BEATTY -- The Beatty Town Advisory Board pulled itself together at its June 10 meeting, without any of the discord that has been so evident lately.

It is impossible to say how much the civility and spirit of cooperation were the result of Commissioner Joni Eastley's comments to the board, but she addressed them early in the meeting, trying as "a colleague" to help them avoid what she saw at the board's last meeting.

"I have always used Beatty as a standard," said Eastley, adding that "it made me very sad to see what had happened" at the last session.

Eastley described that meeting as "very contentious, with a lot of anger on both sides, both on the board and in the audience."

She drew on her own experience as chairman of a town board and as chairman of the county commissioners to dole out some almost motherly advice to the chairman, the other board members and the audience.

Eastley advised the chairman to better control the meeting, keeping discussion to the agenda item under consideration. She said comments from the audience during deliberation are distracting and make it hard to concentrate, and that the board should first discuss the item, after which the chairman could invite public comment.

She also advised board members to "focus on the item, not on personalities or who sponsored it."

The meeting proceeded smoothly, with the board recording unanimous votes on every item it considered.

The board scheduled an informal election to fill the vacancy resulting from the resignation of Joe White. This will take place during the next regular meeting, June 24.

The board also gave its approval for the use of county roads in the area for the "Vegas to Reno" off-road race scheduled for August.

The board agreed to send a letter to the county manager, with a copy to each county commissioner, asking that someone in the district attorney's office be assigned to review town ordinances stuck in limbo in that office for some time.

They eliminated a confusing statement in the Community Center rental policy to clarify that nonprofit organizations are not charged rental on the facility even if they are raising money with the event being held there, and they agreed they would review the rental policy when they review and revise their bylaws.

Teresa Sullivan was concerned nothing had been done in some time to complete the master planning process for the town. Bert Bertram said that the county is just about finished with Amargosa's plan and will be working on Beatty's.