Homeowner association’s president sees the future, and it is dry

"Just trust me" is a phrase that automatically sends up red flags, whether it's muttered by a boy trying to get into a girl's knickers, a government agent about to indulge in some serious deceit or just your ordinary con man.

But when the words fall from the lips of Monte Fletcher, not only do they sound sincere, they are sincere.

In 1999, Monte went to the other homeowners in Sunrise Villas 6 and said he'd like to replace some of the complex's grass with landscaping more suitable to the desert. "I said: Just trust me."

And they did.

"Now they tell me they love it, they like it better than the grass," Monte said.

The homeowners were getting a two-for-one package. He was president of the homeowners' association, but the retired teacher is also a horticulturist. Having Monte on the association board would be like having the Review-Journal's Linn Mills on your board, or KNPR's Norm Schilling, someone who not only loves what he's doing but knows what he's doing. (Option B: Someone like me who killed her winter pansies in two weeks.)

Monte started cautiously.

He got permission to raise dues by $20 a month to fund a long-range conversion project for the 62-unit complex covering 14 acres. Sunrise Villas 6, built 30 years ago, is one of nine small, gated communities known for their lush grass and landscaping.

First, he removed about a 15-foot-wide band of grass inside the perimeter of the complex near McLeod Drive and Flamingo Road, and replaced the grass with rocks and drought-tolerant plants and trees.

And in a desert town where many still feel a sense of entitlement to grass, despite a drought that started in 2000, and despite the fact that grass is the biggest water user in Southern Nevada, Monte hasn't received one complaint about his evolutionary, even revolutionary ongoing effort to remove 90 percent of the grass.

After the perimeter changeover, he started easing out the grass in vast areas on the sides of homes and around the two pools, leaving grass in the front of the homes. With his own eye for design, and by working with individual homeowners, he's made people happy with the gradual change.

Vast expanses of grass were replaced with rocks and plants (lots of lantana, one of the few plants I can keep alive.) Too vast? No, because working with Flagg's Landscaping, Monte created islands in the expanses, islands with plants offering height and color.

Ivy is going out, sago palms are going in. Diseased purple plum trees dying from a bacteria moving across the valley are being removed, replaced by live oaks.

"Everywhere I could put a tree, I put a tree." He points to tall pines along the perimeter, which started out as five-gallon-size trees.

Now 75, he's a man ahead of his time, whose foresight will end up saving the association money while the rest of us are still watering grassy knolls and talking about desert landscaping.

Monte hasn't calculated how much of a cost-savings there will be with paying for less water because he's thinking about long-term savings. He has no doubt water is going to become even more expensive.

Southern Nevada Water Authority spokesman Scott Huntley confirmed that prediction Wednesday, predicting another "substantial increase" in water rates is likely to go into effect around next March.

Since the water authority began its program in 1999 to encourage Las Vegans through rebates to replace grass with water-conserving landscaping, 93 million square feet of grass in the valley has been removed, Huntley said. "Enough turf has been removed so that an 18-inch-wide turf roll would stretch almost halfway around the world at the equator," Huntley said. The authority has paid out $85 million as incentives to remove grass. The estimated savings is 5.2 billion gallons of water a year.

We've all heard about homeowner association board members who are nitpicking, rude and arrogant. How about giving credit to Monte Fletcher, a planner with a plan, the association president who worked countless hours over the past nine years to make his community better and save water.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.