It wasn’t a good year to be an incumbent.
Tuesday night, two incumbents in Independence County were turned out, while a third nearly lost his seat in his five-county district.
County Judge Bill Hicks will finish his term come Jan. 1, when challenger Robert Griffin takes over. The two battled it out for the Democratic nomination. No Republicans or independents have filed, clearing the way Griffin through the fall General Election.
Also losing his seat was Coroner Hardy Willis. Wesley Gay won the race without a run-off, defeating Willis and fellow challenger John Cooper by a 2-to-1 margin.
So far Flave Carpenter Jr.’s first day as customer service manager for Entergy Arkansas has gone smoothly and so has the weather for electrical crews. While some roadways remain slick and the landscape white with snow across the area today, the winter weather posed no problems for Entergy Arkansas crews in the Batesville area over the weekend, Carpenter told the Guard this morning. “Everything I saw, there were a few outages here and there but nothing (major) to report.”
Almost one year after Mother Nature wrecked havoc with deadly tornadoes, this year began with freezing rain that turned into a major ice storm leaving homes and businesses without power for days, some even weeks. Thousands were left without power after the ice weighed down trees and broke utility poles. Emergency shelters were opened in Independence and surrounding counties.
MELBOURNE - The bottled water coming into Izard County on pallets for those needing it is going to be rationed at this point. That's what Dennis Williams told the quorum court members Tuesday night.
HORSESHOE BEND - While a man was struggling to provide shelter for others during the ice storm last week, his home burned to the ground.
"We lost everything," Tony Baptistia said during a Guard interview Monday. "But we'll rebuild."
After years of brainstorming and work by city officials and a number of Batesville's citizens, a new comprehensive plan for the city's future growth has been approved by the planning commission to go before the city council for approval and implementation.
While 1,800 homes are still without power in rural areas this morning, Les Frensley hopes that won't be the case Wednesday afternoon.
"We hope to have most everyone on by the end of the day Wednesday," said the customer service manager with Entergy Arkansas.
For nearly a week, long convoys of electrical workers from all over the country have been flooding into Batesville to restore power and bring lives back to normal in several nearby rural communities.
Penelope Kourakis had heard the expression "he would give the shirt off his back," but it never seemed to be anything more than an expression.
That was until Friday when Chris Chandler, of John 3:16 Ministries, gave her his sweatshirt because she was cold inside the Quail Valley Free Will Baptist Church gymnasium.
With plenty of helping hands, progress is being made.
And it was news Les Frensley, customer service manager for Entergy Arkansas in Batesville, was glad to report this morning.
At about 6 a.m., 7,300 homes in parts of Sharp, Izard and Independence counties were still without power. "We've made some real good progress," he told the Guard this morning by phone.
