Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Taxing Situation Related By Smith To Rotarians

Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith recently gave the Rotary Club an update on city activities and progress.

He began by recapping 1999, saying the year began with the Gurdon City Council passing an ordinance to purchase an animal control truck and get the animal control program underway.

This, he said, has been a successful program with few complaints lodged by residents and even fewer dogs now running loose in the city.

In fact, he said, Gurdon's animal control program has been so successful other small cities have ask how the town did it.

The city also purchased a new police car and put $100,000 into an emergency contingency fund, something that had never happened before. This was done by selling the old hospital building.

February saw the city receive a grant for $2,100 to help decorate City Hall, Smith said.

Officials with the Saline County Landfill tried to keep the Southwest Central Regional Solid Waste Management District from hauling its garbage through Saline County and into the BFI landfill in Little Rock.

Saline County filed suit and lost, with the end result being new legislation getting passed to allow the crossing of one solid waste district into another.

This legal victory, he said, saved residents in the three counties making up the district $4.5 million.

In March the airport commission sought and received a grant for $170,000 to put an overlay over the runway.

April saw the city hold a spring cleanup and make 140 pick ups. Smith said some homes had two or three truck loads of stuff to be hauled off.

Since this program began, he said, there have been fewer reports of illegal dumping.

The Old Whelen Road was paved and widened with the help of the county's road crew. This project began at South Street in town and ended on Highway 53.

Little happened in May, but June saw the city buy a recycling trailer with grant money it had obtained to start a recycling program.

Former Mayor Darryl Potratz is spearheading the recycling effort, with some volunteers from the Gurdon Senior Adult Center pitching in.

July and August had the city working to get the tornado sirens up and going. There had been delays in getting the sirens in, but once they arrived, it didn't take long to get them installed and working.

Smith said there are plans to add a siren in the area of the newly annexed property along Highway 67 near the Gurdon High School.

October saw a lot of renovation work being done at City Hall. More than $250,000 was spent on this work, Smith said, but all of the money was from grants.

The city has grant funds of $250,000 remaining to do more work. Smith said plans are to pave the parking lot at City Hall, put in a drive up window at the Water Department and add two more bays to the fire department.

Smith diverted from his talk on 99 accomplishments and discussed the county sales tax situation.

He told the club members the tax was originally passed to pay for the new county jail and was due to go off the books in 1988.

However, the county was in dire financial straits and went to city leaders in an effort to keep the tax on the books permanently.

County officials at the time asked the city leaders to give up their part of the tax to help the county get on its feet financially.

Smith said taxes are distributed on a per capita basis, and this was necessary at the time.

At the time the tax was bringing in about $1 million a year, but brought in $2.5 million last year.

Gurdon's share of the tax, he said, would be about $240,000 a year, with Arkadelphia's part being about $1 million annually  if the city's received their portion.

Smith said this was needed at the time, but times have changed and the cities need their part of the tax now.

"I propose to put this on the November ballot and let the people decide," he said. "I think the cities need to get their share of the money."

Smith said cities in Clark County may not need their full portion, and could possibly get by with 50 or 60 percent of it, with the county keeping the rest.

He vowed not to attack anyone in the courthouse about this, saying those there now had nothing to do with it, but are just doing their job.

"This isn't a political issue, it's about economics," Smith said.

He told the club members the county has $1.2 million from its general and road fund it won't spend this year, but will, instead, use to buy certificates of deposit with.

Smith said 64 percent of those who live in Clark County reside within the confines of incorporated cities. Only 36 percent live in county's rural areas.

"Is it fair," he said, "for county government to take all of the sales tax money and spend it on 36 percent of the population? This is what they're doing and it's time to change."