Beatty Town Board is looking to slow drivers

In response to what town secretary Carrie Radomski said were “concerns of Beatty residents about speeding and the running of the stop sign in the center of town,” the Beatty Town Advisory Board, on Jan. 14, approved spending up to $20,000 for three radar speed signs.

The solar-powered, LED signs by RU2 Systems of Mesa, Arizona, will display the speed of approaching vehicles and will flash a “slow down” message if they are exceeding the speed limit.

There were bids from additional companies, but none of the other suppliers’ signs met NDOT specifications. The signs will become NDOT property, and NDOT will be responsible for their maintenance. The actual bid for the signs was $15,886. The board regularly approves larger “up to” figures to allow for contingencies.

The board reiterated its support for a proposed amendment to the Nye County code having to do with minimum standards for manufactured homes. They did, however, object to a change in a new draft of the amendment.

Regarding the installation of a mobile home more than 20 years old at time of installation, the previous draft mandated approval by the local town board. The new draft mandates approval by the director of planning, and provides that, “When applicable, town boards, both elected and advisory, may make a recommendation of either approval, approval with conditions, or denial to the planning director prior to the planning director making a decision on the waiver application.”

In their commenting letter, the Beatty board said, “We would like the language of this section modified to return the requirement of local government review and comment…”

The board also is sending a letter full of comments on a new proposed county noise control ordinance. Their comments and objections, which are more detailed in the letter, in general terms involve some basic issues.

First of these is a need to know what the impetus was for creating the new ordinance, including where it originated and who initiated it. They also said that many conditions covered in the ordinance vary greatly in different areas and towns in the county, including hours during which some noises would be prohibited. They argued that people’s hours of work and activity varied according to such things as the weather and their work schedules.

On the matter of work schedules, they said that the proposed ordinance, “seems to be written from a white-collar perspective (8 to 5, Monday-Friday) versus a blue-collar perspective (industry that operates 24/7). They also objected to what they saw as vagueness of definitions and wording and lack of clarity of how reporting would be done or who would be enforcing the law.

They suggested that individual communities “experiencing issues with noise complaints” within the county could use the existing Nye County Code Chapter 17.04.860 G Noise as a template that they could modify “making a person violating this section guilty of a misdemeanor to give it the force of law.”

Richard Stephens is a freelance reporter living in Beatty.