Beatty Senior Center seeking its independence

The Beatty Senior Center is seeking to become independent of the Nye County Senior Nutrition Program by becoming its own 501C3 non-profit organization.

This is the route previously taken by the Amargosa Valley Senior Center, and members of the Beatty Senior Center board recently met with their Amargosa counterparts to learn more about the process of applying for non-profit status.

In typical rural Nevada fashion, Beatty seniors do not like having to comply with procedures and requirements coming from a governing agency, in this case the Nye County Senior Nutrition Program, which, in turn, has to comply with federal guidelines.

The Beatty seniors want to be able to make more decisions locally and to do things their own way.

When the matter was being discussed at the Oct. 14 Beatty Town Advisory Board meeting, Fire Chief Mike Harmon gave an example of how local seniors are frustrated by outside governance.

“We used to donate leftover hot dogs and food from the Fourth of July to the Senior Center,” said Harmon. “But we’ve been told we can’t because we’re not an official food vendor.”

At that meeting, Marty Campbell and Vonnie Gray, representing the Senior Center board, laid out the progress made so far in preparing to apply for non-profit status. They requested financial help in completing the process and said they would probably be back asking for further assistance when they get to the point of opening a bank account and conducting fund-raising.

The board voted unanimously to provide up to $1,000 to cover the expenses of the documentation and application needed.

Richard Stephens is a freelance reporter living in Beatty.