In the fading light of a November evening in 1878, the air over Clarksville carried the sharp scent of woodsmoke and the distant rattle of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad. Johnson County was still raw from Reconstruction, a place where the railroad had only recently stitched the hills to the wider world and where old scores and new fears lived close to the surface. On the night of November 5, a party of masked men walked into the courthouse, overpowered Sheriff E.T.

Congratulations, Fort Smith. Your Board of Directors just spent up to $33,500 on a national search firm so they could solemnly “discover” the man who was already warming the seat. Jeff Dingman, the acting administrator, the institutional continuity candidate, the one who never really left. After the internal posting flopped, the finalist's parade, the public meet-and-greet, the dramatic last-minute withdrawals, and the carefully staged executive sessions, the 4-3 vote landed

The Fort Smith Board of Directors voted Tuesday, August 4, to extend an offer of employment to Jeff Dingman as the city’s next City Administrator. Dingman has served as Fort Smith’s Deputy City Administrator since 2011 and is currently the Acting City Administrator. Before joining the city, he spent eight years as City Administrator of Baldwin City, Kansas, and four years as Assistant County Administrator for Sebastian County. City Director Lee Kemp, who served as the Board’s