Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Budget Is Approved; Gravel Debated

Clark County now has an official budget.

It's the same one the Clark County Quorum Court failed to pass on two other occasions. Monday night, the justices approved the document with a 10-1 vote.

In addition, the justices did not delete clerks requested by two departments. The main problem was with the county clerk asking for a temporary full-time deputy to help with the elections in 1996.

Originally, several members of the court said another deputy was not needed, and feared this temporary employee would become permanent.

Because the justices were unable to agree to remove the extra personnel, they will be hired.

This means the county will have an operating budget of $2,499,281.66, with unappropriated funds of $270,990.34.

The justices also approved paying $150 to help with cleaning up after Tuesday's special election for the constitutional convention and delegate selection.

The problem came when Travis Berry, a local attorney, asked the court to pay him for gravel hauled from his pit in Oct. 1994.

He apparently had made an agreement with former county judge Frank Taylor, when Taylor offered to asphalt a street in Berry's trailer park in exchange for gravel for county use.

According to Clark County Judge Grady Runyan, Berry and Taylor had a verbal agreement, with nothing in writing. Runyan said, to his knowledge, no amount was agreed on for the county to get.

Berry claims 10,000 cubic yards were taken for use on the Okolona Road and the Vaden Road. He said gravel was also spread on the Copeland Ridge Road, which is the same as the Vaden Road, and on Church Road, which is, in actuality, Okolona Road.

"When I came in office in Jan. (1995)," Runyan said, "he asked me to pay him for the gravel. I asked how much and was told he didn't know."

Berry was informed the judge would need some kind of statement telling the county how much gravel was taken and what it would cost in return.

"We heard nothing," Runyan said. "I talked with my men (on the county road crew) and got no tangible answer. Ron Daniel had the best theory of anyone."

Daniel's theory had the county loading six and seven trucks per day for a seven day period with three and four loads per day, with the gravel costing $2 per cubic yard. Each truck had 12-yard beds.

This amounted to a little more than $3,300, which Berry rejected. He said the county owes him $20,000 because 10,000 cubic yards of gravel were taken.

Runyan and local attorney Bill Wright worked out a second plan. Under this one, the county would have loaded four loads per truck per day for seven days using seven vehicles daily. This came to about $4,700.

Berry said he would split the difference and accept $10,000 for 5,000 cubic yards. He said he had photographs of the gravel pile in question showing how much was gone.

However, Berry admitted he didn't know how much gravel the county actually took, or if it was possible someone else came in and took gravel without his knowledge.

According to Runyan, Taylor told the department not to keep any records of how much gravel was removed from the pile at the time. "He told them not to worry about it," Runyan said.

The current county judge told Berry he had no first-hand knowledge of the situation as he wasn't in office at the time it occurred.

In addition, Runyan said there is no way 10,000 cubic yards of gravel could have been hauled in seven days to the areas in question.

Clark County, in an average year, only hauls 75,000 cubic yards of gravel.

Runyan told Berry he would talk with him about the issue Tuesday, Dec. 12, and if he wasn't satisfied, he could take the county to court on the matter.