Tonopah Town Board holds April meeting

On Wednesday, April 9, the Tonopah Town Board meeting opened with the approval of a 5/8 Room Tax Grant request from the Jim Butler Days committee. The amount would not exceed $15,000 and would go toward the advertisement and promotion of the Jim Butler Days celebration.

Joni Eastley, who coordinates the Jim Butler Days event, commented with an appreciation for Becky Braska and her support of the event.

“Jim Butler Days is an extremely large undertaking and I would not be able to do it by myself and she is always there to lend a hand and she should be recognized,” says Eastley.

The highly anticipated town event is owned and organized by the Elks Lodge and will take place May 18 through 26.

A part of April’s agenda involved the possibility of storage of live lithium batteries at the Tonopah Airport. In March, Eastley received a call from Jack Robb at the governor’s office concerning the request to lease 10 acres from the airport by a company named Redwood Materials. To receive support from the board, it was agreed that many safety investments and precautions would have to take place, should the FAA approve. The company would have to provide the necessary structures to house the hazardous contents along with the proper firefighting equipment required to extinguish any possible fires. The conditional motion had been made by Vice Chair Eastley and was withdrawn to revisit at a later date.

Town manager Joe Westerlund delivered updates regarding some of the town’s projects. An asphalt removal taking place at Harvey Park is complete, with new construction to begin in May. Recently, the town submitted an application for a grant through T-Mobile to fund the placement of an odorless toilet at the park, with announcements to be shared in the next few weeks.

The town of Tonopah is approved to spend the remainder of the money from SRF and ARPA Watermain Rehabilitation project to replace water piping on Idaho Street, Tonopah Avenue and Arizona Street, a process that began late last year.

The Tonopah Mining Park received their order of new transformers from Solomon Sunbelt for the completion of updating the lighting in the area, a vital improvement for security.

In other financial matters, a public hearing for the fiscal year 25-26 Town of Tonopah tentative budget and Tonopah Library District Board of Trustees is scheduled for May 28 during normal meeting hours.

For more information about the Tonopah Town Board and reference for past and future agendas and minutes you can visit www.tonopahnevada.com.

Rachel Ebel is a freelance reporter living in Tonopah.