Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet passes budget

Emmet's City Council passed a $1.6 million budget for 2002 at its regular monthly meeting, Jan. 9.

The breakdown of the budget, with its total of $1,661,136.71, shows the city's general fund budget to be $65,406.85, with the street department to get $23,991.12. The city's water department has the largest budget at $76,738.74.

Emmet Mayor Dale Booker said this is basically the same budget the council passed in 2001.

"I expect this year to be a repeat of last year without the disaster," Booker said.

Budget increases were passed for 2001, but not for 2002, he said, as they shouldn't be needed.

The city, he said, doesn't have a lot of major projects planned for this year, and hopes to make it through the year with normal operations.

Last year, Booker said, the city did a lot of street and ditch work. This was done to remove debris from the streets and ditches from the ice storm.

This year, he said, plans are to improve parts of two streets, from the railroad tracks on Elm to the Mercantile, and from Fourth and Fifth streets to Vine.

The ditches in these areas need to be opened so they'll drain better, he said.

Otherwise, plans are to add more street signs around town and do surface repairs, such as filling potholes.

"We don't have the money to do any major road work," Booker said. "The patching we've done over the last three yeas has fixed the roads."

One street, he said, is scheduled to be completely rebuilt, but as most of the street is outside the city limits, the work will be done by the county and paid for with funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

There are also no major projects planned for the water department, with everything scheduled to be normal operations.

The sewer pump on Highway 67 has gone out recently, and has been replaced with a portable pump while it's being repaired.

"It's been there a long time," Booker said.

After it's been repaired and replaced, it should last the city another eight or 10 years, he added.

This, though, is considered normal operations, as it wasn't out of the ordinary or caused by a disaster.

The council passed an ordinance to prevent residents from placing their garbage out on days when no trash pickup is scheduled.

The discussion began with concerns about homemade trash bins being put up around the city to keep dogs out of the trash.

Booker said Emmet, like Prescott, has a dog problem, and the dogs tear up garbage.

While the people made bins to prevent this, they began abusing the concept by putting their garbage in them almost daily, in some cases.

"It's becoming unsightly," Booker said.

Dick Snell, a member of the council, said the city needs a rule to prevent people from putting their garbage out except on pickup days, and then in sealed bags.

The council agreed and passed a resolution to have such an ordinance drawn up. The ordinance will be discussed at the February meeting.

Because of the train situation, the council talked about putting a fire station on the north side of the tracks.

The city, Booker said, has three pumper trucks and could put the oldest one on the north side of the tracks so if a train is blocking the fire station, a truck would still be available to go to a fire.

Booker said he'd found a source where the city could have a metal building constructed at about half price, possibly less.

He was instructed to see if the money is there, and report back to the council next month.

The panel also discussed upgrading the city's building codes.

Booker said the city has been using the Southern Building Code as its standard, but these codes have been discontinued.

The Arkansas Municipal League, he said, told the city it could continue doing what it's been doing and operating by the Southern Building Codes.

However, the original ordinance for building codes in Emmet was passed in 1964 and hasn't been updated.

Booker said it's time for the city to upgrade.

Prescott, he said, has a good set of building code rules and regulations and Emmet could model its after Prescott's with some modifications and changes.

The final item of business was a brief discussion on the walking track.

Booker said the city received bad news as it applied for a grant and was in the top 12, but the state didn't have the funds available.

The city will reapply for the grant, and could, he said, start something on a temporary basis.

Before adjourning, the council agreed to give the Nevada County Weather Center $300 to help it continue operating.

Cities in Nevada County donate $300 each to help the center annually.