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The July 4th shows went on in northeast Clark County commu-nities on Saturday evening, de-spite tight COVID-19 restrictions which made Independence Day celebrations difficult.

Community fireworks displays were seen in the skies over both Moapa Valley and Mesquite on Saturday night, to the delight of local residents. But traditional July 4th festivities in both com-munities were sized down to a bare minimum.

Moapa Valley festivitiesAt the Logandale Fairgrounds,

where a full day of July 4th fes-tivities are customary each year, only the evening fireworks show was held. The gates to the Fair-grounds were kept locked and access to the large lawn area was restricted to prevent too many people gathering in one area.

But residents assembled for the show on tailgates and camp chairs around their cars in the west park-ing lot of the fairgrounds. By 8:30 pm, as the sun set, around 100 ve-hicles were spread out across the parking lot with families comply-ing with social distance require-ments.

The evening began with a flag-raising ceremony completed by members of the VFW Elwood

July 4th in a social-distanced world

By AMY DAVIS &VERNON ROBISONThe Progress

AMY DAVIS / The Progress

Fireworks light up the night skies over Mesquite during the annual “Rockets Over The Red Mesa” display put on by the Eureka Resort on Sat-urday night, July 4.

VERNON ROBISON / The Progress

The Richens family of Logandale gets ready for the annual fireworks show at the Logandale Fairgrounds on Saturday. Pictured l to r are Robby, Alyssa, Randy, James and Anya Richens. See Fireworks on page 3A

School Organizational Teams (SOTs) in Moapa Valley scram-bled last week to come up with plans for starting the school year amid an array of complex COVID-19 restrictions.

These teams, which include school administrators, teachers, staff, parents and community members, spent multiple hours last week drafting alternatives to a restart plan proposed by Clark County School District (CCSD) administrators in Las Vegas on Thursday, June 25.

“We have heard from our parents who are very unhappy with the CCSD plan,” said Hal Mortensen who is principal of both Moapa Valley High School and Ute Perkins Elementary School in Moapa. “But because our rural schools are smaller than schools in the city, we feel like we can do more for our kids than that, while still adhering to the so-cial distancing mandates from the CDC and the state. That is what we are working towards”

CCSD Central planThe CCSD plan, presented on

June 25, is set to come before the Board of Trustees for a final deci-sion on Thursday, July 9.

The plan would have students attending school for face-to-face instruction only two days per week. The other three weekdays would be spent doing distance learning at home.

All grade levels would be di-vided into three cohorts. The first of these would attend live classes at school on Monday and Tues-day. The second would attend classes on Thursday and Friday. A third cohort would be offered to students wishing to opt out of face-to-face class time altogether and, instead, do distance learning full time.

The maximum capacity for the average CCSD classroom at any given time would be about 18 stu-dents, according to the plan.

Face coverings and 6-feet so-cial distancing would be required for students, teachers and school staff.

Local reactionThe release of the CCSD plan

set off a firestorm of parent frus-tration. Many parents insist that two days per week of live inter-action with teachers in class is not enough.

Many remember the failure of “distance learning” employed during the final quarter of last school year and are doubtful about the effectiveness of dis-tance learning being proposed for half of the week in the CCSD plan.

Interestingly, many parents are also adamantly opposed to requir-ing school children to wear face masks. For many this has become a non-negotiable.

“I think that may be the number one concern I am hearing from parents,” said Grant Bowler Ele-mentary School SOT Chairwom-an Erin Francom. “There are a lot who have said they simply will not send their kids back to school if they have to wear a mask.”

All of these elements together

SOTs work quickly on

alternatives to CCSD planBy VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

See SOT Plans on page 5A

A nuclear reactor vessel from southern California’s decommis-sioned San Onofre Nuclear Gen-erating Station slowly made it’s way through the Coyote Springs Valley on Monday, June 29.

At about 5:30 am the convoy left the Apex Industrial Park in North Las Vegas. The 770-ton load on a 122-foot-long trailer powered by six heavy-duty Class 8 trucks began its one-way, 400-mile trip to a disposal site in the desert in Clive, Utah.

Lumbering down the north-bound US Highway 93 at only

4 to 6 miles per hour, the con-voy didn’t pass the State High-way 168 interchange at Coyote Springs Golf Course at around 5:30 pm that evening.

The vessel’s trip to Utah be-gan on May 24, 2020, when the 770-ton low-level reactor vessel left southern California on the world’s largest rail car, a 40-year-old, 36-axle Schnabel car weigh-ing 2.2 million pounds. (It is be-lieved that this was the rail car’s last load.)

Once the load arrived at Apex, it took a couple of weeks for cranes to lift the reactor from

Spent nuclear reactor passes on its way to disposalBy CHARLENE PAUL

The Progress

CHARLENE PAUL / The ProgressA huge convoy carrying a low-level nuclear reactor is making its way through Nevada. Last week it passed through the Coyote Springs Val-ley via U.S. Highway 93. See Reactor on page 2A

A Mesquite off-road club is making an effort to help neigh-bors who are in need. From now until July 29, the Kokopelli ATV Club of Mesquite, NV is hosting a food drive to benefit the Mesquite Food Bank.

The club has contacted the food bank to learn what items are most needed. These include donations of peanut butter, cere-al, and ready to eat canned foods (ie SpaghettiOs, raviolis, canned soups, meats, etc). Of course, the food bank will happily accept any non-perishable food items.

Cash donations are also appreci-ated and can be sent via PayPal to Kokopelliatvclub@gmail.com.

Food donations can be dropped off at C&J Shutters, Blinds and Flooring at 550 W. Pioneer Blvd, Ste 116.

The COVID-19 business re-strictions have put many Mes-quite residents out of work. The Mesquite Food Bank has been in high demand and is in constant need of donations to help these people.

“With all the things that been happening the last few months, a lot of people are hurting,” says

Kokopelli ATV Club hosts local food driveBy AMY DAVIS

The Progress

Photo courtesy of Dominic Oliveto

The Kokopelli ATV Club of Mesquite is holding a food drive to benefit the Mesquite Food Bank. The drive will continue until July 29. See Food Drive on page 3A

2A • Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The PROGRESS

LOCAL MERCHANTS ARE STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Despite the COVID-19 shutdown, local business owners have been doing all they can to serve their communities.

NEVER HAS IT BEEN MORE VITAL TO SHOW THEM SUPPORT!

KEEP LOCAL BUSINESS ALIVE

A MESSAGE FROM THE

the train car and put it on a 45-axle, 180-tire trailer for the trip to northern Utah.

Experts with the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) worked long and hard to ensure that the state’s roads wouldn’t be damaged as the load passes through.

Two railway tunnels east of Caliente along with rock outcrop-pings that are too tight to allow the reactor to be shipped by rail

to Salt Lake City and then on to Clive, made travel on the high-way a necessity.

“It would be, by far, the big-gest object ever moved on a road in [Nevada],” said NDOT spokes-man Tony Illia. “Our people have been scratching their heads for months to figure out a route that could work. It won’t move until the transportation department is-sues a permit 24 hours before hit-ting the highway.”

“The record-sized move over state highways marks the culmi-nation of over a year of planning and coordination across three states,” Illia said. “At 2.4 million total pounds, it’s the heaviest load to ever cross Nevada roadways.”

Making such a massive ship-ment in summer months is a much bigger issue than it would be in colder months. Asphalt or other road surfaces could easily buckle under the over 1.5-mil-lion-pound reactor plus a ship-ping skid that adds seven tons to the total weight. For the load to be transported safely, drainage struc-tures along the way needed to be reinforced.

“The structures would get crushed like a soda can because the load is so heavy,” said Illia. “Heavy equipment operators with Emmert International [among the world’s biggest movers of heavy equipment] plan to use heavy-du-ty hydraulic jacks to support cul-verts when the vehicle hauling the

reactor passes over.”To keep the load off Interstate

15 and Interstate 80, the travel route will follow U.S. Highway 93 and State Route 318 before crossing into Utah.

Interestingly, the route passes by the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. The mountain was to be the nation’s nuclear waste repository, but the plan was terminated in 2008 amid a polit-ical battle over its safety. When the San Onofre plant is complete-ly dismantled, all of its low-level waste will be buried in Utah.

The extreme weight of the su-per-load is dispersed across 460 total tires to prevent damage to state roads and bridges. Pilot cars and Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) vehicles are escorting the rig. The full convoy is almost two miles long, including extra trucks, mechanics, and project managers. Because of the weight, travel av-erages four to six miles per hour, and the 400-mile trip is estimated to take eight days.

On the first day of the trip, the convoy stopped at the Coyote Springs turn-off on Highway 93. On July 1, the convoy stopped just south of Alamo, Nevada, and did not travel from July 2 through July 5 to minimize impacts on travel over the Fourth of July hol-iday weekend.

Mobile messaging signs will be used to inform drivers of de-lays and detours.

Reactorfrom page 1A

The annual “Fun Factor” for kids got its start last week at the Moapa Town Rec Center. The summer day camp put on by local Parks and Rec staff, had strong attendance, despite the face-cov-ering and other social distancing requirements.

This year, the program drew 22 kids from Moapa, Logandale and Overton for a two-day-per-week experience at games, exploration and other activities.

On Wednesday last week, the kids had the opportunity to cool off and play in the water at the Moapa Park splash pad.

For many kids, the camp has provided a much-needed escape from sitting at home, watching TV and playing video games.

Ten-year-old Toby Wood’s fa-vorite activity this year has been playing dodgeball. When asked what he would be doing if he wasn’t at the camp, he said, “sit-ting at home doing nothing.”

Toby speaks through a large camouflage piece of fabric he uses as a face covering. He talk-ed about the noticeable changes that had been made to the pro-gram since he attended last year’s camp. These included new volun-teers and different games.

Interestingly there was no mention of any of the COVID-19

mandates. For these kids, the face masks, social distancing re-quirements and the requirement to take a break every 30 to 45 minutes to wash their hands has not taken away from their fun.

The camp is for children ages 6 through 12. But only the kids aged 10 and older must wear a face covering. All children from different households must prac-ticing social distancing.

During a break, the kids sit on the bleachers apart from one an-other, enjoying popsicles. Jacob Dominguez, a 14-year-old vol-unteer who helps lead the camp, said that the virus precautions are worth the fun. He echoed To-by’s statement that he would be

“Fun Factor” camp starts in MoapaBy JAMIE BAKER

Moapa Valley Progress

JAMIE BAKER / The Progress

Kids at the “Fun Factor” program in Moapa get to spend time cooling off at the Splash Pad at Moapa Park last week.

home “sitting home all bored” if it wasn’t for this year’s “Fun Fac-tor.”

