(Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of podcasts and articles featuring the candidates running for Cleveland County Judge. The interview can be streamed on Apple Podcast, Spotify or over www.clevelandcountyherald. com RISON - If elected Cleveland County Judge, Rosemary Sinclair of the Staves community said she wants to serve as liaison between local property owners and business interests to help bring more businesses and housing to Cleveland County.
Sinclair, the chief deputy clerk in the Cleveland County Clerk’s office, is one of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Cleveland County Judge. The others are Jim Houston of the Rye community, Stephen McClellan of New Edinburg, and Rickey Spencer of Kingsland.
Since there are no candidates running for county judge, the winner of the Republican primary will be unopposed in November general election.
Sinclair cited a limited business/ industry sector and housing as the two biggest challenges facing Cleveland County.
“That affects everything. From young families that are starting out and they want to stay here locally but they can’t find jobs, or they were living with their parents or on family land and they can’t find a rental house,” she said.
“In order to change this, we have to make long range planning and open doors to create opportunities that will fit what our county needs,” Sinclair said. “And so just having open talks with industry leaders and people who are willing to invest.”
She said the county should be targeting businesses related to the timber and/or poultry industries, which are the top two economic engines for the county. To accomplish that, she said it is a matter of finding local landowners willing to offer their property for development, and then finding those who are willing to make the investments.
Sinclair also pointed out that she wants to make sure those business prospects respect the local values. “We don’t want to change Cleveland County into Little Rock or even Sheridan,” she said. “Yes, we can expand on different things, but we choose Cleveland County because of its ruralness, because of its homesteading environment.”
Development also requires housing for employees, which Sinclair said she has experienced firsthand. After she had separated from her ex-husband, she said she looked for rental property for six months and was only able to stay in the county thanks to a friend having a place available for her.
“Once you have a place where people can live, then your economy can grow,” she said.
Background and Experience
Born in northern Oregon, Sinclair said she grew up in a “one red light town” in rural southern Washington state, which gives her an appreciation for the rural lifestyle found in Cleveland County.
She said most of her working career was spent in retail, including during her teenage years while a student at Vancouver (Wash.) Christian School. She and her former husband lived in Florida for several years before making the move to Cleveland County in 2017 to start an organic farm outside of Rison.
It was during that time that Sinclair said she took a part-time job at the Dollar General in Rison (see (continued from page 1) and met the late Jimmy Cummings, who was county clerk at the time. She said Cummings invited her to apply for a vacancy in his office and she got the job, starting on July 1, 2019. She has been in the clerk’s office ever since, being promoted to chief deputy clerk after Brandy Herring became county clerk following Cummings election as county judge in 2023.
Sinclair said her job in the clerk’s office gives her a unique perspective on county government since the clerk’s office handles duties affiliated with both the county clerk and circuit clerk offices.
As county clerk, she said the office handles a variety of duties ranging from elections and filing county ordinances to payroll and accounts payable. On the circuit court side, the office files documents related to the civil, crimi-nal and domestic court cases in the county. Sinclair estimated she handles about 90 percent of those cases.
Sinclair also said she is in her junior year of earning a degree in political science from Arkansas State University.
Roads
Roads are a major role in the county judge’s office and Sinclair said she has had several conversations about the subject on the campaign trail.
She said much of the damage to county roads, especially the unpaved ones, comes from heavy trucks, whether they be from logging or poultry trucks moving out flocks. She said the key to keeping those roads maintained is communication.
“I would like to have open communication with all of our chicken farmers and all of our loggers that are coming in and working in specific areas in Cleveland County, communicating with them directly and letting them talk to the county judge’s office and even our road foreman,” she said.
“Say, one of the chicken farms is having a catch out. So, you know, there’s going to be truck after truck after truck on that road tearing it up,” Sinclair said. “It doesn’t make any sense for our road crew to go and grade that road and put down new gravel the day before those chicken trucks are running.
“So I would I would like to have that open communication so that they’re letting us know, ‘Hey, we’ve finished our catch outs.’
There’s not going to be a lot of truck traffic on there anymore, so that the road crew can come in and make sure that road is good for the rest of the citizens that are living down that road,” she said.
“Same with logging crews,” she added.
Sinclair said she would like to see roller packer added to the road department, pointing out that fresh gravel is often soft and tends to easily, especially after a rain. She said a packer would help that.
Investment Fund
Overall, the county has more than $5 million invested in certificates of deposit for the solid waste and ambulance funds as well as the so-called “nursing home fund,” which was started with seed money from the county’s sale of its long-term nursing license several years ago.
Of those three funds, only the nursing home fund can be used for general purposes. The county currently has more than $1.6 million in that fund. While the county has not touched the principal, County Treasurer Angie Kimsey said the interest earned off the fund is put into county general.
Sinclair said she favors continuing that approach unless something came up where tapping into the principal might be worthwhile to the county.
“I don’t think I would use any of those funds unless it was investing in something for all of the citizens of Cleveland County and that, whatever we invest in, that it’s something that’s going to be working for Cleveland County to make money for Cleveland County,” she said.
Promoting the County
Sinclair was also asked about what role she would play in the promoting Cleveland County. Cummings took an active role with the Arkansas Land of Legends Travel Association, which is a group that promotes tourism to Cleveland, Grant, Jefferson and Lincoln counties.
While the county has its ties to Johnny Cash and Paul “Bear” Bryant, Sinclair also pointed out the county’s rich Civil War heritage and its abundant outdoor opportunities with the Saline River as well as the Kingsland Prairie Natural Area, which is a geographic anomaly among the usual timberlands of the county.
Sinclair said she would also like to identify and preserve some of the forgotten cemeteries in the county.
Campaign Pitch
Each candidate is asked why someone should vote for them. This is Sinclair’s answer: “At the end of the day, people should vote for me because I genuinely care about all parts of Cleveland County. I will work hard to make sure that every area is treated fairly, that tax dollars are spent wisely, and that decisions reflect the values of the people who live here. I believe being a good steward of the county's resources, respecting our history and planning responsibly for the future. And that’s exactly how I plan to serve as your next county judge.”