Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Street work is underway in Rosston

Street work is being done in Rosston, according to Mayor Lewis Jackson.

Jackson, at the monthly meeting of the Rosston City Council, Monday, July 7, said some culverts are also being replaced with the street work.

In some places, the streets are being widened, with gravel placed on the culverts once they are installed.

On other streets, the tree line has been pushed back, he said, to improve visibility and make the road wider.

The council was also informed about Girls State by Jessie Potts, who was Rosston's representative from Nevada High School.

Potts said she and three girls from Prescott High went to Harding University in Searcy a month ago.

The Girls State system, she said, is designed so those who are from the same area aren't grouped together. The idea is to separate the girls from their friends and companions so they will make new friends and develop new relationships.

"It forces you to meet new people and be outgoing," Potts said.

The "state" was broken down into 30 cities with 40 residents in each city. From there, the girls are separated into two political parties, the federalists and nationalists. An election is held with the girls picking their mayor, council members and other officials.

The cities were in counties, as they are in real life, which meant elections were held to name county officials and representatives of higher offices.

The county delegates, Potts said, nominated people from their party, who gave a 30-minute speech as to why they should be elected. Following the speeches, the election was held, narrowing the list of candidates to one from each party.

The winner of this election earns a trip to the capital in Little Rock.

"It was interesting," she said. "There were a lot of different people there; people involved in politics at their school and in their community."

Elected officials from the state government, she said, spoke to the girls about how the government worked.

The city also passed an ordinance to join the Flood Plane Insurance Program.

Jackson told the council if Rosston didn't participate in the program, the city wouldn't be eligible for federal funds in the event of a disaster.

The city's water system is financed with federal money through the Soil and Water Conservation Commission.

"There's not many areas of Rosston in the flood plane area, and we've set culverts in where the creek is prone to flood," he said. "This is to promote the safety and welfare of the public and costs the city nothing."

Being involved in the flood plane program has other implications as well.

For example, if a person wanted to build in a flood plane area and the community wasn't involved in the program, it would be difficult to obtain the permits needed to build. In addition, the person would not be able to get insurance for the building.