It appears that summer is in full swing as our temperatures rise daily. Traffic is down with the departure of the snowbirds and we can look forward to several months of hopefully, a peaceful season in Mesquite. I wish things were as peaceful on the national side of politics. State wise, we are now a charter city and will have a little more control of our destiny as a city. Overall the changes are minimal, but it was a needed change to our local government and how we conduct the daily operation of a growing community.

 

Recently we broke ground on our new library and if you drive by, you will see lots of earth being moved. The library should be open and operational by late spring. On the other ends of town, the new high school gym is progressing as well as the travel plaza. Our Sinclair gas station and convenience store is open and is seeing lots of traffic. Hopefully before the end of summer, the REV Group will break ground on the motor home service center in the industrial park area. There’s more to come, so stay tuned.

 

On another note, I see in the news that Henderson is having issues with their police chief and has removed the second one in five years. Boulder City has had lots of controversy with the departure of its city attorney and the impending departure of its city manager. Mesquite as you know fired our fire chief without cause recently. Normally I would say little about this, as we need to move on, right or wrong with the council’s decision that removed one of the most qualified fire chief’s in the country. However, because of remarks made by one of our elected officials about me, I am compelled to comment. In a recent article in the DVT, that individual commented he was disappointed in remarks I had made at council about the firing of the fire chief. That’s fine as he is entitled to his opinion. However, he went on to say that I was holding back information about the firing. This is untrue, and I want to state this for the record. The only thing that I am holding back is my personal opinion about who were the motivators and why the chief was fired. Because it’s my opinion without positive proof, I’ll leave it up to the concerned citizens to figure it out and why. As time goes by, it may become clearer. By the way, Kash was our third chief in six years to quickly exit employment with Mesquite. What does this say about working in Mesquite for local government?

Now, on to another subject. I have received numerous inquiries from many residents, both full-time and part-time about the gentleman who appears at nearly every council meeting to make public comment about the inaction of the city council and myself to right perceived wrongs perpetrated against him some eight years ago by the courts and our local police. All I can say about this is no, the current council, the past councils, and the past two mayor’s as well as myself did nothing wrong what so ever in regards to this gentleman and his legal rights. He frequently comments about corruption by past city officials and expects us to remedy the perceived unlawful actions. This was a task for the courts and they took care of this regarding the gentleman many years ago. I believe he exhausted all of his legal remedies long ago. I do know that there is nothing we can do in his quest for “justice” So, yes, he will probably continue to return to the council meetings, continue to voice his distorted facts about the police, the court clerk, the judge and of course, me. He has done this since 2009 and will probably outlive us all doing this. It’s his right as an American citizen. But let me assure you, he received no ill treatment. The city broke no law, but our complaining party did.