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RICE TWP. &#8212; Gunfire, flip-flopping and bankruptcies highlight a heated competition for two open seats on the township&#8217;s three-member board of supervisors.Newly announced write-in candidate Dennis Kijek looks to unseat previously unopposed incumbent Robert Pipech, while the race for a second open seat features accusations from candidate Carl Smith that call into question Rick Arnold&#8217;s qualifications amid a checkered financial past.&#8216;We pay our bills&#8217;Federal court records show Arnold, a local building contractor, filed for bankruptcy twice in the past 21 years, in 1994 and in 2014. Detailed records of Arnold&#8217;s 1994 bankruptcy filings were not immediately available, but declarations filed as part of his 2014 bankruptcy case show he sought to discharge financial liabilities in excess of $890,000.Arnold, who attempted two unsuccessful bids for the state House of Representatives in both 2010 and 2012, told WILK Newsradio in 2010 his financial woes to that point were largely due to youth and inexperience.&#8220;I had some financial struggles,&#8221; Arnold said in the interview. &#8220;What I did was I protected my family, I protected my employees &#8230; we went and filed for reorganization.&#8221; Touting the status of his business at the time, Arnold went on to state his troubles were in the past.&#8220;My family has met all our obligations head on,&#8221; he had said. &#8220;We pay our bills.&#8221;Arnold, 52, owed in 2014 a total of $890,240 to several dozen creditors, ranging from a few hundred dollars to as much as $97,478, according to his bankruptcy filing that year. His assets at the time totalled $712,249.Hadsall Excavating &amp; Utility Contractors owner Bruce Hadsall, who was owed more than $9,000 from Arnold, said Friday he&#8217;s given up hope of ever being paid back, describing Arnold as a &#8220;salesman.&#8221;&#8220;I&#8217;ll never get any of that,&#8221; Hadsall said. &#8220;I helped him out to get him out of a jam and it&#8217;s always a problem.&#8221;&#8216;I lived through it&#8217;Arnold on Friday said questions about his past were fair, but believed they deserved a fair answer.&#8220;When the housing industry took it on the chin, I tried to stay in there,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t a matter of misspending dollars; it was a matter of staying in too long.&#8221;The decision to dissolve R.T Arnold Building Contractors was &#8220;a very hard thing to do,&#8221; Arnold said, adding the ordeal enabled him to understand hard times.&#8220;Times are tough,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Senior citizens are lowering their thermostats to 50 degrees, not buying medications they need and not getting food because they don&#8217;t have the money. I lived through it.&#8221;Arnold&#8217;s opponent, meanwhile, challenged his capacity to run the township&#8217;s affairs.&#8220;If he can&#8217;t run his own personal finances, how is he going to run our finances and the business of Rice Township?&#8221; Smith asked Friday.Those who believed he would have free reign over the township&#8217;s finances were naive, Arnold said.&#8220;There&#8217;s two other people (on the panel); I&#8217;m not in charge,&#8221; he said.Flip-flopping claimsSmith, 69, then took aim at Kijek, claiming the latter flip-flopped party affiliations to mount a write-in campaign.&#8220;Basically what Dennis is doing is he&#8217;s using the Republican voters to try and get a position on the board,&#8221; Smith said, adding he wondered whether Kijek will change his political affiliation back to Democrat after November&#8217;s general election.Kijek, 70, a retired union official for the state Department of Corrections, said Friday he pursued the change because he sought to &#8220;accommodate myself to be in a position where an opening would be available to write me in.&#8221;&#8220;I&#8217;ll give everybody a fair shake,&#8221; he said of being elected. &#8220;There&#8217;s no in-betweens with me and no special favors.&#8221;He added he believed Pipech put Smith up to submitting the letter because the two were friends and wanted to serve together as a majority on the panel. Both Smith and Pipech Friday confirmed they were supporting one another.Running unopposed?Pipech, a Democrat, was appointed in July to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of former supervisor Mark Taney after police said Taney discharged an AR-15 rifle outside his home near the municipal building on Church Road. Taney wasn&#8217;t charged and later cited personal reasons for his resignation.Because the appointment was made more than 60 days before the Nov. 3 general election, the county elections bureau last month informed Pipech he would be required to run if he wishes to retain his seat.&#8220;That&#8217;s what they told me, I&#8217;d be running unopposed,&#8221; said Pipech, 77, a retired county employee. &#8220;The Republican party said they weren&#8217;t going to put anyone up against me because it&#8217;s strictly Democrat here. But they put my name up and that&#8217;s where it stood from there.&#8221;Pipech will face Kijek for a four-year term, after Taney previously served two of the term&#8217;s six years.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Joe Dolinskyjdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</shirttailMeta></div>

Bankruptcies, flip-flopping allegations highlight war of words in heated Rice Township supervisors race