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Emmet City Council Meets

BY JOHN MILLER
Published Wednesday, March 21, 2001 in the Nevada County Picayune

Emmet's population grew during the decade of the 1990s, and is now 506.

This information was given to the Emmet City Council at its regular monthly meeting Wednesday, March 14.

Emmet Mayor Dale Booker said this is not official data from the U.S. Census Bureau, but information found on the Internet. He added, the figures presented weren't broken down as to how many live on the Hempstead County side or how many were on the Nevada County side of town.

Booker said the data shows there are 393 white people in Emmet, 102 blacks, two Indians or Alaskans and one of other races.

In 1965, Booker told the council, the city voted to change Emmet from an incorporated township into a city of the second class. With the population now exceeding 500, he added, the city is officially a city of the second class.

Rosston, he said, was the only other town in the county to show growth in population, while all other towns lost residents.

The county's population dropped below 10,000 to 9,955, he said, and this won't be good for the county getting state and federal funds.

Booker said the cleanup from the Christmas Day ice storm is just about done. The holdup at this time is the need for dry weather so trucks can come in and do trimming.

The wet weather has also kept the city from starting work on repairing its streets, but once it dries out somewhat, Booker said, crews will start working on getting the potholes filled.

In the meantime, he said, the city's street department is working on cleaning up the ditches. The ditch work will begin on the north side of town to open drainage. Because this part of Emmet is flat, water stands longer, creating a health hazard.

According to Booker, Emmet will get money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to pay for labor costs and equipment use for the city cleaning up Emmet.

The council approved putting the money FEMA gives Emmet for the equipment use in the street department to help repair the city's streets.

This year, Booker said, the city will concentrate on improving drainage in the ditches and around the streets. Next year's plans call for doing surface work.

The council appropriated $20,000 for the street department to get the cleanup work completed. This was done based on projections Booker presented on what the city expects to get back from FEMA  $60,000.

There was a problem with the cholorinator on the new well, he said, as a valve burst. However, the company that installed the chlorinator came down and fixed it.

Along with this, Booker said, a representative from the Arkansas Department of Health came down to test the city's water, and found no chlorine in it.

This, Booker told the council, was because the test was made where the water comes out of the well before chlorine is added.

The city tested water at various points, finding chlorine at all of the test sites.

The council was informed the heating unit at City Hall needs to be repaired as there is a carbon smell when it's turned on. The problem, Booker said, is the unit has been sucking exhaust back into the building.

Once the cleanup is completed, and the city has received its money from FEMA, Booker said, the council will need to think about finishing the renovations to City Hall.

This includes a covered walkway over the front of the building and the construction of a waiting room.

Booker also told the council there is a good chance the city will grow even more during the spring and summer months with people moving to Emmet to put their children in school there.

Because of this, he said, the council may need to start thinking about instituting zoning ordinances regulating what can be put where.

The city will finish demolishing the old Texaco station and use the bricks as fill for the road at the park. Weather permitting, Booker said, this project will start in the next 30 days.

Hopefully, he said, the city will be in position to do more cleanup this summer and keep city property mowed and clean.

If the city, though, cleans up private property, he said, the owners will have to pay for this, as it's illegal to use city equipment on private property.


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