By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Clark County has made a significant investment into improving the downtown Overton business district. Last week, the County Commission approved more than $2.2 million for a Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) project that will update infrastructure while beautifying the downtown area for economic development purposes.
The project is still awaiting final state approvals but is expected to begin construction in the next six months, according to MVWD officials.
In addition to a new water line, the project will include full open grade paving to the main street in Overton.
It will also include beautification elements to make the downtown area more “walkable.” The designs feature crosswalks at four new locations, solar powered flashing signs at the crosswalks to ensure safety of pedestrians, a bike lane running both sides of the street, numerous curb “bump-outs” containing shade trees and other landscaping, a full irrigation system for landscape maintenance and more.
“We are taking the opportunity, while we are tearing up the pavement in downtown to install the line, to also make it more attractive to foot traffic,” said MVWD General Manager Joe Davis in an interview last week. “With more foot traffic, and added tourism visits, we can actually increase the business and commerce on main street.”
The whole thing began as a water mainline replacement project. District officials have known for a long time that the water lines in the downtown district are old, undersized and needing an update.
“The earliest maps that we have on those lines go back to 1959,” said Davis. “But I really can’t tell you when they were actually installed.”
The main concern is fireflow in the downtown area. Because the lines in there are only 6-inch and 4-inch asbestos/concrete pipe, they do not supply adequate flow and pressure to fire hydrants, Davis said.
A little more than two years ago, the district began putting together numbers and rounding up funding to replace the lines. Davis said that the materials cost, at that time, was moderate. The pipe and fixture costs to replace the line from Bonelli Ave. to Alma Ave. was $260,000.
But the district hit a wall when it came to paving costs. “In order to do the repaving the estimate was $1 million,” Davis said. “So we were looking at a $1.3 million project and that’s not even counting the cost to install the line.”
Davis approached County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick seeking funding assistance for the infrastructure project. Kirkpatrick saw it as an opportunity to address certain economic development issues for which she had long been seeking solutions.
“Marilyn was actually happy to hear us reach out to her because she had been looking for ideas on economic revitalization of downtown,” Davis said. “She was trying to find ways to bring back foot traffic to that district and encourage people to go to those businesses.”
She held up the main street area of Santa Clara, Utah as a model for what the Overton downtown could be; with landscaping, shade trees, crosswalks and other elements to encourage foot traffic.
The concept also appealled to representatives from Nevada Department of Transportation, Davis said. At the direction of Kirkpatrick, Davis had presented preliminary plans for the project to NDOT staff, just to get that agency’s feeling on the general idea. The feedback was positive. Many of the beautification elements being planned were also speed control measures that NDOT is trying to implement on highways throughout the state, Davis said.
Kirkpatrick was able to secure $1.4 million in infrastructure funding for the project, drawn from the county’s allotment of federal COVID recovery funds. That should have been enough to cover the project.
But then costs started to rise. Already seeing demand on supplies peaking, Davis had pushed the MVWD to pre-purchase all of the pipe and fittings for the project. He said that all of that is now sitting in storage ready to go. Purchasing it early has buffered the project against current shortages and steep cost increases, he said.
But costs for the project still escalated. Current engineering estimates now put the cost for the project at over $2 million, Davis said.
“But Marilyn has really gone to bat for us,” Davis added. “She was able to get the $1.4 million for the water line replacement. But then she also found another $700,000 in economic development that she devoted to the beautification elements as well.”
All of that funding was approved in the Commission meeting held Tuesday, Nov. 1. The district received the check later in the week.
“We are currently in process of gaining approval from the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection for the pipeline,” Davis said. “Then we have to file for permits with NDOT. Since they have already seen our plans, we expect that to be a quick timeline. But in the end, the plans are subject to their approval. It is 100 percent going to be contingent on what the NDOT permitting process allows us to do.”
Davis said that the project will be good for the community in a myriad of ways.
First it will increase fire flows in the area. “We will see the addition of extra hydrants along main street,” Davis said. “And the ones that are already installed down there will have the flow to work like they are supposed to work.”
Secondly, it will improve economic and business conditions by bringing foot traffic and tourism to the area, Davis said.
Finally, the project and the funding that has come with it, will be good for the MVWD ratepayer.
“We originally had this slated in our financial model at $1.2 million to have the ratepayers pay for it,” Davis said. “We have since seen the cost of the project doubled. But with this funding we are able to get the project done without going to the ratepayers. That will keep rates a little lower over the long term.”
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