Carr planning to move, leave Quorum Court

Bentonville board will have two openings in first quarter

BENTONVILLE — There will be a second opening on the Benton County Quorum Court in the first quarter of this year because Justice of the Peace Adriane Carr is moving to Kansas. Carr represents District 12, which includes parts of Siloam Springs, Gentry and some of western Benton County. Carr, a Republican, has lived in Northwest Arkansas for 20 years. Her husband, Patrick, took a job with the McPherson Police Department. He started work Dec. 31, she said. Carr said she will continue to serve on the court until she moves. She didn’t have an exact date, but said it would be in the first quarter of the year. “It was unexpected,” Carr said of the move. “We love Siloam, and we love this community. I love being a JP, and I love my work with the county.” Carr won a second term on the court in November when she defeated Libertarian Jacob Faught. She secured 79 percent of the vote. Carr is a member of the Quorum Court’s Public Safety, Transportation and Personnel committees. New committee assignments will be handed out Thursday. New justices of the peace include Debra Hobbs in District 3, Carrie Perrien Smith in District 5 and Dustin Todd in District 11. The three Republicans all won election in November. Fifteen Republicans make up the Quorum Court.

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.

Carr