By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
The Sherwood City Council at its next meeting on Feb. 22 will appoint a replacement for Keith Rankin, who resigned in January, and to serve out the remainder of his term, which is through 2010. There are eight candidates for the post.
By state law, city council vacancies with less than of a year remaining are appointed. The appointee may run in November in the general election for the next full term, which is two years. Filing for the race, which is non-partisan, opens April 28 and closes May 17.
Walter Barnhardt served in the Air Force for 14 years, including three tours of duty in Vietnam. Since retiring from a career in food services, Barnhardt has been active in volunteer work, including building projects at Sherwood Forest, construction of the Veterans Memorial and serving on the sewer and street commissions. For his efforts, the park next to City Hall was named after him, and he was named the Chamber of Commerce 2005 Man of the Year and three times was honored as a volunteer of the year. He has lived in Sherwood for more than 30 years.
Bob Ferguson is a certified public accountant and has been a resident of Sherwood for 27 years. He serves as vice chairman for Pathfinder, Inc., a non-profit provider of services for individuals with developmental disabilities.
He served for seven years on the board of directors for the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He holds a degree in psychology and accounting from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Lucien Gillham has been a resident of Sherwood for more than 30 years. He is a retired civil engineer and has served on the Sherwood Planning Commission since 1996.
He is a former deputy base commander at Little Rock Air Force Base for the sections that were responsible for the base’s city services. He retired in 1996 after a career of more than 30 years with the U.S. Army Reserve.
Timothy McMinn has lived in Sherwood since 1976. He has been a church pastor for more than 30 years and currently is a pastor at Sylvan Hills Community Church in Sherwood.
He is an electrician, an Air Force veteran and the senior chaplain for the Sherwood Police. He has been the recipient of the Paul Harris Award, the Sherwood Chamber of Commerce Award for Volunteerism and has been named Sherwood Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year.
William Montgomery is a 2002 graduate of Sylvan Hills High School and has lived in Sherwood for 10 years.
He is a student in office management and supervision at Pulaski Technical College. He works as a data entry technician for Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. In high school, he was president of the band, an honor student and recipient of the Sherwood Rotary Club Ethics Award.
Lana Dawn Roach is a senior sales manager at Marriott Little Rock West. She graduated from Hazen High School in 1988 and has an associate’s degree in business. She has lived in Sherwood for five years.
She is a member of the Little Rock and North Little Rock chambers of commerce, the Little Rock Air Force Base and Camp Robinson community councils and is the honorary commander of the 19th Maintenance Squadron at the air base.
Larry Roberts is a licensed real estate agent and broker with 30 years experience as an underwriter for Arkansas Farm Bureau.
He is a graduate of Sylvan Hills High School, completed college coursework in business administration and served stateside with an Army medical unit during the Vietnam War.
He has served since 1990 as a supervisor for the Pulaski County Election Commission. He serves as a board member for the Sherwood Chamber of Commerce and Pulaski County Crimestoppers and as a member of the Sherwood Rotary Club and Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council.
Justin Smith is a 2001 graduate of Sylvan Hills High School, a former Eagle Scout, assistant scout master for the Boy Scouts of America and former president of the Sherwood Mayor’s Council, on which he served for three years.
He has lived in Ward 4 of Sherwood for 18 years and ran against Rankin in 2008. He works as a supervisor for Delta Dental in Sherwood. As a Boy Scout, he helped organize curbside recycling in the Oakbrooke subdivision.