Jacob said that his mother en-couraged him to take the volun-teer position setting up games and helping the kids. “Hopefully, next year, I’ll be able to get a job here,” he said.

The mother of one camp par-ticipant, six-year-old Dahani, ex-plained how her son’s attendance at “Fun Factor” has given the two new things to talk about in the evenings after camp.

“This gives me time to get my errands done,” said Dahani’s mother, Angel. “And he has some creative fun instead of just being in the house bored.”

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Members of the VFW Elwood Perkins Post 8336 prepare for the fla-graising ceremony that opened the community fireworks display on Saturday night. Pictured l to r are local veterans Bryant Robison, Dar-cy Bushman, Larry Griffiths and Joe Perez.

Gary and Vannette Christensen are all set up for a great July 4th fireworks display at the Logandale Fairgrounds on Saturday night.

VERNON ROBISON / The Progress

Perkins Post #8336. This was fol-lowed by the pledge of allegiance and a prayer led by the VFW Post Chaplain Larry Griffiths.

Audio for these proceedings, as well as the music for the fire-works display was broadcast over an FM radio station which could be received clearly by residents listening within a one-mile radius of the Fairgrounds.

July 4th Committee chairwom-an Lori Houston announced the recipients of two traditional an-nual awards.

This year’s Moapa Valley Pride Award went to Moapa Valley Fire District Chief Stephen Neel.

“Steve was instrumental last year in separating the fire district off from the county’s oversight and it has made a huge differ-ence,” Houston said. “This year, when we thought we weren’t go-ing to have a fireworks show be-cause of a change to county codes, Steve and County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick jumped into action and pushed for a waiver that put us back in business.”

The 2020 Moapa Valley Ser-vice award went to Logandale resident Larry Griffiths.

“Larry is involved in every-thing from JustServe, to MVRP, to the monthly Mobile Food Bank; and he even organized COVID-19 testing for the com-munity,” Houston said. “He has done just a tremendous amount to help and serve our community.”

To open the fireworks show, the National Anthem was performed by father-daughter duo Rick

Houston and Alicia Silva. Then the annual tradition of Moapa Valley fireworks lit up the skies.

Rockets over MesquiteThe City of Mesquite was

treated to a spectacular free fire-works show by the Eureka Casino Resort on Saturday night. The an-

nual show, en-titled “Rockets Over the Red Mesa,” was just as brilliant and patriotic as ever.

But this event was also pared down to its bare essentials. The usual all-Ameri-can buffet could not be served this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. In

addition, the traditional street fair for local non-profits was not held.

Perhaps most disappointing was the cancellation of the Ne-vada Pops orchestra concert that has customarily gone along with this event. For the first time in 10 years, the orchestra was not in at-tendance.

“We sure miss having them here,” said Gerri Chasko, Man-ager of Resort Services. “We usu-ally have the Pops come and all kinds of other things going on. But this year, people were still able to come, park in our park-ing lots and watch the firework show.”

The fireworks began at 9 PM with accompanying recorded music broadcast on an FM radio station.

Firework shows were can-celled and even banned in many surrounding states due to a sum-mer-time spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

When asked how it felt for the Eureka family of employees to be providing a little bit of normality

in a world full of turmoil, Chasko said, “It’s the Eureka Way. It is just what we do.”

Fireworksfrom page 1A

Kokopelli Club President Domi-nic Oliveto. “One of our mem-bers ran into a friend in need who told him that the food bank was really low. I put the idea before the club to do this food drive and the members all gave a resound-ing YES! Let’s do it!”

Oliveto explained that a lot of the Kokopelli membership are snowbirds or come from Califor-nia. These people are customarily gone during the summer.

But the club put out a message to these out-of-towners asking them to help out and send cash donation that could be used to buy food.

“Within minutes, several of the California membership had already hit send on Paypal, do-nating $100 each,” Oliveto said. “We have some truly great people within our membership.”

The Kokopelli ATV Club is under new management since last year. One of the club’s goals is to get more involved in the commu-nity.

“We received a grant from

HOV and have worked to create signage for trails so that people know where they are going,” Oliveto said.

“We are also trying to work with the Bureau of Land Manage-ment to try and improve some of the roads between Mesquite and Moapa so that we can go and eat at Sugar’s more often,” Oliveto added with a chuckle. “If I could, I would drive to Sugar’s every week on our outings to eat.”

The Kokopelli ATV Club meets once a month for dinner and a meeting on the first Thurs-day of the month. Their Facebook page has meeting info: “Kokopel-li ATV Club of Mesquite, NV” for interested parties. They try to plan two rides a month, though members often ride more than that.

The Kokopelli ATV Club has a mission to represent, assist, edu-cate, and promote enthusiasts in the protection and promotion of off highway motorized recreation. They promote the responsible use and conservation of public lands and natural resources to preserve their aesthetic and natural quali-ties for future generations.

Food Drivefrom page 1A

Section A • Page 4 Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The PROGRESS

OpinionOpinion

JZR Communications Company, LLC

www.mvprogress.comOpinion desk 702-397-6246Email: editor@mvprogress.com

Publisher/EditorVernon Robison

JZR Communications Company, LLC

www.mvprogress.comOpinion desk 702-397-6246Email: editor@mvprogress.com

Publisher/EditorVernon Robison

–The views expressed on the Opinion page are those of the individual author indicated.

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From our readers....Let Your Voice Be Heard

As we here in the United States celebrated our independence and the many freedoms we enjoy - as we take pride in the Constitution with its lofty goals and promises, may we also open our hearts and minds to hear the truth of our past and our present.

If we forget our history, if we tear it down and throw it away as if we have learned nothing from our past mistakes, then we are destined to repeat the mistakes in the future.

Peaceful protest is a right writ-ten into our Constitution. Where windows are broken, private businesses are looted and set ablaze and physical violence is perpetrated on innocent citizens, this is NOT peaceful protest but criminal behavior to be punished as such.

Black Lives Matter is now a ‘front’ for those seeking to de-stroy our nation and our way of life. It has been hijacked. Pull it

up on your computer and read their goals. It will stun and alarm you. It is deep and wide, well funded and well disguised, and very effective as we have seen.

The ‘mob’ says they are seek-ing justice. They are not! They are seeking to cause chaos by de-valuing and down-grading the values and principles that have made our country ‘great’ because it is good; moral values, personal responsibility and common sense.

Those who know God’s truth will see through this charade. No ‘paint job’ can disguise it. No rhetoric can defend it.

What we need to do is speak up against this assault. Call your congress-people. Call the gover-nor, the mayor, the city council, the county commissioners. Let them know we will not support inaction for illegal behavior. Our voices need to be as loud as the mob.

Jeanne Crayton

So, I'm accidentally watching the Sunday news, and I hear that homelessness is a systemic "soci-etal failure."

This is the first I'm hearing that the five times I was completely homeless, it was through no fault of my own...at all. The local so-cial structure had done that to me.

Somehow, my decision to leave where I was sheltered, but abused and sad, is now being lifted from me and dumped onto you, the un-suspecting public. And I suppose that, as a "homed" person, I have now become a part of the prob-lematic society.

For me, in those sadder times, I

fell within the "vagrancy" codes: unable to prove physical means of support. Or, money in my pocket, but no job. Some place to "be" at night, but no address.

It was easy for them to use my vagrant status to pick me up for "suspicion." So I got several trips to city jail to be fed and sheltered for 72 hours at a time.

People complained about the food in there, but it was food and it was three times every day. The cement bench was cold, but as long as you stayed still, you could warm up your spot.

Under the Table

As a Marine Corps Veteran and a retired 27 year police offi-cer, I know what it means to give up some freedoms for the better good of the community.

So instead of griping about having been asked to wear a mask while in public, perhaps Dr. Mo-ses should be asking himself: "Can I make this small sacrifice on behalf of me fellow country men?" (No One Asked Me But...The Progress: 7/1/20).

After all as John F. Kennedy

said at his inauguration, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country".

Maybe if you, and me, and more of our fellow Americans had been willing to comply with this very small request, some of our neighbors might not be sick with COVID; and others may still be alive.

Scott Sangberg

Sometimes sacrifices are necessary

See Letter on page 5A

No One Asked Me But...By DR. LARRY MOSES

No One Asked Me But…In 2016, the Nevada State Legisla-ture, under pressure from vari-ous parent groups began to look at the possibility of breaking the Clark County School District into smaller more manageable units. The 2017 Legislative session came and went with no action taken other than the forming of a legislative committee to ex-plore the possibility of breaking up CCSD. This proved the axiom that committees are “where good ideas go to die.”

The chairman of the legislative committee opened the first com-mittee session with the statement that the purpose of his committee was “not to study the break-up of the District but to reorganize the District under guidelines that would ensure more local school control and input from the parents within specific school zones.”

With that limitation in mind, a large number of educators, businessmen, mayors, and par-ents were assigned to legislative committees and sub-committees to design a plan to “reorganize” Clark County School District making it more responsive to lo-cal demands.

After two years of meetings, plans, and millions of dollars for expert advice; and in the face of fanatical opposition from the CCSD Board of School Trust-ees and Central administration; a number of reforms were placed into law. These can be found col-lecting dust in NRS 388G.510-NRS 388G. 800.

Having lost his dictatorial pow-ers the CCSD Superintendent; who had depicted himself in testi-mony before various committees as a “benevolent dictator;” took his generous retirement package rather than complying with a law that, if enforced, would limit those dictatorial powers.

This required the hiring of a new superintendent, who appar-ently did not believe the law ap-plied to him. He was hired by an elected school board that appar-ently cannot read.

The new Superintendent im-mediately organized his Central Office in a form that openly and directly violated NRS 388G. The Superintendent and the Board were politically astute enough to get the law changed to allow for the re-establishment of the dicta-torial central office form of gov-ernance.

While CCSD central office personnel set about destroying the effects of the reorganization,

returning all powers to the Cen-tral Office, a pandemic occurred. Governor Sisolak mandated that all Nevada schools must close immediately.

One must keep in mind that nei-ther the CCSD Board of School Trustees, nor the CCSD Super-intendent, closed the schools of Clark County. The Governor did. Sisolak took on the role of the school board for all nineteen county school districts. His ap-pointed State Superintendent of Public Instruction became a state-wide superintendent of all state school districts.

The elected School Board of Trustees, who cost CCSD approx-imately three quarters of a million dollars each year, can no longer make decisions not approved by the State Superintendent of Public instruction. The Superin-tendent of CCSD, who costs the district over one-half a million dollars a year, must submit any plans he has for the reopening of the schools to the non-elected State Superintendent for approv-al. The poetic justice in this is that this is exactly how CCSD Central Office personnel has been treating the local administrators for the last couple of decades.

