Triplett Appointed As New County Judge

RISON - The Cleveland County Quorum Court unanimously selected former Justice of the Peace Don Triplett Monday night to serve as county judge for the remainder of the year.Triplett, who was on the quorum court for 16 years, was one of three candidates being considered to replace the late Jimmy Dale Adair, who himself was appointed to the position last September following the passing of former County Judge Jimmy Cummings in August. Adair died on Jan. 2.Two other candidates, Kelly Slater of the Randall community and Rusty Leopard of the Rison area, also expressed interest in the position. A fourth candidate, Keden Shrum of Rison, withdrew during Monday night's meeting citing he only wanted to be considered as an alternate if the court wanted another option.Each of the three candidates had an opportunity to address the quorum court before it went into what turned out to be an hour and a half executive session. Triplett mentioned his time on the quorum court as well as pointing out he had more than 40 years experience in the construction business, including overseeing some projects that cost more than $1 million.Slater told the quorum that he had recently retired from the Arkansas Department of Transportation after 38 years. During his career, he said he had worked with all sorts of road and bridge projects, spending the final 10 to 11 years at ARDOT as an administrator over nine counties. Slater is running unopposed for the District 5 justice of the peace position.Leopard pointed out that he had four years of first-hand experience of working on roads.After going into executive session, each candidate was called back to visit with the quorum court.When the court returned to open session, Justice of the Peace Donnie Herring, who moderated Monday night's quorum court meeting, told a large crowd gathered inside the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building at Rison that it was a hard decision to make due to the qualifications of thre...