Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Bids opened for trail

After more than a year of waiting, bids were opened for the proposed walking/jogging trail.

Donnie Crain, executive director for the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, told the Prescott City Council, at its January meeting, two bids were submitted.

Sid and Sons had the low bid at $38,500. This company is out of Texarkana. The other, from Nashville, was more than $20,000 higher. The Council went with the low bid.

Sid and Sons will do the asphalt and cement work on the trail. The project will be overseen by Marlar Engineering.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Thursday, Jan. 26 at the site by the Nevada County Health Unit.

There is still no budget for the Prescott-Nevada County Library. Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said this issue was discussed at a special meeting and nothing will be paid until the city gets a copy of the librarys 2004 expenses.

Carl Dalrymple, city accountant, said he wrote a letter asking for the information and got data from 2004 and 2005 combined. The amount totaled $65,000 owed.

Taylor said the library has to justify these expenses before theyll be paid.

Glenn Vasser, city attorney, said the Library Board is supposed to be keeping up with the librarys finances. Funds are supposed to be appropriated to allow the library to subsist. He suggested the Council have a committee meet with the Library Board and the Quorum Court.

In the interim, the Council agreed to pay the $18,461 requested by the library.

Henry Thompson was on hand to discuss the electricity situation. Thompson was retained to represent the city in its dealings with Entergy and the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Commission (AECC).

City Manager Larry Stockton told the Council there has been no change in the situation, which is a conflict between Entergy and AECC over transmission issues.

Thompson, he said, was raised in Prescott and worked with Entergy when it was AP&L and knows what to expect.

Prescott, Thompson said, has a contract signed with Entergy for gap power and another with AECC to supply electricity for three years. The gap power contract is good for 90 days, when problems between Entergy and AECC should be worked out.

Once this occurs, he said, the contract between Prescott and AECC will go into effect. Thompson suggested the Council and city begin looking for a new supplier about halfway into the contract with AECC so similar problems can be avoided in the future.

The current problem, he said, is a difference of opinion between Entergy and AECC. Once its resolved things should go smoothly for Prescott.

We dont know how it will be resolved, he said. AECC may take legal action in the state, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) in Washington, D.C., may step in on the contract interpretation.

This is not a new thing AECC is trying to do, he continued. AECC proposed what the company has been doing in Augusta since the 70s, and its picked up other cooperatives since then.

The question, he said, is what the parties involved will do, as electricity is not color coded showing which supplier is transmitting what electricity where.

In addition, he said, AECC owns 35 percent of the White Bluff and Independence power plants.

Currently, Thompson said, North Little Rock is served by Duke Energy using Entergys transmission system. Conway and West Memphis are with Constellation and also go over Entergys transmission lines.

Prescott, he said, is like a litmus test for whats happening between Entergy and AECC. The FERC issued order 888 separating power generation from transmission, but this doesnt keep one company from generating power over anothers lines.

Im not sure what would happen if this goes to court. Prescott wouldnt necessarily have to be the lead party in the case.

Should Entergy prevail in a lawsuit, he said, it could affect AECCs ability to sell its excess power to anyone and AECC would be out of business in the wholesale market.

Taylor said it gets complicated and hopes to get it resolved soon.