I don’t know if anyone realiz-es or cares that the local school boards and superintendents are presently expensive window dressing, giving the illusion that there is local control of the schools.

Superintendent Jesus Jara has stated that his current plan to re-open the schools is not what he would consider the best. It is merely the plan he believes he can get approved by the State Su-perintendent.

How about the Board and the Superintendent show some real leadership and come up with their best plan and put it into operation whether the Governor and his minions agree or not?

We elected a school board and they have hired a man to run our schools. We did not elected the Governor and his appointee to dictate how our schools should open.

There are those who would say, “Wait! The state finances our lo-cal schools.”

Let me assure you that local school taxes are more important as they supply two-thirds of the almost $16,000 per student it takes to run the schools of Clark County. I also would suggest the Governor cannot afford a food fight with Clark County as the taxes from Clark County funds over two-thirds of the state bud-get.

If local governmental leader-ship backed the school board and the local superintendent, I believe the King in Carson City would fold like a cheap suit.

There are three options that I see can develop from this state take over. One option is to go to a full state-wide school district much as they do in Hawaii.

Hawaii has approximately 190,000 public school students in its schools which are governed by a state-wide school district.

The state of Nevada has ap-proximately 450,000 students. Out of those 450,000 students ap-proximately 410,000 are located in Clark and Washoe Counties. The other 40,000 some-odd are found in the rural counties of Ne-vada.

Keep in mind there are at least four school districts in the United States larger than CCSD. Over 1.1 million students attend the New York City public schools. There are 600,000 students in the Los Angeles city schools.

This might indicate that the State of Nevada could eliminate the cost of 19 school superinten-dents and school boards and cen-tral office personnel by going to a state-wide school system.

I am not suggesting that this is a good idea. As many of you know, I was directly involved in the failed attempt to localize education through a break-up of CCSD. I still support more local-ly managed districts. I truly be-lieve any school with more than 800-1000 students loses its abil-ity to personalize the educational opportunities for the students. I believe the local citizens know best what is educationally sound for their students.

I must disagree with Dr. Jara. Not all schools must be the same. Equal educational opportunity is not the ideal goal - equitable edu-cation should be the goal. The ef-fort should be “whatever it takes and no excuses.”

For some students it takes more effort and funding to reach their maximum potential. That is the difference between equal and eq-uitable.

However, what I believe will happen when the pandemic is no longer of political benefit, and de-clared over: we will revert right back to the leadership model (or lack thereof) that has led the State of Nevada to the bottom of the educational ladder.

Thought of the week… “If you always do what you’ve al-ways done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

― Henry Ford

The PROGRESS Wednesday, July 8, 2020 • 5A

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I was there often enough to make friends with the desk per-sonnel, and some of the matrons.

I sometimes got to stay in the "rack" on my middle day, com-plete with blanket. To sleep, per-haps to dream.

The only problem was that the third day sometimes end-ed at 12:05 just past midnight. And with a fresh discharge, they wouldn't put you back in for a while.

I'm probably the only one you know, who has slept safely under-neath an overpass. At least I hope I am.

Each time I was homeless, it didn't last very long because I make friends easily. Two differ-ent times, I became "homed" by sleeping under someone's dining table. Nobody will step on you under there, and they'll let you clean up after breakfast if you ask.

Esther Ramos

Letterfrom page 4A

have caused many Moapa Valley parents to look for other options for the education of their children. Looking at various home-school-ing options, parents have threat-ened to leave the CCSD once and for all.

SOT plansWith the real threat of this mass

exodus at the top of mind, local school administrators and SOTs worked hard last week to devel-op alternatives that would satisfy parents, CCSD and state require-ments.

The SOTs were given hope in this effort by a single, brief state-ment made at the June 25 Trustee meeting. In response to a parent inquiry about special consider-ations being made for smaller ru-ral schools, CCSD Deputy Super-intendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell responded, “Looking at the health and safety of our students and our staff, we will have to look at that on a case by case basis.”

That opened the door for lo-cal principals and SOTs to start developing possible alternatives. The teams felt an urgency to sub-mit their plans before the Trustee meeting on Thursday.

Coming up with an alterna-tive for Ute Perkins Elementa-ry was the quickest and easiest. Mortensen said that the student count at Perkins is already small enough that the school could go back to a full five-day week, all while meeting the required social distancing guidelines.

“We have just over 100 kids at the school, so with a little bit of rearranging things, we could just go back to school as normal,” Mortensen said.

At MVHS, an alternative plan is not quite as easy; but still pos-sible, Mortensen said.

That plan would have all stu-dents return to school for a four-day week. The fifth day would be left open to allow for deep clean-ing of the building.

The MVHS student body would be divided into three co-horts. Cohort A would receive live classroom instruction for two class periods in the morning between 7:15 and 10:05. During that time Cohort B would be en-gaged in distance learning. Su-pervised Learning Centers would be available on campus to assist in that process. After a staggered lunch period which would allow for classrooms to be sanitized, the cohorts would switch off for the rest of the school day.

Like the CCSD plan, a third cohort would be available to stu-dents who preferred to only do online learning from home.

Plans formulating at Mack

Lyon Middle School were similar with a four-day school week. The students would also be divided into cohorts experiencing similar periods of live classroom instruc-tion for core subjects, alternated with distance education in super-vised learning centers for subjects like health, computers and other electives.

Creating an alternative plan for Grant Bowler Elementary presented the greatest challenge. With a school population of 670, similar in size to urban elementa-ry schools, the Bowler facility is simply not big enough to accom-modate all of the students in a daily session, while allowing for social distancing.

But the Bowler SOT, spent four separate meetings last week looking at outside-the-box possi-bilities.

One of these was drafted by Bowler teacher Kim Mills. It would divide the school into morning and afternoon cohorts. Each cohort would come to school for a half day, four days per week. A brief period during the lunch hour would allow for classrooms to be sanitized before the afternoon cohort came in.

The other half of daily instruc-tion time would be done by dis-tance learning at home.

The all distance learning com-ponent would also be offered for families not comfortable with sending their children to school.

By the clock, this plan offers roughly the same classroom in-struction time as the CCSD pro-posal. But both parents and teach-ers in the SOT liked it better.

“I just feel better about seeing my students more often,” said Bowler fifth grade teacher Car-oline Delafrance at a SOT meet-ing last week. “I think it is better than only two days of instruction and then I don’t see them for five days.”

Obstacles and DrawbacksBut there are problems and

weaknesses to all of these plans. At Bowler, one of the ma-

jor obstacles is having adequate staffing. Bowler principal Shaw-na Jessen said that, in order to have enough teachers to carry out the half-day plan and remain in compliance with labor contracts, about a third of the students would have to opt out of live classroom learning and instead opt into the all-online option.

“I’d hate to have to tell my kids and parents that we have to winnow out a third of them to dis-tance ed to make this work at all,” Jessen said.

In addition, the change in Bowler’s schedule would cause almost insurmountable problems with bus transportation, Jessen said. “We have only nine bus-

es in the valley to serve all four schools,” Jessen said. “So it is a pretty delicately balanced sched-ule that is very hard to mess with.”

Finally, Jessen feared that the schedule might not allow enough time for sanitizing the classrooms each day between sessions.

“I want to explore every option if we can find a workable solu-tion,” Jessen finally told her SOT in a meeting on Friday morning. “I want to help our parents feel more comfortable about this. But there still are a lot of obstacles here that we just can’t address. I’m hearing a lot of passion, but we still don’t have a workable plan.”

Acknowledging this, SOT members determined to, at least, submit to trustees a list of priori-ties and concepts that they would like to see incorporated into the final district plan next week.

“I know that is not ideal, but we owe it to parents to at least exhaust every option and submit our wishes to the district,” said Francom. “We don’t want to just not try.”

None of the local plans could get around parents’ strong con-cerns about requiring face cov-erings for students during school days. But principals pointed out that the mask policies were still not yet finalized. Just how much of the school day that masks would be required, and whether younger children would have to wear the masks at all, were still undetermined, they said.

“There is a lot that is still un-certain and we have to remember that it is all a temporary plan to start with,” Mortensen said. “For now, let’s just get school open and then fight those battles when they come.”

Consequences of mass exodusAnd what happens if local par-

ents decide to pull their kids out of public school in large quanti-ties? Principals respond that it would simply decimate the staff and programs at their schools.

“The reality is for me that I get budgeted by the pupil,” said Jes-sen. “So if parents decide to take kids out of CCSD, we lose staff and teachers. That would basical-ly up-end any plans that we are working so hard to make.”

Mortensen said that roughly each 30 students lost from enroll-ment would result in the loss of

one teacher from the school staff. “In a small school like ours,

it is likely we don’t just lose a teacher, but we lose a program,” Mortensen said.

Which teacher is lost from a school often depends on who has least seniority in a department. For example, English and Theatre teacher Kenna Higgins joined the MVHS faculty just last year. She might be one of the first to go should the school have to cut a position.

Higgins said that she has been concerned to see so much parent dialog on social media threaten-ing to pull kids out of the district.

“Of course, I want to stay teaching here at MVHS,” Hig-gins said. “But it is more than just about me. It is about great school programs like Theatre, Chorus, Orchestra and others that are in jeopardy here. Those things could be lost. And, chances are they won’t ever come back. That

would be a shame.”MVHS English/Media teacher

Kim Hardy, who is also a member of the SOT agreed. “The idea of home-schooling is a great knee-jerk reaction for parents,” Hardy said. “But the schools give a lot to the culture of the community in so many ways. And decisions like that could decimate the schools here. So I think parents need to consider whether a decision to make a point to CCSD is worth that. At least, I’d hope they would contact CCSD and the Trustees to let them know how they are feel-ing first.”

Jessen also urged parents to carefully consider such impactful decisions. “I just hope my par-ents won’t make that decision too quickly, at least give us a chance,” she said. “We are still working on things. Let us try to make the best of what we are given. If it turns out to be terrible, then I guess they can do their thing.”

