Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Voter turnout light for street election

While voter turnout was light, those who did take time to vote in the Gurdon special election last week approved a 3/4 cent sales tax to pay for a street improvement project.

Collection of the tax will begin in September and work on the streets should begin about the same time.

With just more than 200 people voting, 155 voted "yes" to the tax and 44 voted against the measure. Only registered voters inside the city limits were eligible to vote.

Gurdon City Recorder Tambra Childres said the next step will be to check into the legal aspects of offering the job for bid. As of Thursday following the vote on June 29, Childres said she had not yet talked to the bond attorneys and did not have a date for the sale of bonds.

Bonds will be issued so that the entire project can be completed at one time. The sales tax will be collected until the bonds are repaid. Expected payoff is in 2012.

Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin said the city should be able to raise enough money to pave about 15 miles of streets in the city. He has identified about five miles as priorities, including those streets that come into the city  Kansas Road, Red Springs Road, Smithton Road and Go-Devil Road.

The plan, according to Franklin, is to create an advisory board to help decide which streets will be included in the project. Franklin has stressed that the streets will have an asphalt overlay, not a pea gravel coating or patch job.