By VERNON ROBISON AND LAURA ROBISON
The Progress
Two Nevada elected officials toured Moapa Valley last week taking time to meet with business owners and residents and to visit key cultural and tourism locations in the community.
Lieutenant Governor Stavros Anthony and State Assemblyman Toby Yurek spent Wednesday evening, Mar. 13 and all day Thursday, Mar. 14, enjoying the community in a grand tour organized by the Moapa Valley Revitalization Project (MVRP).
Also in attendance for the tour was Rafael Villanueva, CEO for Travel Nevada, the agency charged with marketing and bringing tourism to Nevada, especially to rural parts of the state.
“This has been a wonderfully positive experience,” said Anthony on Thursday night. “Your local business owners and staff have been so welcoming and open to us everywhere we went.”
“It has been an honor to meet so many of you this week,” Yurek added. “And I have to say it is an honor to represent this great community at the legislature.”
An opening Meet and Greet event began the tour on Wednesday night at the Old Logandale School. About a dozen people showed up to talk about a variety of local issues.
One topic raised was the need for local services for people with special needs. Nancy Postma, President of the Board for Aspire talked about the work her group is doing to provide vocational training, education, activities and skills necessary for this segment of the population.
Aspire board member Erika Whitmore pointed out that people have left the state because there is little funding for these types of services for their families.
“That is why we are here, to be a strong advocate for Moapa Valley,” said Yurek. “We want to change the shape of District 19 and tackle these issues head on.”
There was mention of other vital services that are needed for valley residents, such as mental health care and substance abuse.
Education was also a topic of discussion with emphasis on the need for more autonomy for local schools. “We need more support from the Nevada Dept. of Education,” said Logandale resident Lindsey Dalley. “We’re not asking just for money, but rather for help to do things ourselves to be more successful in our schools.”
Both Anthony and Yurek listened closely to these comments and agreed to keep the lines of communication open with Moapa Valley residents.
Members of the touring group then stayed the night at the North Shore Inn in Overton. Each guest received a large gift basket which was filled with the donated bounties of Moapa Valley businesses.
The next morning was spent in getting more familiar with the Moapa Valley community. The group had breakfast at Kuppa Joe’s coffee shop just across the street from the inn.
Then they took a tour of the main street of Overton. They learned about community history from local historian Garren Fulmer who showed them around.
They also stopped in at a number of small businesses and talked to the owners along the way.
The group stopped for lunch at The Dairy where new business owners Scott and Lexi Knight served up signature hamburgers for them.
A highlight of the business tour was a stop at Quail Hollow Farms in Overton. Here the group spoke with Nevada Farm Bureau president Bevan Lister about ways to encouraging successful small farming businesses in the state.
Another stop was at Logandale small business BEX where the group learned of the well-known brand of performance-based sunglasses, apparel and accessories which calls Moapa Valley its homebase. Anthony offered to connect BEX owners with appropriate state resources for such companies.
In the afternoon, the group hit the trails with an OHV tour of Logandale Trails area given by Ultimate Desert Adventures.
Then they stopped in at Pirate’s Landing Pizza in Logandale for dinner.
The final event was a Business and Community Coalition Meeting held on Thursday evening in the Overton Community Center. Around 40 residents were in attendance at the meeting.
The focus of this gathering was on issues dealing with economic development and tourism.
Anthony said that these subjects are among his key roles as Lieutenant Governor. In this consitutional office he serves as Chair of the Nevada Tourism Commission, Chair of the Outdoor Recreation and Advisory Council and Vice-Chair of the Nevada Dept. of Transportation (NDOT) Board. He also serves on the board of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and is tasked with being an advocate for small business.
Anthony opened the meeting for questions and answers. Many topics were raised by attendees.
A recurring theme dealt with State Route 169. Residents talked about how the complexities of dealing with NDOT had been, at times, stifling to local economic development. Concerns were specifically expressed about establishing safe OHV routes along the state highway in certain areas to accommodate both local use and tourism.
Another item was a long-standing desire by the community to establish S.R. 169 and North Shore Road as a Scenic Byway connecting Moapa Valley, Lake Mead and Boulder City in a specific tourism route. Much of the work of application for the byway had been done many years ago, said MVRP member MaryKaye Washburn. But the project had stalled out at some point.
More recent attempts to rekindle the efforts had been declined by NDOT due to lack of funding, Washburn said.
One resident even brought up the complexities involved in just allowing Christmas decorations to be strung across the main street in downtown Overton during the holidays.
Anthony said that such issues could be brought directly to him and he would be happy to help get them through the agency.
“If NDOT is the obstacle here, I love Christmas and I will personally help make that happen,” Anthony said with a smile.
“I think that the best way to deal with these things is to let my staff facilitate a meeting for you with the director of NDOT and her staff,” Anthony added. “That way you can sit down face to face and talk about these things, get the actual information, and start to do something. We can help you get all that ironed out.”
Yurek commented on the benefit of having Anthony there to help address these items through the administration. “If in your conversations on these things you find out that there is a need on the legislative side to change a law or make a law to make things happen, I am happy to leverage my role in the legislature to help find the fix.”
A question was asked about how to encourage more tourism to the community. Villanueva answered that Travel Nevada had several programs to help rural areas of the state bring in more visitors. One of these is called the 3D program which stands for Destination, Development and Demonstration, he said.
“We would work on a 10 year strategic plan with you,” Villanueva said of 3D program. “We try to find elements that help drive tourism in a manner that is unique for your community. But this only works if it is a community-driven program.”
Villanueva encouraged the community to apply for this program.
Moapa Town Advisory Board member Cally Wade pointed out that Moapa town is looking for more economic development in its industrial section.
Anthony responded that he would like to link the community with GOED. “You can sit down and talk with them about what Moapa looks like, what is available there, so that when a company says they want to come to Nevada, they can hook you guys up.”
Washburn was pleased with how the tour went. “This community really made a lasting impression,” she said.