SOT plansfrom page 1A

6A • Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The PROGRESS

ABBOTT SERVICESABBOTT SERVICESALLSTATE AUTO GLASSALLSTATE AUTO GLASSBOYCE INCBOYCE INCBULLDOG EVICTIONS & NOTARYBULLDOG EVICTIONS & NOTARYCAL’S REPAIR CENTER & UHAULCAL’S REPAIR CENTER & UHAULCLARK COUNTY PARKS AND RECREATIONCLARK COUNTY PARKS AND RECREATIONCLEA’S MOAPA VALLEY REALTY, LLCCLEA’S MOAPA VALLEY REALTY, LLCFARMERS INSURANCE KAREN ALSUM AGENCYFARMERS INSURANCE KAREN ALSUM AGENCYFIDELITY NATIONAL TITLEFIDELITY NATIONAL TITLEFIREWORKS SPECIALIST ELWIN BROWNFIREWORKS SPECIALIST ELWIN BROWNFIT PHYSICAL THERAPYFIT PHYSICAL THERAPYFORMOST REALTY INC.FORMOST REALTY INC.JENSEN APPRAISELJENSEN APPRAISELJIM’S TOTAL POOL SERVICEJIM’S TOTAL POOL SERVICEKASEN KOLHOSS REALTORKASEN KOLHOSS REALTORLAW POWERSPORTSLAW POWERSPORTSLEAVITT APPLIANCE REPAIR LEAVITT APPLIANCE REPAIR LEGACY ROCK INC.LEGACY ROCK INC.

On behalf of Clark County Parks and Recreation and the Moapa Valley Area Independence Day committee;

we would like to thank the following companies and individuals for their hard work, service and dedication to making this year’s 4th of July Celebration possible!

THANK YOU MOAPA VALLEY!THANK YOU MOAPA VALLEY!

LOGANDALE STORAGE & UHAULLOGANDALE STORAGE & UHAULLORI HOUSTON REALTORLORI HOUSTON REALTORMARK’S HANDYMAN SERVICESMARK’S HANDYMAN SERVICESMOAPA VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MOAPA VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MOAPA VALLEY CHIROPRACTICMOAPA VALLEY CHIROPRACTICMOAPA VALLEY FIRE DISTRICTMOAPA VALLEY FIRE DISTRICTMOAPA VALLEY MORTUARYMOAPA VALLEY MORTUARYMOAPA VALLEY PROGRESSMOAPA VALLEY PROGRESSMOAPA VALLEY MORTGAGEMOAPA VALLEY MORTGAGEMOAPA VALLEY REVITALIZATION PROJECTMOAPA VALLEY REVITALIZATION PROJECTMOAPA VALLEY ROTARY CLUBMOAPA VALLEY ROTARY CLUBMV HANDYMAN SERVICESMV HANDYMAN SERVICESMVTMVTO’DELL FAMILYO’DELL FAMILYOVERTON ACE HARDWAREOVERTON ACE HARDWAREOVERTON NAPA AUTO PARTSOVERTON NAPA AUTO PARTSOVERTON SELF STORAGEOVERTON SELF STORAGEPARTNERS IN CONSERVATIONPARTNERS IN CONSERVATION

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Thank you to everyone who we may have forgotten. We appreciate our amazing community. We appreciate our local businesses supporting this event every year. Thanks to everyone who helped, especially Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, the MV Fire District, Elwin Brown,

The VFW and VFW Auxiliary, and Lori Houston for making this celelebration one to remember!

***We are still accepting DONATIONS. You can drop off at Cal’s Repair, Clea’s MV Realty and Xtreme Stitch.

With a Hawaiian themed din-ner at the 1880 Grill in the Cones-toga Golf Club, both the Sunrise Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Mesquite joined together to celebrate and honor their 2019-20 club officers and present awards.

The festive atmosphere and the ladies dressed in their Aloha Best helped make it a fun evening. The guys were comfortable in their Hawaiian-look shorts and hats.

Deb Parsley and Rick Tuttle were the outgoing Presidents. Together they conducted the pro-gram. Awards were handed out to outstanding members of both clubs.

Craig Peterson was announced as the new President for the Sun-rise Club. Rick Tuttle will return this year as President of the Rota-ry Club of Mesquite.

Keith Buchhalter, who is the Assistant to the Governor for Dis-trict 5300 did the honors of hand-ing out gifts for Past Presidents. Buchhalter, who is quite passion-ate about Rotary said, “Serving in

Rotary has changed my life!”Deb Parsley announced “the

Sunrise Club had accomplished their goal of all members becom-ing a Paul Harris Fellow, Yea.”

Monday, Rick Tuttle, and Keith Buchalter went to the Café “Table of Contents” at the Mesquite Li-brary, to Give Hugh McPherson and Gaylon Allen official Rotary shirts and deem them Honorary Friends of Rotary for their out-standing support for the Club.

Mesquite Rotary clubs celebrate year-end 2019-20By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

BOBBIE GREEN / The Progress

Deb Parsley and Rick Tuttle conduct Rotary End-of-Year celebration dinner and meeting.

During the program Tuttle went through the list of projects and fundraisers that the clubs

have participated in. There are 23 projects listed and three in-ternational projects. A sampling of these included working with the local food bank, the Buddy Bench Program, financial contri-butions to many non-profits and other special projects.

Tuttle gave a list of projects they hoped to accomplish for the coming year. These included In-ternational Polio Plus. Mesquite Food Bank, a scholarship pro-gram, Interact Club Shoe Box Project and Mesquite Victim and Advocacy Shelter to name a few. The monies raised help fund projects for Mesquite and Beaver Dam.

The Rotary Club of Mesquite usually holds three annual fund-raisers per year: Mudd Volleyball,

Glow in the Dark Golf Ball Drop and Glow Fun Run.

The Sunrise Rotary Club fund raisers include a Book Sale at the Library for the Read Mesquite project and an October Golf Tour-nament. Money from the fund-raisers for the Sunrise club goes for Scholarships and Camps for the local Mesquite students.

Both Clubs are inviting anyone wishing to be part of a service or-ganization in the community to know you are welcome in Rotary.

For information about the Ro-tary Club of Mesquite, which meets weekly at noon, contact Rick Tuttle at 907-230-2360. For information about the Sunrise Club, which meets weekly in the morning, contact Deb Parsley at 702-420-4494.

A new initiative that started with a trio of Moapa Valley wom-en has quickly picked up steam throughout the state. And its lo-cal founders say it is just getting started.

Religious Freedom Nevada got its start a couple of weeks ago. It was the brainchild of Moapa Valley residents Korindi Totten, Charlie Melvin and Erika Whit-more.

In an interview last week, Tot-ten explained that the idea had started as a simple call to action for Nevadans concerned with how religious freedoms have been treated throughout the state during the COVID-19 restric-tions.

Totten explained that the initia-tive seeks for the same autonomy to be granted to church leaders and congregations that state busi-nesses have already been given in managing the number of patrons while social distancing.

“Right now there is this ran-dom 50 person limit for atten-dance at churches,” Totten said.

“Meanwhile, casinos in the state can have way more than that number, within a 50 percent ca-pacity and other social distancing requirements. We just feel that should be the same for churches.”

Last week, the group sent a shout-out onto social media, call-ing on people to contact the office of Nevada Governor Steve Siso-lak urging that this autonomy be restored to churches in the state.

The group’s goal was to inspire a blitz of messages to the Gover-nor on July 1 and 2. Included in the group’s social media messag-ing was contact information for the Governor’s office by phone in both Las Vegas and Carson City, and also by email.

“We were very clear that we are not wanting to ask for an allow-ance to be reckless,” Totten said. “The social distancing require-ments are understandable and they should still be observed. But leaders and members of churches should be allowed to make their own decisions about church at-tendance within those guidelines without added random restric-tions that don’t exist elsewhere.”

The initiative gathered a lot of

Group seeks to protect religious freedomBy VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

attention. Totten said that, within just a few days, the social me-dia posts had reached more than 9,000 people and the Religious Freedom Nevada page on Face-book had garnered nearly 600 followers.

Totten said that there was real-ly no way to tell just how many calls and emails were sent to the Governor’s office. But she had heard from many people who had reached out to express their wish-es on the matter to the Governor.

“The Governor’s phone lines were pretty busy last week,” Tot-ten said. “Every time I tried to call the voicemail box was full. I heard that from a lot of other peo-ple as well. But a lot of us sent emails which is good. It puts our voices on record.”

Totten said that the effort is far from over. The group is now planning to hold a rally at a large non-denominational church in Las Vegas within the next few weeks. A date and location has not yet been set, she said.

Keep an eye on The Progress for more information as it be-comes available.

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Section B • Page 1 Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The PROGRESS

Valley LifeValley Life

The traditional Fourth of July events may not have been allowed this year due to social distancing mandates. But nothing could stop the Bunkerville water fight which took place on Friday, July 3 last week.

Due to the COVID-19 pan-demic, residents in the Bunker-ville community were disappoint-ed that they couldn’t participate in their usual Independence Day activities. But it was still safe to come out into the neighborhoods and face off across the streets for the town water balloon fight.

Typically the town’s 4th of July committee has major plans for their festivities. The day usually starts out with a pancake break-fast followed by a flag raising ceremony. A musical and historic

Bunkerville holds on to water fightBy CALLA HAVILAND

The Progress

CALLA HAVILAND/ The Progress

Bunkerville residents show pride in their country by displaying a flag as they launch water balloons at their neighbors from the back of their truck at the traditional community water fight held on Friday last week.See Water fight on page 2B

Another Pirate is going to work among the Bulldogs. Logandale resident Lacey Tom will begin making the commute to Mesquite this year to teach Virgin Valley High School students about agri-culture and leadership.

Tom is replacing Mrs. Jeri Lynn Benell as the VVHS Ag teacher and FFA advisor. Benell has retired after 10 years of teach-ing at VVHS.

“I am going to have some aw-fully big shoes to fill,” Tom said.

Benell assured her that she will do just fine.

“Benell started this program and taught music at the same time,” Tom said. “I mean she grew this program from nothing to 160 kids. So, like I said, these are some really big shoes to fill. So yeah, I am super nervous. But at the same time really excited be-cause it feels like coming home.”

Tom has been heavily involved with FFA her whole life. She did horse judging and was involved in leadership during her high school years at MVHS.

“I was in FFA down in Moapa,” Tom said. “I was chap-ter, zone, state and I went and got my American Degree for FFA as well. It has been like my back bone throughout my life.”

The American Degree is the highest level of degree one can achieve within the FFA program. Less than one percent of FFA members achieve this rank and it is presented at the National FFA Convention and Expo. Require-ments to achieve this degree are quite intensive and it is consid-ered one of the FFA’s highest honors.

Tom said her FFA specialty is parliamentary procedure, a rule that basically defines how a situa-tion is to be handled in legislature or other deliberative body. FFA encourages leadership develop-ment in students so they can learn how to effectively participate in things like business or board meetings. It encourages skills in research, problem-solving and critical thinking.

“I want to involve more of our community members; I re-ally want to engage them,” Tom said. “If there is an expert on a subject, I want to take the kids to hear them speak. We aren’t deal-ing with traditional agriculturalist here, so I would like to bring in more public speaking opportuni-ties for our kids.”

“No matter what industry you go into whether it be nursing or dentistry or working at the casino, you have to learn how to speak to people,” Tom added. “I feel like our Ag issues or marketing activi-ties will really help the kids learn how to communicate.”

