Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Chamber focusing on clean up

Gurdon's Chamber of Commerce met at noon Tuesday, March 12 at Art and Mary's Cafi.

The main topic of the meeting was the Clean-up Gurdon Project. This project will be a joint partnership between the Gurdon Chamber of Commerce and the City of Gurdon.

In recent months, several citizens have voiced their concern about the number of abandoned homes in Gurdon that are eyesores.

The goal of the project is to remove 20 burned-out, abandoned and run down dwellings in the central part of town.

This is believed to upgrade the appearance of the town and would build pride for the community.

The program would also allow potential new homeowners to work with organizations for funding low to moderate housing without costly clean up of building sites.

To get the project started, $30,000 will have to be raised.

Clayton Franklin, Gurdon Mayor, suggested the Clean-up committee speak with the area Justice's of the Peace to see if the Quorum Court could help with the funding and some of the equipment needed.

Franklin said, "Gurdon makes up 10 percent of Clark County. However, Gurdon does not receive 10 percent of the funds gathered by the county."

Funding for the project is the most critical part of the project, and this is where the Chamber plans to step in and help. If Chamber representatives talk to county officials, maybe it could make a difference in whether or not the financing is received.

Property clean up will be on a cost-share basis with low-income landowners, assuming $1,500 per site cost. If the landowner is unable to pay half of the cost ($750.00) a lien will be placed on the property for the entire amount of the clean up.

The City of Gurdon does not want to get into the land ownership business, but recognizes most of the houses identified for demolition may be owned by people who do not have the ability to pay. Therefore, to accomplish the goal for the project, some liens could be necessary.

The cost share was figured in to help keep the project going further than the first 20 houses selected to be demolished.

The project is planned to be accomplished in three phases after a committee is selected by the Chamber.

Phase one includes the committee selecting 10 properties, which are in the most run-down condition to be cleaned up first. It is expected to have these properties cleaned up within the first six months.

Phase two is the selection of the additional 10 properties to be cleaned up in the second six-month phase.

Phase three will include all additional properties that need to be cleaned up using the funds collected from liens on the phase one and two properties.

These goals and phases of the project were presented to the Chamber by Franklin, who said he believes this is a project Gurdon can take pride in.

The committee will be selected before the next Chamber meeting and more progress is expected by then.