Resident’s efforts leads to installation of street lights

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

Residents of the Sage Valley area have long complained of the difficulty turning onto Sage Dr. from U.S. 95A.

Three years after a local resident took the issue to the City, street lights have been installed on both sides of the highway at the intersection.

The location of the intersection, just south of the TCID canal, and right before the speed limit for southbound traffic increases from 45 to 55 miles per hour, makes it difficult for drivers to see, particularly at night, said Sage Valley resident Peggy Gray.

“This is a really dangerous spot,” Gray said. “There’s no turn lane, no passing lane and as we’re slowing down to find our turn, everybody else is speeding up, or already doing 55.”

In 2014, Gray and other Sage Valley residents collected 139 signatures on a petition, to take to the City of Fernley, requesting a traffic light. However, they were informed they had missed the budget process for that year. Gray took the proposal to a City Council meeting, where she said she received general nods of agreement from council members, so she began talking with Mayor Roy Edgington and Public Works Director David Whalen.

Because U.S. 95A is a state highway, the city needed permission from the Nevada Department of Transportation to install a street light, so Whalen and Goodman contacted NDOT Director Rudy Mafalbon.

In June or July of 2015, Gray called Mafalbon to follow up.

“And surprisingly, he called back and said he had instructed his staff to install two lights,” Gray said.

NDOT began work on the project last October, installed the poles in February, and the lights came on in early March.

Gray said she and her neighbors are grateful for the lights, while city officials point to the issue to show how residents can work with government to solve problems.

“It was just real cooperation between the citizens of Sage Valley Estates, the City of Fernley and NDOT,” Gray said.