Tom has hopes of interfacing with other programs that are al-ready in place at VVHS to build community. Among other things, she would love to grow food (or raise chickens for eggs) for the culinary program. She would also

New FFA teacher hired

at VVHS

By AMY DAVIS

The Progress

Photo courtesy of Makendie WilliamsLacey Tom

See FFA Teacher on page 2B

A new business opened doors to the public on Saturday, July 4. The American Gypsy, a new clothing store in downtown Over-ton held a grand opening at 9 am on Independence Day which in-cluded a ribbon cutting ceremony by the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“This is wonderful for our community to have another busi-ness here,” said Chamber Presi-dent Vanette Christensen said.

American Gypsy is owned and operated by locals, John and Jes-sica Whisenand.

“The business started up quick-

ly,” said John Whisenand. “Jessi-ca tried it out on Facebook and it just took off. We went from on-line only to looking around for a location for the store.”

The showroom, completely built by John and family, houses the Western-themed apparel busi-ness. It features a country design and look. The decorations, furni-ture and checkout register desk were all built by John; most of it from old items taken from farms around the community, recycled and used for a new purpose.

“It was Jessica’s idea and what she wanted,” John said. “We came up with ideas of using antique and vintage farm supplies and wood

New Overton store has July 4th openingBy NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

Photo courtesy of Lori Houston

John and Jessica Whisenand get ready to cut the ribbon for their new Western-themed clothing store called American Gypsy. The store opened on Saturday morning and is located at 123 E Thomas Ave in downtown Overton. See New Store on page 3B

Local veterans were given a special treat on Independence Day at Sugar’s Home Plate restaurant. The local home-town restaurant picked up the checks on breakfast and lunch for veterans on the great American holiday.

Restaurant owners Sugar and Judy Metz had announced earlier in the week that they would provide free meals to the first 50 veterans who came in the doors of the restaurant on Saturday.

They didn’t get the full planned 50 vets coming in for the free meal. About 30 had been served by the time the restaurant closed early at 5 pm on the holiday.

“I was happy with that,” said Judy

Metz. “It was wonderful that we could express our thanks to these servicemen and servicewomen for their heroism and sacrifice.”

Metz said that the restaurant is usually closed on Independence Day during the many community events throughout the day at the fairgrounds.

“But since all of those events were can-celled due to the pandemic, we decided to open up and celebrate the holiday in a dif-ferent way, by serving those who served us,” Metz said.

The restaurant was decorated in patri-otic colors and even the staff were dressed to impress for the Red, White, and Blue.

VFW Post 8336 Commander Darcy Bushman was enjoying the meal. “This is

Sugar’s Restaurant thanks veterans on the 4thBy NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

NICK YAMASHITA/ The Progress

Judy and Sugar Metz, of Sugar’s Homeplate Restau-rant in Overton, had a special treat for military vet-erans who came in the restaurant on July 4th. The restaurant picked up the tab during breakfast and lunch for veterans. See Veterans on page 2B

Kids in sneakers flocked to the Mesquite Rec Center to improve their basketball skills last week at a 4-day basketball camp put on by professional athlete Jonathan Loyd. Demand for the camp was high with only 10 spots available in each age group. The grade 7-10 age group started early, run-ning from 7-9 am. The younger 6 to 10-year-old group came later, from 9:30 to 10:30 am.

“Last summer I did a speed and agility camp, but this is the first time I have had access to the Rec Center to do a camp like this,” said Jonathan Loyd.

Loyd grew up in Las Vegas and played basketball at Bishop Gor-man High School where his team won a couple of state champion-ships.

“I was blessed,” he said of his high school career.

After high school, Loyd played

basketball for the University of Oregon. “I am a Duck at heart,” he said.

Loyd now plays professional basketball in Canada. Last year he played for the Island Storm

Mesquite basketball camp taught by pro playerBy AMY DAVIS

The Progress

AMY DAVIS The Progress

Professional basketball player Jonathan Loyd praises youngsters in the 6 to 10 year old age group during a basketball camp held last week in Mesquite.

based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. He is unsure what professional sports will look like in the coming year because of the worldwide COVID 19 Pandemic.

But Loyd was excited to make

an impact on the kids by holding this camp.

“I think these camps help instill a little discipline,” Loyd said. “It helps with following directions. These kids have to be able to be told something and then learn how to apply what they have been told. These are all great life skills. If you are good on the court (dis-cipline) you are going to be good off the court.”

“I just try to help them with their fundamentals and get the ba-sics down and let them create af-ter that,” Loyd added. “There are always little things you can do to get better, there are always little areas in which you can improve.”

The best thing about basketball camp is “the journey,” according to Loyd.

“The journey of seeing your-self improve every single day,” he explained.

“To the kids, the best thing

See Basketball on page 2B

2B • Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The PROGRESS

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ADDRESS ACRES PRICEMoapa Valley Blvd 0.64 $75,000775 Don Grady St 3.15 $75,000Liston 5.20 $79,000835 Deakin Way. 1.84 $80,000E. Leona Ave. 1.04 $82,000Hidden Hollow Cir 1.07 $89,000Heyer St. 4.33 $99,000Lewis 5.00 $100,000Ishimoto St. 3.88 $118,500N Saddle St. 4.22 $120,000N Saddle St. 3.94 $120,000Randall St. 1.43 $125,000Bryner Ave. 4.22 $139,000Ramos Ranch 2.30 $139,900Liston 10.00 $144,000720 Saddle St. OWC 4.20 $150,000Lewis 10.00 $150,000HWY 168 16.00 $165,000HWY 168 19.66 $349,000Stewart Hamilton 18.66 $395,000Mills 8.11 $399,000

ADDRESS ACRES PRICEVirgin River 3.88 $4,800McDonald Ave. 0.29 $16,900466 McDonald 0.17 $19,000Spur & Lamar 2.17 $33,500440 Whitmore St 0.62 $35,0001548 Paintbrush 0.46 $37,000Yamashita & Paul 1.92 $39,9001910 Jim Haworth 0.48 $39,900None 2.06 $40,000Airport Rd. OWC 1.62 $45,000Sara St. 2.27 $45, 400Pinion Pines 5.60 $49,000Cram 1.00 $55,000Scamp Ave. 1.96 $55,0003997 River Hghts 0.58 $55,000Turvey 2.12 $60,000Pioneer 1.97 $65,0003704 Mahalo Cir. 0.46 $65,0002545 Lou 1.00 $65,000Thom St. 1.96 $65,0001112 Thomas Bay 0.55 $69,000

ADDRESS Sqft PRICE173 N. Moapa Valley 646 $135,000309 S. Moapa Valley 2120 $280,000

ADDRESS AC PRICEMoapa Valley Blvd. 0.24 $47,000Moapa Valley Blvd. 0.26 $55,000935 Moapa Valley 1.08 $158,8752080 Lou St. 7.95 $249,000Magnasite 200.00 $4,900,000

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program is customarily held to remind ev-eryone of the patriots who have come be-fore, and the sacrifices made for us. Then there are foot races, an egg toss and wa-termelon eating contests. To end the morn-ing the fire trucks usually get on the large water turret and spray down anybody who dares to get into its path. Finally, at the end of the day there is usually a fireworks show at the park where everyone enjoys the spir-it of a small town community.

But this year, with all the uncertainties of the pandemic, the local committee made the decision to scale the large gather-ings back and just leave the celebration to

families only. So local families took to

the streets on Friday night, each armed with a large cache of filled water balloons.

Keeping a safe distance from each other, the com-munity threw balloons back and forth nailing each other, laughing and having fun.

“My favorite thing about the water balloon fight is waking up and immediately starting to fill up water bal-loons from six in the morn-ing until the fight begins,” said local youngster Olivia Tobler. “Then going to the water fight and seeing all the people there having fun and participating.”

The Anderson family al-ways goes all out in this annual water battle. Adalee Anderson said, “My favor-ite thing about the water fight is being surrounded by my family and friends all day just having fun and working hard to fill up balloons. Then seeing all our hard work being put to fun. Also seeing all of my younger cousins have such a fun time throwing balloons at people passing and scheming plans to throw balloons at their other cousins.”

Not only do the kids get into the water balloon fight, but many adults enjoy the chance to hurl water balloons at each other as well. Celeste Anderson said, “My favor-ite part is seeing the community come to-gether and become a family. Even through the tough times right now, we are still unit-ed together in our beautiful country.”

CALLA HAVILAND/ The ProgressGracie Cramer (left), Jason Abbott (center) and Melin-da Abbott (right) filled up a kiddie pool with water bal-loons kn preparation for the Bunkerville water fight on Friday night.

Water Fightfrom page 1A

wonderful!” he said. “Surprised not more vets took advantage of such a thoughtful gift.”

Veteran after veteran were surprised and appreciative to receive such generosity. Several just traveling through town shook their heads in dismay and a couple even had a tear of appreciation come to their eyes.

Local veteran Michael Carpenter ex-pressed his thanks. “I love it!” he said. “This is awesome whenever recognition like this is available!”

Other customers who were not veterans also loved the notion. A few tourists and visitors on motorcycles came by.

One known simply as “Whistler” ex-pressed his feelings. “I so love when veter-

ans get the respect they deserve,” he said. “This place is amazing for doing this. We can never give enough gratitude to our vet-erans for the freedoms we have.”

Sugar’s employees simply asked what branch of military the veterans served in and wrote it on the bills thanking them for their service and wishing them a happy 4th.

Sugar Metz even arrived in American attire and participated in seeing the happi-ness and love that filled the restaurant.

Both Judy and Sugar Metz wanted to ex-press their gratitude to all military veterans for their service and heroism.

“We are so thankful to our veterans and the generations before us,” Judy said. “It’s because of them we keep our freedoms. Thank you, vets!”

Sugar’s Home Plate is open Tuesdays through Sundays and can be reached by calling (702) 397-8084.

Veteransfrom page 1A

is probably just shooting threes,” Loyd laughs. “The little kids, if they can just work hard and feel like people care about them, then they have fun no matter what.”

Loyd is hopeful that he will be able to open more of these small camp sessions throughout the summer as well as larg-er basketball camps where he can bring other coaches in to help trains kids. More information about upcoming camp activi-ties will be available at the Mesquite Rec Center.

The kids attending the camp had great things to say about it.

“I learned lots of new things,” said Julia Leavitt age 12. “We worked on our drib-bling skills a lot. The last day we played a game and I really liked it.”

Leavitt played for her middle school

team last year. Hayden Owsley age 12 said, “I learned

a lot here. I learned about dribbling, like, around the back and under my legs. I got way better at lay ups and jump shots. This really helped me.”

