Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Franklin updates Rotary on State of City

Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin was the guest speaker at Gurdon's Rotary Club meeting held on Thursday, January 30.

Franklin updated guests on the state of the town.

"Budgets have been passed for this year. We are not expecting as much revenue for the year and we have placed a freeze on hiring for the city. We have also decided to not give any raises; however, we did not have to fire anyone and no one has taken a cut in pay. We can add to our budgets if we feel it is necessary and that we can afford it towards the middle of the year," said Franklin.

He also discussed the new ordinance passes in December to allow the city to clean up unsightly property if necessary.

"We have had an excellent response with the cleaning up Gurdon project. We tore down 15 houses last year and we have 15 more ready to go. We are excited about the new ordinance passed in December. We read this ordinance three different times to allow citizens to react to it. No one approached us with a problem so we approved it. I think it will help the towns appearance which then turn around and help the towns morale."

Also discussed was the proposed landfill which Franklin is highly opposed to.

"I absolutely believe in the sunshine rule. The more light we shed on something the more people become involved. I am pleased to see the proposed landfill making the statewide newspaper along with several other area papers. People start talking and the surrounding areas become worried. We get opposition for this thing that a way. We are still hopeful that it will not pass. At this time, International Paper has the land sale on hold and it will probably be fall before we know anymore on that. However, they can condemn the land which will allow them to take it by eminent domain. Hopefully it will not come to this. We are steadily working on several different proposals to keep the landfill out of here. There is a site around Nashville that takes all garbage and has stated that they have enough room to take our garbage and theirs and continue to have enough room for the next 100 years. The cost of this process has not been established yet," said Franklin.

One guest asked, "Is there not anything we can do as far as recycling most of this garbage. It doesn't seem to me that we are leaving a very good place for our children and grand children."

"I agree with you. Some recycling ideas have been looked at, but it is still cheaper to dump the garbage into the ground, cover it up and forget about it. Until recycling becomes more feasible in the economy, we are probably not going to see much recycling. I wish we would, but it doesn't seem likely," Franklin said.

Franklin discussed the new educational plan proposed by Governor Mike Huckabee recently.

Franklin reported holding a community meeting with Representative Tommy Roebuck Saturday, January 25, at the Gurdon Municipal Building.

"I think the meeting went well. Gurdon is interested in what is taking place with this landfill and the school system. We had standing room only on Saturday morning.

"My take on the proposed education plan is this, Huckabee presented this plan first to make his real plan, or options look better that the original. It is a smoke screen tactic to make the first one look so bad that we will approve the next one. I could be wrong, but it is what I think is taking place," Franklin said.

Franklin also discussed the idea of a county-wide water system.

Franklin said when DeGray lake was built some people were thinking ahead and reserved 30 million gallons of water from the lake for the people of Clark County.

Franklin said the idea is good and would help the county out tremendously.

"There is enough water reserved for the whole county to use for years. If this thing goes through, which will take a great deal of time, we have enough water supply in Gurdon to possibly attract business and industry," said Franklin.

Ideas are being looked at and an engineering firm has drawn up plans for how the system would work.

Anita Cabe commented to Franklin on what a good job the police department is doing. Cabe said she didn't realize that the officers were out all hours of the night and she was glad to see the stickers they were leaving on businesses to let them know they had been checking them.

Franklin said, "Our officers do a fine job. They are always busy. You wouldn't believe some of the things they get called to at all hours of the night. They are doing all of this without the number of officers they are used to. Since Frank Plasek was terminated from his position and the new budgets have been made, the department has not been able to hire anyone else for that position. Therefore our men are doing all of their duties short handed."