Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Mayor, Marshal working to keep campaign promises

"We've been working hard since the election last November to keep up with what we promised and keep going with the good stuff," said Gurdon City Marshal Don Childres.

Childres had told citizens he was concerned about cleaning up the streets of Gurdon, which included trash and debris, but also from people walking the streets all hours of the night.

Since November Childres said he has continued to use those owing fines to the city to work them off by picking trash and doing community service work.

"I think we all benefit from this type of punishment. No one wants to spend their Saturday out picking up someone else's garbage, and it helps the look of our town," said Childres.

Childres said he was still concerned about Gurdon's drug problems and was still on top of the matter. "It takes time to work through and find the one's doing it. You have to know you have the right people before you can make a move."

Childres also said, he and his officers have been trying to check residences and businesses on a regular basis. "We put yellow stickers on the doors so people know we have been checking them. We can't always do it every night, but we try. We had a $20,000 budget cut which has hampered the department. We are now short one full-time officer and can't hire one, but we always have enough officers working and we try to patrol and place stickers as much as possible," said Childres.

Childres said he and his officers have also been involved in helping the city out with the new clean up ordinance.

Since November the department has sent in for grants. One of which was received to pay 50 percent of the cost of bullet proof vest. The other 50 percent was donated by an individual.

The department's radar gun has been repaired to help control the number of speeders through town. The costs of the repairs were paid by Henry Bell Jr. to show appreciation to the department.

Childres also reported working on a grant with the school for an on campus police officer.

At this time the grant is on its way to Washington for approval.

If the grant goes through, Childres will be responsible for finding someone to fill the position.

"You can't just put anyone out there. These are our kids and we will have to make sure whoever is out there knows what they are dealing with and have the best interest of the students at mind," said Childres.

Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin said his big issue is to clean up Gurdon and keep it that way.

"The ordinance we recently passed we to clean up Gurdon is working pretty well at this time. We have cleaned up vacant houses and made several lots available and look better. We are now in Phase II, which is to get rid of abandoned automobiles in yards. The city marshal and his officers have helped us on finding these automobiles. We have sent out letters and will fine those not responding to our requests.

"We may not attract a large industry or anything of that nature, but at least we will have a clean town and some pride," said Franklin.

When asked if any new developments had been made on the landfill topic Franklin said, "No, but this thing is like a cat. It has nine lives; it will resurface because they are running out of places to take garbage. However, we will keep fighting and oppose it all they way."

Franklin was also asked about the recent report of a lawsuit being filed by ex-Gurdon Police Officer Frank Plasek.

Plasek was terminated on November 6, the day after the election in 2002.

Plasek said he was fired because he opposed Childres in the election. When Childres won, he fired Plasek.

Childres defended the decision by showing evidence Plasek did not handle a situation in the manner he was supposed to.

Plasek went before the city council and then before the personnel committee in an attempt to gain his job back.

The committee decided unanimously to stand behind Childres' decision and Plasek was still terminated.

Plasek has since filed a lawsuit against the city, Mayor Clayton Franklin, Childres, City Recorder/Treasurer Tambra Smith, Water Department Manager Ben Williams, Street Department Manager Jimmy Caldwell and the entire city council.

"In response to the lawsuit, yes there is a lawsuit, we have been served papers. It is my understanding though, a court date will probably not be set until sometime next year. We are just going about our day to day business as we should. We are letting the Wright Law Firm handle the personal suits and the Municipal League is handling the city's side of it," said Franklin.