HOW WE SEE IT Clinard Earns Another Term As Judge

Managing county roads can be compared to baseball umpiring: Every fan can find something wrong with how the job gets done.

Such is the fate of Bob Clinard, a Republican who nears the end of his first term as Benton County judge. As anyone familiar with Arkansas government knows, county judges run the road department and that’s a no-win proposition.

In his attempts to deal with miasma of crooked, hilly roads in a plethora of conditions, Clinard made some folks mad. Consequently, he got a primary and a general election challenge. Clinard’s opponent this fall, independent candidate Ronnie Smith, makes his experience building roads the centerpiece of his campaign.

But despite protestations to the contrary, Clinard has performed his job well - including the part about county roads.

With a limited budget and an enormous task, Clinard and his road department face tough choices daily. Do you pave more roads with less expensive methods or fewer, more durable roads at a higher cost? How much money should be spent on remote roads in need of repair when other roads get far more use? Should the county spend a lot of money in areas likely to be annexed or concentrate resources on roads that will always be the county’s responsibility?

Strong arguments can be made for or against any scenario. Clinard has demonstrated the ability listen, decide and act, knowing not everyone will be happy with the end result.

Then there’s this: County roads make up only a fraction of the judge’s duties. As the chief administrator of county government, the judge has many other responsibilities and in those roles, Clinard demonstrates he’s got a vision for how the county should deal with its changing nature.

In the end, Bob Clinard gave voters no reason to turn him out of offce. In fact, he’s provided plenty to say he should stay where he is.

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE DISTRICT 14 Voters in Benton County’s Justice of the Peace District 14 face an interesting choice: Do they elect as their representative to the Quorum Court a candidate who seems to oppose even the mildest form of land use regulation, or do they elect a candidate who has little idea what the job of justice of the peace entails?

The Republican nominee, Brent Myers, demonstrates a fair understanding of the job and has some political experience as chair of the Benton County Tea Party. We like that he appears to be an independent thinker (he opposes tax increases but didn’t get bullied into signing the notax pledge). He makes us nervous, though, when he talks about property rights.

Everyone supports property rights - until your neighbor wants to put in a strip joint or build a chemical processing plant next door. That’s where some reasonable regulation is viable, in fact necessary. Myers has bought into the myth any attempt to regulate land use to protect the environment serves some nefarious purpose.

That’s a troublesome point of view for a Benton County justice when you consider how much of the county borders Beaver Lake - the source of drinking water for all of Northwest Arkansas and a key component to the region’s economic wellbeing.

Myers’ opponent, Democrat Sean Barnes, strikes us as a well-meaning sort who knows something about national issues, but little about challenges and responsibilities of county government. He’s simply not prepared to do the job.

We don’t have a recommendation for voters here. The best hope for the district is that the winner can grow into the job.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 10/26/2012

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