Arkansas R.F.D.

I grew up in Walnut Ridge Arkansas.  For those of you who have never been to Walnut Ridge and Hoxie, the communities are contiguous to one another.  Combined, they are comprised of fewer than 10,000 citizens and for the last 30 years the two towns have been slowly dying.  My assessment is that the citizens of Walnut Ridge and Hoxie desperately want something good to happen in their community.  Voters in Walnut Ridge voted out the incumbent mayor and all but one incumbent council member.  I have hope that something can be done but in order for that to happen, the two communities will have to work together.  Never in my lifetime has that happened.  Both communities have a small school, but not small enough to force consolidation.  Both communities have a long history of animosity toward the other.  So raw is the emotional distrust and animosity that a fight broke out at a jr high football game recently when the two towns played one another.  For all of the foregoing reasons and more, I was happy to see the following passage in The Times Dispatch:

Economic development is at the top of the agenda for both incoming mayors, and they have pledged that they would support each other and officials throughout the county.

"Adding businesses in Hoxie or Walnut Ridge or anywhere in Lawrence County will help us all," Roberts said. "If we can attract an industry to Walnut Ridge, it will help the people in Hoxie; and if we can attract a business to Hoxie, it will help people in Walnut Ridge."

Rogers agreed, saying, "What's good for Hoxie is good for Walnut Ridge and vice versa. We're all going to have to pull together. We're all going to have to get on the same page."