City plans special census in ’95 to up income

50 Years Ago From the HeraldDemocrat in 1970

The city crews worked most of the day on Thursday and Friday preparing and placing a new 12,000 gallon gasoline tank, constructing a concrete gas pump island, setting gas pumps and installing a line between the tank and the pump.

An oil company delivered 8,200 gallons of regular gasoline and it was pumped into the tank on Saturday morning. The electrical connections and other minor items were completed on Monday and the pumps were placed into operation.

Oil companies were in position to offer gasoline to a city at a much reduced price, when the purchase is through competitive bidding and in large quantities. The city purchased this transport load for 18.75¢ per gallon, including all taxes.

The new gasoline pumps operated by key only. The regular gasoline pump was equipped with 16 keys; the premium pump was equipped with five keys. Each key was assigned to a given department or person, who was responsible for gasoline dispatched by that key. The pump recorded all gasoline discharged by any of the special keys.

25 Years Ago From the Herald-Leader in 1995

It was thought that Siloam Springs may have been coming into some money soon. The city had allotted money to contract with the U.S. Census Bureau

to conduct a special census, hoping to prove its population had grown enough to increase in the state general and highway turnback it received. State turnbacks are distributed based on population.

Mayor M.L. “Moose” Van Poucke explained Siloam Springs earns a set amount of money per person each year.

“We get $65 per person each year. Nineteen dollars of this amount goes for streets, with the remaining balance going to the general fund,” Van Poucke said.

At that time Siloam Springs had a recorded population of 8,000 people, which was $520,000 in turnbacks. Van Poucke estimated there were well over that number of residents in Siloam Springs.

“From what we are seeing on meters and what the average size of a family is, we estimate that we have over 11,000 people, but to be conservative, we’re saying 10,000,” he added. That number would calculate into $130,000 in additional funds for the city.

Van Poucke estimated the additional funds would more than cover the cost of the count. The city had to pay $4 per person, which equaled $40,000, if there were 10,000 people. In essence, Siloam Springs would receive $90,000 with 10,000 citizens and $107,000 with 11,000 citizens. Census workers were expected to being counting by early November.

The city planned to use the additional funds to improve roads and sidewalks, to enhance the conditions of the police and fire departments and to reconstruct area parks.

10 Years Ago From the Herald-Leader in 2010

Siloam Springs junior golfers Emery Rakestraw and Jessica Glass ended their 2010 season on a high note.

Rakestraw and Glass both posted the lowest scores of their high school careers at the Class 5A State Girls Golf Tournament at Ben Geren Golf Course in Fort Smith.

Rakestraw shot an 86 and finished in seventh place out of around 70 golfers in total.

Glass shot a 100, which was good for 19th place.

“It’s a great way to end the year,” said Siloam Springs golf coach Michael Robertson. “The encouraging thing is both really felt like — and I did too watching them — they missed a few things here and there that really could have cut five or six strokes off their score. It’s important to be playing their best at the end of the year. They played their best round when it mattered. It was nice to see them finish on a strong note.”