Flood control chief engineer who made valley safer retiring

An unassuming engineer named Gale Fraser II has quietly played a central role over more than two decades in the growth of a wide-ranging system of detention basins and flood channels that are seldom noticed unless a flash flood hits Southern Nevada.

Fraser retires Friday as general manager and chief engineer of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, ending a 22-year stretch heading the organization that plans and installs the infrastructure throughout cities and unincorporated areas of the county, protecting residents from flooding. He started as the assistant general manager at the district in 1988, and became general manager in 1993.

That alone makes him the longest-tenured chief executive of any local government organization in the valley.

Fraser’s work came amid a backdrop of booming growth and construction throughout the valley.

When he started in 1988, Fraser estimates that the district had about 100 miles of flood channels and four or five detention basins. The valley had a population of 800,000.

Now, the district has a $2 billion system of 90 detention basins and more than 590 miles of flood channel and under­ground storm drainage lines. And the valley’s population has grown to 2 million.

Before the projects were built, the destructive power of flash floods that hit the valley several decades ago was a force to be reckoned with. Even now, Fraser said residents should be mindful of flooding, and pointed to the district’s public information efforts to get the word out about safety.

Fraser said he didn’t mind having a low profile.

“There’s nothing wrong with being under the radar and it’s such a massive program that it couldn’t be built overnight,” Fraser said. “It had to be built uniformly and consistently and equally across the whole area.”

The regional aspect of the district is reflected in the regional board’s makeup. It has eight members, with elected officials from Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Mesquite and Boulder City.

The flood control district went after federal dollars more aggressively and in new ways in the past two decades.

It struck a deal with the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1990s on a $336 million flood control project for the southwest part of the valley that secured 75 percent of the costs from the federal government.

The 28-mile system of channels, five detention basins and three debris basins was finished in 2009.

More recently, Fraser oversaw $100 million in improvements at Desert Rose Golf Course, which was hit with flooding in 2012. That project will take more than 1,700 homes out of flood zones.

He said he might do part-time consulting in the future, and he’ll also be spending more time with his grandchildren.

The flood control board on Thursday appointed Assistant General Manager Steve Parrish to Fraser’s job.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-405-9781. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1