Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Volunteers Needed To Clean-Up Gurdon

Volunteers are still needed to help clean up after the Christmas Day ice storm.

Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith, at the regular monthly meeting of the Gurdon City Council Monday, Jan. 22, said the city can use the volunteer aid as its in-kind labor for the 90-10 match with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Under the match, FEMA will pay 90 percent, if the work is done by Feb. 27, the state will pay 5 percent and it will be up to Gurdon to pay the other 5 percent, but this can be with in-kind labor or equipment. Smith said if enough volunteers turn in time worked on cleaning up debris Gurdon could get out of this without having to pay anything.

After Feb. 27, though, the funding formula reverts to 75-25, with FEMA paying 75 percent, the state 12.5 percent and the city 12.5 percent.

FEMA, he said, won't pay for debris removal from private property, and this is where volunteer help comes in.

FEMA, Smith said, sets the hourly rate at which volunteer assistance would be paid for the hours worked.

"It was a toss up on how we'd handle this," he said. "I think we could do the job better ourselves, but FEMA would rather it be contracted."

Those who have helped in the debris removal effort need to turn in their name and the hours they worked at the Gurdon Police Department.

It had been suggested the city have another of its clean up days to get this done. Smith, though, said it would be better if this effort were handled by some other group than the city. Churches or civic groups could aid in the clean up effort.

The volunteers helping clean debris from other people's yard only have to take the debris to the street so it can be picked up.

The city, Smith said, will contact the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) for a site to dump the debris collected.

The list of volunteers and the hours worked will be compiled into a report for FEMA.

"We really need a list of volunteers for disasters," Smith said. "Everybody can do something, like making phone calls, checking on the elderly, knocking on doors to make sure people are all right or delivering food."

This list, he said, would be made available to the Gurdon police and fire departments.

In other business, Smith told the council the new city shop building has been leased for a year.

He said the contract was rewritten after a member of the council had problems with the term "operating shop" at the December meeting. This term was removed from the document.

With the lease signed, Smith said, the city has applied for a grant from the Cabe Foundation to help purchase the building and make improvements.

The idea, he said, is to not only have the city shop there, but also build an animal control shelter and a recycling building, so the recycling program can be expanded.

Having what amounts to a dog pound would benefit the city as animals would no longer be taken to Arkadelphia. This would save animal control officer Carroll Martin drive time, so he could concentrate more on catching loose dogs.

And, Arkadelphia has told Gurdon it will soon quit taking its animals as it has nowhere to put them either, because its pound is full.

The city, Smith said, applied for $100,000 in the grant so these things, along with building a new fence around the property, could be done.

He told the council the city should have an answer by the March meeting.

Should the grant fall through, Smith said the city could finance it for five years under Amendment 1, passed in the November General Election.

Amendment 1 allows cities and counties to finance their needs for up to five years, and sets a cap on the amount these entities can spend from their annual operating fund.

In the past, the law allowed city and county governments to enter into such agreements for a year at a time. For major projects, such as buying a new firetruck, bond issues had to be passed by the voting public.

City Marshal Don Childres told the council the new police car is in service, but needs to be striped. He also said his phone number is now listed.