Cynthia Lucas ready to ‘help our county’
Cynthia Lucas ready to ‘help our county’
Cynthia Lucas has always been interested in helping the community.
But as a busy hairdresser and mother of two, she never ran for office before because she didn’t feel she had the time to give it her full attention.
Now that the kids are grown, Lucas said she’s ready to throw her hat in the ring and is hoping voters will elect her to the Quorum Court.
“When my family was little I was so busy with sports and activities for them that I didn’t feel that I could do that,” Lucas said. “And now I do and I feel I can help our county.”
Lucas, who has lived in Marion for 35 years and owns N2 Hair Salon, said the biggest concern she hears from residents is about the juvenile crime rate and a lack of things to do for area youth.
“I’m worried about our youth,” Lucas said. “We have got to find something for the young people to do in Crittenden County because there is a juvenile crime problem. It seems like when they hit a certain age of they aren’t on a school team, it seems like there is nothing else for our older children to do.”
Lucas said the juvenile crime rate is also harming the county’s ability to attract more restaurants and especially entertainment venues like a movie theater.
“It is my understanding that when businesses look to put things like that here in our county, they see our juvenile crime rate and that’s the reason they won’t come here,” Lucas said. “That’s why we don’t have a movie theater or bowling alley and other things for our younger people to do.”
Lucas said while she does not excuse the behavior of juveniles who commit crimes, it seems to her that the system is too quick to give them a juvenile record for their actions. She would like to see the county work with the local judges to require more community service instead of putting it on their permanent
records.
“Years ago if we did something like what we called a ding dong ditch where you knocked on somebody’s door and run off, they didn’t call the police,” Lucas said. “I’m not saying we should have done that, but we didn’t get a juvenile record for toilet papering yards. We would just have to go clean it up. Now, if you get in a fight at school the cops are called and you get a juvenile record. That just looks bad on the county.”
Lucas said she would sponsor a juvenile summit and work with Marion and West Memphis and the rest of the county to come up with ways to better engage the youth.
She will also work to see that the county applies for more grants or acts as the pass through entity to help communities build more bike and walking trails and make park improvements that will provide more recreational opportunities.
“I just want to try and get the county involved so we can keep young people busy,” Lucas said. “If the county could come up with a work program, that would be a huge help in the summer. Somebody is always looking for help. It just seems like we don’t have anything offered for that.”
The same goes for senior citizen activities. Lucas said she would like the county to consider having a county community center where they partner with area churches to provide activities for seniors.
“We have things like Mother’s day out but there is no elderly day our or Senior Citizens Day out — something we can do to get our senior citizens out of the house and get them more involved as well,” Lucas said.
If elected, Lucas said she would also like to serve on the Cleanup committee with Justice Lisa O’Neal to make more dumpster days available and to continue to go after blighted areas.
“That is something I definitely
would help with,”
Lucas said.
Lucas praised the job County Judge Woody Wheeless is doing and said she believes she would be a good addition to the Quorum Court and would work hard to help move the county forward.
“I like Judge Wheeless,” Lucas said. “I’ve known him for quite some time when he and my husband both volunteered on the Marion Fire Department. I think he’s doing a great job for our county and I want to help.”
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