A Look Back at 2023: The News in Review

Here on the final week of the year, we take our traditional moment to look back and see where we have been as a community. What follows is a brief recap of some of the news highlights that have kept The Progress staff busy in the local communities over 2023.

JANUARY:

Queue of construction projects
In January, the pages of The Progress reported federal funding for an array of new infrastructure and transportation projects in the communities. Northeastern Clark County was to be the recipient of more than $18 million for these improvements.

The projects were to include $2.4 million to help Moapa Valley Water District replace a critical 24-inch water pipeline near Glendale; another $2 million to extend the Overton sewer system into Logandale; $5.7 million for a new arsenic treatment facility and waterline replacement for the Virgin Valley Water District system; and $8.4 million for a major expansion at Perkins Field Airport in Overton.

In addition to this omnibus bill, funding had already been devoted to a water main replacement in downtown Overton and a huge flood control project north of Whipple Ave. in Logandale. Plus, Nevada Department of Transportation had planned an improvement to State Route #169 north of Logandale.
Throughout the past year, all of these projects have either commenced construction and are in the works, or they are still getting prepped to start soon.

Change in Mesquite Stake
It was an historic time for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when the Mesquite Stake was split into a West Stake and an East Stake on January 15.

The existing Mesquite Stake President David Anderson continued to preside over the East Stake which had a membership of 2,680. Jared Hollingshead was called as the President of the new West Stake with 2,388 members.

FEBRUARY:

Historic bank building closes
The Washington Federal (WaFd) bank branch in downtown Overton closed its doors in February. The bank worked to transition its clients to be serviced at its Mesquite branch.
The old building was first opened as a Bank of Nevada branch in 1965. From that time, it remained as a bank under several different names.

Local wrestlers compete at state
Virgin Valley High School had four individual state champions at the NIAA State Championship in Winnemucca. These included Decker Lee, Gunner Cortez, Ruben Silveyra and Cutler Crandall. VVHS took 2nd place as a team in the state meet.
The Moapa Valley High School team took 5th place and had 5 of its 10 individual wrestlers win medals at the meet.

Bulldogs win state vs MVHS
The Virgin Valley High School flag football team pulled a come-from-behind win against its Moapa Valley High School rival in the NIAA State Championship game played on Feb. 17.
It looked like the Pirates had wrapped up the game holding a 20-0 lead at the end of the third quarter. But the Bulldogs played an amazing fourth quarter, winning the game 27-20 to hold on to the state championship.

VVettes win at state
The VVHS drill team came home with the State Championship at the Dance Team Union’s Nevada Competition on Feb. 25. The team won first place in two different categories including military style dance and pom pom dance.

Dread Pirates win VEX state
The MVHS Robotics team seized the state championship in competition against more than 50 teams. The team went undefeated throughout the match to qualify for the World’s Championship match which was held in April.

MARCH:

Schools forced to drop block
Parents and students at both local high schools were frustated to learn that the block schedule at the schools would have to be discontinued in the 2023-24 school year. Clark County School District officials in Las Vegas found regulatory problems with policies surrounding the block schedule; despite its being in effect at MVHS for about 25 years.

Local administrators were unable to resolve those problems given current funding levels. In March they announced that the block schedule would have to be dropped.
Local advocates made appeals to CCSD officials suggesting some options. But these were left unanswered.

The announcement caused school administrators to scramble to create a new master schedule with a six-period day which went into effect in August.
Many local students and parents have complained that the new schedule has caused a reduction in educational options for them with less Career Technical Education offerings, less dual credit college course opportunities, and no credit retrieval sections for struggling students.

Independence from CCSD
Education advocates from both valleys worked with Assemblyman Toby Yurek to craft legislation to allow for a regional school district to be formed to independently govern the eight schools in the Moapa and Virgin Valleys.

The City Council of Mesquite approved a resolution to support this effort. All members of the various Town Advisory Boards voiced individual support for the measure – though they were not allowed to take official action as a board.

The bill was drafted and submitted to the State Legislature as Assembly Bill 420. It never received a vote. But the effort led to the formation of a group called Friends of Regional School Districts, made up of former school administrators, teachers, parents and other advocates. This group continues to work toward a legislative solution that would bring more autonomy to northeast Clark County schools.

APRIL:

High attendance at the Fair
Once again, the fates smiled upon the Clark County Fair.

Near perfect weather on all five days of the fair brought another huge crowd to the event with more than 108,000 people in attendance, according to Fair officials.

