Beatty Advisory Board Approves New Tasers for Deputies, Reviews Substation Services

Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill came to the Beatty Town Advisory Board on March 9 with a direct warning about the department's stun devices: "These tasers that we currently have are going to be paperweights." With warranties set to expire and replacement cartridges no longer available in fiscal year 2026, the board voted to amend its public-safety sales-and-use-tax allocation to cover the purchase of new tasers and associated gear for deputies assigned to the Beatty area.

The equipment gap was not a matter of preference. Without serviceable devices, Beatty-area deputies would lose a nonlethal response option, carrying both officer-safety and community-safety consequences for a southern Nye County town that depends on a single substation for its day-to-day law-enforcement presence.

That substation became a separate flashpoint at the same meeting. Residents pushed back on the county's decision to discontinue certain in-person services at the Beatty facility, including fingerprinting. McGill explained the county had pulled back on staffing those front-office functions because demand did not justify the cost: "We found that there were days when nobody came in." That rationale did not sit well with some in the room. One resident argued during public comment that efficiency metrics should not govern service decisions in a small community: "The commitment to the community should come first." McGill did not close the door on a reversal, telling the board, "If it becomes necessary for us to reopen the front office here, we absolutely will."

Elsewhere in the agenda, board member Perry Forsyth held his ground against a proposal to spend up to $15,000 on national advertising. "I still am opposed to it," Forsyth said, signaling the measure faces continued resistance.

The board closed on a unanimous note, voting to issue a letter in support of a Conserve Nevada grant application to construct mountain-bike trails and trailheads in the Beatty area. If funded, the project would add recreational infrastructure to the terrain surrounding the town, a quieter win on a night when the more contentious questions centered on what the county was taking away rather than what it planned to build.