By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Members of the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce heard a detailed report on the ongoing downtown Overton project during a membership meeting held on Thursday evening, June 27 at the Overton Community Center.
About 50 people attended the meeting to hear the presentation given by Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) general manager Joe Davis.
The project began as a culinary water pipeline improvement project for the MVWD system to upgrade an old line and to bring the commercial district in compliance with current fireflow requirements.
Davis explained that in recent years, the district had punched more than 50 holes in the main street asphalt in order to repair water main breaks.
“We would go down and repair the line and put the patch in the pavement and no sooner were we done than another break would happen,” Davis said. “It was costing us a fortune in paving to fix it every time.”
Even so, the district was unable to replace the entire line mainly because of the high cost of paving the whole stretch, he said.
“If we put our $200,000 in to replace the piping, that was fine,” Davis said. “But then we would talk to NDOT and find that it would cost over $1 million in pavement. So the project was just unattainable.”
Davis said he finally had a conversation with County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick who was able to find $2.4 million in America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to help with the project. MVWD added its $240,000 for the pipeline. And in the end, Kirkpatrick convinced Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) to fund nearly $1 million to meet requirements they were imposing on the project, Davis said.
“Marilyn Kirkpatrick was instrumental in getting the project jumpstarted,” Davis said. “And also Mario Gomez from NDOT was fantastic about finding the other funding. We appreciate their help.”
Davis also expressed gratitude to the contractors on the project. These included local contractors Eagle View Construction and Wheeler Electric. “Eighty percent of the work has been done by local businesses,” he said. “They did a great job.”
Davis said that there had been a number of change orders submitted by the contractors during the project. However, these changes actually ended up bringing the cost of the project down rather than up.
“I have to commend Eagle View because this is the first project that I have ever seen where we had four or five change orders that drove the price down,” Davis explained. “We are actually about $160,000 under budget on it which is pretty phenomenal for a project like this.”
Davis noted that the traffic cones were still up last week because of required cure times on concrete which had been used around manholes and valve covers. But the cones had been removed by Monday morning.
“At that point the project will be substantially complete,” Davis said. “There will just be a few punchlist items left.”
Davis noted that, in addition to the needed pipeline replacement, the project also included adding landscaped curb bumpouts, adding bike lanes and narrowing travel lanes and turn lanes to eight feet wide.
“Those are all considered to be traffic safety features,” Davis said. “It has been found to slow down traffic because the road is not as wide. That will be good.”
The project will also include flashing signs which display the speed of traffic as it passes by. “Those are on backorder and it will be another five weeks before they get here,” Davis said. “But they should help keep travel speeds under control as well.”
Davis also broached the topic of the controversial Red Push Pistache trees that had been planted along the main street as part of the project.
“I have taken a lot of flack on those,” he said. “Everybody wanted to know why MVWD is investing in trees and landscaping. But that was county funding to beautify downtown, increase walkability in our business district and bring economic development. That was the angle that Marilyn (Kirkpatrick) really wanted to cover.”
Davis said that, although the trees have appeared to be distressed in the summer heat, it takes a couple of years for them to take hold and thrive in the new location.
A total of 18 trees were planted and only one of the trees have been lost to the heat, while another one is really struggling, he said.
“There was a lot of thought and effort put into choosing these trees,” Davis said. “They are very drought tolerant and will use less water in a year than a single residence will use in a month.”
The trees are non-intrusive. Their roots grow straight down so they won’t damage sidewalks or water lines, Davis said.
“Give them about three years and they will be a beautiful addition to downtown,” Davis said.
Part of the project was also to install an empty electrical conduit along the street. While the project didn’t yet have funding to string wire through the conduit, Davis said that he expects funding to be found for that in the near future.
“That way we can wrap the trees with holiday lights and maybe put some decoration on the poles to make things more festive down there,” Davis said. “Once this project is finished, it will be just finding a little more funding to make that happen.”
