Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Council discussees redistricting areas

Redistricting and demographics.

These are issues the Prescott City Council will have to address in the near future.

Jim Tungeln said the city has four wards now, with eight council members. The wards, though, are out of balance.

The city, he said, waited until the census information was out before doing anything, which was a good idea.

Now, the city will wait for the county's justice of the peace boundaries to be redrawn before doing any redistricting within the city limits.

Tungeln worked with Jeff Hawkins to redraw the Prescott School District's wards.

The school district, though, has five wards, where the city has four.

Ideally, he said, all of the zones (city, county and school) would fit neatly together, but they seldom do.

"I'm not prepared to propose any ward boundary changes," he said.

However, maps of the districts as they are, and how they could be were presented to the council, showing a 5 percent variance based on total population and minorities.

Part of the problem, Tungeln said, is the federal government recognizes 162 different racial categories under the census, and the Arkansas Municipal League handbook offers little guidance on boundaries.

This makes it difficult to redraw district lines without there existing the possibility of a lawsuit, he said.

The maps presented showed how the lines could be drawn without affecting any member of the council.

The trend, he said, is to get away from at-large districts and go to individual wards.

In Prescott, four of the seats are elected strictly based on votes from specific districts, with the other four being at-large, meaning everyone in the city gets to vote on them.

In other business, the council approved building a 40x100 foot storage shed for $18,594.30.

Bids had been let on the project, with the city receiving only one from a Texarkana firm.

This is a T-shaped building, Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said. The city will be doing the foundation work, with Alvin Eatman helping with the concrete portion.

Parks Director Steve Crow said there have been fewer problems since the park gates have been locked at night, with the litter situation being greatly reduced.