By Don Hall
News-Leader staff
Being the county judge for Howard County is no easy job, but Brent Pinkerton, going into his third year in office, has gotten used to having 7,000 bosses—the rural residents of Howard County.
Looking back over 2024, Judge Pinkerton gives an assessment of what he and the people he supervises have accomplished.
“Some of the things we’re proud of that we did this year involves paving. We did between 3.5 and 4 miles of chip and seal,” he said. “That should last for a long time.”
Chip and seal involves putting down a layer of aggregate, spraying it with a sealant, then repeating the process.
“It costs us approximately $96,000 to chip-and-seal one mile of road,” said the judge. “Everyone likes new asphalt, but to do one mile costs over $200,000.”
The budget for paving and repairs was $700,000 in 2024. “I try to make that money go as far as I can,” Judge Pinkerton explained.
Over his first two years in office, most everything done to the roads has been to repair areas that were in bad shape. “We hope to be able to do some new paving in 2025,” says the judge. “There are roads in the north end, in the middle, and in the south end of the county that need to be re-paved.”
In 2025 additional state money will be available to help pay for this new paving.
Road work isn’t just paving and repairs. With more than 800 miles of asphalt or gravel roads in Howard County, the 22 road department employees also stay busy with hauling gravel and grading.
The county owns five gravel trucks, but several are unreliable. The decision was made to purchase a new truck this year and use one of the old ones for parts.
“When the weather is cooperating, those trucks need to be rolling,” said Pinkerton. Plans are in place to buy another new gravel truck in 2025.
The county bought a new motor grader this year for $325,000.
“That’s not a state-of-the-art, high-tech grader; it’s just a standard motor grader. It will hopefully serve us well for many years to come,” Judge Pinkerton said.
Howard County owns two tractors that stay busy during spring, summer and fall, spraying and bush hogging. “Our goal is to have every county road, paved or gravel, bush hogged and sprayed twice a year,” says Pinkerton.
The county has five sanitation department employees that run weekly routes through the entire county using two garbage collection trucks. There is also a third truck that’s available for emergencies.
A positive development in 2024 was the completion of six county-owned hangars at the airport. While the Arkansas Department of Aeronautics paid 80-90% of the cost, Howard County gets to keep all of the revenue generated from renting the hangars. And perhaps more importantly, there are now enough aircraft based here to qualify for federal funding through the Federal Aviation Administration.
“In the near future we’ll be on the FAA›s funding list and each year receive $150,000 to $200,000 for maintenance and improvements,” Judge Pinkerton said. «We’re generating revenue from renting the hangars and from the sale of fuel,” he adds. “We‘re trying to make the airport an asset that will help recruit new businesses to come to Howard County.”
So, what would you like the residents of Howard County to know, we ask?
“We‘ll continue to work to maintain the roads and bridges, and to keep the sides of the roads clean,” he answers. “And we look forward to serving the people of Howard County, and making things better for all of our rural residents.”
