Perkins a good call

We had a couple of top five lists hanging up in The Record-Courier's newsroom taken from the three-dozen applicants for the job of East Fork Justice of the Peace.

That Tom Perkins and Ursula McManus were on both of them wasn't really much of a feat of prognostication. Each list had one other person who was among the final five and two who weren't.

That's our way of saying we feel the county commission would have made a good choice whichever way the vote had gone.

We agree that any of the five candidates, Perkins, McManus, Ron Cauley, Jennifer Yturbide and Eric Levin, would have made a fine justice of the peace.

We also know that any number of the three dozen original applicants could file for the position in two years.

That will be the real tell on last week's decision.

We recognize that there's a big difference between applying for a job and running for election. Frankly, we're counting on it cutting down the number of people who file for the office should they decide they could do a better job.

If most folks are satisfied with commissioners' decision, then there won't be a lot of interest in the position.

We would like to congratulate new East Fork Justice of the Peace Tom Perkins, thank outgoing Justice of the Peace Steve McMorris and offer our sincere appreciation to the applicants for their interest.