Everything in here
Welcome to the courthouse
Almost everything that runs Izard County happens in one building: the courthouse at 80 East Main Street in Melbourne. Tap each door to meet who works there and what they actually do. Every door you open lights up.
Start with the county judge
Big surprise: the county judge isn't a judge. Tap the door and see.
Officeholders as of September 2026. 2026 is an election year, so some seats change hands in January 2027. Check the Show up tab for what's on the ballot.
Who do I call?
Half the battle with local government is knowing which door to knock on. Here's a real-life problem. Pick who handles it.
The one-line cheat sheet
- County roads: County Judge
- What your property is worth: Assessor
- Paying your property tax: Collector
- Where the county's money sits: Treasurer
- Voter rolls, marriage licenses, deeds, court files: County & Circuit Clerk
- Law enforcement outside city limits, and the jail: Sheriff
- New laws and the county budget: your Justice of the Peace
- Inside city limits? Streets, water, and police usually belong to your town's mayor and council instead.
Who fixes my road?
Izard County has over 1,500 miles of county roads, and each grader operator is responsible for more than 100 of them. Before you report anything, make sure it's actually the county's road. Where is yours?
Tap one.
What the crews are doing now
Road work runs on Arkansas weather. You can't grade frozen ground, and spring rain means washouts to rebuild.
Report a road problem
Fill this in and it builds your report in the format the Road Department can use. Then copy it.
You can also post it in the weekly Official Road Report Thread on the volunteer-run Izard County Roads & Infrastructure Hub. Every Friday, those reports get compiled and delivered to the County Judge's office and the Road Foreman. Add a photo if you can.
Not for emergencies. If a road is blocked, someone's hurt, or anyone's in danger, call 911 or the Sheriff's Office (870-368-4203).
Posting a report doesn't guarantee immediate service. Repairs are prioritized by safety, traffic, and the resources available.
What makes a county road?
The county can't just take over any dirt path. To count as a county road, it has to be built to a standard:
- Cutting into a road
- A utility company or anyone else who wants to dig into a county road has to get written permission from the County Judge first. They have to repair it back to 95% compaction or face daily fines.
- Town limits
- The county road department can't work or use county materials inside city limits without charging the city for it.
- Private roads
- County equipment and tax money can't be used on private property. That's the law, not a choice.
- Your culvert
- Keep the culvert (the 24-inch metal pipe under your driveway) clear of leaves and debris. Good drainage is the number one way to keep a road from washing out or icing over.
The road phone book
County roads (outside town)
State highways (ARDOT)
Streets in town (city halls)
During storms and disasters, official updates come from the Izard County Office of Emergency Management's Facebook page.
Your schools
Izard County has three public school districts. Each one is run by a school board that voters elect, and a superintendent the board hires. Most of your property tax goes to your school district, which makes the school board one of the most powerful local offices you can vote for.
School district lines don't follow town lines. Which district you're in is printed on your property tax bill.
Melbourne School District · Bearkatz
District office: 65 Bearkat Dr., Melbourne
Calico Rock School District · Pirates
Superintendent: Rick Green. Elementary at 301 College St., high school at #1 Pirate Place.
Izard County Consolidated · Cougars
Superintendent: Fred Walker. Elementary (K–4) in Violet Hill, middle and high school in Brockwell. About 700 students.
How school power works
- The school board
- Sets policy, approves the budget, hires and evaluates the superintendent, and decides what goes on the ballot for school taxes. Board meetings are public, just like the quorum court's.
- School board elections
- Starting with a 2025 state law, school board elections happen only in even-numbered years, on the same day as the March primary. If you skip the March ballot, you skip your school board.
- School millage
- Every Arkansas district has to levy at least 25 mills for school operations. That's the state minimum. Going above it, or borrowing for new buildings, has to be approved by the district's voters.
- Reading their numbers
- The state posts every district's test scores, budgets, and report cards on My School Info.
When something goes wrong
Fire, crash, medical emergency, or crime in progress: call 911. Everything below is for the rest of the time.
Get the county's emergency alerts
The Office of Emergency Management sends storm, flood, and disaster alerts through a service called Regroup. Sign up on the county's OEM page, and follow the OEM Facebook page for official updates during storms.
Director Gary Dickerson also handles floodplain permits (below) and works under the County Judge, who is the one who declares burn bans and local disasters.
