John Roland

New Perryville mayor: ‘I’m progressive’

Perryville Mayor John Roland said something he loves about his hometown is that it’s small and has a laid-back atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean Perryville shouldn’t grow and improve.
Perryville Mayor John Roland said something he loves about his hometown is that it’s small and has a laid-back atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean Perryville shouldn’t grow and improve.

Perryville Mayor John Roland said something he loves about his hometown is that it’s small and has a laid-back atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean Perryville shouldn’t grow and improve.

Roland, 48, is the city’s new mayor, having won the election in November against Richard Tiago. Roland’s brother Charles Roland Jr. also won a mayoral race against Tiago and served as mayor in the 1990s.

The fourth of five boys, John Roland was born in Fayetteville and lived in Conway until he was 4 years old. His father, Charles, opened Roland’s Drug Store on Valentine’s Day 1972 in Perryville. Growing up with four brothers meant a lot of fighting, Roland said, which his father couldn’t understand. “He was an only child, and he would have killed to have a sibling, and he never could understand the fighting,” Roland said.

He said his mother, Barbara, handled raising five boys because his parents were disciplinarians, which meant occasional spankings. “Deserved every one I got,” he said.

Roland had a built-in job helping his father in the pharmacy through the years.

“I grew up helping any way from sweeping the floors to stocking the shelves to whatever needed to be done, cutting the grass. Several elderly customers needed someone to mow their lawns, so I had an

instant lawn-mowing business,” he said. “We had [a mower] at the drug store, and I could push it around all day long.”

He has good memories of growing up in the community and playing with his brothers.

“We ran basically all over the place, which you would not dream of letting your kids do today,” he said. “We were out on 28 acres on the side of a hill. … We had all kinds of land to roam on.”

That freedom wasn’t without incident, though. He recalled that one of his older brothers was cutting down a tree, “and he had a chain saw chew into his leg.”

“Perry County is just a whole lot more laid-back” than some places, Roland said. “People have a bad impression of Perry County because of that, because they think we’re backward. We’re not necessarily backward; we’re just laid-back. There’s no McDonald’s on the corner to run to, although we have a Sonic,” he said. When he was growing up, a dairy bar was the main hangout, he said.

With a population of fewer than 1,500, Perryville is the kind of place where people know their neighbors.

“I go down here to the convenience store to get a soda pop, and I know 90 percent, or more, of the people in there,” Roland said.

Roland, who graduated from Perryville High School, worked at Virco Manufacturing Co. in Conway and was a pharmacy technician for a while with his father. Roland said he wanted to be a pharmacist, but those plans didn’t work out.

His father died in 2003, and his mother died a year ago this month. None of his brothers went into the pharmacy field, and Roland and his wife, Beth, own the pharmacy.

“I have been real fortunate. I have some real good pharmacists working for me,” he said.

Roland said he’s always been “big on community involvement.” He was a volunteer firefighter after he got married, and he stopped when the couple started having children. He served on the city council for 1 1/2 terms, until 2003, when he moved out of the district, and he is in his fifth year as a member — this year he’s the president — of the Perryville School Board. He’s up for re-election this year, he said.

“For a public school district, I’m very proud of it. We’ve got some wonderful teachers; the administration is great. I’m a Christian, and I see those values in the school district, and to me, that’s worthwhile. There’s a lot of opportunities in

smaller schools,” he said. Roland said students participate in athletics who might not have the chance in a bigger school system because of the competition.

“You might not be the greatest, but hey, to me, that’s part of the rite of passage of growing up, to be able to play. I’m very tickled with that,” he said.“People pay a lot of money in Little Rock and Conway to go to schools similar to ours with the opportunities.”

The father of a daughter and two sons, Roland has helped coach baseball, pewee football and basketball through the years.

He said he decided to run for mayor after the council voted against a Verizon cellphone tower, a vote in which the previous mayor broke the tie to defeat the motion.

Roland said he thinks a cellphone tower is important for several reasons, from helping residents to businesses.

“A lot of fire departments, this is very vital for their fire protection to have communication — that [cellphone tower] would enhance their ability to have better cell service out that way,” he said. “As you go west from Perryville, toward Nimrod, you lose reception. Cell service is very vital, in my opinion.”

He said one of the problems is that the site chosen for the cellphone tower is zoned residential, and the cellphone tower is considered a business in the city limits.

“I don’t consider a cellphone tower to be a business,” he said. “You can make exceptions; Conway has made exceptions for cellphone towers.”

The planning commission, which would address the zoning issue, has new members, Roland said, and he expects the direction to change.

“To me, a planning commission looks to plan for the future,” he said. “Part of the planning is to embrace the future, and the cellphone tower right now is the future.

“I’m progressive. I want to help bring the city more up to date. I’d like to work on the infrastructure, which has been neglected for years. The water and sewer lines date back to the ’50s. To me, I want to look to the future — prepare instead of waiting till it breaks down.”

Roland said one of his main goals is to get a sidewalk installed from the elementary school down Scenic Drive, which runs by City Hall.

“The children, when they get out of school, they basically have to walk in the street,” he said. “If you drive over Scenic, there’s almost a dead spot when you come over the hill, and boom — there’s a school. The homeowner on the upside of

the hill has come to both the school board and council concerned; we need to do

something about this.”

Roland said he will ask the City Council to approve allowing the city to apply for a Safe Routes to School grant through the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. It will be an 80-20 funding match, with the city paying 20 percent of the cost. He estimates the cost at $100,000, and he said the city has $20,000 already budgeted for the project.

“I’m all about the kids and the elderly — if something will help those two groups, I’m all for it,” he said. Although those aren’t the only two groups that he’s interested in, “those two, they’re more at our mercy sometimes,” he said.

Brian Hill said he’s known Roland for 30 years and isn’t surprised he ran for mayor. Hill serves on the school board with Roland and is a member of the City Council.

“John’s always had a love for Perryville and wanted to see the best for the town, so I’m not surprised he ran,” Hill said. “He’s got a good business sense, good organization. He likes to serve, obviously, from being on the school board, and just wants to see the best for the town. I think his four years as mayor will really bring the town forward.”

As much as Roland said he enjoys small-town life in Perryville, he said the city needs to progress, and he believes it’s poised for growth.

“The Perry County Chamber of Commerce has been doing strategic planning for growth in the area,” he said. “We’re located between Little Rock and Morrilton — it’s going to grow. Little Rock has grown toward Bryant, Benton, Cabot — Lake Maumelle is a stepping stone between us and Little Rock. I’m a firm believer that it will start growing toward Perry County; it’s already growing up toward Wye Mountain and Roland. The back side of Wye Mountain is developing, which is headed toward Perry County.”

Roland said he expects a smooth tenure in office.

“I have a young, great City Council; I have one older gentleman who’s very progressive. I don’t have a complaint in the world. I walked into an ideal situation, in my mind. Everybody knows their job and knows it well,” Roland said.

Still, he feels a responsibility as mayor to see projects launched and completed.

“I just want the community to be progressive. I don’t want to look back four years from now and see the community hasn’t changed any. I want to look back and see things are better; otherwise, I’ve wasted my time here,” he said.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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