Owsley added that one of the best parts of the camp was being able to scrimmage other people and put her new learned skills to practice.

Rex Leavitt age 10 said, “This camp was really fun. It increased my defense and helped me a lot with my passes too. I defi-nitely want to do this again.”

Loyd was pleased with how the camp went. “I love working with these kids. I love their smiles and their enthusiasm,” he said. “I want the culture of basketball in Mesquite and surrounding areas to thrive. Basketball creates great life skills. If you can learn something valuable through a fun process, why not?”

Basketballfrom page 1A

like to get the art classes involved in creat-ing or decorating pots for flower arrange-ments created by Ag students.

“The more connections we can make the better,” Tom said. “We want to cultivate compassion.”

Cambria Davis, FFA Floriculture State Champion and high school student said

that people don’t realize that there really is something for everyone in FFA.

“I had a friend who raised a puppy and trained it to be a seeing eye dog for her SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experi-ence),” Davis said. “I read about another girl who started selling baked goods for an SAE and now she owns a bakery. A lot of times kids turn their SAE’s into profitable businesses. There is literally something for everyone in FFA and it is really cool to see.”

FFA Teacherfrom page 1A

The PROGRESS Wednesday, July 8, 2020 • 3B

Address Bd Bath Sqft List Price Acres Year Zip Code389 Park Blvd. 3 2 840 75,000 0.49 2004 89001484 Michael Way 3 2 944 82,000 0.26 1996 890011983 S Moapa Valley Blvd 3 2 1440 90,000 4.01 2002 890404185 Skyline St 2 2 840 150,000 2.07 1971 890211440 Scott Ave 3 2 924 150,000 1.28 1995 89040416 McDonald 3 2 2152 175,000 0.18 1990 890401340 Jensen Ave 5 3 2576 179,000 0.39 1985 890211344 Jensen Ave 5 3 2576 179,000 0.5 1985 890211575 Isola Dr 4 2 1342 224,500 1.87 1990 890252985 Doty St. 4 2 2040 225,000 0.29 1986 890213975 Mateuse St 4 2 1458 238,000 2.12 1999 890211200 W. Cottonwood 3 2 1344 259,000 10 1985 890401811 Jensen Ave 2 2 1526 264,900 0.55 1993 890211240 W Cottonwood Ave. 3 1 1152 289,000 8.69 2001 890402433 Robison Farm Rd 4 3 1995 365,500 0.78 1995 890213630 Sandy St. 4 3 3277 395,000 0.53 1999 890218216 Fawn Brook Ct 4 3 3165 465,000 0.16 1998 89149925 Palo Verde St 3 2 1552 495,000 2.11 1993 890403757 River Heights Ln 4 4 4068 499,900 0.6 2008 89021995 Higbee Ranch Ln. 6 5 4774 575,000 3.1 2011 89001

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Janet MarshallJanet MarshallRealtor/OwnerRealtor/Owner702-378-0926702-378-0926

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MOAPA VALLEY, LAS VEGAS & LINCOLN COUNTY 8216 Fawn Brook Ct, LV 1811 Jensen Ave 3757 River Heights

Address List Price Acres Zip Off Oliver St 8,000 0.1 89040Mormon Mesa 9,000 6 89040Virgin River 10,000 10.0 89040Mormon Mesa 15,000 3 89040Virgin River 18,000 20.0 89040Bryner Ave 19,000 0.88 89040Wittwer Ave 40,000 1.10 89021280 Pat Ave. 45,000 2.0 890401340 Jensen Av 45,000 0.48 89021Off Jensen Av 45,000 0.88 89021Navajo Av 47,000 0.71 89021N. Moapa Valley Bl 47,500 0.97 89021Liston Ave. & Ash St. 47,500 2.05 89021 W Turvey Ave 47,500 1.93 89025Frehner&Yamashita 50,000 1.91 89021N Yamashita St 50,000 1.91 89021Skyline St 50,000 1.00 890211910 Pinwheel St 58,000 0.51 89021Mormon Mesa 59,000 80.0 89040Cram & Yamashita 60,000 1.91 89021Gubler Ave #045 60,000 0.95 89021Gubler Ave #046 60,000 0.97 89021Lou St. 68,500 2.07 89021

Address List Price Acres Zip St. Joseph St. 75,000 2.12 890211352 Red Sage Ln 75,000 0.59 89021West Jensen Ave. 80,000 1.78 89040Off Wells Ave 85,000 2.04 89021Skyline St 89,950 5 89021Napal Vista Cir 90,000 2.06 89021 Liston Ave 95,000 2.00 89021Moapa Valley Bl 95,000 2.69 89040Paul Ave & Tami St 99,000 2.06 89021Skyline St 100,000 4.68 89021Curohee St/Damon 120,000 9.29 89025N Curohee St 120,000 9 89025Damon Ave/Hiko St 120,000 9.43 89025Hiko St 120,000 9.13 89025Willow Ave 150,000 10 89040Willow Ave & Deer 150,000 10 89040Diane Ave 150,000 10 89040Diane Ave & Deer 150,000 10 89040289 S. MV Blvd 175,000 0.47 89040Moapa Valley Blvd 189,000 13.71 89040Jensen Ave 270,000 7.98 89021Cooper St 285,000 7.26 89040123 S Moapa Valley 290,000 0.37 89040Heyer St 827,800 41.39 89021

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from shipping crates to make everything.” Besides apparel, American Gypsy also

sells items such as jewelry, shoes, women’s bags, car scents, greeting cards, interior de-cor and more. They will also be offering custom screen printing for t-shirts and pro-motional items like frisbees, cups etc.

Deanna Dotson, friend of the Whisenands and creative expert for the new business, said that most items were handmade. Some were even made by lo-cals including herself.

“We have about five vendors that we work with who sell their handmade prod-uct through the store, paying a commission fee,” Dotson said. “Such items include Goats Milk Soap, Hand-painted signs, Jewelry, and others.”

Some of the local vendors include Penny Vallone, Megan Holzer and Dotson.

“We want to help the community out,” Dotson said. “This is our home! This was a perfect place for our showroom and lo-

cation.”Besides opening the store, the

Whisenands held a great Independence Day celebration including a BBQ and hot dogs and hamburgers with chips for those who attended the event.

“I want to thank everyone who has come out, supported us, welcomed us as part of this community,” said Jessican Whisenand. “I’d especially thank my husband for all of his hard work. This is a dream come true and I look forward to having this business here for the community.”

American Gypsy is open at 123 E Thom-as Ave near Town and Country Auto and behind Theresa Holzer law office. The store will be open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.– 5 p.m.

The Whisenands also own Bulldog Sun Solutions which provide window shutters and screens installation.

Contact American Gypsy by calling Jessica at (702) 324-4342 or Bulldog Sun Solutions by calling John at (702) 324-4292.

New Storefrom page 1A

Rise and shine! On July 4th every year, Overton resident Elwin Brown arrives at the Clark County Fairgrounds long before the sun. He realizes he is in for a bit of work and begins hauling around the racks and brings out the boxes of artillery shells. Another year has come and this will be his last one.

Moapa Valley has enjoyed the Inde-pendence Day work and artistry of Elwin Brown for the past 20 years. During that time, Brown has served as the pyrotechnics director for the Moapa Valley Indepen-dence Day fireworks show.

Brown was brought into the role in the year 2000 by the previous pyrotechnics’ director, James Robison.

“James had been doing it forever,” Brown said. “He saw me and knew he could sucker me in to take over for him. I helped him one year and after the first fire-work explosion I was hooked.”

With a lot of help from the Moapa Valley Fire District firefighters and first respond-ers, Brown coordinates the show every year. Under Brown’s direction, they set up the racks and launch tubes. They put together the wiring of the artillery shells to the pegboards. And they set up the pro-gramming of where each shell goes to produce the grand fireworks display that Moapa Valley experiences every year.

“This year was especially rough as we had the situation with the county and getting the approval to do the fireworks show,” Brown said. “It was a real pain, but we worked hard and were finally able to pull it off.”

Because of the delays in that situation, fireworks ended up being ordered later than usual, Brown said.

Plus another obstacle came up. Every year, Brown orders the fireworks from

Fireworks West International in Logan, Utah. Last week Brown got word from the company that his shipment did not come in from the overseas manufacturers.

“The company is awesome, though!” Brown said. “They went and scraped through their inventory and put whatever they could get together and compiled fire-works to provide us with our order. That is why we order from them every year. They provide excellent service and training.”

“Even with the challenges this year, we have been very blessed to have this cele-bratory show,” Brown added.

This year will be the last fireworks show produced by Brown. From here, Brown will be turning over the reigns to another local firefighter, Scott Beckstrand.

Beckstrand was on hand to get training and help set up this year’s display.

Brown explained the set-up process and the time that it takes.

“It takes about 3 hours to set-up the

Meet the man behind the Moapa Valley fireworksBy NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

NICK YAMASHITA/ The Progress

Licensed pyrotechnician Elwin Brown and Scott Beckstrand prepare the launch pad for the fireworks show in advance of the July 4th celebration at the Logandale Fairgrounds.

launch tubes and everything for the show,” Brown said. “But with all hours that it takes to prepare for the show throughout the week, I would have to estimate it takes approximately 100 man hours. And that is

every year.”Brown said that the fireworks cost about

about $7500 each year. Those funds are al-ways raised through donations from local businesses, he said.

“It is not a cheap hobby!” joked Brown. “We really are thankful for everyone and every business that helps.”

As another year of fireworks spectacular ends, Brown is looking forward to his re-tirement from the show.

“Next year I will be able to enjoy the show from the community’s view,” he said.

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The Moapa Valley Revital-ization Project (MVRP) held its annual 4th of July decorations contest last week. MVRP mem-bers scoured the Moapa Valley communities on Friday, looking for the best decorated businesses, shops and government facilities to determine this year’s award winner.

This contest has been going on each year since 2012. This year, MVRP Board members Mary Kaye Washburn, Shanna Munns and Marjie Holland viewed and went over the patriotic criteria for the decorations of each stop.

“It is always fun to see the dec-orations and who participates,” said Washburn. “We have our usual participants like the power and water companies, but we usu-

ally find a couple of new compet-itors. We love seeing our valley get into the spirit of the 4th.”

Last year’s winner, Sugar’s Homeplate Restaurant, was sad to see the plaque go to a new lo-

Patriotic spirit at center of MVRP awardBy NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

NICK YAMASHITA/ The ProgressThe decorated front entry at the Overton Senior Center won the first prize in this year’s 4th of July Decorations Contest put on by MVRP.

cation. But Sugar’s owner Judy Metz said it was great that the tra-dition continued on.

