Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Chamber banquet April 4

The annual Gurdon Chamber of Commerce Banquet will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 4, in the High School Cafetorium.

The Chamber Board met Tuesday and member Anita Cabe made the announcement about the time and place, and that Keith Jackson, of Positive Achievement Reinforcement for Kids (PARK), an after school program to help kids get on the right track, will come from Little Rock as the guest speaker.

Cabe said, "Keith Jackson is a former football player for Oklahoma and very concerned about young people. This should be a very good way to learn about PARK. We invite everyone to come on out."

Banquet tickets will go on sale March 1 at the local banks, First State and U.S., at the Cabe office and the Arkadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Between 150 and 170 tickets will be sold to fill cafetorium.

The Chamber members voted to charge $15 each for the tickets this year.

In other business, the group voted to do the annual Christmas ornament fund raiser, using a photograph of the old Hoo Hoo Theatre as the feature for 2005. They also announced plans to use a photo of the local train depot for 2006. The ornaments will go on sale for $10 each, with 150 new ornaments being ordered again for 2005.

Cabe said, "I think it is good thinking to plan ahead on this. We encourage everyone to collect the ornaments year to year."

The Chamber does have a few ornaments left from last year, if anyone wants to catch up on their collection.

In other business, Valerie Kent gave the group an update on the Chamber of Commerce welcome sign planned for the city. She said no definite location has been approved as of yet by city government.

"I have talked to Mayor Clayton Franklin, but it would not hurt for us to come up with more ideas on locations," she said.

Chamber member Tommy Potter suggested exploring a matching grant if another location increased the cost of the project.

The problem, said Kent, is gaining Arkansas Highway Department approval. The group talked about coming up with a new location strictly on city property. The issue was tabled.