Joe P. Asher

Staff Writer

The race for Harlan City Council has another candidate.

Harlan County native Ann Hensley has thrown her hat into the ring as a write in candidate.

“I was born in Harlan County at Bob’s Creek. I have lived in the city of Harlan since I was about 13 years old,” said Hensley. “Of course I left for school and I left a couple of other times, but I’ve always come back home. About six and a half years ago my mother, Mary Hensley, passed away. She worked for 36 years in the courthouse, so I was introduced to politics very early in my life.”

Hensley said she began considering a run for council when she noticed there were more seats available than candidates.

“When they had seven openings for council members and only five people applied, I thought about it. I thought ‘you need to take a chance here and see if maybe you can make some kind of positive contribution,’” said Hensley.

Hensley said she has served on several different boards over the years, including the Tri-City Chamber of Commerce, the original Portal 31 Committee and the Harlan Chamber of Commerce. She currently serves on the Harlan County chamber’s board of directors. She also serves as an elder in her church.

“I have served on a lot of different committees,” said Hensley. “I do enjoy being involved in community activities. I have attended several of the council meetings and found it interesting. What I discovered when I attended the council meetings was there was a lot of information that wasn’t available to me because I wasn’t a council member. That was also a contributing factor in my decision.”

According to Hensley, service on a variety of boards gives her the experience necessary for the council seat.

“All those things expose you to a variety of people and you have a broader perspective. I normally work well with those types of groups and hopefully I will be able to make some type of contribution that the people that live in the city of Harlan will be happy with,” said Hensley.

Hensley works as Revenue Cycle Manager at Harlan ARH.

Harlan voters go to the polls with the rest of the country on Nov. 6. The deadline to file as a write-in candidate is 4 p.m. on Oct. 26.

Reach Joe P. Asher at 606-573-4510 or jasher@heartlandpublications.com