Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Looking Back At Smith's Service As Gurdon Mayor

As of Thursday, March 1, Gurdon will be without a mayor.

Current Mayor Rick Smith tendered his resignation at the February meeting of the Gurdon City Council, giving Feb. 28, as his last day in office.

Smith became mayor in 1994, taking over for former mayor Darryl Potratz who had to resign because of health reasons.

During his nearly seven years in office, much has been accomplished under Smith's leadership.

He takes little credit for himself, saying the praise belongs to city employees and the people of Gurdon.

However, one of the accomplishment's Smith is most proud of is Gurdon being named as an Arkansas Community of Excellence. This made Clark County the only county in the state with two cities earning ACE status.

Being an ACE community, he said is a step toward future success, as such cities are recognized on the state and federal level.

One of the first projects Smith was involved with as mayor was the Gurdon Rural Water Project. It had been in the planning stages for about six years and was going nowhere.

Some people questioned its need, while others thought Gurdon residents would have to foot the bill for the rural customers.

It took three more years, but the project became a reality, and, Smith said, a benefit to Gurdon.

When the project was done, he said, the city got a new well and storage tank.

Those living on the outskirts of the Gurdon city limits, he said, are important to the city's economy as they shop locally and send their children to Gurdon schools.

However, there were areas with desirable building sites no one would build on because water wasn't available.

Smith gave credit for the project's success to the Gurdon Water and Sewer Department and Commission for its efforts to keep the plan going.

Additionally, the project furnished water to the Gurdon High School complex, while also running sewer lines down Highway 67 to the school, and giving residents in the area access to city sewer. It also saved the district thousands of dollars.

When Smith first took over as mayor, he spent a lot of time learning the job. He traveled to Little Rock to meet with legislators and learn the system and how to work it for the betterment of Gurdon.

One of the initial projects he completed, was following up on plans started by Potratz for a child care center.

Smith was able to procure a grant to get the facility built. It was then leased to the Hours of Joy, who pays for the bills and insurance, while providing a valuable service to Gurdon in a city-owned structure.

Former Street Superintendent Billy Joe Arnold helped Smith upgrade the city's street repair program.

Step one was to improve the drainage problems. This involved massive amounts of street work, but has improved the downtown area, as well as many neighborhoods.

Several city streets were still gravel when Smith took over the city's helm. However, he worked with the Clark County Judge and road crew to get their help in having many of these roads paved.

Now, none of the streets in Gurdon are gravel.

Smith said current street superintendent Jim Caldwell has done an excellent job in following up on the road improvement programs.

Smith also worked to get as many grants for Gurdon as possible. More often than not he was successful.

Under his leadership, the city obtained grants to renovate the park, including buying new equipment, installing a sidewalk, making the restrooms handicap accessible and resurfacing the tennis courts.

Other grants help double the width of the landing strip at Lowe Field, replace the heating and air conditioning system at City Hall and renovate City Hall.

In fact, the city has about $220,000 in grant money for further renovations to City Hall. Plans call for adding a drive-through window at the water department, building two new bays for the fire station and paving and lighting the city hall parking lot.

This money came from a bill passed by the Arkansas Legislature.The operation of city offices was improved during Smith's time as mayor. He worked to computerize City Hall, improve the record keeping system, install a new phone system and upgrade the radio system for the Gurdon Police Department.

At one time, the GPD had no repeater and communications was a hit-or-miss deal. However, under Smith's leadership the GPD got a repeater and better radios, vastly improving the department's communication system.

Improvements were also made in the Gurdon Fire Department. Now firemen have self-contained breathing apparatus for fighting fire, most have new turnout gear and the GFD has a positive pressure fan for blowing smoke out of burning buildings.

But, one of the most important upgrades was the creation of the South Clark County Rescue Unit. Smith worked to help get funds for the rescue unit.

Firemen pitched in and literally helped build the truck and get it equipped. A Jaws of Life was purchased helping make sure the SCCRU has equipment on hand for nearly any emergency.

