Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Council Adopts Budget

Gurdon now has a budget for 1999, and emergency warning sirens have been ordered.

In a special meeting of the Gurdon City Council Monday night, Jan. 25, the council discussed the aforementioned two topics.

Two bids were received for the emergency sirens. One from Safetycom, Inc. and the other from Communications Specialists.

Safetycom's bid was $20,898.40,with Communication Specialists submitting a proposal of 24,319.96.

Both companies bid on identical equipment: two vortex siren assemblies, a speaker array, electronics cabinet, battery power pack, labor and installation, two mobile encoders and one fixed encoder along with the programming.

Safetycom's bid also included lightning protection, while the other didn't. Communication Specialists had tax included in their bid, with Safetycom not adding tax. As this system will be under the auspices of the Gurdon Fire Department, the city is not required to pay sales tax.

Removing the tax from Communication Specialists bid, though, didn't bring it to the level of Safetycom.

The board unanimously agreed to go with the Safetycom bid, with the sirens ordered Tuesday morning.

The sirens will be mounted in two different places in Gurdon. One will likely be erected near the Gurdon Primary School, with the other where the old water tank was on South Street.

Once the sirens are installed, the system will be toned in such a way as to alert Gurdon High School when it's set off.

The mobile encoders will be placed in the city's two police cars, and can be set off from the vehicles. The other encoder will be at the GPD dispatch area.

There will be areas of overlap when the sirens are set off in times of severe weather, or other emergencies.

Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith told the council only two tones will be used, so residents won't be confused and have to learn what five of six different tones mean.

One tone will be used exclusively in times of severe weather, such as occurred Thursday, Jan. 21.

The other tone will be used if the city needs to be evacuated. Hopefully, this tone won't be used at all, but should an event such as a hazardous chemical spill occur, it will be available.

The city will be responsible for getting the utility poles put up once the exact sites have been determined where the sirens will be. The poles were donated by Entergy and are in hand at this time.

Safetycom will mount its equipment on the poles just before they are raised. The company will also test the sirens to make sure they work.

Depending on Safetycom's schedule, the sirens could be in place as early as mid- February.

From there the council turned its attention to the budget. The meeting was closed with a budget meeting held and the panel going over each entry a line at a time.

There will be no raises for any departments this year. Smith said cost of living adjustments (COLAs) have been made for the past three years, but this year the consumer index reported in at 1.6 percent, instead of nearly 3 percent as it has in recent years.

By and large, though, there was little change in the budget from 1998 to 1999.

Total anticipated revenue is expected to be around $550,000, while the anticipated expenses should be in the neighborhood of 4437,000.

For the first time ever, though, $100,000 will be placed in the city's emergency contingency fund. This fund was established last year with $200.

The $100,000 will come from the sale of the old Gurdon Hospital. The city received more than $155,000 for the facility and will be using the remaining $55,000 to purchase a new police car for the GPD along with paying for the emergency warning sirens.