Ambulance
Izard County has had an EMS District since 1980, when voters approved it. Paramedic units in Melbourne and Horseshoe Bend run 24/7. Every household pays a yearly EMS fee that's collected with your property taxes. That's the line on your bill you may have wondered about.
A 7-member volunteer EMS Board picks the ambulance company and oversees service. They take public input through the County Judge's office.
Your fire department
Izard County has 11 fire departments. Tap yours to call the chief (not for emergencies; for those, call 911). Ask about joining, too: rural departments rely on volunteers.
Building near water?
If your land is in a flood zone, you need a floodplain development permit from the county before you build or add on. It also affects flood insurance. The OEM director is the county's certified floodplain administrator, and FEMA's flood maps will show you whether you're in a zone.
Animals and trash
We couldn't find a county animal control department or a county trash service listed. Inside town limits, call city hall for both. Out in the county, call the Sheriff for a dangerous animal (870-368-4203), and ask the Judge's office which trash haulers serve your road.
Where to get help
When money's short, someone's sick, or life goes sideways, these are the doors to know. All of them are free to call.
🧺 Food, cash help, and health coverage
Izard County DHS office, 278 E. Main, Melbourne. Weekdays 8 to 4:30. SNAP (food stamps), EBT cards, TEA cash assistance, emergency help, and Medicaid and ARKids applications.
🩺 Health unit
Izard County Health Unit on Haley Street in Melbourne, run by the Arkansas Department of Health. Services like shots, WIC for moms and little kids, and BreastCare screening. Call to ask what's offered and when.
📚 The library
Free Wi-Fi, computers, printing, story time, and help finding forms. Three branches:
- Melbourne: 1007 E. Main St. · Mon–Thu 10–5:30, Fri 10–2
- Calico Rock: 301 2nd St. · Mon–Thu 10–4:30, Fri–Sat 10–2
- Horseshoe Bend: 9 Club Rd. · Mon–Thu 10–5:30, Fri 10–2
🌱 Extension office
79 Municipal Dr., Melbourne. 4-H, soil tests, livestock and garden help, food preservation, and money management classes. Free, research-based advice.
🎖️ Veterans
Veterans Service Officer Joshua Morrison is at the Izard County Courthouse on Tuesdays, 8:30 to 4:30. He helps veterans and families with VA benefit forms and records at no cost.
⚖️ Free legal help
Legal Aid of Arkansas helps people who qualify by income with evictions, domestic abuse, public benefits, and housing problems. You can apply by phone or online, any time.
👵 Seniors
The White River Area Agency on Aging runs senior services for this part of Arkansas, including meals and help staying at home. Your local senior center can connect you.
Where real court happens
The county judge doesn't hear trials. When there's an actual case, it goes to one of two courts, and both are run by the state.
District Court · the "small stuff"
Traffic tickets, misdemeanors, small claims (money disputes up to a set limit), and some civil cases. You can handle small claims without a lawyer.
- Melbourne and county cases: heard at 300 Circle Drive, usually two Thursdays a month
- Horseshoe Bend cases: at the Horseshoe Bend municipal building, once a month
Paying a misdemeanor fine? That goes through District Court too.
Circuit Court · the big stuff
Felonies, divorce and custody, lawsuits, probate and wills, guardianships, and juvenile cases. Izard shares circuit judges with four other counties in the 16th Judicial Circuit: Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, and Stone.
Court files for these cases are kept by the Circuit Clerk (the same office as the County Clerk in Izard County).
The prosecutor
The prosecuting attorney decides whether to file criminal charges and handles those cases in court. Izard shares one elected prosecutor with the rest of the 16th district: Drew Smith, who ran unopposed in 2026.
If you can't afford a lawyer
If you're charged with a crime that could mean jail time, you have the right to a lawyer. If you can't pay for one, ask the judge for a public defender at your first court appearance. For non-criminal cases like eviction, custody, or benefits, call Legal Aid at 1-800-952-9243.
County Court (the judge's other hat)
The County Judge does run a "County Court," but only for county business: property tax appeals, right-of-way disputes, easements, and city annexations.
Your town
If you live inside town limits, you have a second local government: a mayor and a city or town council. They handle your streets, water and sewer, city police, parks, and local ordinances. Out in the county, the county handles roads and law enforcement, and a lot of the rest is up to you.
Izard County has four cities and four towns:
Places like Brockwell, Zion, Sage, Wideman, and LaCrosse aren't incorporated, so they have no town government. The county and the JP for that district are the local government there.
