No holiday cheer for Beatty park

Development of the Beatty Town Square Park is finally showing progress however, the town doesn’t seem ready to spend $2,500 for Christmas decorations to place in it this year.

Erika Gerling proposed to the other members of the Beatty Town Advisory Board installing two large lighted arches and some lighted spiral and twig-shaped trees in the park. She described it as “a start that we could add to and improve every year.”

Other board members did not think that the timing was right and her request died for lack of a motion.

Chairman Dick Gardner noted that the park was not finished yet, and suggested using existing lights to decorate the wall around the park instead.

“Seeing that the town square isn’t done yet, I don’t see spending $2,500,” board member Crystal Taylor said. “I think it is premature.”

The large evergreen in the center of the park was originally planned as a town Christmas tree, but it has grown so large that it is unsafe, with any equipment available in town, to string lights in it.

Gerling and Gardner recently met with NDOT representatives and a representative from the sheriff’s office regarding the issue of drivers speeding and driving through the town’s main intersection without stopping.

Some of the things that were agreed on were to restripe the road, adding a speed limit painted on the road, and possibly install a stop sign with red lights on it. A missing light is also to be replaced and possibly moved for better visibility. The idea of a rumble strip was rejected.

Gerling said, “We would like the community to know that we are making progress.”

Gardner reported on the VFW’s very successful poker run. “We filled this town,” he said, noting that participants came “from everywhere.”

The event drew 127 vehicles this year, with 228 people turning in poker hands, and the VFW served at least 310 meals.

Freelance reporter and Beatty resident Richard Stephens has covered the town for newspapers for nearly 20 years.