Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

City improves park, plans to move caboose

The City of Gurdon has set aside $1,500 to pay for minor improvements at the city park on Highway 67, and will also move a caboose to the park for area children to have a playhouse.

Mayor Clayton Franklin said Thursday, "We have hired Ricky Shelton to do some painting on the slides, some repairs in the bathrooms, such as replacing a toilet, and he is doing a good job out there."

As to the caboose, it is currently located on a lot at South Front Street, next to the old Gurdon Jail. The mayor wants to relocate it to the front of the park, apply a fresh coat of traditional railroad red paint and turn the inside into a kid's playhouse.

"We got that caboose when the railroad was still Missouri Pacific," he said. "When it became Union Pacific, 20 or 30 years ago, they no longer needed cabooses to detect hot spots on the wheels for potential fires. The age of the caboose was over, as were the jobs of the two or three railroad workers on them who were replaced by computer detection of hot spots."

Jim Caldwell, street superintendent, said at the park on Thursday the first step to moving the caboose is to build up some dirt for a platform. Then rails will be put down, and finally the caboose will be moved.

"We plan on moving the caboose over the next couple of weeks," he said. "Tommy Rickett's Wrecker Service will move it."

As to the other park improvements, Shelton said he started two weeks ago and has been painting playground equipment, replaced some four by fours on the slides and some boards on the pavilion.

There is still a toilet and a urinal to replace in the men's room, and he will fix two lights on the outside of the bathroom. Plus, Shelton will paint the bathrooms.

"The biggest expense so far is materials," he said. "I will need a little more time to finish everything."

Franklin said the entire $1,500 for the park repairs has not been spent as of this writing, "but I am glad this work is getting done."

The mayor said the moving of the caboose, and subsequent improvements on it, is considered a separate expense from the repair budget. He said the repairs may run slightly more than $1,500 and if so, the street department budget could help some.

The projects will be discussed at 7 p.m. Monday, March 21, at the next City Council meeting at City Hall.