If you attended the forum for Springdale Mayoral candidates sponsored by the Washington County Republican Women at the Jones Center, you might have gotten the idea that the city's only problem was illegal immigration. Never mind that it looks like a strip mall wasteland in a forest of billboards and has a budget that has been heading south for 20 consecutive months with no plan to stop the bleeding.
Springdale has some fine citizens who have civic consciences and care about important public issues, but most of them have neither the time to nor interest in being a part of the impotent city government that has been little more than the source of financing for the Springdale Cowbirds. We can't blame them for that, but it complicates the chore of endorsing candidates in the upcoming municipal elections.
FOR MAYOR: Nobody. It is a sorry lot, and we see no one capable of providing the informed leadership the city needs. Whatever you do, though, don't vote for Ray Dotson, Mike Overton, or Nancy Deason Jenkins. That leaves three grab bags from which to choose.
City Council Ward 1: Kathy Jaycox, hands down. She has been the progressive voice of reason in the Cave of the Winds. If she is not reelected, Springdale should surrender its municipal charter and seek annexation to Bethel Heights in Benton County.
City Council Ward 2: Wretched choices all around, so just don't vote for the incumbent.
City Council Ward 3: Josh Jenkins is young, energetic, knowledgeable, and committed to solving some of the city's serious problems. He should help form a sensible voting block with Kathy Jaycox and Jesse Core. Josh is a little too enthusiastic about the 287(g) program, but that seems to be a problem with all candidates, and he is not the incumbent.
City Council Ward 4: Ruth Strebe Motes seems to have some commitment to citizen input, and she is not the incumbent.
If it doesn't work out, there's always 2010 or changing the name back to Shiloh.
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