Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Clark County gives $2,000 to improve Okolona Community Center

The Okolona City Council has a new city clerk. That was one order of business when the council met in regular session on June 6.

The council also accepted $2,000 in Clark County general improvement money to continue remodeling efforts on the Okolona Community Center. The center is now air conditioned and has a seating capacity of approximately 250 people.

Okolona Mayor James Paul has scheduled the July meeting for 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 11, to avoid a conflict with the July 4 holiday.

Clark County Circuit Clerk Diane Ross will give a talk on the duties of her office that night.

In regard to the $2,000 general improvement money, Clark County Judge Ron Daniell and Arkansas Senator Percy Malone attended the meeting and presented the check to Clark County Justice of the Peace Francis McGill, who is in charge of the community center remodeling project.

Daniell praised Malones efforts in the last legislative session to get some general improvement money for the county and said he and the senator both agreed the Okolona project was worth the $2,000 contribution.

Malone said, "I was in Atlanta last night and looked at the big buildings and lights, but I would rather be right here in Okolona. This is real democracy at work."

McGill said, "We have already got this money in process for improvements. It will go toward blinds at the center, molding on the main area ceiling, tinted windows in the kitchen and maybe there will be enough left over to replace the kitchen ceiling."

According to McGill, there will still be approximately $4,000 to work with in the community center improvement fund after the new $2,000 is spent.

"We still lack kitchen utensils, floor and restroom improvements. We will be getting on that as soon as we can," she said.

Swearing in

Before Paul could get into the business meeting, he needed a clerk, recorder and treasurer to read the minutes and city business.

Gail Pettus, who has been an Okolona resident since 1994, was approved as the new clerk for the city by unanimous vote of the city council.

Pettus replaces Vickie Davis, who resigned on April 10 and left office May 1.

McGill swore Pettus in with the oath of office. Pettus then took her place at the council table and began reading minutes from the last meeting.

"I am glad to be here," she said.

After the minutes were read and approved, Paul thanked Malone and Daniell for their interest and contribution to the continued improvement of the community center.

"We would also like to thank Modern Woodman for their dinner over here. They made about $6,085.73 and around $2,500 of that went to our community center fund," Paul said.

In other business, Paul noted there were 253 water users in Okolona last month, with 76 paying for sewer and 82 for garbage.

"That is pretty well in range," he said. "Normally, we have active running water for between 233 and 255 customers."

Paul told council members the city fire department burned a house down on June 5 and was paid for the intentional fire.

"We have a problem in Okolona with falling down houses," he said. "There are two or three more where the owners are trying to decide whether to have our fire department burn them down or to bulldoze them."

In another effort to clean up the city, Paul asked the city council to consider the problem of junk cars parked in front of peoples houses.

"I would like you to consider this in ordinance form in July," Paul said. "To me, having one or two vehicles in a yard that are not licensed is plenty. Any more than that and the place looks like a junk yard."

Paul said Clark County Clerk Rhonda Cole had a conflict and could not give her scheduled speech. He said she would try and reschedule in August.

"I have other plans for August in regard to a four-week fund raiser to give a face lift to our town hall on Main Street," Paul said.

"I plan to have four bands. One Saturday night it will be blues, the next one, country, the third one, old rock n roll, and the fourth one gospel."

Paul said his plan is to sell advanced package tickets only to get into all four shows for between $30 and $40.

"If you cant make one of the shows, give your ticket to someone else for that event," he said.

"We want people to come and enjoy their community center and have something to do on Saturday nights. Even if we decide to go with $40, that is only $10 an evening."

Paul said the town hall is somewhere people go to pay water bills and to vote. He said he has high hopes Okolona will support the music shows so the necessary repairs can be done.

"Our town hall is in bad shape, but we can get the work done if the people will get behind this project," he said.

"We are not going to serve a meal at the music shows but maybe we can come up with a free drink and a bag of popcorn. This will be good, clean fun."