Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Committee Cuts Proposed Pay Raises To 5 Percent

Gurdon Water and Sewer Commission is faced with little choice in a personnel conflict.

The commission in December voted to raise the department employee's pay by 10 percent. The raise only awaited approval from the city's personnel committee to go into effect.

The personnel committee is made up of Gurdon Water and Sewer Commissioners and must have a representative from the Gurdon City Council present to make decisions.

The personnel committee recommended the employees not be given the entire 10 percent raise. The committee recommended the employees receive only a 5 percent raise.

Due to this decision the whole of the commission, excluding Bill Dulin's absence, had little choice but to lower the amount of the raise. The employees of the water department will only receive a 75 cent across the board raise retro-active to January 1st.

Commissioner Don Morehead and Harold Hurst, department manager, remarked during the debate, "it still doesn't cover the insurance increases of last year."

Hurst was disheartened stating, "I don't think we're going to be able to keep people at this amount of money."

Morehead calculated the amount of the raise per week commenting, "$1,560 a year on a base of a 40 hour week isn't much."

Hurst informed the commission, "The last raise was in 1998 and you need to prevent a high turnover rate or you end up always training someone new, it's cheaper to pay them."

The department will begin work on replacing the Miller Street sewage pumping station as soon as the paper work is completed. The commission accepted bids at the regular meeting Monday night.

Furnishing the new station will be Van Brocklin and Associates of Memphis, Tenn. The Smith and Loveless Duplex Station will cost the department $18,942.

The actual building of the new wet well will be done by B.B. and B Construction, Inc. of Hot Springs, costing $20,682.

Cost estimates and bidding specifications were done by the departments primary engineering consultant, Charles R. Summerford, P.E. of Summerford Engineering, Inc. of Arkadelphia.

The final and total estimated cost for the entire project is $49,825. At the previous month's meeting the discussed probable estimate was $48,700.

"This gives us storage underneath where the line comes in," Summerford informed the commission as they viewed the plans. The new station, with the correct amount of storage area, should eliminate worries with small sewage backups which have troubled the line before.

"We're ready to get it installed as soon as you can get to it," stated Hurst.

"We're just waiting on an insurance certificate," expressed Summerford.

The weather has recently slowed the clean-up work on the 90 percent finished Greenville Water Project. The controls are in place and some adjustments were made to the valves.

Office manager Debra Shaver was approved by the commission to permanently fill the position after the personnel committee recommended her.

The commission has requested help from Gurdon's recorder/treasurer Tambra Smith concerning the search for an affordable insurance which would allow the department to keep one of it's employees.

The employee is still struggling with insurance companies after a traffic ticket from last year.

Hurst was given permission to purchase a used trailer to be sold by Delton Forthman. "We're going to need a new trailer to carry around any new backhoe we purchase in the future.

The tracks on the newer backhoes are wider than the trailer we now have. This one is in real good shape," imparted Hurst.