LITTLE ROCK — Olen Thomas backed up a fork lift to unload supplies from a truck outside his Rose City Building Materials and Salvage business on Friday, and then wheeled it back again to lift off another stack.
"He loves that forklift," said Wayne Thomas, a son who works at the business. "You can't get him off that forklift."
At age 80, the elder Thomas remains hands-on in the business he's run for the past 35 years within North Little Rock's Ward 2, despite an injury two years ago that almost cost him his left foot.
That injury didn't remove Thomas from his other job, being a Ward 2 alderman on the North Little Rock City Council. In his 28th year on the council, Thomas is its longest-serving aldermen ever, according to city records.
Time, however, catches upwith everyone. Thomas won't seek what would be an eighth consecutive term, he's said, when he completes his term at year's end.
"I've worked with six mayors now," said Thomas, who has eight children with his wife, Karin, 20 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "I've enjoyed it over all these years. I just thought I could make a difference.
"It's time to let somebody else do it."
Thomas said his health isn't a factor in stepping down, though he still limps, suffering from torn ligaments and broken bones after a truck slipped out of gear and ran over his left foot in late 2006.
"Four doctors told me they couldn't save my foot," Thomas recalled. "I said I was in pretty good shape, worked every day, [so] let's see if I can keep it. I still hop around on it, but it's better."
No stranger to city government when first elected in 1980, Thomas had learned North Little Rock's political workings as its first and only executive director of its Urban Renewal Commission from 1960-1980.
The agency, a federally funded program that included slum clearance, massive demolition and rehabilitation of aging and dilapidated inner cities, closed shortly after he left it. The program expanded cities' power of eminent domain to enable the taking of property for public purposes. Under the program, a city also could sell those properties at reduced values for private development.
"We moved thousands of cubic yards of dirt for fill," Thomas recalled. "When Mayor [Casey] Laman hired me, that was the start of our program. That was when Mayor Laman got everything moving on this side of the [Arkansas River]."
Under Thomas' direction, the city went through redevelopment projects that included Military Heights, downtown, P ike Avenue, Glenview, Sherman Park and Eastgate in Dark Hollow.
That experience in real estate and property values, not to mention dealing with city government and private developers, proved to be valuable assets when Thomas joined the City Council on Jan. 1, 1981.
"Olen has a lot of institutional knowledge," sa id Wa rd 4 Alderman Murry Witcher, who will become the council's senior member once Thomas leaves, having served 18 years. "That will be lost. Particularly with the real estate transactions that occurred when he was with Urban Renewal. There is nobody else who knows it."
Thomas' independence stands out, too, as he sometimes is a lone voice on matters backed by other council members.
Thomas, for instance, voted against the city building a centralized senior citizens center, a permanent 1 percent city sales tax and also the twoyear, 1 percent sales tax that helped build the $40.4 million Dickey-Stephens Park baseball stadium at the foot of the Broadway Bridge.
Ward 2 residents often went Thomas' way too, votingoverwhelmingly against tax issues that passed easily in other areas of the city of about 60,500 people.
"Olen takes care of his ward," said Mayor Patrick Hays, often the sponsor of matters Thomas opposed. "He's independent and he votes his conscience. When he and I differ, he has a good, substantive reason for his feelings and for his vote."
His votes, Thomas said, reflect the voices of his ward. He opposed the senior citizen center, 401 W. Pershing Blvd., because many low-income elderly in his area don't drive and lack convenient transportation. He preferred that the city develop smaller centers around town, making it easier for people to use them.
He said he didn't oppose the ballpark for the Arkansas Travelers Baseball Club, just the tax to fund it.
One Ward 2 resident asked him once, "If you don't represent us, who will?" Thomas recalled.
"I always felt that I wasn't down there to do what I want," Thomas added. "I was there to represent the people. I felt like I was their representative, so I voted like they wanted."
Former Ward 1 Alderman Martin Gipson, who served 24 years alongside Thomas on the council, said that Thomas often went his own way, believing he was doing the best for the city.
"Olen and I probably disagreed more than any two aldermen could on philosophy," said Gipson, who left the council at the end of 2006. "But, when it came down to the real issues, we often voted together : the things like pay raises for employees, increasing employee benefits.Olen was always right there on those."
Filing petitions with the Pulaski County clerk's office to run in the November election for a council position begins Wednesday and runs through noon Aug. 26.
Aldermen Neil Bryant in Ward 1, John Parker in Ward 3 and Charlie Hight in Ward 4 all will seek re-election.
Thomas' open seat is expected to draw several candidates, but he isn't backing anyone in particular, he said.
"I didn't have anybody I could encourage to run for it," Thomas said of possibly backing a replacement. "[Being alderman is] a lot of work. I'll work with whoever gets it."
Arkansas, Pages 7, 12 on 08/04/2008