Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Short Meeting Wasn't (cont)

til Jan. 1, 1998.

Gurdon didn't receive its first payment from the taxes until March 1998.

Additionally, it was originally anticipated the sirens would cost about $18,000 and this money could be borrowed from the Gurdon Fire Department and repaid through the tax revenues. But, Smith said, the sirens will actually cost about $22,000 and the city needs to build up the tax money reserve before buying the sirens.

However, he added, the sirens will be in place before tornado season arrives in the Spring of 1999. Hopefully, he said, they can be installed sometime around the first of the year.

GPD officer Tony Pruitt has quit the force. Officer Frank Plasek was upgraded from part- time to full-time officer with the GPD and two part-time officers hired. They are Mike Daniels, who had been with the Caddo Valley P.D., and Kevin Nason, a jailer from Hope.

Officer Chris Harper opted to remain with the Arkadelphia Police Department instead of returning to the GPD.

The council's final order of business on the night was to pass ordinances for the 4/10 millage for the firemen's pension fund and the city's 5 mill property tax. These are not new taxes, but must be approved by the council each year.

Before the meeting closed, Jones asked what would happen to these two millages if proposed Amendment 4 remains on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot and is passed by the people of Arkansas.

Smith said the firemen's fund would lose about $3,200 each year, while the loss of the 5 mill would decrease the city's general fund by about $40,000 annually.

The $40,000, he said, would amount to the salary of one-and-a-half police officers.