Improved section of highway opens

Governor on hand for ribbon cutting to mark Arkansas 265 expansion work

SPRINGDALE — Gov. Asa Hutchinson and state highway officials Friday officially opened an improved 4-mile section of Old Wire Road from Arkansas 264 north of Springdale to South First Street in Rogers. The road is part of the Arkansas 265 corridor that runs from south Fayetteville to Rogers. “I’m here today because the Highway 265 expansion is an important new northsouth corridor that is critical for the traffic flow here in Northwest Arkansas,” Hutchinson said. “I live here. I understand this route. I understand the importance of it. This will give another avenue for that north-south travel that is so important to a growing area of our state.” An additional 1.9-mile project that starts near the Benton and Washington county line in Springdale and runs north to Arkansas 264 will move the highway alignment slightly to the west. That project is set to be completed in the spring. “This project is the culmination of a lot of planning that began a long time ago,”

Gov. Asa Hutchinson will name a replacement for Carr and appoint a justice of the peace for District 7. Those spots most likely will go to other Republicans. Joel Jones, a Republican who won a fifth term in the Nov. 6 general election, moved out of the district that includes eastern Bella Vista and the area southeast toward Bentonville. Jones and his family moved to another part of Bentonville. The move was for personal reasons, he said. Jones’ fourth term ended Dec. 31. A vacancy must be declared for any open justice of the peace position, and the Quorum Court will have to approve it, county attorney George Spence said. Hutchinson would then name a replacement. Jones sent an email to County Judge Barry Moehring and County Clerk Betsy Harrell on Thursday asking for a vacancy to be declared. Jones will serve until a replacement is named. “As you are aware, I moved from the District I had represented and which I was elected to represent for the next two years shortly after the 2018 General Election. Accordingly, I no longer meet the residency requirement for that position and thus I will not be sworn in for the upcoming term. Please proceed with having the position declared vacant so that the Governor can appoint a replacement,” Jones wrote. Justices of the peace serve two-year terms and are paid $230 for each Quorum Court and Committee of the Whole meeting and $144 for each meeting of a committee of which they are a member.

NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHARLIE KAIJO Outgoing Arkansas Highway Commission Chair Dick Trammel (fourth from right) reacts during a ribbon cutting Friday at The Jones Center in Springdale. State highway and local officials held a ribbon cutting to mark the opening of a new section of Arkansas 265 that will carry traffic on the north-south corridor into downtown Rogers.