Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Lowdermilk replaces Beavert on Council

It was a relatively short meeting for the Prescott City Council, as business was taken care of in about 35 minutes.

The first order of business at the Councils September meeting was to fill the vacancy left by Danny Beavert, who resigned. Gary Lowdermilk was the only person from that district to submit a letter and was approved by the Council. He was sworn in by Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor.

From there, the panel approved the passage of a 5-mill tax. This is not a new tax, but one thats been on the books for years. State law allows cities to have a maximum of 5 mill. While the tax passed, it did so 7-1, as James Roy Cornelius voted against it.

Next on the list was the approval of a resolution to allow the city to spend up to $20,000 without getting a bid. This doubled the amount previously allowed. Taylor said the Legislature passed a law in its last session allowing this.

Now, he said, the city can spend up to $20,000 without getting competitive bids. Taylor said no emergency clause was needed for the resolution, as the rules for this have also changed. Emergency clauses are used now only when the action is to be delayed for 30 days.

Again, the measure passed, but wasnt unanimous. The 6-2 vote saw Ann Stockton and Larry Baker as the dissenters.

The Council also passed a resolution to let bids to get the inside of the water tank on Highway 19 painted. Taylor said the city has put $100,000 aside for this project each of the last two years.

Marlar Engineering will do the engineering work and prepare plans for the painting. This project, Taylor said, will be done later this fall, possibly until November after the area has received more rain. This is because the tank will have to be shut down while the painting is being done.

This will be the first time the tanks interior has ever been painted.

Prescott will participate in the 2006 General Election. The Council voted to do this with the Nevada County Election Commission handling the election process. This is done so the city doesnt have to pay for the election, or hold a special election.

The next item was to correct an oops, as the Council voted to retain Glenn Vasser as the citys attorney. Normally, Vasser said, this is done the first of the year, but it slipped up on me and I forgot.

No other local attorney expressed interest in obtaining the position so Vasser was hired for the next four years. His term will expire Dec. 31, 2008.

Mary Godwin closed the public part of the meeting by giving a report from the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce. Godwin said the new signs for the Depot Museum and Bemis Field are up, as is the new marquee sign.

Trash day, she said, was a big success with six teams picking up about 2,900 pounds of trash. This year, she added, had the largest number of people ever to call in to have items picked up at their homes. In fact, city crews worked three days picking up old appliances and furniture, totaling about 4,000 pounds.

Its growing each year, Godwin said.

The Hurricane Katrina fund was closed out by the two banks in Prescott. The goal, she said, was to raise $10,000, with the banks to put in $5,000 each. But, the people of Prescott and Nevada County showed what they were made of as donations by the public and banks totaled almost $27,000.

In addition to the money, items hurricane victims need were collected and taken to Hope in Action and other shelters. There were few victims of Katrina in Prescott.

Floyd Clark, she said, is no longer with the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, and has returned to Missouri. The industrial board, she added, is working to come up with a game plan and decide what they want in a new director.

Meanwhile, she said, the Chamber will continue the project Clark was working on. This includes getting the walking trail done, hopefully before the end of the year. At this time, Marlar Engineering is staking out the track. When this is done city crews will cut it and bids for getting it paved will be let.

The Council went into executive session to discuss a personnel item, but no action was taken.