Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Signs to be placed in town

Where do we put the signs?

This was the main question at the Gurdon Chamber of Commerce meeting.

In months past the Chamber discussed having new attractive sings put into place at the entrances to the city.

Laurie Pilgreen, Chamber president, suggested putting a sign somewhere close to the island on Main Street were it meets with Highway 67. Several members agreed with the idea. However, more information would have to be gathered from the city and the highway department before anything could be done.

Pilgreen had talked to Mary Godwin from the Prescott Chamber of Commerce to see how they went about getting Prescott's signs started.

Prescott's sign is a large brick sign beside the railroad tracks as you come into town. They also have a community message board made of brick.

Pilgreen said the message board might also be nice to have in Gurdon. Of course rules would have to be made stating what could or could not be placed on the sign.

Godwin told Pilgreen Prescott paid around $2,500 for the signs. Pilgreen said she thought Gurdon could probably do it for a little less if everyone worked together.

It was suggested the Chamber consider salvaging bricks from the Hoo-Hoo Theater being torn down, and using the historic bricks to build the signs. Everyone was in agreement of the idea.

More is expected to be done on the sign issue before next month's meeting.

The committee to start the Clean Up Gurdon Project did not have a chance to meet last month; however it is planning to meet soon.

Tommy Potter suggested Gurdon finding something to highlight them for.

Potter said Gurdon is right in the area of the Diamond Lakes Region yet it gets no glory. "We have the diamond mine close by that was recently in National Geographic. We also have Hot Springs with the spas and horse racing. People are passing through all the time, let's give them a reason to stop," he said.

The Chamber members agreed it would be a good idea, but it would take a lot of time to get it going.

Potter also mentioned he had been working on the Governor, the area Justice's of the Peace and Congress on reorganizing and restocking the 55-acre Big Timber Lake located across the railroad tracks across from the old pallet mill.

Potter said, "It used to be the best fishing around, but it didn't have a road to it and you used to have to carry your boat across the tracks to get it in the water. When the new Gurdon Pond was built the old lake was drained by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission."

After working with biologist and several others for years, Potter received a call last week telling him a biologist would like to come down and look at the lake in order to evaluate it and recommend capitol improvement.