Another important improvement was the passage of a half-cent sales tax in 1998 by residents to create an animal control department, fund the GPD and purchase emergency warning sirens.

The sirens have been placed to give Gurdon total coverage, including at the school complex on Highway 67.

However, all hasn't been easy for Smith as mayor. While many residents supported him, there were those who didn't.

This was never more evident than when he spearheaded the effort to annex the area along Highway 67.

Many residents in the affected area were hostile at the prospect of being annexed into the city limits, and this created tensions in Gurdon on both sides of the issue.

When it came to a vote, though, the measure failed. Smith spent the next two years letting people know why the annexation was important.

The issue returned in 1998 when the Gurdon School District finished construction of the new football field at the high school complex.

At the time, the field was outside the city limits, and, therefore, outside the jurisdiction of the GPD, as the school had been since being built.

When the annexation issue was brought to a vote the second time, it passed overwhelmingly.

There were those who later came to Smith, apologizing for their opposition to annexation the first time.

The city got rid of a white elephant when it sold the old hospital building, even though a suit was later filed with the city being named in it. However, the city's attorneys got the charges dropped against Gurdon.

Money from the sale of the hospital was placed in a contingency fund for the city. This was the first such fund the city had ever had.

Some of the money was later used to purchase a new car for the GPD.

Improvements were made to Rose Hedge Cemetery under Smith's tutelage. The cemetery acquired additional land for graves, purchased new lawn care equipment, built a fence and gate.

The Housing Authority, he said, is part of the city government, but one seldom heard from. It has, because of its boar of directors, been presented some of the highest honors possible for public housing.

With the help of Potratz, Smith created a solid waste and recycling department.

The recycling program is in its early stages, but shows signs of becoming a success.

Potratz, he said, passed out videos to the public schools with a lead character called "Bagman." The videos show the life-cycle of landfills and what happens to garbage from the time it's thrown out until it's buried in a landfill.

The city, Smith said, was also involved in getting St. Joseph's Hospital out of Hot Springs to come down and open a clinic in Gurdon, along with working with Baptist Medical Center to get a paramedic ambulance service in town.

The city leased its old ambulances to Baptist and disbanded the city's ambulance service.

Christmas decorations were also upgraded during Smith's reign as mayor. Now during the holidays visitors will see a 16-foot Santa waving to them, and be greeted with a lighted sign on Main Street as they come into town.

Decorations are also put up at City Hall and throughout the downtown area.

Smith also worked to improve relations with other cities in the county, as well as county government.

He was on the Clark County Industrial Council board of directors, adding the CCIC is important for Gurdon's economy.Smith will be leaving with some projects left unfinished.

One is the cleanup after the Christmas Day ice storm in 2000. he will continue working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to make sure the job is done properly.

Gurdon, he said, has more than 50 locations where streets were damaged by the ice storm. FEMA, though, will work with the city to make sure they are repaired.

Smith worked to obtain a new building for the city shop after the landowner of the former site gave the city the choice of buying the land where the shop was or leaving. The city chose to leave.

A lease was entered into for property on Fallon Road, with the Cabe Foundation donating an acre of land adjoining the site to be used as a shelter for animal control.

The idea, Smith said, is to get grant money to buy the property on Fallon Road, build a shelter on the acre donated and locate the recycling program there as well, fencing the property in.

Other issues he said need to be followed up include getting recertified as an ACE community and the decision of possibly locating a class I landfill in the Gurdon area.

"There are issues to be dealt with I feel another person would be better able to handle," he said.

"It's hard to leave. I'll still live here and only wish good things for Gurdon.

"I thank those who complimented me for the job done and those who supported me. But I didn't do it by myself. There are wonderful people in Gurdon who support progress and excellent city employees who've had to do a lot of hard work to make things happen.

"I hope the future administration listens to the people and will be a good troubleshooter."