Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Mayor has list of streets earmarked for repair

If Gurdon residents approve a 3/4 cent sales tax, the streets leading into the city of Gurdon should be first on the project list, according to Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin. Other streets on Franklin's priority list include those that are heavily used.

But the mayor's list accounts for less than half of the total project, if the city voters approve the proposed tax to pay for the project.

The Gurdon City Council met in special session about two weeks ago to consider an ordinance calling for a 3/4 cent sales tax, with the revenues slated to go for a street paving program. An attorney from the Little Rock firm of Friday, Eldridge and Clark and a representative of Stephens Inc., who will be handling the sale of bonds, attended the meeting to answer questions from the council.

The council unanimously passed the ordinance which calls for a special election in July to consider the sales tax. If voters approve the tax, the city will issue bonds to generate the money for a street-paving project. The revenues from the sales tax will be used to pay off the bonds. Expected payoff time is eight years.

Franklin and council members had discussed the project during the April city council meeting and the council gave Franklin the "go ahead" to pursue the tax. At that time, Franklin said his priority list would include those streets that come into Gurdon, "So anyway you would come into town, you would be on a new, hard surfaced road."

He said those streets would be a small portion of the overall project. The streets Franklin identified in this category include:

* Kansas Road from the city limits to Highway 53

* South Front Street, from the city limits to Main Street

* Red Springs Road from the city limits to Highway 53

* Smithton Road from the city limits to Cherry Street

* Maple Street from Highway 67 to the underpass

Other priorities listed by the mayor are:

* Fifth Street from Main Street to Highway 53

* Haynie Street (at the baseball field) from Highway 67 to City Shop Road

* Crayton Street from Main Street to 10th Street

* First Street from South Street to Cherry Street

* South Street from the railroad to Highway 53

* Second Street from the Gurdon Housing Authority to Highway 53

* A portion of West Walnut and Bowen Hill Road

Franklin said these streets represent only about 5.7 miles of streets and the estimate is that the project will pave between 15 and 16 miles.

"And these are actually the longer streets," Franklin said.

He said he is not sure of the total miles of streets in the city, "But I think we can get the biggest majority of them with this money."

The council has briefly discussed how to decide which streets will round out the list and the general consensus was to establish a board of people to make recommendations, with the people coming from different parts of the city to ensure representation of all neighborhoods.

The ordinance allows the money to be spent for paving, drainage, curb and gutters or other improvements needed. Franklin said there are no plans to do anything except paving with the revenue of the sales tax but said the city will be doing some other work on its own this summer.

A new track hoe has been purchased and city crews will be cleaning out ditches to improve drainage. Franklin said there are also plans to clear the creek bed leading from the viaduct to Caney Creek, hoping to help water runoff more quickly when heavy rains fall.