By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Overton Power District (OPD5) board of directors has one seat up for grabs on next month’s general election ballot. Overton residents will be choosing between candidates Richard Jones and Joe Davis to serve on the OPD5 Overton Seat 1.
The Progress caught up with both of these candidates last week and talked about the issues important to each one. Here is what we learned.
Richard Jones
Richard Jones filed to run for the seat back in 2018 just as former board member Mike Fetherston was retiring from the board. He ran unopposed, being the only one who filed. So he was seated on the board in early 2019.
But Jones was certainly not new to the district. At that time, he had recently retired from a career at OPD5 that spanned 30 years.
Jones was born and raised in Moapa Valley. He graduated from MVHS and went to work at OPD5 right after graduation as a temporary summer worker.
But the small district didn’t have a permanent position open for him at that time. So after a short period of temp work, Jones went to work for Nevada Power at Reid Gardner station.
Jones didn’t stay there very long, though. After a year or two, OPD5 called him back and offered him a permanent position. He said that he was glad to take it.
“I started as a meter reader,” Jones said. “Then I got into an apprenticeship program for training to be a lineman and then a foreman. Later, I spent ten years as Superintendent in charge of maintaining all the lines and the new construction on the system.”
Jones said that he has seen a lot of change in OPD5 since the early days. In the late 1970s when he started there were only seven people working for the district across both valleys.
There were only two people: Jones and Alma Whipple; who worked maintenance in Moapa Valley. Similar staffing existed in Virgin Valley, he said.
“Back then there wasn’t really a preventive maintenance program,” Jones said. “We just we waited for something to blow down and then we went out and fixed it.”
Comparing that to the present, Jones noted that the district now has a full pole testing schedule so that every power pole in the system gets tested every three years for integrity and condition.
“Most of the kinds of problems that we used to have are taken care of long before an outage ever takes place,” Jones said.
Throughout his term on the board, Jones has stressed reliability. “With my experience and knowledge, I understand what we need to do to achieve the next phase of reliability,” he said. “I know the system well and how it operates. And while I am not forcing myself into the day-to-day situation; I can certainly make suggestions on things that, maybe, no one has thought of.”
Jones said that a major factor in reliability is coming soon with constructrion of a second line feeding the OPD5 system. The district is poised to have that second connection around the end of 2023. In addition, OPD5 is working on a second transmission line across the Mormon Mesa to Mesquite to provide redundancy to its system.
“Like most small utilities, we have only had the ability to have one feed into our system,” Jones said. “But now, this new line will give us much more reliability.”
Jones said that the next four years on the board will see plenty of challenges. First, the district will be renewing its energy contract – a process which could begin as early as next year.
“The timing for renewing a contract is not very good,” Jones said. “With all the instability in the energy market, it will be a real challenge. Everyone is worried about the new price we will get. And that is mainly driven by high natural gas prices. We will do all we can to keep prices down.”
The other major decision on the horizon could be the hiring of a new General Manager. Current OPD5 General Manager Mendis Cooper has expressed a desire to retire in about two years.
“The number one responsibility for the board is to have a manager in place,” Jones said. “We are training individuals on the inside to take that spot. But we will also look outside the company for management. I feel we have a duty to get the best person in there.”
Jones said he looks forward to continuing his service on the board. “I just appreciate being able to serve my community in this way,” he said.
Joe Davis
As current General Manager of the Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD), Davis has also spent a long career serving his community.
Davis also grew up in Moapa Valley and graduated from MVHS. He was hired on to the MVWD in 1984, right out of high school, as a temporary employee. He worked his way through the staff positions over the years until he was in an executive management position at the district.
Then in 2011, a newly elected MVWD board made some significant shakeups in the district staff. They asked Davis to step in as Interim General Manager.
“When they put me in there I worked my tail off,” Davis said. “I had the institutional knowledge of how the district was run. But I didn’t have the legal contractual knowledge because the past General Managers never planned for secession. So I spent a lot of time going through every contract we had. It was a steep learning curve.”
He quickly got up to speed. And the following year, the MVWD board voted unanimously to advance Davis to the General Manager position permanently. He has served there ever since.
Davis plans to continue in the role for at least another two years before retirement from MVWD. But it may well be longer, he said.
He said that the district is currently facing the challenge of its lifetime in a major ongoing lawsuit dealing with the Lower White River Flow System superbasin. The lawsuit threatens the water district’s ability to continue pumping water at its Arrow Canyon Wells, the main source of culinary water for Moapa Valley communities.
Davis said that he wants to see the district through that lawsuit before retiring. “We are literally fighting for our lives as a community for our water,” Davis said. “So I will stick through that in order to make sure that our communities are secure.”
Davis has served on other boards both in the community and in a broader scope as well.
He has served for several years on the board for the St. Thomas cemetery. “I was brought on, sort of out of necessity because they didn’t have anybody else,” he said. “And I actually enjoyed it because it was benefitting the community and helping people through times of greatest need.”
Davis has also served on the Moapa Valley Fire District Board, helping the district transition to a fully autonomous, self-governed entity.
On a more regional scope, Davis has served on the Nevada Rural Water Board since 2014.
“I have been able to represent Nevada on the federal level in Washington, DC,” Davis said. “That has been an honor and a great experience.”
Davis is now running for the OPD5 board because he believes he can bring a new perspective to the role. He emphasizes that Jones is a dear family friend and has done good work for the OPD5 during his career, and over the past four years on the board.
“The one thing that I can bring, though, is my unique perspective; a fresh set of eyes on the problem,” Davis said. “I am certainly not saying that the current board is heading in the wrong direction. But sometimes a little different perspective might bring benefits and solutions that no one ever thought of.”
Davis said one thing he has learned as MVWD General Manager – that applies to OPD5 as well – is the vital importance of adequate infrastructure.
“I see the struggles every day that a public utility has in maintaining its system,” Davis said. “It is very expensive, and there are a lot of complexities behind it, but it has to be done or you can get behind real fast.”
Davis acknowledged that OPD5 has a solid plan in place for more than $66 million in capital improvements over the next ten years. He said that he would support the staff in continuing to execute that plan.
Another key issue for Davis is to provide for the adequate quantity and quality of staffing in the district – and treating the employees right so that they will stay.
“It has been the same for the water district,” he said. “You have to have the revenue in order to pay for the personnel to properly maintain the system. It takes good, dedicated people to do that.”
Davis said that the main reason he is running for the seat is his love for the community.
“We are very unique in this community,” he said. “I love it here and I have been here since day one of my birth. Now I am lucky enough to help raise my grandkids here. And I want them to have the same type of atmosphere that I did. I want to instill my passion for the community as a success.”
