Today is election day for the Arkadelphia Board of Education Zone 1 runoff between Casey Motl and Matt Johnson. During early voting, 132 residents of that zone cast a ballot (465 voted during the primary election in May). Vote by 7:30 p.m. at the Arkadelphia Recreation Center. Don’t know who the candidates are? CLICK HERE to read a Q&A between the two. Zone 1 is in the pink-shaded area in the map below.

The Arkadelphian has been named a finalist in the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2022 Diamond Journalism Awards. We entered a few articles from 2021 in the contest. We’ll find out how we did during a ceremony in Little Rock on June 30. Wish us luck!

Touché! Just as we were chest-pumping our grammatical prowess in the last Bits & Pieces column, our pal Bill Sutley, who served as editor of the Clark County Dispatch, pointed out an error we’d been making often lately. One doesn’t “take the reigns” of an enterprise, but rather the “reins”. Our bad!

Creature in the Woods
Part 5/10
The thing meowed as plainly as any feline kitten we had ever heard or raised, and it cried out often as though it was missing its mother. “That’s a cat!” Mom whispered, concern overtaking her tone. Whatever it was, it was well within earshot but not in our purview. We all looked at each other, lowering our brows in nervous curiosity and keeping an ear toward the thing.

Did you hear about the crypt robber who tripped over a headstone and twisted his ankle in the haunted cemetery? Yeah, he was in grave danger.

We’ll be here all week.

Joel Phelps is publisher and editor of The Arkadelphian. Any opinions or awfully corny dad jokes in this column are his own. Email him at editor@arkadelphian.com or call him at 501-304-2134.