Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Council Honors Arnold; Discuss Insurance Rates

A moment of silence in honor of Billy Joe Arnold opened Monday night's Gurdon City Council meeting.

Arnold, superintendent of the Gurdon Street Department, suffered a stroke Thursday, Dec. 7 and died Saturday, Dec. 9.

"We'll miss him," Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith said. "He did more than people realize. He was a good friend to the people of Gurdon."

Following the tribute to Arnold, which also included donating a 1967 firetruck to the Curtis Volunteer Fire Department in his honor. Bids had been taken on the truck, but the council agreed to reject both received, and make the donation.

The Curtis VFD had made the highest bid at $1,000.

Arnold worked with the Curtis department as well as the Gurdon department. "We can justify this action to the people of Gurdon," Smith said. "It's (the firetruck) worth more located there."

Smith said he has placed an order for a new patrol car for the police department, but it could be April or May before the car arrives, if the city gets it at all.

He informed the city's governing body about the Southwest Central Regional Solid Waste District, of which Gurdon and Clark County are members.

He said the board approved a $5,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology to be used on education for recycling. Smith said one teacher from each school will be educated on recycling, with literature provided. The money, he said, is to purchase the literature which will be distributed in school.

Gurdon and Arkadelphia also applied for, and received, a $30,000 grant from the PCE which can be used for anything pertaining to recycling.

Smith said Arkadelphia plans on using its portion to buy a truck and trailer for curbside recycling. Gurdon, he said, can't afford to do this because of manpower problems.

However, Gurdon plans to use its funds to purchase a roll-off container, which will be placed at City Hall, where people can drop off their recyclable items.

Arkadelphia has agreed to come down and get the container when it's filled and take it to the district's recycling center in Hot Springs.

In other business, the council approved combining the recorder and treasurer positions into one post.

They also approved a three-way stop at the Miller Street crossing. Stop signs will be placed on each side of First Street so Miller traffic won't have to sit on the railroad tracks.

The same thing will be done later at the Miller and Front street location.

Smith said the stop signs will remain covered until all are in place. This, he said, will give people time to get used to the fact the signs will be there. "We might save lives here, folks," he said.

No bids were received for an ambulance the city has, though it was advertised statewide. Smith said the vehicle runs well and asked the board to run ads locally to see if anyone would be interested in purchasing the vehicle for recreational and/or personal use.

The council also approved a resolution requiring drug testing be done for all drivers with commercial driver's licenses (CDLs).

Under provisions in the resolution, any driver testing positive for alcohol or drugs can appeal and have a second test made at their expense. Should the second test be negative, they will get their job back with back pay.

However, if the second test is positive, they will be immediately dismissed.

Smith asked the council to approve changes in the way ordinances and resolutions are numbered. He said they began keeping them in 1885 with No. 1 and have been kept numerically ever since.

What the council agreed to do is to add the year to the ordinances and resolutions making research on them easier. Beginning Jan. 1, 1996, all ordinances and resolutions will be kept as follows: 96-001, etc.

Then the council got the good news -- the cost of health insurance has gone up from the city's provider.

Smith said this will cause problems with the city's proposed budget. The budget has $1,485 in unappropriated funds as presented to and approved by the council in November.

The additional cost to the city with insurance premiums going up is considerably more than the unappropriated funds, which means the budget will have to be refigured.

Smith told the council if the city continues paying 100 percent of the premiums it will cost the city $26,000. However, if the individuals pay 20 percent, and the family plan pays 50 percent of the difference between the hikes of the individual and family policies, it will only cost the city $13,000.

Either way, it causes problems with the budget.

David Williams, a member of the council's personnel committee, recommended the council go with the option of having employees pay part of their insurance costs. The council agreed with a 4-0 vote.

The rates were increased because the city went from a class I to a class V rating based on claims for the last six months.

City recorder/treasurer Tambra Smith said the rates are reevaluated every six months, and could go down next year.