“We have seen a few less dec-orations this year due to the pan-demic but there still was a lot of

patriotic spirit fighting for our at-tentions,” Washburn said.

Special recognition is given each year to three participants. Some of the criteria for the award include things such as being cre-ative and artistic, use of decora-tions, individuality, and more. The winners are announced at the local 4th of July Celebration at the Clark County Fairgrounds.

This year the third place award went to Foremost Realty for be-ing patriotic both by day and by night. The second place distinc-tion went to Clea’s Fabulous Moapa Valley Realty for pulling double patriotism and having some fabulous decorations like benches and bicycles at both of their locations. Finally, the first place award went to the Moapa Valley Senior Center as they were determined to have the most cre-ative and artistic display at the entrance to the center.

“Again, it was a great year in patriotism,” Washburn said. “Yes we did see some business-es affected by the pandemic, but American pride is still very strong in our community.”

The MVRP started the contest eight years ago to help recognize those who show a patriotic spir-it by beautifying the community during the Independence Day holiday. The contest also aims to highlight the MVRP’s goals by raising the community’s tourism and economy.

“We have had some fabulous past winners such as the last two of Sugar’s and The Progress,” Washburn said.

“We want to thank everyone who decorated and helped dec-orate the community Overton benches, hung up flags and really brought this community togeth-er, especially during this time of needing more positive influence,” Washburn added. “The MVRP truly thanks you all.”

The PROGRESS Wednesday, July 8, 2020 • 5B

MOAPA CHRISTIAN CHURCH

SUNDAY SERVICES 11:00 AM

Adult Sunday School 10:00 amChildren’s Sunday School 11:00 amTeens Sunday School 11:00 am

Pastor: Richard Fisher& Rosita Fisher

A NON-DENOMINATIONAL CHURCHLOCATED ONTHEMOAPA INDIAN RESERVATION

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St. John’s Catholic ChurchMass is celebrated at 2955 St. Joseph Street

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Father Blaise Baran702-398-3998

O sing to the Lord a new song,for he has done marvelous things.

Psalm 98:1

Where do I come from? Why am I here?

Where am I going?Have you ever asked questions like these?

To learn about God’s Plan of Happiness for you, call...

Logandale: 702-677-5379Overton: 702-677-7340Moapa: 702-265-9535 (English/Spanish)

Mesquite: 435-256-1380or visit www.mormon.org

MESQUITE LUTHERAN CHURCH

Rev. David Constien, Pastor

450 Turtleback Rd.Mesquite, Nevada 89027

Worship Service-10 am * Bible Study-8:30 am

(702)346-5811

Local Contact: Art DeBerard (702)398-3833

Childcare Center(702) 346-3954

Lake Mead Baptist Church

Sunday School AM

Sunday Worship

Sunday PM Worship

Wednesday Night Prayer

9:30 AM

10:45 AM

5:30 PM

6:30 PM

A Southern Baptist Church Contact info - 702-397-2496Email: lakemeadbaptist@mvdsl.com

PASTOR MITCHELL TOBLERAll Are Welcome!

Sermons available online at www.lakemeadbaptist.org

725 N. Moapa Valley Blvd

We’ll help your business to

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CALL 702-397-6246CALL 702-397-6246

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Church Directory

Andersen St. Apartments: 1 Bdrm starting at $450/mo, 2 Bdrm starting at $550/mo. Nice, quiet neighborhood. No smoking or pets. For applica-tion call 702-397-8111.

Logandale Storage and U-Haul: 2 locations! Stor-age Units, U-Haul trucks and trailers, Car Haulers, Dolly’s. Let us help make your move easier! Call 702-398-3390. 1595 Jensen and 3525 N. Moapa Valley Blvd.

Overton Self Storage: All sizes of units available. Indoor and outdoor storage. Easy Access. Close to downtown. Snow Birds welcome. 177 S. Whitmore. Call 702-397-8111.

For Clean Quality Concrete work call 702-397-6540. 30+ years experience, 19 years lo-cal. References.

ClassifiedsClassifieds Call Classifieds Call Classifieds 702-397-6246 or email 702-397-6246 or email progress2@mvdsl.comprogress2@mvdsl.com

Progress Hours:Progress Hours:Mon 9am-3pmMon 9am-3pm

Tu-Fri 10am-3pmTu-Fri 10am-3pm

DEADLINEDEADLINEfor classified ads is for classified ads is

11 a.m. MONDAY11 a.m. MONDAY

1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments: Behind Post Office in Overton. Clean, Nice. 1 Bdrm/$550, 2 Bdrm/$650 per mo. plus depos-its. Quiet lifestyle. No pets or smoking. Call 702-373-6102.

Retail or office, central Over-ton location, private restroom, off street parking, outdoor sig-nage. 289 S Moapa Valley Blvd. Please text Steve, 702-379-1031.

READY MIX CONCRETE. Call 702-306-5224 cell or 702-398-3444 office.

Slabs, sidewalks, founda-tions, house slabs, block walls, pools. We can pour anything you want. Call Cell 702-306-5224 or Office 702-398-7625.

For Rent/AptsFor Rent/Apts

MOBILE IMAGE WINDOW TINTING: Autos/homes/etc. 15+ years of exp., 100% guar-anteed. Call for a quote & to make an appt. 702-596-6760.

For Lease For Lease Office SpaceOffice Space

Employment / Help WantedEmployment / Help Wanted

Dog Training: Whether you have a young pup, older dog or a rescue, K9Heroes dog training classes can help them learn how to behave appropri-ately at home and on the go. K9Heroes trainers teach fun & effective group or private classes. Call for availability & times, 702-308-0609. If you’re not 100% satisfied, you can re-take the class for FREE! Veter-ans & disabled 50% discount!

Backhoe and grading work, trenching, driveways, are-nas, clearing brush, general dirtwork. Call Jacob 702-378-9271.

AQUATIC (formerly Lasco Bathware) in Moapa, is now hiring: We are accepting appli-cations from 8AM to 3PM Mon-day through Thursday. Aquatic has a competitive wage starting at $13.00/hr and benefit pack-age, including medical, dental, vision insurance and 401k. We also offer ten paid holidays per year. (702) 864-2100 ext. 4182.

Certified Horticulturist: I will provide successful plant suggestions, plant identifica-tion, landscape concepts, and answer plant and landscape questions. Problems with your plants? Call Andrea Meckley @702.300.4148 “Let’s Talk Plants”

Legacy Rock is now accept-ing job applications and resumes for Equipment Oper-ator, CDL drivers, Double and Triples, Cement Mixer Drivers. Full time and part time. Need experience. Phone 702-398-7625, fax 702-398-7635 or email whip@comnett.net.

For Rent/HmsFor Rent/HmsLogandale Home: 5 bed-rooms, on 1 acre, room for an-imals. No smoking. Please call 702-278-8686.

Reliable Part-time Handyman wanted for a series of basic home repairs in downtown Overton: 3 days per week. No smoking, drugs, alcohol. Call 951-591-2374.

ServicesServicesAvailableAvailable

Western Elite is seeking a Mechanic to maintain equipment op-eration by completing inspections and preventive maintenance requirements; correcting vehicle deficiencies; making adjust-ments and alignments, and keeping records.Essential Job Functions Include:• Diesel engine repair and maintenance.• Heavy machinery (loaders, scrapers, dozers, etc.) repair and maintenance.• Air brake repair and maintenance.• Electrical system repair and maintenance.• Hydraulic equipment repair and maintenance.Minimum Qualifications• 18 years of age.• Proof of eligibility to work in the United States.• Ability to communicate effectively in English required.Position Specific Requirements• 4+ years of commercial diesel mechanic experience required.• Must own and use own toolsThe position is located 50 miles north of Las Vegas near Coyote Springs and offers competitive pay, paid time-off, paid holidays, and an excellent benefits package. Interested candidates should contact Kyle Taylor at 702-206-0034 or kylet@westernelite.com.

Rec VehiclesRec Vehicles2019, 27 foot Transcend trail-er, by Grand Design: It has an outside kitchen, sleeps 8-10 people, 32 inch television, with radio and DVD player. Contact Hope at 801-830-4089. Trailer is in Mesquite, Nv.

LostLostREWARD $100: Lost on Sat-urday, June 20th, Red Boat Cover with snaps on it: Area of Bader & Mormon Peak. Please call 702-232-7552.

Need girl with a car to help me with shopping, errands, post office, etc. Part time, in Overton near the park. 702-397-2355.

2 bedroom apartment for rent soon 1680 E state hiway 168 Moapa: $475 a month $300 nonrefundalble move in fee. No pets. No smoking. In-cludes trash and water. Must have references. Call 702-812-1890 Leave a message.

Legal NoticesLegal Notices

For Sale/HmsFor Sale/HmsMobile/Manufactured Home: Killer deal. 1963 CasaLoma, 40x16. Needs some work. $2,000 OBO. 702-232-4498.

A VW Beetle is abandoned on my lot in Overton. Please contact Joan at 702-232-4498 to verify ownership and to ar-range pick up.

A 2003 Dodge Durango has been abandoned in Overton, NV on my property. Please call to verify ownership. Joan 702-232-4498.

For Rent/AptsFor Rent/Apts

Van Paul R o b i n s o n passed away June 30, 2020 at his home, in Las Vegas, NV. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sep-tember 18, 1955 to Paul and Re-nee Heap Rob-

inson. Van valued hard work. At a young

age, he started his first jobs as a neighborhood paperboy and bagger at the local grocery store.

As a senior in high school, he met his soon-to-be wife Tanya Leatham on State Street. Van graduated from West High School in 1974. Van and Tanya were married in Overton, NV in August 1974.

In October of 1974, Van joined the US Navy. He would serve honorably for five years.

In 1985, Van began his career with the Moapa Valley Water District. He worked his way up and retired in 2006 as the general manager.

In 2008, Van and Tanya’s lives would go separate ways. He moved to Las Vegas and kept busy working as a personal water consultant and for FEMA.

In September 2019, Van married Maheswari “Christina” Nadarajan, in Las Vegas, NV.

Survivors include his wife Chris-tina; children: Tracie (Rory) Nelson, Ryan (Amy) Robinson, Craig (Saman-tha) Robinson and Gary (Chanell) Robinson; thirteen grandchildren; his mother Renee; siblings: Toni (Ran-dy) Korff, Tamara (Jeff) Melvin, Mark (Terry) and Greg (Lynda), and broth-er-in-law Doug Duggan.

He is preceded in death by his fa-ther, Paul and his sister, Terry.

Van will be remembered for his fun and quick-whitted personality. He was loved as a son, brother, husband, father and grandfather.

