Beatty Airport master plan on display
The master plan for the future of Beatty’s airport was the subject of an open house event at the Beatty Community Center, May 7.
Attendees perused large posters regarding various features and options of the plan and listened to presentations by, and asked questions of, representatives of the county and of contractor AtkinsRealis.
The plan calls for a number of upgrades and additions to the airport, including widening the runway, adding one taxiway and modifying the existing one and adding approach and runway lighting.
It also provides for new apron pavement, adding an additional hangar and improving markings on the runway and elsewhere.
It calls for the addition of a heliport, heliport parking, 26 automobile parking spaces and a pedestrian access gate.
The plan also calls for relocating the airport road and realigning some of the fencing.
Surprisingly, it also provides for a potential five-acre solar farm.
Several residents, aware of Beatty’s location on the Park to Park in the Dark dark-sky corridor had questions about the effect of proposed lighting. A presenter said that the lights would mainly be visible to aircraft from above but would not be very visible to people on the ground unless they were near the airport.
Richard Stephens is a free-lance reporter living in Beatty.
