Court recognizes former JP

During a meeting of the Hot Spring County Quorum Court Tuesday, the justices of the peace declared a vacancy on the court and discussed changes to the Hot Spring County Solid Waste Authority Board.

Since former JP Ray Cook was hired as the administrator for the SWA and resigned as JP, the court voted to declare a vacancy.

According to the approved resolution, County Judge Dennis Thornton will notify Gov. Asa Hutchinson of the vacancy, so Hutchinson can appoint someone to fill the seat.

In a separate resolution, the court voted to recognize Cook for his service on the court. Cook has served on the court and represented the residents living in District 9 since 2017.

“The Quorum Court wishes him well in his next endeavor,” according to the resolution.

During the meeting, the JPs approved an ordinance to add a position on the board for the city of Midway.

According to the ordinance, the position will become effective after all of the SWA members have approved the addition and the position will have an initial five-year term which will expire in Dec. of 2025.

During this discussion, JP Gerald Black mentioned that three SWA board members represent the cities that are currently members of the SWA. These board members represent a combined population of less than 900 people.

The other four people serving on the board represent about 20,000 people who live in the county.

To combat this, he mentioned in the future, as other communities may become incorporated, the JPs need to be prepared to add positions on the board to represent those areas.

“We need to be sensitive about that, immediately giving them positions on solid waste (board) because the representation on solid waste is skewed,” he said.

In a previous meeting of the court, the JPs and other members of the SWA voted to proposed a change to the SWA board.

According to a resolution approved by the four SWA members, a law was passed in 2001 allowing the county

to have an additional member on the board to represent the county’s Industrial Development Corporation. Since that time, the IDC has not been meeting and “a new entity with a similar name,” the Economic Development Corporation has been recommending a director to the board.

Local legislators are in the process of preparing legislation to update this law.

The person currently serving in the position, Jerry Dodd, announced last month that he intended to resign at the end of February, but he has not done so, Thornton told the court.

County Attorney George Hopkins said he had a lengthy conversation with Dodd about his position on the board.

In that conversation, Dodd reportedly told Hopkins that there were a couple of things that he wanted to do before he resigned and that he felt he was being pushed into resigning.

Because of legal questions surrounding his position, Dodd told Hopkins he will not take part in any executive sessions going forward.

More information about other items that were discussed in the meeting will be included in an upcoming edition of the Malvern Daily Record.