Sparsely attended Peccole Ranch meeting focuses on transit, traffic and crime

Fewer than 10 people attended a town hall meeting Feb. 12 that focused on a new transit route set to serve the Peccole Ranch area, as well as road issues, traffic and crime.

The meeting was held at Piggott Elementary School, 9601 Red Hills Road, and organized by District F Clark County Commissioner Susan Brager. Brager hosted another meeting Jan. 30 at Desert Breeze Community Center, but no residents came.

“They only show up when they’re upset about something, when there’s some ugly issue,” she said. “ … So I guess you could say this is a good thing.”

The Feb. 12 meeting was open to everyone but focused on Peccole Ranch, which is generally bounded by Sahara Avenue on the south, Hualapai Way on the west, Charleston Boulevard on the north and Fort Apache Road on the east. Brager shared the stage with Ward 2 City Councilman Bob Beers.

Perrin Palistrant represented the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. A senior transit planner, he told residents of a new transit route that was scheduled to start this month to serve the Peccole Ranch area.

“This is our first new residential route,” he said.

Route 120 serves the southwest and west part of the valley along Fort Apache Road, Buffalo Drive and Warm Springs Road. The 21-mile route will connect to 12 existing transit routes, helping reduce transfers and total travel times, Palistrant said.

“So it connects to WAX (the airport shuttle) at Westcliff Transit to take you to the airport,” he said. “In March, WAX … is being extended from Terminal One over to Terminal Three.”

He had maps to show how everything blended in. For more information, visit tinyurl.com/RTC-schedules.

Resident Tish Downs expressed concern about the potholes on Hualapai Way between Sahara Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.

“They get bigger and bigger every day,” she said. “Every time you got over one, it’s (a jolt). You can put your car out of alignment, wreck your tires. And then there are those big plates down on Charleston. … I hate those.”

Resident Ruth Bental wanted to ask why Hualapai Way was down to two lanes after Alta Drive.

“They made it a turn lane only, and they cut it down to two lanes,” she said. “And then there’s a turn only to go into that housing complex. I don’t know if somebody important lives there or what.”

“I would like to have a Neighborhood Watch,” said resident Mimi Howe, who said she was there to meet her representatives and see what they had to say about crime.

Crime was a hot topic. Beers said people could sign up for AlertID a neighborhood-focused social network that sends notifications every time a crime is committed in a section of the city stipulated by the user. Beers said he signed up and gets alerts on a regular basis.

“And if you really want to see something scary, look up where the sex offenders live,” he said.

Perhaps the topic that garnered the most discussion was traffic jams when school lets out and the need for school crossings.

Resident Christine Spraggins brought up the traffic situation on Hualapai Way between Charleston Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.

“My concern is with parents who pick up and drop off their kids at Faith Lutheran,” she said. “There was a woman in an SUV parked in one of the (travel) lanes, just parked there, and I eventually had to use a turn lane to pass her.”

Beers said he’s gotten calls that parents were making U-turns across double lines when picking up or after dropping off children. He said Rogich Middle School, 235 Pavilion Center Drive, added a raised median to keep traffic in line.

“There is not one campus, private, public, charter, which does not have this issue,” Brager said. “The principals preach to their parents, ‘Please do not do that.’ … How do we get everyone to understand that a child’s life is important?”

She said she believes that school police should ticket people.

“Two of the big shopping centers are Tivoli (Village),” said Beers, “which I don’t see as having a significant impact (on traffic), and the one at Sahara and Hualapai, which may well have an impact on Hualapai. However, Hualapai is below capacity, say the traffic engineers, to the point where they’re not anticipating changing the speed limit.”

He said cameras could be installed to count cars and pedestrians to see if intervention measures should be taken.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.