Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Chamber schedules auction for Oct. 16

The annual Gurdon Chamber of Commerce banquet will be Monday, Oct. 16, in the Gurdon High School Cafetorium.

Anita Cabe said Bobby Goodman will be the auctioneer again this year.

"In four years of doing the auction, we have raised $30,000 for this community," she said.

Donations collected so far this year to auction off include hats and shirts promoting famous sports figures. However, Chamber of Commerce President Bill OConnell said there will be no live animals.

Tickets are $10 for the silent auction, banquet meal and live auction at 7 p.m.

Cabe said last years crowd was close to 120.

"We believe the tickets will sell quickly and it will be a good meal," she said. "Of course, we want people to buy something and help the cause."

Other business

Yolanda Calley, chair person for the chambers beautification committee, is waiting for a fall cool down before physically beginning to change the downtown. She said she has been looking at lamp posts, comparing trash containers from nearby cities and considering what she might plant when the weather allows.

"It is just too hot to grow anything now," she said. "I am trying to come up with some treated wood for decorating. I dont want to set something up with wood that will rot away."

Calley said some of the lamp posts in catalogs are $700.

"Ive been told to contact Entergy and the Clark County Quorum Court to come up with funding for the lamp posts, she said. They help with benches too, according to what Mary Godwin, Prescott Chamber of Commerce president, has told me."

Tommy Potter gave a progress report on Gurdon Pond II. He said bids are being taken to sell timber from the existing 90 acres.

Potter said International Paper authorities have told him they will make a decision in the next couple of weeks on whether the group will get the additional 60 to 80 acres for a park area by the pond.

According to Potter, the timber clearing proposal will allow the development of the access road.

"Congress is supposed to give us $100,000 for the Gurdon Pond II project, but we have not heard for sure yet," he said.

Cabe gave a report on the Clark County Strategic Planning Committe and said she is pleased at how much Gurdons future is included.

Cabe asked Potter to serve as a Gurdon representatives and he agreed.

"This strategic plan includes our citys future for the next 15 years," Potter said.

Cabe said Strategic Planning meetings to gather local ideas at Gurdon City Hall will be scheduled in the near future.

The countys planning committee meetings are held on the second Tuesday evening of the month in Arkadelphia at Ouachita Baptist University or Henderson State University campuses.