowledged that the community has infrastructure needs in flood control, sewer service and more. But given the community’s growth rate, those things will take time, she said.
“None of that stuff is going to happen tomorrow,” she said. “They are in the works but they have been in the works for years.”

Porter added that when people move to a small community, they come for the lifestyle. But the sacrifice is many of the amenities in the city.
“If you are going to move out here, you have to set the appropriate expectations of what your life is going to be like,” Porter said. “If you want everything done right now then maybe the best thing is to move to Las Vegas.”

Janice Ridondo
Janice Ridondo has a thorough understanding of the inner workings of the County government. She also understands full well how the county interfaces with local residents and leaders. After all, Ridondo worked as liason for the District B County Commissioner from 2007 until 2019.

In 2019, Ridondo left the county and went to work for the City of Mesquite until she retired in 2021. She now owns her own consulting company helping clients navigate county operations including special use permits, zone changes, waivers and more.

Ridondo said her main concern in being on the MVTAB is to help manage smart and responsible growth in the community.
“There is no doubt that at some point growth is coming,” she said. “What we need to do is try to be coherent, unified and above all to be prepared for when it comes.”

Ridondo said that she wants to go through a process of building community buy-in on a master plan for development.

“We all know that we need some more affordable housing options; whether it is areas for tiny homes or multifamily housing where two units share a comon wall,” Ridondo said. “I think if folks get together we can come up with areas where affordable housing makes sense.”

Though the value of TABs are often underestimated by outlying communities, Ridondo says that these bodies can be effective.
“I have such faith in what TABs do,” she said. “I’ve seen them be successful in directing the community.”
Ridondo said she has been frustrated to see TAB members not fulfill that full potential in the past. In working with TABs across District B, she saw infighting among different board members, disagreements and unwillingness to do the real work and research on upcoming agenda items.

“I will put in the work,” she said. “If you live within a mile of an upcoming project, I am going to come and knock on your door and talk to you, ask how you feel about it.”

Ridondo said that she has seen many county infrastructure projects get bogged down in the process and become perpetually delayed. Those are the time when the community has to have a dialog with county staff and keep the wheels in motion, she said.

“We can’t just sit quietly and wait and only complain every 3-5 years when we have a flood,” Ridondo said. “You have to invite the county staff out here and hold them to their timelines. You have to continue to ask the tough questions. And, if at a minimum, they get tired of hearing from you, they are going to do it just so that they can get you off their plate. I know how to do that.”

Tammy Symons
Tammy Symons has lived in Moapa Valley for 38 years now. She is a master horse trainer and has spent many years doing that doing that. “I came down here originally to work for Wayne Newton on his ranch,” Symons said. “It was just supposed to be a six week stint. But now it is almost 40 years.”

Symons has seen a lot of change to the community in that time. “All these places where there are houses now, I used to ride horses, I can tell you that,” she said. “I used to train horses up in the Logandale in the fields where the Hardy fields used to be. Now it is all homes up there.”

Symons sees the need to have that kind of growth over the years. But she believes it should be carefully controlled.
“I think that you should develop as much as you can develop,” she said. “But it needs to be carefully considered. And it has to be according to the needs and wants of the people. We need to be wise and reasonable about it.”

“My outlook on the valley is maybe to preserve it a little bit, or maybe to keep it mellow,” Symons said. “Maybe even a little more patriotic.”

She added that she would be a voice on the board for livestock owners, horse owners and farmers in the community.

Symons said that the decision to put her name in the race for the MVTAB this year was almost a calling. “I just felt real strongly that maybe it is my turn to serve,” she said. “I have lived here long enough that maybe I have an outlook that is a little different than people that haven’t lived here that long.”

Jill Williams
Jill Williams feels that her greatest contribution to the MVTAB could be her knowledge of public lands issues and of OHV policies.
Williams managed and operated a local OHV tour company in the area for 15 years. She then helped run an OHV rental business in downtown Overton for another five years beyond that.

“I think the portion that I’d like to be more involved with is the Logandale Trail system and the OHV issues in the community,” Williams said. “I would also like to work to promote the trail system and attract more tourism to come here and help our businesses.”

Williams said that one of her concerns about the trail system is that it sometimes looks like a garbage dump in some areas. She has spent time herself in cleaning up areas in the Trails complex. She attributes some of that problemt to a lack of services in the community to dispose of large trash items.

Williams acknowledges that there is an established trash pick up day each month for such items. But she has heard from people who have had trouble with the staff at that location in taking their items when they bring them with the wrong type of trailer or other reasons.

“When I hear some of the stories I think, ‘Well no wonder people resort to dumping out in the desert.’” Williams said. “Not that that is an excuse for it. It is wrong. But we also need to put our foot down and demand that we receive the same trash services as what they provide to the people in Vegas. I think if we got that, it would clean up our surrounding areas.”

Currently Williams works as the caretaker at Perkins Field Airport. This is a part time position just to keep an eye on the facility.
There is an ongoing process in place of getting the airport up to full compliance with federal standards. Once that process is complete, there are plans to update and expand the airport, she said.

“In that position, I will be an asset to the community in trying to help promote this airport and people flying in here,” Williams said. “There are so many things to do and see in this valley. There are some hurdles to face. But I think we can do that.”

Like Houston, Williams believes that the Moapa Valley community is drastically underserved in health care, transportation and many other services.
“We don’t have the services that we used to have in this community when there were far fewer people here; especially services for people in poverty or in need,” Williams said. “That is unacceptable. I think that we have become a bit complacent about losing these services and just saying, ‘Oh well, it will be okay.’ Well, it is not okay anymore. I am going to advocate for a return of these services for our people here.”