Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Community Turns OUt For Courthouse Reception (cont)

ill become available at some point so more progress can be made."

He urged the citizenry to support Brown when he takes office Jan. 1, 1997.

Barham has no plans to sit idly by and watch time pass, even though he doesn't plan to seek public office either.

He said his farm needs him full-time, as does his wife, Mary.

But, the event he and Mary are most anxiously awaiting is the birth of their first grandchild. The baby is due in mid-April.

Barham said he and Mary plan to spoil the child and will be available for babysitting when needed.

He also intends to do a little more hunting. He said the past two years have all but kept him out of the woods.

"I'll miss the people most of all," he said. "That made retirement before hard. I liked being out and around everyone.

"I've tried to tell myself this retirement won't be as hard, but I can already see it will be."

Still, he plans on spending more time at home, working the farm and on the old family homestead.

"I look forward to doing things I want to do," he said. "There are places we plan to go and friends we want to visit."

But, Barham will leave office with regrets at those things he was unable to accomplish. Modest and unassuming, he praises others while taking responsibility for things that go wrong.

"I had good cooperation from the mayors, court and people," he said. "The road, shop and solid waste foremen made this successful. If we weren't it was because of me.

"I tried to make people happy. It's been mostly pleasant," he continued, "but some things weren't.

"I hope I've been some help the last two years and have done some good. I wanted to pull the county back together and get everyone working with one another.

"I've had a lot of help from Sen. Mike Ross, Rep. Percy Malone and Rep. Judy Smith, along with the local leaders.

"I tried to be fair with everyone and treat them the way I want to be treated."