Town council meetings are public too. Call your city hall for the schedule.
Past the county line
Some of what touches your life is decided in Little Rock or Washington. Here's who speaks for Izard County there (as of fall 2026):
- Arkansas House and Senate
- Izard County is split among more than one state House district and Senate district, so your legislators depend on where you live. Look up yours on the Arkansas Legislature site or on VoterView.
- Governor
- Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R)
- U.S. House
- Rick Crawford (R), 1st District, which covers all of Izard County
- U.S. Senate
- John Boozman (R) and Tom Cotton (R)
The same rule applies all the way up: call the office, say your address, and ask. Staff keep track of what constituents call about.
The quorum court
Arkansas counties are run by a quorum court: think of it as the county's city council. Izard County has 9 justices of the peace (JPs), one for each district. They pass county laws (called ordinances), set the budget, and decide how county money gets spent.
The county judge runs the meetings but doesn't vote. He can veto what they pass, and they can override him.
JPs serve 2-year terms and get paid per meeting, not a salary. These are your neighbors, and most of them have a phone number you can call.
Run a vote yourself
A new ordinance is on the table. Tap each JP to cycle their vote: yes, no, or absent.
The rule you just learned: it takes 5 yes votes out of all 9 seats to pass, not 5 out of whoever showed up. Absent JPs count against it. Overriding the judge's veto takes 60% of the full court, which is 6 of 9.
Your JPs (as of September 2026)
Don't know your district? Look yourself up on the state's VoterView site, or call the County Clerk at 870-368-4316.
Decode your tax bill
Your property tax takes three offices. The Assessor decides what your property is worth. The Collector sends the bill and takes your money. The Treasurer holds it and pays it out to the county, the schools, and everyone else who gets a slice.
35 is just an example. Your real rate is printed on your tax bill, and it depends on which school district you live in.
The words on the bill
- Assessed value
- In Arkansas, you're taxed on 20% of your property's market value, not the whole thing.
- Millage (mills)
- One mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. Most of your millage goes to your school district, and school millage changes have to go to a public vote.
- Homestead credit
- If it's your main home, the state knocks up to $500 a year off your bill. Starting with 2026 tax bills, that can go up to $600. You apply once, through the Assessor.
- Assessment freeze
- At 65, or if you're disabled, you can have your home's assessed value frozen. Ask the Assessor.
- Personal property
- Cars, trailers, boats, and livestock get assessed too, every year between January 1 and May 31. You need proof of assessment to renew your car tags.
Taxes are due October 15. Pay the Collector: 870-368-7247.
Think your value is too high?
Call the Assessor first (870-368-7810). Most mistakes get fixed right there. If not, you can appeal to the county Equalization Board. The appeal deadline is in August, so if you get a new assessment notice, don't sit on it.
Follow the budget
Every fall, the quorum court builds next year's county budget. Last year they held extra budget meetings in October and November and passed it in December. The fall budget meetings are when your voice counts most.
Coming up
The quorum court usually meets the first Monday of the month, in the upstairs courtroom. The date moves around holidays, so confirm with the County Judge's office (870-368-4328) before you go.
On your November ballot
Most county races were decided in the March primary. Here's what's changing or still open:
- Assessor: Tammy Sanders didn't run again. Tiffany Felton was the only candidate who filed.
- JP District 1: Mark Simino didn't run again. Justin Sanders was the only candidate who filed.
- JP District 5: incumbent John David Miller (Independent) faces Sammy "Sam" Roddy (Republican).
- Treasurer and JP Districts 4, 7, and 9 had contested primaries in March.
Check your exact ballot on VoterView before you vote.
How to show up
- 1. Go to a meeting
- Quorum court meetings are open to the public. Anyone can walk in and sit down, no invitation needed.
- 2. Get on the agenda
- Want to speak? Call the County Judge's office ahead of time and ask to be added to the agenda. Better yet, call your JP first. It's their job to carry your issue.
- 3. Read the minutes
- Agendas and past minutes are posted on the county's quorum court page.
- 4. Ask for the records
- Arkansas has one of the strongest open-records laws in the country, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Arkansas citizens can request public records, like county spending, contracts, and emails. Records have to be handed over right away, or within 3 business days if they're in storage.
Your FOIA request, ready to send
Fill in the brackets and email or mail it to the office that keeps the record.
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