Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet Working On Ordinance To Clean Up Lots

Emmet's City Council meeting may have been short, but it was far from sweet.

Gary Muldrew came to the meeting asking about the city's progress on getting lots cleared within the city limits, during its regular meeting Wednesday, Aug. 9.

He accused Emmet Mayor Dale Booker of intimidating those who has attended the July meeting and asked for a property clean up to be done.

Booker said the city attorney, Glen Vasser, has been contacted to draw up an ordinance for the removal of old vehicles, but getting the paperwork done takes time.

Muldrew then questioned the city's progress on mowing vacant lots and cutting weeds.

Booker responded saying this, too, is part of the ordinance, and if the city does the work the landowner will be billed for it.

Should the property owner refuse to pay, Booker continued, they will be taken to court.

When questioned about the ordinance, Booker said it's not a new one, but has been in effect. In fact, it's a state law, not a city ordinance, he told Muldrew.

Muldrew said the city needs to get things cleaned up and do what it needs to.

Councilman Wayne Baker said there are places around Emmet where there are four or five abandoned cars, which haven't been registered and need to be cleaned up as well.

Booker said all vehicles need to be licensed to be legal, and told Muldrew he (Muldrew) had two vehicles on someone else's property.

Muldrew disagreed, saying the vehicles in question were on his property and were registered.

Booker tired of the argument and called for an adjournment with Muldrew still talking about vehicles.

In other business, Booker told the council a new bookkeeping system has been purchased for the city's computer system, but City Secretary Anita Allen hasn't been able to do much with them because of being injured in an auto accident.

Booker and Frank Faulkner, street superintendent, will handle the book work on the general and street funds until Allen is able to return to her duties.

Test drilling was done for the city's second well Tuesday, Aug. 8. The soil samples will be tested for sand and the aquifer location as well as how many gallons the site could pump.

If the test results are satisfactory, the well will be drilled on this site. When the drilling begins, Booker said, it will be done round-the-clock until it's finished.

He said there was a problem with the electrical part of the new well situation. This is because the old well is a three-phase system running off 220 volts, while the new well was set up as three-phase, 440v.

The city, Booker said, will have the contractor make the necessary changes so both systems can work off the same generator if the need arises.

With this change, he said, comes another, as the switch gear for the new well had been put on the northeast corner of the site, which was inconvenient from the gate, on the south side.

The switch gear will be moved to the south side to be closer to the gate, he said.

The difference in the cost of the two changes should offset one another, but until the work is done, this isn't known.

Installing a water line to the Emmet trailer park has been completed, Booker told the panel. The line has been charged with two hydrants added for fire protection.

The hydrants, he said, were from the old water system, but function properly.

Sewer lines are also in, and with the exception of electricity, all utilities are available at the new sites in the park.

However, before electricity can be installed a fence line will have to be cleared for overhead lines. But, Booker said, the city could have the lines buried, and this will require the digging of a trench.

He told the council it would cost about as much to clear the trees for an overhead line as it would to dig the trench, but having the lines buried would be better in the long run.

The council agreed and gave Booker permission to have the trench dug to finish the utility work at the city's trailer park.

The city had been experiencing problems with the well starting kicking off, but this problem, after much testing, has been corrected.

The solution was to increase the size of heater in the starter at the water pump.

Once this change was made, the problem went away and the starter hasn't kicked off again.