BEATTY -- Beatty Town Advisory Board members could not reach agreement on a couple of items on their June 11 agenda. With Joannie Jarvis absent, each failed on a 2-2 vote.

One was a request by the Beatty Chamber of Commerce for $300 per month from the tourism portion of room tax to help pay the salary of the employee who mans its information center.

The Chamber has been receiving $200 per month from the Beatty General Improvement District to help with salary, but Debbie Baker and Anne Marchand's presentation cited other needs that BGID had for that money and noted that the rising minimum wage was increasing the cost of having an employee.

Kitty Shubert was the first to object to the proposal, saying she would not want to set a precedent of the board paying the salaries of employees of other organizations.

Marchand countered that the board had helped the Beatty Museum in the past.

Chairman Bert Bertram also voted nay and suggested the Chamber should explore other ways of raising the money. Baker said they would do so and return.

The Chamber may have come away empty-handed from the meeting financially, but the board did approve its design for the billboard to be placed at Lathrop Wells and OK'd the use of the large room of the Community Center by the Las Vegas Garden Railroad Club during Beatty Days.

The other matter to die on a tie vote was a proposal to write a letter of support for this year's Best in the Desert off-road race. There was no support for the race from the public in the audience.

Several members of the audience complained about unrepaired damage to roads by past races, and about dust and noise.

Race organizer Casey Folks, who had requested the letter of support, was not present for the meeting.

Shubert and Teresa Sullivan were in favor of a motion that would have drafted a letter of conditional support including a requirement that roads be repaired, but Bertram and Lamar Walters voted nay and received applause from the audience.

A number of residents attended this meeting out of concern that a land-parceling proposal by Victoria Capital Corp. would block public access to the popular spot known as Bombo's Pond.

The pond was created by Bombo Cottonwood, who extracted gravel from the state Department of Transportation gravel pit, creating a large depression that then filled with water from a spring.

However, as Victoria Capital representative Marlene Rogoff and Bertram pointed out, a previous agreement between Victoria Capital and the county had resulted in the dedication of Vanderbilt Road as a county road, and there is access to the pond from that road without crossing private property.

Beatty NDOT Supervisor Brad Hunt said access to the pond should not be considered in the matter because technically the pond is NDOT property, and anyone going to it is trespassing.

Hunt said several people have contacted NDOT in Carson City in the past with complaints about the pond (things like ducks being shot or people camping there), and that state officials had told him to fence it off and not allow access.

He, however, had objected, asking if they "wanted me to get hung."

Rogoff said Victoria has plans for a bar, restaurant, and motel on the property adjacent to the pond, and that the plan calls for the restaurant to have a deck that would provide a view of the pond.

Rogoff also said, if the parcel map were approved, the company would allow the weed control district to remove the tamarisk on the property. She said that "paranoia on both sides" had been behind the company's denial of permission to do so in the past.

For now, he has been able to hold off on fencing the pond, but repeated complaints could make it impossible for him to do so, and he said that, if it were fenced and posted, he will charge violators with trespass.

The board approved the parcel map by a 3-1 vote, with Shubert voting nay.

John Shea, of Beatty Disposal, said his company will soon be putting a recycling bin near the Rebel Station.

It will be like the ones in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Pahrump. He said flyers would be distributed to educate people on what kinds of materials could be placed in it.

Suzy McCoy said the Stagecoach had given the Beatty Museum use of the billboard next to her residence, the former Episcopal Church.

The board voted to pay out of the tourism fund the $1,745 cost of having the vinyl sign for the billboard made and installed.

The board denied an application for a storefront beautification grant on the grounds that the deadline for such projects had been May 31 and that the application did not include a plan for the work to be done.

Commissioner Joni Eastley said the board had established the policy, including the deadline, in a public meeting, and that she believed that waiving the deadline would constitute a violation of the open meeting law.

Board members also pointed out that other potential applicants had decided not to apply because their projects would not have been completed before the deadline.

Sullivan said the red carpet committee would be meeting with a physician candidate for the clinic. It is hoped that the incentive package approved by the town and county will help secure a physician who will stay in Beatty for some time.