Beatty Town Board Chairman Larry Gray, who abruptly left the board's Nov. 14 session, saying he resigned, returned and chaired most of the meeting Nov. 28.

However, when board member Joannie Jarvis brought up the subject of dissension on the board at the end of the meeting, it was too much for Gray.

He said that Jarvis had pushed him just far enough, and that now he was putting it in writing, handing town secretary Janet Rogers a piece of blue paper with the hastily written note, "I quit. Larry."

The meeting itself was almost entirely dedicated to a discussion of staffing and hours at the Beatty Clinic.

Dr. Carl Heard, chief medical officer and interim CEO of Nevada Health Centers, which operates the clinic, was on hand to explain the changes at the clinic and the company's efforts to recruit a physician to replace the current doctor, who is leaving at the beginning of the year.

Heard said that the United States is experiencing a shortage of physicians and is not producing enough new doctors to fill the void. Physicians seeking positions have much greater ability to pick and choose among the opportunities available. This makes it increasingly difficult recruit physicians, especially in outlying areas such as Beatty.

Heard said that when he first became a doctor, it was just standard practice for doctors to be on call around the clock, but that is not so any more.

A candidate who recently interviewed at the Beatty clinic chose to go elsewhere, and Heard said that the prospect of being on call -- even though that duty would have been shared on a rotating basis with the doctor in Amargosa Valley -- was enough to cause the candidate to reject the position.

He said 25 percent of doctors currently practicing in the U.S. are foreign-born and foreign trained, but that source of physicians is also becoming tighter as the economies of other countries improve, making moving to the U.S. less attractive.

Of Beatty's last three physicians, two have been from India and one from the Philippines.

As a perspective on recruiting difficulties, Heard said that his company had been trying unsuccessfully to secure a doctor for West Wendover for three years now.

When asked what would happen at the clinic after Jan. 1 if a new doctor had not been recruited, Heard said that other doctors would be covering the clinic on a temporary basis.

He estimated it would take an additional $350,000 to provide the incentive and assistance necessary to provide 24/7 coverage at the clinic.

Gray asked Commissioner Joanie Eastley, who was present, whether the county might be willing to come up with half that amount if the town came up with half.

He pointed out that the Beatty Clinic handles many accident trauma cases for a long section of Route 95, and said that made it a county problem, not just a Beatty problem. He also said that the quality of health care available was a factor in attracting economic development.

Eastley said she could not speak for the county, but that the board of commissioners has always been favorable to communities who made a substantial monetary commitment.

Bert Bertram also raised the idea that some federal impact funds might be available because of the number of military personnel operating in the area.

Heard, who had gone to dinner before the meeting with Eastley, Assistant County Manager Pam Webster and town board members Joannie Jarvis and Teresa Sullivan, said that a "red carpet committee" would be formed to look for creative ways to make Beatty as competitive as possible in recruiting physicians and to provide as much coverage as possible.

He also encouraged Beatty residents to keep their eyes open for possible physician candidates.

Eastley explained a moratorium on subsequent land parceling enacted by county commissioners Nov. 27. She explained that "subsequent parceling" is the parceling of land sooner than five years after initial parceling, and she said other types of parceling were not being banned.

The temporary ban, she said, would give the county time to decide what to do on a more permanent basis to control the practice, which she said was used by "unscrupulous land speculators" to create subdivisions without providing for roads, water, and sewer.

Eastley explained that this was a particular problem in Amargosa Valley. She said that out of 56 parceling applications presented at the last Amargosa Valley Town Board meeting, 52 were for subsequent parceling.

On a separate issue, Eastley reported the BLM office in Tonopah has received numerous applications from solar and wind energy companies "carpeting" the area from Beatty into Amargosa Valley.