Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Highway Vote Fails

When the people of Arkansas were asked to vote for a highway bond issue and highway tax for a road program, they voted overwhelmingly against it. In fact, the final tally showed 85 percent of the vote against the bond and tax, while 15 percent voted for it statewide.

Locally, it wasn't that close.

Those voting against the bond issue in Nevada County totalled 1,324, while there were 115 in favor of it. This translates into a 92 percent against and 8 percent for the measure.

The tax measure did a little better, but still failed miserably. The final numbers showed 1,384, or 91 percent, against, and 125, or 9 percent, for.

There were two absentee votes cast for the bond and tax issue, while there were 23 cast against the bond and 26 opposing the tax.

Early voting showed six for the bond and 32 in favor of the tax, while there were 57 against the bond and 61 against the tax.

In the Nevada box, there were 26 votes for the bond and 351 against. For the tax, there were 32 votes for it and 359 against.

The Prescott box showed 81 favoring the bond, with 84 approving of the tax, while 792 opposed the bond and 830 refuted the tax.

Checking the results from Emmet, there were no votes for either the bond or tax measures. Interestingly, there were 101 votes against the bond and 108 opposing the tax.

There was one other issue on the ballot for voters to decide -- whether or not to allow the Nevada County Quorum Court to sell the defunct Nevada County Hospital.

Absentee voting showed 14 for the sale and 11 against. Early voting had a tally of 55 for the sale and 15 against.

In Nevada, the numbers showed 326 for the sale of the NCH and 66 voting to keep it.

Prescott's tally showed 743 favoring the sale and 179 approving of keeping the structure.

There were 84 votes for selling the hospital in Emmet and 22 to keep it.

The total numbers translate into 76 percent of the voters favoring the sale and 24 percent wanting to keep the facilities and grounds.

Nevada County Judge John Barham said he was disappointed the measure failed.

"I voted for it," he said. "I thought the county needed it and the state needed it.

"I was in the 15 percent who voted for it. The county sure needs something, and the state does, too."

Barham said the people let the governor know they don't want this package. "We'll have to wait and see if another proposal is made," he said.