Mystery at Highland Hills

How would you enjoy living on top of a landfill? Most likely, we probably wouldn't enjoy that at all. And we certainly wouldn't enjoy living in a sinking, stinky house.

We can't imagine the horror residents of Highland Hills in Mesquite encountered when they realized they were living on top or way too close to an unsealed landfill. Oh, yes. That's right. The residents of Highland Hills are literally living on top of trash.

This may sound funny, but Highland Hills residents aren't laughing. One couple already abandoned their house on doctor's orders. Methane tests have become a way of life for the neighborhood. Several homeowners have been warned about carcinogens lying just below their floors. Homeowners have also been sounding the alarms on cracks in their respective foundations, driveways tearing apart, and houses graduallly sinking into the ground.



The City of Mesquite and RFMS, the company that developed Highland Hills, have lawyered up. The City of Mesquite has also gone to great lengths to deny records to Mesquite residents pertaining to the construction of Highland Hills. So what might the Mesquite City Council and RFMS be hiding?

That's what nearly everyone in the Virgin Valley is asking. After all, Highland Hills was built by Legacy Construction & Development. And Legacy Construction & Development happens to be the company owned by then Mesquite City Council Member Cresent Hardy (R-"Segregation Laws"). (And yes, this the same company Assembly Member Crescent Hardy later led into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in January 2012.)

Is Cresent Hardy afraid of something? Are his former City Council colleagues and trusted Virgin Valley political network afraid "he knew too much" when he signed the deed (for what was to become Highland Hills) over to RFMS? And not only was Cresent Hardy on the City Council when this land sale occurred, but his company was also a partial owner of the unsealed landfill!

But wait, there's more. While Cresent Hardy has been in the Nevada Legislature, he and several of his Republican colleagues have been trying to weaken or fully repeal Chapter 40, Nevada's construction defect law that was designed during the 1990s to aid homeowners seeking justice when they're duped into buying faulty real estate. In 2011, Assembly Republican leaders tried to hold up a budget deal while demanding weakening of Chapter 40. And in 2013, none other than State Senator Michael Roberson (R-Sleaze) authored SB 161 in another attempt to undermine Chapter 40.

Already, Highland Hills homeowners are living in a world of hurt and atop a pile of trash (literally). Imagine how much more hardship they'd have to endure if they didn't have resources like Chapter 40. Yet that's exactly what Michael Roberson and other top Nevada Republicans want to take away from Highland Hills homeowners.

And then, there's the matter of NV-04 Congressional candidate Cresent Hardy (R). What did he know, when did he know it, why did he withhold this information from Mesquite residents, and why was he allowed to take part of a transaction he stood to gain from? There are still so many unanswered questions there.

Watch this space. We suspect there's more to this disturbingly pungent mystery at Highland Hills.