Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gurdon City Employees To Get 5-Percent Raise

Employees with the City of Gurdon will be getting a 5 percent raise, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001.

This decision was made by the Gurdon City Council at its regular monthly meeting, Monday, April 9.

Interim Mayor Clayton Franklin said the basic budgetary figures remained the same, but were juggled to make the raises possible.

Franklin said the department heads were asked what was most important to them and their employees, with raises being the top answer. It's been four years since city employees have had any kind of salary increase.

The department heads then examined their budgets, using the same numbers passed earlier by the council, and adjusted the figures so the raises could be made possible.

Franklin said each department has to stay within budget. To help them out, each department head will get a copy of the adjusted budget each month to show what has been spent and what's left.

The idea is, Franklin said, for the department heads to try and adjust their budgets themselves before coming to the council for more money.

"These raises were a long-time coming," he said. "Nothing is more important than having good employees."

The budget's bottom line wasn't bothered. In fact, it's still the same budget the council passed in February, before former Mayor Rick Smith resigned from office.

A major change under the Franklin administration has been made. If a citizen has a complaint, airing it at the council meetings will be the last resort.

He said council meetings aren't the place to air gripes and complaints. Instead, the person with the problem needs to first meet with the department head in question. If it can't be resolved at this level, it goes to the mayor's office.

If the problem persists, then it will be addressed by the council at large.

"These are council meetings, not town hall meetings," he said. "We're set to do the business of the city and need to approach things on a business-like basis."

The council was told the city is clear with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from the cleanup of the December 2000 ice storm.

FEMA, he said, has signed off on the paperwork, but the city hasn't gotten a check back yet. It ended up costing $130,102 in contract labor, with the Gurdon Water and Sewer Department getting $4,830 for the loss of three pumps. This was 75 percent of what the pumps cost.

The Gurdon Fire Department will get $817 for losses, while the city will get $4,072 for administrative fees for doing the paperwork.

The Street Department is still assessing damage, with it expected to be in the range of $70,000.

At this point, Franklin said, there has been no priority set as to which streets will be repaired first. In fact, the department is waiting until the weather moderates so it can begin doing patch work.

Money for the final renovation projects at City Hall has been moved into certificates of deposit in the amount of $200,000. The city bought four CDs, with 30, 60 and two with 90 day limits to earn as much interest as possible in case the construction costs go over budget.

"It's the people's money," Franklin said, "and we went with the highest rates we thought we'd need."

State law was examined to make sure there would be no problem in doing this. Franklin said there is no limit to how long the city can hold onto the money before construction actually begins.

The funds for the renovation projects, which include paving the parking lot, adding a drive through window at the Water Department and building two bays for the fire department, were from grants obtained earlier, and not tax monies.

Glenn Hughes and Jim Vance were approved to fill two vacant seats on the Gurdon Water and Sewer Commission.

One seat has been vacant for some time, and another became open when Danny Paull was appointed to fill a vacancy on the city council.

However, another vacancy on the council exists as Mickey Jones tendered her letter of resignation. Jones is leaving Gurdon, moving to Russellville.Anyone living in Ward 1, vacated by Jones, who is interested in the position and is a registered voter, should contact City Hall about it.

The council will discuss a replacement at the May meeting.

On the topic of an employee retirement program, Franklin turned the meeting over to City Recorder/Treasurer Tambra Smith.

The Arkansas Municipal League, she said, has become the administrator of two retirement systems for cities in the state.

One of the plans is a deferred compensation plan where the city puts in no matching funds. The other is a defined contribution pension plan, also called a 401(a).

While information about these plans isn't available yet, she said, it does give the city options it didn't have in the past where employee retirement is concerned.

The league, she said, handles all the administrative and paperwork involved.

If Gurdon tried to create a retirement plan, Franklin said, a lot of people would have to be involved just to see if it would be feasible.

"A lot of towns in Arkansas are in the same shape as Gurdon," he said. "The AML's package will save everyone money."

A committee consisting of two city employees, two council members and two private citizens will be appointed to work on the retirement issue.

Daryl Potratz, head of the Solid Waste Commission, said the city did 1.4 percent recycling in 2000. The state legislature wants all communities to be recycling 40 percent of their waste streams by 2005.

To reach this goal, Potratz said, Gurdon will have to be recycling 356 tons per year. In 2000, though, only 12.5 tons were recycled. This translates into a needed increase of 89 tons per year for the next four years to reach this goal.

Education will be required to make people more conscious of recycling.

"We need to find a way to get commercial cardboard," Potratz said, "instead of hauling it to Arkadelphia (where it's put in the class IV landfill)."

Additionally, he's working on finding a market for recycling magazines.

The county, he continued, has about $18,000 in grant money for recycling, but has done nothing with it.

Potratz said Gurdon may need to apply for its portion, about $6,000, and do what it can with the money.

But, he added, until the city gets a handle on a recycling building not much can be done.

A building is needed so more recyclable materials can be accepted, as there is no place, other than the current trailer, to store them.

He said there is a market for glass, but the city has no way of taking it. The same can be said of old phone books, catalogs and magazines.