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Donnor announces for try at a second Benton council term |
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 |
Alderman Bill Donnor, who holds the Ward 3, Position 1, seat on the Benton City Council, announced that he will seek a second term.
Donnor, 51, filed Friday for re-election.
To date, no other candidates have filed for the position.
“I have been proud to represent both the citizens in Ward 3 and Benton for the past term,” Donnor said. “I answer every phone call and e-mail from every citizen that contacts me.
“I encourage more citizens to contact me as a city cannot function without the input of its citizens,” he said. “I use input from citizens to help make decisions in council meetings and in the committees of which I belong.”
Donnor serves on the council’s Street Committee, Health and Safety Committee and Finance Committees and is chairman of the Personnel Committee.
“We have made great strides in building new streets and correcting drainage problems in Benton,” he said.
“We spent $400,000 in the Trout Addition to correct the drainage problem. We completed the Kenwood Road project, and we are in the process of widening Shady Lane and Sharon Road. Winchester Road has also been completed and should be open soon.”
Several other projects are in the works, he said.
Donnor noted that the council’s Health and Safety Committee created a Citizens Public Safety Committee to review the city’s public safety departments.
“This is a committee that is made up of citizens that had the task to look at the current public safety departments and also analyze future public needs in the years to come. This committee was independent and functioned free from any political agenda.”
He said the committee was formed in October 2007 and presented its final report in July. “The report was widely received by the citizens of Benton as being accurate and very comprehensive. This report provided the city of Benton with a thorough blueprint of future public safety planning. This will, hopefully, keep Benton as one of the safest and citizen-friendly communities in Arkansas.”
Donnor said the city of Benton has “an obligation to provide the best city services to the citizens of Benton.”
“These services are provided by dedicated employees of Benton,” he said. “We have to be able to provide the best possible pay and benefits to retain the employees that provide the services that we all want and deserve. We are in a competitive market for employees and we have to provide essential services to the citizens. We must be able to give our employees’ optimum pay and benefits so that they may continue to serve the citizens of Benton for many years to come.”
He said doing so “will allow our citizens to continue to receive the services that we all require and enjoy. This year we were able to give all city employees a raise and this is the first raise that they have received in several years.”
Donnor said he enjoys serving and working hard for Benton residents. “It is an honor and a privilege to serve this community. I have enjoyed the last year and a half being on the City Council and would be extremely honored to keep serving the citizens of Benton in the future.”
A lifetime resident of Saline County, Donnor is a 1975 graduate of Bauxite High School and holds a degree in criminal justice from University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is the son of the late Bill and Sally Donnor.
He is a senior special agent for Union Pacific Railroad Co., where he has been employed for 23 years. Before that, he was a deputy at the Saline County Sheriff’s Office.
He and his wife, Vinnie, have a son, McKinley, 25, who is a teacher, and a daughter, Keeley, 21, a student at University of Central Arkansas. The Donnors are members of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Benton. |
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