By Richard Stephens – Special to the Pahrump Valley Times
BEATTY — The road work on Highway 95 through Beatty is scheduled to continue through mid-July, according to Nevada Department of Transportation representative Thomas Regenhard.
Regenhard outlined the work being done at the Beatty Town Advisory Board meeting May 23. He said that NDOT crews would be digging down three feet and putting in concrete to build a stronger road bed to support all the truck traffic that passes through Beatty.
He said that he has told contractors that limiting interruption to businesses is a top priority.
At present, old sidewalks are being removed to be replaced with new ones with ADA-compliant access. Unfortunately, this work is in process and left deep dug-out areas over the Memorial Day weekend. Regenhard agreed that barricades would have to be erected, and hopefully people would avoid parade watching in barricaded areas.
Once work begins on the highway itself, the north-bound side will be done first. Modifications to that side of the road are scheduled for June 18 through June 22. The other side is scheduled for July 10-16.
The board took action on two items during the meeting. The first was to approve a revised town ordinance dealing with the fire department and forward it to the county district attorney’s office for review.
The other action was approval of a request for $6,000 by the Chamber of Commerce from the room tax tourism and promotion fund for Beatty Days.
Chairman Dick Gardner said, “I’d like to thank the Chamber for all the work in preparing the 2012 budget and in submitting the paperwork.”
“We trimmed a lot,” said Ann Marchand, “a lot of prizes, a lot of advertising. We really don’t know how it will affect us.”
“I’m not sure if $6,000 is enough,” said Gardner, to which Marchand responded, “If it’s a flop, we’ll know.”
Erika Gerling, who had asked to table the request from the last meeting so that she could study the paperwork, said she was also concerned it might not be enough.
“Yes, it would be nice to have more than $6,000,” replied Marchand. She said that the required security coverage from the sheriff’s office was going to cost $600 more than had been budgeted because of overtime pay triggered by the event being on a holiday weekend.
The board discussed a request from Bob Revert that something be done about people parking RV’s on streets in town and at Bombo’s Pond. He said, “Your town is what is suffering from not doing this,” said Revert. “I drive around in the morning and see RV’s parked along the street, behind the Perk Ranger coffee shop, down by the pond. These people should be paying room tax.”
Gardner said he could understand Revert’s concern, but, “If you put signs up, then they might not stop here at all, but just keep going.” He noted that, although these people were not paying room tax, they were using local stores and restaurants.
The board was more receptive to the idea of prohibiting RV parking on side streets.
“It’s just something to think about,” said Revert.
