Brandenburg elected to POA Board

Incumbents Hatcher and Abrahamson were re-elected to their seats

Less than a quarter of the members of the Bella Vista Property Owners Association participated in the board member election and only a handful attended the regular meeting to learn the results.

Three seats on the board were filled. Because that was the only question on the ballot, there was no quorum requirement. Two incumbents, Ruth Hatcher and Jim Abrahamson, were elected to three-year terms. David Brandenburg was elected to the board. Terms begin on June 1.

The results were announced on May 16 by election committee chairman Bob Higgins.

Brandenburg received the most votes, 5,008, with both Hatcher and Abrahamson racking up more than 4,900. William Barr received 4,600 and Hank Ott-de-Vries received 2,648.

During the open forum portion of the meeting, Jim Parsons, chairman of the Bella Vista Patriots, asked the board to consider allowing the Bentonville School District to build a school on

part of the Berksdale Golf Course. The board is considering new uses for the course since it closed due to flooding in late April.

According to Parson’s written proposal, “We don’t need a full blown school building, we just need enough classrooms to be an annex to our existing Cooper Elementary.”

General manager Tom

Judson replied that he worked with the school district, at the request of the mayor, to locate land for a school. An elementary school needs 20 acres, Judson said, and Berksdale probably doesn’t have 20 acres. Some time ago he offered to sell the district 20 acres near County Road 40, but district officials were not interested, he said.