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f- Pioneer Urges | Passage Of Wafer District In a strong appeal to the voters who will decide next Tuesday,if Vegas valley is to have a water district, D. G. Lorenzi, pioneer farm­er in the community and an expert on soil and water I conditions, today urged pas- { sage of the measure “for I the security of Las Vegas,” ; I Lorenzi, who has d r e a m e d since 1911 of the day when un-, limited water could be made' available for agriculture in the valley, fopdly calls the plan “my baby for '37 years,” in stressing the importance of the district to the area’s future. Hard-working Dave ,, Lorenzi came to I,as Vegas after hearing of the artesian water supply, and made the desert bloom on his ranch west of town hy frugal use of springs arid pumps,r For many years, Lorenzi Lake park served as the only recrea^, 'won'area for hundreds jfifilldB§{ around, and is fondly, remember­ed by old timers who Spent many i pleasant outings therefsHioatmg, j swimming, picnicking or' witneSs-S ing the varied events which their host scheduled. “I wish to take this occasion, to appeal to the taxpayers and Ivoters of the proposed water dis­trict to vote on October 19 for Jthis plan, which will benefit, di-frectly or indirictly, every single I citizen and. businessman in * the jarea, and which • is vital for the I continued growth of Vegas val- Iley,” Lorenzi stated. In a plea to employers in the S affected district to release their I workers on October 19 for suf- I fieient time to vote, Lorenzi l stressed that “I am speaking f! for the public, not for myself :; on this’ matter, since I have Ho connection with any- Ta n d. which will benefit d i r e c t l y from the water. However as a r pioneer who knows whaHvaler J will mean to the valley, ! want | to use my small influence to I urge support of the district. Lorenzi was among (the first | to interest "the chamber of com- I merce in their long' fight for | creation of a water "district, Back in 1936, he addressed the group I; with authoritative figures to (Continued on Page 2) • Water (Continued! From Page 1) prove that thelcity’s future could, not depend on artesian water ; ^ T w o years later,. Lorenzi vfas alarmed by the number of wells i which were left to run "then not i in use, and was responsible tor a ‘ well-capping ordinance adopted which cut down, the waste to a In 1944,- with the,-Basic Mag­nesium plant in production, Lo-remli created a stir with an open letter to the chamber, asking them if they proposed to have “-a ghost town or a boom town -in Las Vegas.. ,, - : “After the war boom, L,o. renzi’s letter stated, ‘ shall Las Vegas sink, to sleep m the^hot sands from which she sprang, <?r shall she flower into new^ and wholesome life and prosperity?^ «Xhe answer lies in the way those responsible for the wel-fare- of our cominumty deal with the .water supply. ?; “At a recent meeting of our chamber of commerce, the state­ment was made that'the artesian wells have fallen 4% per cent in pressure since 1939. The state engineer' iri charge of water works corroborated this state­ment by specifying that there were 150 flowing wells in 1939, and thatHheir pressure had been reduced 4% per cent. Since 1939, many other wells have been drilled, lowering the pressure still more. A rough estimated can be made that we have lost 20 per cent’ of our water pfes- SU“The state engineer and offi­cials of the Union Pacific com­pany said that our flowing well system would be exhausted With­in a few years and that it will be necessary to install a pump sys-. tern to supply enough pressure f o f the city of Las Vegas and IJ is y<3ur community is on the threshold of a real' estate bpom the like of which we have never seen in' this part -of th^ state. Powerful investprS are .commg W from the - east/ ebgst,. .fixnn fornia, from Utah and naany other places. They hke our cl* mate,- our liberal laws, our scen-l cry“.T he first question .t.h..ey ask is: ‘Have you enough-water for the development, of rny.project?^