PRAIRIE GROVE -- At least three residents who live in Ward 3 have expressed an interest in the Ward 3, Position 2 vacancy on Prairie Grove City Council.
Gina Bailey resigned from the position in May because she was moving out of Ward 3 but not out of the city limits.
In a special meeting last week, Mayor Sonny Hudson handed out information from Rick Ault, Rochelle Caswell and Kenneth Watthuber. Each has emailed Hudson about the opening.
Hudson said he would continue to take names and emails from people up through the Council's June 17 meeting. Hudson said last week that he did not plan to recommend one candidate over another but would let the council make the decision on which person to appoint to fill the position.
Information about each candidate (based on their emails):
Rick Ault
Ault is director of global security for Walmart and has more than 31 years of business and professional experience that includes banking and finance, information systems, budget planning, strategy planning, professional leadership and security.
He has lived in Prairie Grove for 13 years and participates in various community events. Ault is chairman of Main Street Prairie Grove, founding board member of Prairie Grove Historical Society and opened and manages the Prairie Grove Town Center. He and his wife, Kara, were named the 2017 Citizens of the Year by Prairie Grove Area Chamber of Commerce.
Rochelle Caswell
Caswell ran against incumbent Doug Stumbaugh for Ward 3, Position 1 on the City Council in November 2018, and received 44 percent of the votes in her first time to run for elected office.
Caswell's email says that she has actively attended council meetings this year and has spent time talking to citizens about the community and their concerns. She said her great-grandparents had a homestead here and she believes it's important to keep the community's history alive.
Kenneth Watthuber
Watthuber has been director of the ROTC program at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., for the past two years and has been an active duty military officer for 14 years. Watthuber's email does not give any more information about himself but he asked the mayor to send him more details on what he needed to do to submit his name as a candidate.
General News on 06/12/2019