Editorial: School plan fails smell test

Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

Once again the pig farm in North Las Vegas finds itself at the center of a stink it didn't create. The Clark County School District wants to build an elementary school one-third of a mile from R.C. Farms, saying that the site is one of the last available in the fast-growing area.

The North Las Vegas City Council will have the final say on whether to allow a school so close to the farm, and while that should be a no-brainer (think of students being downwind in May, as the temperature hovers around 100 degrees), the City Council has not always been so thoughtful.

The pig farm used to be in the middle of nowhere, but growth caught up to it. Farm owner Robert Combs has worked at great expense to mitigate smell complaints, but it seems as if the city has no problem with the smell. The City Council has approved housing developments that surround Combs' farm and his 3,000 pigs. (The closest home is roughly 60 feet away.)

Building homes next to a pig farm doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but home buyers have a choice. They should know there is a pig farm in the neighborhood - it has been there for four decades - and it is no secret that pigs stink. Children, though, have no choice on where they go to school.

Allowing a school to be built near a pig farm is not fair to either the children or the farm, and the City Council should send the School District back to the drawing board.