Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Council Hears Marshall's Side

Gurdon's City Marshal is not happy about the Neighborhood Crime Watch Program, which has been discussed by Rev. Gene Edwards and Rev. Bobby Marshall.

Marshal David Childres told Gurdon's City Council this at its regular meeting Monday night. He said he does not appreciate what is being said about the police department by the ministers involved. Edwards began pushing for the program about six months ago and asked what Childres thought about it. "I told him it was a good idea," the marshal said. "That was the last time any of it was discussed.

"Now, he's going around saying the city is a powderkeg about to blow, but he doesn't know what's going on. He's never been in a police car at night." Childres said there are no prostitutes propositioning people on the street corners and gang graffiti is not all over town.

"They met with the marshall one time," Childres said. "They have a different idea of what this program is. It's supposed to be neighbors watching out for neighbors and calling the police when something happens. Not people lurking about, hiding in cars watching people walk the streets. It's not illegal to walk the streets at night in Gurdon."

Childres said the biggest problem the police department has with criminals is thieves, especially with the breakins at the Gurdon Middle School. He said the city has its share of troublemakers, but the police know who they are and have arrested them in the past. However, he said there is no gang problem in the city.

"Edwards does not represent the Gurdon Police Department," Childres said. "He is not a police officer and cannot make arrests. He's making us look bad. Gurdon is not a powderkeg about to blow."

The marshal said there is a drug problem in Gurdon, but its a problem that exists in all cities and towns.

Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith said the council voted to support the watch program and authorized the use of a conference room where Edwards and Marshall could get the required work done. "We did this so they could work with you," Smith said to Childres.

Smith said there has been a breakdown in communications between the ministers and the police department, and the GPD needs to be involved with the program.

In other business, Smith said the city has received a letter from the Farmer's Home Administration (FmHA) approving the contractor for the first phase of the rural water project. The approval means a preconstruction conference can be scheduled soon and work on the project finally begun.

The council was told the state recently completed its legislative audit, and by and large, the city did well. He said the recorder's office was in compliance with the procedures set by the state, but other departments were not.

In fact, the audit showed there was no budget in place for the police retirement fund for 1993-94 (Daryl Potratz was Gurdon's mayor at this time); the '93 budget appropriated $543,026, but was $159,276.83 over this amount, without making the necessary corrections; no budget for '93-'94 was presented to the council before Dec. 1 as required by law; the prenumbered cash receipts were not issued for all items of income in the treasurer's office; the GPD bank balance was not identified by receipts issued on arrest reports; ticket books were not accounted for of filed with the Clark County Clerk's Office; cash receipt and disbursement journals were not maintained; receipts were not deposited intact daily; and deposit slips did not contain the range of receipt numbers being deposited. However, Smith said all these items either have been corrected or are in the process of being corrected. In addition, the mayor's office was out of compliance for "donations" for flowers. Smith said this practice has been discontinued.

Turning to the three-year marketing plan for Gurdon, Smith said the evaluation was done as required by the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission for Arkansas Community of Excellence (ACE) certification. He said the city was required to set three year goals along with a one-year program and more than 75 percent of the three-year plans have been completed.

"There were a lot of people involved," he said. "Clubs, organizations, the Jaycees, the Gurdon Chamber of Commerce and the Gurdon School District. All of these people were working in the same direction."

Smith said of the more than 400 cities in Arkansas, only 22 are certified as ACE communities. In addition, he informed the council Texarkana lost its ACE certification.

The council also discussed marking parking spaces from Main to Walnut Street and which direction the lines should go. Some said the parking spaces should be diagnol, while others preferred going to parallel parking on this street because extended cab trucks tend to "hang out" in the street, causing problems for motorists.

The decision made was to have city attorney Eric Hughes draw up an ordinance and give the public an opportunity to voice its collective opinion on the matter by next month's meeting.

It was also decided to put an old ambulance out for bid. The ambulance has 77,000 actual miles, and "runs beautifully," according to councilman Russ Hansen. Should there be no acceptable bids, or no bids received by next month's meeting, the ambulance will be taken to auction. Any monies received from its sale will go to the ambulance commission.