Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Annexation Approved

Gurdon voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots to bring the Gurdon school complexes on Highway 67 South into the city limits.

Then again, the city park will also now be in the city limits as well.

In Tuesday's special election a total of 259 interested parties bothered to show at the polls, with 200 voting in favor of the annexation.

However, because of laws, it will be 37 days after the election, or Oct. 7, before the area in question is officially recognized as being annexed into Gurdon's city limits.

First, the Clark County Clerk has seven days to get a map of the annexed area to the Secretary of State's Office in Little Rock.

Once this is done, the Secretary of State must confirm the election results before certifying the election as being complete. This takes about 30 days.

From there, those annexed into the city limits will be assigned wards for voting purposes in future elections.

Gurdon Mayor Rick Smith voiced his pleasure concerning the successful annexation vote this time. In 1996, he spearheaded the effort to get this same section of properties brought into the city limits, but failed by 24 votes.

At the time, he said, only Gurdon High School was involved and no one was thinking about the growth the school district had planned for this region.

Smith and Gurdon City Marshal David Childres are working with the Clark County Sheriff's Office to get the CCSO to request the Gurdon Police Department work football games at the new stadium until the election results are certified and official.

The Go-Devils will have three games there before the schools are actually part of the city. These games include Sept. 10 when Gurdon hosts Lake Village at the inaugural game for the new athletic complex.

The following week, Gurdon will host arch-rival Prescott, before heading to Mineral Springs on Sept. 24, returning to the new Go-Devil Stadium Oct. 1 for a date with Dierks.

Smith said only 40 people from the annexed area voted, with 29 casting ballots opposing the issue. This area constituted the largest single block voting against the annexation.

"People have a different perspective now," Smith said.

There have been people who said Gurdon wanted to do this annexation so the city could get more tax money. However, Smith pointed out, Gurdon received about $40,000 from the 5.4 mill tax in the city.

The monies on property tax coming into the city, then, will be used primarily to help offset the cost of city services the residents there will receive.

Where the difference will be profound, he said, is in state turnback funds. These funds are taxes already paid into the state, with the money being dispersed to cities based on population. Turnback funds are returned to the city in the amount of approximately $62 per person.

"I appreciate everyone who got involved with this," Smith said.

Childres was also pleased with the results of the election. "I'm glad it passed," he said. "I have children going to school out there."

He echoed Smith's statement about working with the CCSO to allow the GPD to work football games until the election is certified as official by the state.

The vote breaks down as follows:

In ward 1 there were 47 votes for the annexation and 4 against; ward 2 saw 18 for and 2 against; in ward 3 it was 26 for and 5 against; ward 4 had it 15-6 in favor of the annexation; ward 5 went for the issue big at 42-4; while ward 6 was close behind at 39-4.

The only boxes where the vote favored going against the annexation was Gurdon General, the area affected, where it was 11 for and 29 against; early voting, losing 1-2, and absentee voting at 1-3.

For this election, only those registered voters within the city limits, and those who live in the proposed annexation area were allowed to vote.

This latest annexation issue was proposed by Alderman Karen Parker, who initiated it because she, too, has children attending school there and wanted police protection for all students at Cabe Middle School and Gurdon High School.