Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

City has big plans for 2003; counties ideas more modest

2003 should be a busy year in Prescott, with the plans Mayor Howard Taylor has for the community.

One of the first items on Taylor's list is to let bids for the rural water system.

He said hopes are to be handle the final 25 easements and let the bids by spring, but the bids could be let as early as February if the easement situation can be settled quickly enough.

Next up is to get the spec building constructed in the industrial park. Bids for this project could be let in later winter.

Actually, this isn't a true "spec" building, as an industry has stated it wants to move in as soon as the construction is finished.

Bids for a new fire station/park office should be let sometime in late spring, he said.

At this point, the building committee has to decide what kind of building should be built and how big it should be.

Instead of a combination building, it could end up being a fire station only on the east side of the railroad tracks.

By summer, he said, bids should be in for redoing 10 blocks of sidewalks downtown.

This project will not only see the sidewalks improved, but better drainage on city streets where the improvements are made.

The new library should be ready and opened by late spring, Taylor said. The 7,000 square foot complex will include an area for meetings, computer work and research, along with the usual trappings in a library.

He said the Friends of the Library are working hard to match the $75,000 to furnish the building's interior.

"The millage, had it passed," he said, "would have allowed it to stay open at night, hire special instructors for classes and do other things. Now, it will have to be operated it like the senior citizen's center was at first.

The Depot Museum project is completed, for the most part, with the exception of getting the exhibits moved back in. This should be done and the museum opened sometime in the spring.

Plans are also underway, he said, to renovate the old City Jail, adjacent to City Hall. Once work on it is done, city wants to turn it into a tourist attraction.

Signs will be constructed on sites along Interstate-30 welcoming motorists to Prescott and Nevada County. The sites are to be determined, but should be near the two exits.

Taylor said the city will also continue to remove abandoned buildings in the city limits after getting permission from the landowners.

Work will also continue, he said, on drainage ditches in the area of McRae Middle School, behind Wolves and at the end of Webb Street.

The county's plans are more modest, according to Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown.

Brown said the county will continue to upgrade its equipment this year and do maintenance at the courthouse.

"I hate to say we plan to do something, then have something come up and not be able to," he said.

The county has about $2 million in its overall budget, with $1 million going to the road and bridge department to maintain county roads.

"We'll try to repair some of the county's paved roads," he said. "We'll do what we can with what we have."