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By Kent Larsen
Longtime Southern Nevada Mormons Worry about Growth
ALAMO, NEVADA -- The federal government is selling off land in Lincoln
County, Nevada under a law passed one year ago, but longtime residents in
the county, many of whom are Mormon, aren't happy with the change, which
they feel will have a negative affect on their lifestyle. All but 2 percent
of the county is owned by the federal government, and the residents say that
the County Commission and the BLM have overlooked the consequences of the
sale, which are expected to bring nearly 60,000 suburbanites into the rural
county, with its population of 4,165 people.
Seventy-year-old Ed Hansen was born on the 80-acre farm that his Mormon
pioneer grandfather settled after leaving Nephi, Utah, to settle. He still
works the farm, raising Angus cattle and alfalfa. But he worries that the
land sale worries and subsequent development will create a powerful suburban
voting bloc aligned more with urban interests than Lincoln County current
rural population. Agricultural water rights, a local farmland property tax
reduction and other staples of rural life could be at risk as newcomers
arrive, Hansen said. "We'll get too much growth here with people who don't
understand our lifestyle. If they take the water from agriculture for
residential, then it ends farming, which is what we came here for."
Rural residents feeling neglected
Las Vegas NV Review-Journal 7Oct01 T2
By Michael Weissenstein: Review-Journal
Many worry land sale will alter lifestyle
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