Funeral Services for the immediate family will be held in Boulder City, NV on Friday, July 10, 2020. Internment will be at the Southern Nevada Veter-ans Memorial Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Fisher House Foundation which builds comfort homes where military & veteran’s families can stay free of charge, while a loved one is in the hospital.

Patricia Belle (Slack) Swan-son, age 80, died Monday, June 29, 2020 in St. George, Utah. She was born June 15, 1940 in Cedar City, Utah to Ed and Frances Slack. On April 3, 1957,

she married Duane Leary in Cedar City, Utah. Together, they had five children. Through life’s many chang-es, she later married Norman ‘Grant’ Swanson, and he had three children.

Robert Bruce Dudley passed away on June 19, 2020 from the Covid 19 vi-rus. He was born in Winthrope, Maine on Aug. 7, 1935

Bob identi-fied himself as the “Old Grouch”. He graduated with a bachelor degree in Business Administration and an ac-counting major.

Bob served for 24 years in the Unit-ed States Air Force and retired as a Senior Master Sergeant. He started his own business in 1980 and was an

Obituaries

Robert Dudley

accomplished tax accountant for 40 years.

He married Kathy Fowers and had a number of happily married years in Mesquite, Nevada.

Bob was a lifelong learner seeking many opportunities to further his pro-fessional and personal knowledge. He was stalwart in his approach to life and always evidenced integrity. Sim-ply stated Bob was his “own man.” He was known for his large sweet toma-toes that he grew in his backyard.

“Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us every day.” Bob will walk with us every day and we will miss his joyful laughter and warm heart.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Edith G. Murray and father Earl V. Dudley, two sisters Ameila and Edie, one brother Victor Jr. and previous wife Martha Werbrich.

Condolences may be shared at: www.lindquistmortuary.com.

Patricia Swanson

The families were united on August 24, 1973 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two were later sealed in the Los An-geles temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Patricia grew up in Cedar City, UT, but moved to Las Vegas, NV, where she raised her family, eventually retir-ing to Overton, NV in 1996. She has always been an active member in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-ter-day Saints. Much of her time was devoted to her husband, children and ward members. She enjoyed quilting, talking on the phone and visiting with her friends. Her love and passion for her children and grandchildren was immeasurable. She had a heart of gold and was truly one of a kind. She touched so many lives and will be for-ever missed.

Survivors include her husband, Grant of Overton; four sons and three daughters: Karen (Guy) Schiessl of Williston, ND, Lori Riggs of Las Ve-gas, NV, Michael Grant (Katrina)

Van Robinson

The family is working to establish a broadcast for viewing the services remotely.

The family invites you to share a memory on the guest book at https://www.davismemorialpark.com/obitu-ary/Van-Robinson.

Ivan Cooper

Ivan Bowman Cooper passed away peacefully on July 5, 2020 in Cedar City, Utah. He was 84 years old.

Ivan was born on February 20, 1936 in Overton Nevada. He was

the seventh and youngest child of Richard and Alta Cooper.

Ivan grew up on the family farm in Stringtown in Overton. He attended Moapa Valley High School where he played football and ran track, but he spent most of his time on the farm milking cows, working in the fields, hauling hay, and riding horses.

Ivan married Meredith Hickman on May 2, 1958 in Overton, Nevada. They were sealed in the Mesa, Arizo-na Temple the following year. After a stint in the Army National Guard, Ivan and Meredith settled in Overton. Ivan and his brother Reed took over the family farm and formed the Cooper Brother’s Dairy. Ivan also raised beef cattle, horses, and other animals, in-cluding six sons who helped on the farm.

He was a hard worker and also found time to work at the power com-pany, or to drive the local gas truck, and to start a greenhouse operation. After selling the dairy Ivan worked for Simplot for thirty years.

Ivan loved to hunt, fish, ride hors-es and spend time with his family. He was a good father and husband.

Ivan coached Little League base-ball, worked with the Boy Scouts, served on the Moapa Valley Water District Board for 12 years, and was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where he served as Bishop of the Overton 1st Ward.

Ivan and Meredith moved to Cedar City, Utah in 2006 to spend their re-tirement years.

Ivan is survived by his wife Mer-edith; four sons: Mendis (Debbie) of Overton, Stacey (Terri) of Cedar City, UT, Robert (Beth) of Logandale, and Keith ‘Charlie’ (Alisha) of Overton; a sister Marietta Carson; a daughter-in-law Trisha Cooper; 13 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, other siblings, and two sons Tom and Adam.

A viewing will be held Friday, July 10, 2020 from 6-8pm at Moapa Val-ley Mortuary. Funeral services will be live-streamed at 9:00am Saturday, July 11th. Due to the current health situation a traditional funeral service will be replaced with an online funeral at www.moapavalleymortuary.com.

Swanson of LaVerkin, UT, Michael Ray (Janiece) Swanson of Milford, UT, Shannon (Will) Nevil of Killeen, TX, Daniel (Madalyn) Swanson of Cedar City, UT, Tom (Maria) Swanson of Las Vegas, NV, and Donna (Daryl Forrester) Swanson of Overton, NV; 23 grandchildren; 40 great grandchil-dren; one great-great grandson; three brothers and four sisters: Wilma An-derson, Bruce (Sherry) Slack, Claude (Kathy) Slack, Mike (Lynn) Slack, Gloria Gifford, Kathy (Ralph) Danise and Wendy (Glade) Frehner. She was preceded in death by one daughter, Tammy Leary; two brothers, Bob and Boyd Slack.

Funeral services will be held Fri-day, July 10, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at the Moapa Valley Mortuary, Logandale, Nevada. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the services will be for family only.

Friends and family not attending are invited to sign an online guest book and to watch the live stream at www.moa pavalleymortuary.com.

6B • Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The PROGRESS

The Lost City Museum an-nounced its plans to reopen after being closed the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Museum at the south-end of Overton will be reopening its doors to the public on Friday, July 10 at 8:30 am.

“We are excited to be opening

again to the public!” said Muse-um Director Mary Beth Timms. “We have deeply missed our vis-itors, community members, and those who come see us!”

Though the doors are reopen-ing, there are some changes in scheduling and times.

Timms said that the state’s bud-getary woes, due to COVID-19 has led to funding at the museum.

“We are now only open on

Lost City Museum announces reopening with reduced hoursBy NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

weekends until further notice,” Timms said.

The museum will be open Fri-days, Saturdays, and Sundays from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm. It will be closed Mondays through Thursdays.

“We will also be doing all the CDC recommendations and abiding by the local government recommendations,” Timms add-ed. “We will do what is being recommended at the time. Right now, we have to maintain the so-cial distancing of 6 feet and wear masks.”

Visitors will now enter the mu-seum and follow a planned one-way route through the exhibits. They will then exit through a sep-arate exit.

“This is all to make sure our visitors and patrons are protect-ed,” said Timms.

The museum will be cleaned throughout the day on a regular basis. No food will be allowed in-side the facility. Only bottled wa-ter will be allowed. Groups larger than 10 will have to be split into two or more groups.

“Along with our reopening on July 10, we will be offering a 20% sale on select gift shop items and there will be other promotions that day,” Timm said. “We hope we can again bring educational, historical and cultural experienc-es to the community again.”

Timms lastly gave a heads-up on upcoming events for the mu-seum. Currently the museum will just have the monthly exhibits go-ing on at the moment.

“We are currently waiting for information and updates of the national situation with health and we will announce later events and workshops,” Timm said.

The museum is planning to have the Hot and Dusty Art Show in August, Timm said.

“We look forward to that with much excitement,” Timm added

The Hot and Dusty show began in August last year and featured the work of many local artists.

“This year we decided to open it up for photography,” Timm said. “Local photographers will be featured and bring a different aspect of Southwestern and local culture and views.”

The Lost City Museum extends invitations to all for the reopen-ing on July 10 starting at 8:30 am. The museum is located at 721 S. Moapa Valley Blvd. For more in-formation about the museum or on upcoming events and shows, contact the museum by phone at (702) 397-2193 or by visiting their website at www.lostcitymu-seum.org.

Book your trip now to meet Willie and Waylon, the miniature horses that are the newest addi-tion to Aravada Springs Ranch resort.

Aravada Springs, once the old Nay Ranch, is now booking for September 1 through November 30. The ranch is located about an hour south of Mesquite via Gold Butte Road and is usually 10-20 degrees cooler than the Mesquite area. Apples will be ready to har-vest in the Fall and It is an ideal location for weddings, family re-unions, youth group trips and just good old-fashioned camping. Day reservations are available as well as reservations for longer stays.

“This is just the best place to re-boot, refresh, and enjoy,” said De-nise Houston of Aravada Springs. “Come and rent the space for a wedding, a Fall gathering. Come

for the day or spend the night. Bring your yoga mat and do your morning routine. Hike the hills, take some pictures, go for a run. Explore the petroglyphs, cook in the enormous kitchen. Come and

An Oasis in the Desert: Aravada SpringsBy AMY DAVIS

The Progress

AMY DAVIS The Progress

A miner’s tent at Aravada Springs Ranch resort provides comfortable accommodations for a nearby family getaway.

enjoy a break from your busy ev-eryday life.”

Guests can stay in “Miner’s tents” that come with wood burn-ing stoves, electric lighting, and a king size bed.

There are also a few “Glamp-ing” tents for the more discrim-inating camper. These include a bed, table and chairs, a mini fridge, microwave, and wood burning stove. A few fully fur-nished cabins come complete with kitchenette and bathrooms. And a lodge is available for general use where visitors can play games or warm up on chilly nights by a fire.

If you choose to hike or rock climb, you can explore Little Fin-land, Billy Goat Peak or Whit-ney Pockets. Depending on your skill, there are both short and more challenging trails. You can explore canyons, (ice) caves and rock towers for a little bit of ad-venture. If you have an ATV there are miles of trails to ride. After a long day on the trails, you can cool off in their spring fed pond that rests in the shade of beauti-ful willow trees. The pond comes complete with a rope swing and a waterpark slide.

In the evening, one can gather round the fire to cook s’mores and star gaze using high powered tele-scopes. Depending on the time of year, Venus, Jupiter or Mercury may be visible. The night sky is alive and full of stars because it is so far away from any city lights.

The Hansen family came for a family reunion, in March of this year. They left a review saying, “This was one of the most en-joyable family reunions we have ever had. We were looking for a place that would allow for a good time with our entire family. But we never expected what we found at Aravada Springs. This place is awesome!”

Getting to the ranch requires driving on some rough roads. While a regular sedan will make it, it is recommended that an SUV, Crossover, Truck or 4x4 be taken; anything with higher clearance.

Book your stay now at arava-da.com.

We’ll help your business

Moapa Valley

PROGRESS CALL 397-6246

We can customize a specially-priced

advertising package just for your business.

Take Flight!