Gentry mayor delivers state of the city address

GENTRY -- The following 2018 State of the City Address was delivered by Gentry's mayor, Kevin Johnston, at the March 5 city council meeting:

Ladies and gentlemen of our community, elected officials, staff and guests: It is an honor and privilege to deliver to you my eighth and possibly the city's 125th State of the City Address.

As this may be my final opportunity to address you in this manner, I wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to serve and work alongside each and every one of you and I have considered it a true blessing.

While summarizing the facts, examining the details and crunching the numbers of not just 2017, but also the past seven years, I found myself swelling with pride from the teamwork that went into the many accomplishments we have achieved together.

From the early pay off of the Fire Station 1 Addition, building two additional substations and dramatically improving our ISO Rating for all of our district; to purchasing the Centennial Bank building and repurposing it into our new Police Station; to installing dash cams in every patrol car; to continuing to connect our neighborhoods to businesses, parks and schools; to establishing the Flint Creek Nature Area with scenic walking trails and an outdoor classroom setting for all ages; to equipping our Public Works crews with the necessary tools and equipment to build and maintain roads, improve drainage and wastewater flows, and upgrade and extend water lines; to building a team of city employees that understand that we are all here to serve the community; and lastly, working with and strengthening the relationships with our schools to find ways that we can assist each other in better serving our community.

While we have accomplished a great number of things together, we still have plenty of work to do. The recent decisions to develop master plans for our parks system and wastewater facility, plans to design and build a water storage facility to cover nearly one third of our water district served in the "Y-City" pressure plain and our commitment to re-opening the crossing along Dawn Hill East Rd at Flint Creek by working with state and federal agencies to get it done right so that we do not experience damage and a closure such as this one again.

We began 2011 as a blessed community continuing to work through a national economic downturn that would later be known as the "Great Recession". This downward trend began to show its impact on our local revenues in 2009 and continued through 2011, at which time we began to see a gradual turn in our favor. This positive trend continued through 2015 where we recorded record sales tax collections. It was during this timeframe that AEP/SWEPCO was completing a major upgrade and investment to their facility that was estimated near $400M and an increase of approximately 20-30 permanent jobs. The impact of this project was evident not only in our sales tax disbursements but also within our retail establishments and restaurants. When the project was completed, we witnessed the numbers subside and things returned to "normal". While we were blessed with this opportunity to utilize these additional funds to shore up our efforts of providing much-needed services to our community, our ability to do so also returned to "normal".

For the next few years, we will likely experience a similar scenario. With the announcements by Simmons Prepared Foods and McKee Foods to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into our local and regional economies, we are in a great position for positive growth. Only this time, the permanent job creation is anticipated to exceed 1500. To put this into perspective, imagine our community without the partnership and commitment of McKee Foods, which began more than 35 years ago. Imagine the many great opportunities that have come with this commitment and the positive impact it has had on the many lives within our community. Or imagine what our public-school campuses might look like, had the Flint Creek Power Plant not been built nearly 40 years ago. When these projects are complete, we will likely have a larger population of well-paid workers that will enjoy excellent benefits from these employers. These new citizens, along with our current ones, will expect the same quality of life with the desires of improvements, as we do today, and as we did 35 and 40 years ago. The "new normal" will require more. For us to be successful, we will have to make some difficult, but needed decisions, as this growth will take cooperation and teamwork throughout our community to ensure that we do all that we can to maintain and improve on the desirability of our city.

Along with this positive growth, existing challenges will continue. Since 2011, we have experienced an increase in demand on every city department that serves our great community and its citizens. Not only has our Public Works Department been busy adding new customers to our water system, laying new water lines, building and repairing roads, and improving drainage, our Public Safety officials have also fielded a dramatic increase in calls for service as well. The Fire and Police Departments have seen an increase of 35 to more than 150 percent, respectively, since 2011, all while maintaining our status as one of the top ten safest cities in Arkansas.

To position ourselves for prosperous growth we must recognize and embrace the qualities and attributes that make our city great:

The most precious of which is our citizens; their kindness, compassion, respect for each other and their diversity, creates an environment that is not boring or bland, but is interesting and welcoming.

The services and amenities we provide; good roads, safe drinking water, an enjoyable and connected parks system, supplementary educational services and programs through our library, and quality public safety, which includes; police, fire and EMS services. While these bring their own challenges and ever-changing elements, one thing remains constant, these quality services are and will be expected.

During the past seven years, I have had countless conversations with individuals. Some of which, believe the only way we can continue our small town feel and atmosphere is to not embrace, or even, forbid growth. Growth is occurring, but we have only seen the beginning. We will not be able to close our gates and merely let a select few in as space is created. We can, however, embrace our qualities and attributes and continue to build on the environment of which attracted each of us to want to call Gentry home. We must recognize that there are differences in all of us, our backgrounds in education, our occupations, our religions, our cultures and even our ideals.

Continuing to provide and improve on the services and amenities we offer will help us attract and retain additional kind, compassionate, respectful and diverse community members and neighbors.

Unfortunately, attitude and willingness are not enough to support these efforts. Increases require increases and the destination is achieved by commitment, time and supply.