Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

House Appointed To Prescott City Council

It took a while, but the Prescott City Council, in its regular monthly meeting Monday, Oct. 16, made Billy House its newest member.

House replaces Steve Crow, who resigned from the council to accept the position of director of Prescott Parks and Recreation Department.

Overall, seven people had applied for the position, even one from the wrong ward, who wasn't considered. John Brannon Jr. who had applied and was considered in September, withdrew from the running.

Initially the council was split 3-2 for House and Jeff Haynes, with Howard Austin abstaining and Susie Meeks not at the meeting.

It was first thought the council could wait until the November meeting to make the decision, but city attorney Glenn Vasser said the statutes say "shall" fill the vacancy at the next meeting.

However, Crow resigned in August and the "next" meeting was in September, but the post went unfilled because the council was unable to reach a consensus.

Vasser was asked if it would be permissible to have Meeks cast her ballot by phone as Austin was adamant about abstaining from casting a ballot in the issue. He said the vote would have to be made in person.

He then told the panel it had, in effect, created a runoff between two candidates and should try again and see if one could get four votes, thereby becoming legitimate.

A roll call vote was taken with Ann Stockton voting for House; Karen Ward went for Haynes; Dick Bright cast his lot with House, as did Danny Beavert; Austin abstained, with Jim Cornelius also going with House, giving him the required four votes.

House will be sworn in at the November meeting.

From there, the council approved a bid on a new sanitation truck.

This is a one-ton vehicle and will be used for pulling the city's leaf machine.

Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor found two for the council to choose from, with one being in Hot Springs and the other in Little Rock.

Carl Dalrymple, city accountant, said the money to make the purchase would come out of the sales and use tax fund where the money for the landfill comes from.

This fund, he said, has $453,000 as a balance.

The council decided to go with the 1999 GMC from Hot Springs at a cost of $17,500. The truck will be purchased through EJ's Auto Center.

Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, presented the panel with copies of the new Nevada County profile his office had been working on.

In the past, he said, the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce and EDO had to get their data from a variety of publications.

The decision was made to gather all the books together and compile the information into one profile.

However, he said, this profile will change sometime next year because the information it contains is based on the 1990 census.

But, he continued, making the changes won't be difficult as the data is all on computer.

Chadwell then provided the council with a year-to-date report on the EDO.

He said there were three categories for prospects, active, inactive and dead. In all, some 16 industries gave Prescott and Nevada County the once-over in 1999.

Of these, six remain active, four are inactive and the other six are dead. This means six are still interested in possibly locating here and are frequently in contact with Chadwell.

Four have delayed making any decision, but remain in occasional contact with the EDO, while the other six have either outright said no to the area or have scrapped their plans for expansion.

Chadwell ended his part of the meeting with a discussion about the Prescott Rural Water Project.

By the Oct. 15 deadline, he said, some 332 customers had signed up for city water. With the response improving dramatically, the project was granted a two-week extension to see if more people would sign up.

The new deadline is Monday, Oct. 30.

Chadwell lauded the volunteers who have been working to get the word out and help get people signed up for city water."If we can get another 150-200 we'll be in good shape," he said. Initially, the project sought 600 customers, but can be done with fewer, though the rates may change and the scope could also be altered.

He said there has been talk about hiring someone to literally go door-to-door and talk with people about getting city water. This can be done on afternoons and weekends.

Additionally, Chadwell said, there many of the area's elderly don't realize they can sign up for $50 if they meet the low-income requirements.

At this time the Highway 67 South area only has about 17 percent of its residents signing up for rural water.

The Midway Community is leading the pack with almost 50 percent having signed up.