Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Browns Talks Plans For County In 99

While Nevada County "kept its head above water" in 1998, County Judge James Roy Brown has plenty of plans for 1999.

The road and bridge crews, he said, will be assigned the task of working to repair some of the rougher paved roads in the county. This work will continue as long as there is money in the budget, Brown added.

Additionally, the county will try and let the job on County Road 33. This will consist of having a new bridge built across Terre Rouge Creek [Webmaster's Note: Was printed as "Crews Creek"] out of Emmet.

The idea, Brown said, is to replace the existing one-lane bridge with a new two-lane structure, while widening it to 60-feet and increasing the length to 132 feet.

If the county can get this done, he said, it should help alleviate the flood problem in the area. The county, Brown added, will be receiving financial assistance from the state and federal governments on this project.

"It will be one of the largest projects Nevada County has done in years," he said. "It could take two years to complete and the road will be kept open if possible."

Talking about equipment, Brown said the county is better off than it has been in the past. But, he added, there is still room for improvement and upgrading the current equipment.

In the meantime, he said, the crews will keep working to maintain the county roads as best they can with the equipment on hand.

This time of the year, though, the weather poses considerable problems. Brown said crews may get to work one or two days a week because of wet weather and the work they did goes for naught as traffic continues to drive over the wet roads.

"I watch the weather regularly before going to the county shop," he said. "I try and plan accordingly."

To help, radios have been added to the county's dump trucks, with plans to put them in the graders as well. This, he said, helps cut down the number of trips made, while getting gravel to areas where it's needed.

In 98, he said, a strip of county road 23 was completed with the help of state aid. This was more than a four-mile stretch.

"When I first ran for office," Brown said, "I said I would finish the jobs underway before starting any new projects. This is what I've tried to do."

One of the major project to be approved was the Waterloo-Bodcaw Water Project. This project went through the judge's office and will be a larger project than when first planned.

Brown said area officials and state officials, along with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Rural Development Agency and Soil and Water Commission all helped make this a reality instead of a dream.

This will be a two-phase project, he said, and when the second phase is done, about 80 percent of the people south of Terre Rouge [Webmaster's Note: Printed as "Crews Creek"] will have city water.

Billing, Brown said, will be done through the City of Bodcaw.

Meanwhile, Brown will continue working with the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office to try and recruit new industry to this area to make it grow and prosper.