That was only slightly less than the previous record in 2022 at 109,000

Mesquite hosts Rural Roundup
The annual Rural Roundup was held in Mesquite from April 11-13. This annual event, put on by Travel Nevada/Division of Tourism, brought 150 of the state’s top tourism industry officials to the city to discuss drawing visitation into rural areas of the state and to experience all that Mesquite and the surrounding areas have to offer. Mesquite rolled out the red carpet for the event.

MAY:

Mesquite Days
A whole week of family-friendly activities were held to celebrate the annual Mesquite Days.

The week included a Family Fun Night, Mayor’s Breakfast, a parade, carnival and more.

An array of community organizations, city staffers and local residents worked together to plan, coordinate and pull off this community celebration. 

Wolf Creek vs. VVWD
A landmark jury trial in Clark County District Court got started in May pitting Paradise Canyon, LLC, owner of Wolf Creek Golf Course, against the Virgin Valley Water District.
The trial revolved around a 2011 irrigation water lease agreement between the two parties.
Wolf Creek questioned whether VVWD had the right to increase the lease rate to whatever the district deemed was the going market rate for them.

VVWD claimed that it did, and that the going market rate should be related to much higher rates being offered by the Southern Nevada Water Authority for similar irrigation shares. VVWD had previously informed Wolf Creek that the new rate would be $1,200 per share per year.
Wolf Creek argued that the lease document had implied a much lower “local rate” for the shares; a rate which had nothing to do with the Las Vegas water purveyor’s offers.

The trial lasted about a month. In the end, the jury decided in favor of Wolf Creek, awarding damages at $811,000. It also set the local lease value for the VVWD-owned irrigation shares at no more than $300 per share annually.
VVWD officials have announced the intention to appeal the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court under new legal representation.

Mesquite Fire Academy
A total of 14 cadets graduated from the Mesquite Fire Academy on May 19.

The academy had begun in early January with rigorous hands-on training and extensive classroom sessions which took place every weekend for 19 weeks.

The academy was held in an effort to grow the Mesquite Dept. of Fire and Rescue from within the community. Graduates were eligible and preferred to available positions within the department.

MVHS Boys Track wins state
It was the 13th team state title for the Pirate boys track team when they narrowly won out over Spring Creek team at a meet held in Las Vegas.

JUNE:

New Bunkerville Park
Residents of Bunkerville joined with County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick and other county officials to celebrate the ribbon cutting of the reopening of the Thomas Dudley Leavitt Sr. Memorial Park after a major renovation.

The new park featured a paved meandering walking trail, improved landscape and design, an added pavilion, new playground equipment with shade structures and more.

New office for Guillen HVAC
Family-owned Guillen Heating, Coolikng and Refrigeration moved to a new location on Mesquite Blvd in June.

The company had just finished a full renovation of the old Harley’s Garage building to serve as a full service HVAC and plumbing headquarters.

JULY:

New use for Reid Gardner site
NV Energy officials unveiled new plans for the Reid Gardner site during a Moapa Town Advisory Board meeting in July.
The MTAB approved plans for an industrial-grade battery energy storage system facility to be developed at the site which was a formerly a coal-burning generation plant.
The 220 megawatt facility proposed to temporarily store energy from the grid during daily periods of low demand in a complex of 208 lithium iron phsphate battery cells. The stored energy would then be fed back onto the grid during peak demand periods later in the day.

RV Parks open and planned
Mesquite Trails RV Resort opened on Hafen Lane in Mesquite with almost 200 spaces for various types of RVs. With state of the art amenities and easy access to Interstate 15, the new facility has filled an important need for RV space in the community.
In addition, the MVTAB approved plans for a smaller RV park facility in downtown Overton. This space proposed to bring 90 RV spaces and a host of amenities to appeal to families as well as seniors.

AUGUST:

Back to School
School children returned to school on Aug. 7. Most were happy to come back, if a bit hesitant.
But confusion about the master schedule at MVHS caused some chaos among the student body.

Because of a lack of communication between CCSD central, the teacher’s union and local school administrators about alternative scheduling for the block; MVHS administrators found themselves scrambling at the last minute to overhaul the class schedules for more than 400 students to fit a 5-day 6-period schedule.

This did away with many elective sections, made it impossible to schedule dual credit college courses, and snuffed out the school’s credit retrieval programs for struggling students.

