Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gravel Issue Paved Over

A debate over gravel has been settled in Clark County.

Clark County Judge Grady Runyan said the county has settled with Arkadelphia attorney Travis Berry for $4,416 in the dispute. This, he said, was for 2,208 yards of washed gravel at $2 per cubic yard.

Runyan said this was far less than the $20,000 Berry had been seeking. "We figured it as close as we could," he said of the final figure.

According to Runyan, Berry accused the county road foreman of lying about the amount and threatened to take the issue to court. Runyan said he was willing to go before a judge to settle the matter, but Berry accepted the county's offer first.

The entire situation arose because there were no written records of the transaction, which occurred between Berry and former County Judge Frank Taylor.

Berry said the gravel was hauled from his pile in October of 1994. He claimed the county took 10,000 cubic yards at the time, which covered a seven-day span.

Apparently, Berry had made a deal with Taylor wherein the county would pave a street in Berry's trailer park in exchange for the gravel. However, no amount of gravel was specified, and, again, no records of how much was taken were kept.

Berry asked Runyan to pay for the gravel when Runyan first took office in Jan. 1995. However, when questioned, he couldn't specify how much the county owed him for.

Runyan told the attorney some kind of statement was required before the county could make any type of restitution.

Figures from the county crew were considerably less than the 10,000 yards Berry claimed were taken.

Then came the problem of why the county was offering Berry $2 per cubic yard, while other suppliers were getting paid only 30 cents per yard.

Runyan explained this by saying Berry supplied washed gravel, while others were selling red clay gravel. He said the washed gravel sells for about $2 per yard, while red clay gravel has a going price of 30 cents per yard.

Still, the situation has been cleared up, and Berry has been paid $4,416 for the gravel.