Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Looking back on 2006

A lot happened in and around Gurdon in 2006: one of the towns biggest retail stores burned and later re-opened, the Go-Devils had an exciting football season which landed them in the state play-offs, the city park received a make-over and a school resource officer was hired to work at Gurdon High School - just to name a few.

The fire at Gurdons Dollar General store is likely one of the most memorable news items from 2006. The fire broke out in a trash bin outside the store in the morning hours of Feb. 1. More than $500,000 worth of inventory lost in the blaze.

Firefighters from Gurdon and Curtis came to the scene, but once the fire spread into the walls of the store, the insulation allowed the fire to move across the structure with great speed. At the time of the fire, Gurdon Marshal Don Childres said the store burned fast like a mobile home would.

Dollar General Corp., based in Nashville, Tenn., was quick to release their plans for rebuilding the Gurdon store. The store reopened 18 weeks after the fire on June 23. A grand reopening was held on July 8.

The City of Gurdon made about $10,000 worth of upgrades to the city park on U.S. 67 in March which brought the total improvements to the park up to $35,000. The money for the project was obtained from Arkansas general improvement funds.

New playground equipment was installed at the park, and the old caboose was repainted after work was completed on the inside to transform it into a playhouse. New logos have since been added to the caboose to restore it to its original look.

Some of the old playground equipment was also spruced up.

A new school resource officer began working at Gurdon high School and Cabe Middle School in August. Clark County Deputy Thomas Free was hired for the job after it was funded through a grant from the Cabe Foundation.

Free patrols the hallways of the school during the day and attends extracurricular activities to help keep down problems. He has also become a middle man for students to go to with problems when they do not want to go to school officials.

The Cabe Foundation funded the resource officer position for one year with a $39,000 grant. The foundation is expected to consider funding the position again so that the program can be continued.

When interviewed later in the year, Free said he believed the program was a success.

The year was capped off with a state play-off game being played at Go-Devil stadium in November. Unfortunately the Go-Devils fell 19-6 in the play-off opener to the Hoxie Mustangs.

The Devils almost went undefeated in conference play, losing only one regular season conference game. This earned the team the second place title for the 7AAA conference.