The City of Caliente needs help in cleaning out the washes in and around the city that are somewhat still full of debris from the flooding in mid-July.
Floodplain manager Ken Dixon said at the county commission meeting Oct. 5, “If not cleaned out now, the next event is going to have debris fall out in Moapa. From this last event, we have over 10,000 yards of material that needs to come out. All that stuff came down from the sides, not down from the wash.”
Commissioners were discussing an agreement to be working out between the city and the Lincoln County Road Department supervisor Shane Cheeney.
Board of Highway Commissioners chair Paul Donohue said, “We will help them with money from another fund. We won’t expend any county road funds on it and help with the work to be done below the BLM bridge.”
Dixon said the city needs the help of the county because all they have been able to do so far, “is make sure there is a channel for any small amounts of water that will go on down the wash like it is supposed to.”
Dixon said in recent talks with Rick Barton of the Nevada Department of Emergency Management, Barton feels that Lincoln County “does need to act quickly to assist Caliente in getting the wash cleaned out.”
Donohue said the reason the county road department has been waiting is, “We were told we first had to have a plan, get the depth measurements, have surveys done and make sure we are doing the right kind of work and getting the proper flow.”
Dixon said NDOT has agreed to clean out a portion near and under the B-19 bridge, the one by the BLM office in Caliente, and it is his desire to get everything back the way it was last spring
Donohue said it was his understanding the project would involve “50 feet on the up side and 100 feet on the down side.”
A meeting with NDOT had been planned for last week, but NDOT had to cancel. Another meeting was hoped for this week.