VV teachers join protest
Teachers in Mesquite gathered outside of Hughes Middle School in more than 100 degree weather to protest the fact that CCSD had still not reached a contract with the Clark County Education Assocation, the teacher’s union.

In doing so, they joined with teachers from all across the urban areas of CCSD, threatening that if no contract was reached, they would take “work action.”

Mesquite STEAM Center opens
Kids and adults alike flocked to the new Mesquite STEAM Center in the Mesquite Plaza Shopping Center to experience the facility’s grand opening event in August.
Attendees got to try out educational equipment and toys involving robotics, 3D printing, engineering, computer technology and more.
The center has been open to the public since then offering classes and pre-scheduled free-play sessions for kids of all ages.

All prep, no emergency
Everyone across southern Nevada braced themselves for the effects of Hurricane Hilary.

Disaster declarations were issued by state and county officials.

National Guard and FEMA personnel were dispatched to help.

But the worst of the storm never came to the Moapa and Virgin Valleys.

SEPTEMBER:

Fire on Virgin River
The Huntsman Fire burned through 473 acres of remote land along the Virgin River east of Moapa Valley.

Though it posed no danger to homes or residents, the fire drew many onlookers from the communities to the eastern edge of the Mormon Mesa to watch the wildland firefighters at work.

Responding to the fire were personnel from the Moapa Valley Fire District, BLM and National Park Service.

Kids for Sports fundraiser
An event tent at Wolf Creek golf course became a 1920s speak-easy for the annual Winefest fundraiser to benefit the Kids for Sports organization.

Kids for Sports offers scholarships for local youth to help pay the expenses of playing sports. The event highlighted many of the program recipients who had been helped in this effort.

OCTOBER:

Fire Station #1 groundbreaking
The City of Mesquite celebrated the groundbreaking for a new Fire Station #1 on Mesquite Blvd just south of the library branch.

Now under construction, the new station will be just under 14,000 sq ft and will replace the aged and dilapidated station currently in use behind Mesquite City Hall.

Logandale Ballfield expansion
Plans were approved for an expansion of the Logandale Sports Complex.
The plans would add two more ballfields complete with new LED lighting and shade structures for dugouts and spectator seating areas. In addition, the plans included an array of new park amenities including pickleball courts, a splash pad, playground areas, skate park, restroom facilities and more.

All Wheels Park
Mesquite City Council approved plans for a new All-Wheels Park at Woodbury Lane just south of Virgin Valley Elementary School.
Elements will include an asphalt pump track as well as a street style skate area featuring concrete ramps, bowls, steel railings and more.
The plans also include walking paths, shade structures, restrooms, landscaped areas, seating amenities and more.

NOVEMBER:

Return to VVHS Theatre
The VVHS Theatre program returned to its home in the school’s auditorium after numerous years of the stage being deemed unusable.

The program had been holding its performances in the school cafeteria area for more than two years while awaiting repairs to be made.

The long-awaited return to the stage was marked by an excellent production of the mystery story Clue.

Jara talks to MVCEAB
CCSD Superintendent Jesus Jara visited Moapa Valley in November and met in a public meeting with Moapa Valley Community Education Advisory Board (MVCEAB).

He listened to a detailed presentation from the MVHS School Organizational Team about the loss of the block schedule and its impact on the quality of education at the school.

He pledged to work together with the CEABs in both valleys, suggesting that a working group be formed of representatives from the two CEABs as well as CCSD central to discuss ways to bring more autonomy to local schools.

VVWD increases water rates
The Virgin Valley Water District board of directors voted for a moderate 5 percent increase on water rates effective July 1, 2024. Additional increases would occur in the two ensuing years including another 4 percent hike in both 2025 and 2026.
The decision came after a year-long process which included a full update to the VVWD master plan, a detailed analysis of the district’s budget needs and a series of open discussions in public meetings to receive community feedback.

DECEMBER:

Parade sees big giving year
The Parade of Lights event took place in early December as usual. But the vivid holiday procession down Mesquite Blvd. was only the tip of the iceberg for this event.

The accompanying food drive, which is held over several months in advance of the parade was a major success this year bringing in more than 69,000 pounds of canned food and non-perishable items for the Salvation Army Food Pantry.

MVWD raises water rates
In their final meeting of the year, the Moapa Valley Water District board voted to increase culinary water rates by 8 percent across the board. This increase, effective Jan. 1, 2024, will extand to all rates including the district’s monthly base rate, usage rates, connection fees, hydrant usage rates and water resource fees.