Crowd airs concerns about flooding in neighborhood

Because of recent flooding in the area, officials aim to expedite the project to improve the Las Vegas Wash and Desert Rose golf course, originally slated to take five years.

At the first of three public meetings, a civil, but emphatic, crowd of about 100 people filled the multipurpose room of the Mendoza Elementary School on Wednesday to share concerns and ideas.

Many voiced concerns that echoed those of Burton Watts, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1989.

He felt improvements to washes and channels upstream have caused more water to flow rapidly to the neighborhood.

“I understand that when there were floods in the northwest a few years back, they had to fix things up there,” he said. “But when they do that, it ends up coming down here. We’ve never had flooding like we’ve had the last few years. Something has obviously changed. I’m not mad, I just want it fixed.”

Gale Fraser, general manager and chief engineer for the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, rebutted that the floods were caused by lining the dirt washes with concrete.

The new channels were designed to handle a 100-year flood.

“A hundred-year flood only means that there is one chance in 100 of it happening, not that there will only be one in every 100 years,” Fraser said. “If we’re particularly unlucky, we could have three 100-year floods in a season.”

Before and after the forum, residents clustered around displays, maps and charts while officials tried to address individual issues and point out where, and to what extent, flooding occurred in their neighborhood.

Several people pointed out places where flood channels had been clogged with debris.

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said that the county would look into the specific areas and that a policy to ensure channels were clear was needed.

Fraser said the goal is to complete the project by the end of 2015.

Detailed information about the project is available at www.LVWashProject.com.

Comments can be submitted to ProjectTeam@LVWashProject.com, by mail to Clark County Public Works, 500 S. Grand Central Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89155 or by contacting Commissioner Giunchigliani’s office at (702) 455-3503.