Sherwood’s mayor to lead state group

Virginia Young, the mayor of Sherwood, was elected president of the Arkansas Municipal League for the 2022-23 term.

The election on Friday capped a three-day convention of the Municipal League at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. The league is a service and advocacy organization for 499 municipalities in the state.

Before she became mayor in 2007, Young was Sherwood city clerk and treasurer for six years. She began working for Sherwood city government in 1986, when she joined the finance department. Young, 58, is running for reelection as Sherwood mayor in the November election. Sherwood’s mayor is elected to four-year terms.

In her acceptance speech as Arkansas Municipal League president Friday, Young thanked the outgoing president, Berryville Mayor Tim McKinney, for his work during the past year, and the league membership foe electing her to be president for the coming term.

“Thank you for your vote of confidence,” she said. “I look forward to working with each of you. We were not designed to go through this journey solo. It takes all of us in this room for each of us to do our jobs. We were elected by the residents of our communities to operate in our leadership capacities with ethics, knowledge and wisdom, and we continue to grow daily in that.”

Other officers elected at the 88th annual convention for 20222023 were Cave City Mayor Jonas Anderson, first vice president; McCrory Mayor Doyle Fowler, District 1 vice president; North Little Rock City Clerk Diane Whitbey, District 2 vice president; Greenwood Mayor Doug Kinslow, District 3 vice president; and Crossett Mayor Crystal Marshall, District 4 vice president.

The convention included sessions on the state’s opioid litigation and settlements, protecting municipalities’ IT infrastructure from cyberthreats, and local strategies for decreasing crime.