Consideration of a monument on city property to honor a longtime North Little businessman is on the agenda for the North Little Rock City Council meeting Monday. The monument is to be paid for by the honoree's family.
The 3-foot-high, 5-foot-across, gray marble-and-concrete monument would go near the foot of the former Rock Island Bridge, now the Clinton Presidential Bridge, that crosses the Arkansas River between North Little Rock and the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. No city funds will be used, according to a resolution on the matter.
The commemoration is a way for North Little Rock to express its "appreciation and gratitude" to Roy Glover; his wife, Rosemary; and their family, according to the legislation.
Roy Glover, 89, is the retired, former president of Glover Truck and Trailer Sales in North Little Rock. He once owned much of the now-city-owned property along that portion of North Little Rock's riverbank.
The impetus for the honor came from Glover himself, through his attorney Bob Hardin, said North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith. Smith is sponsoring the resolution and will have his name below an inscription that's to be engraved into the marble.
"Bob came to me and said 'what do you think?'" Smith said. "I said if he paid for the monument, it could sit down there in that open space."
Smith said the recognition is justified and that he wouldn't be against others making the same kind of request under similar circumstances.
"I think it certainly would be a decision that I would make and then get it blessed by the [City] Council," Smith said. "If somebody else did wonderful things, and we had the opportunity to say thank you to them with no cost to the city, I would agree to give the council the opportunity to look at it."
There's a reason the commemoration will be near the foot of the former Rock Island Bridge, besides the family's former property ownership there.
Roy Glover laid claim to the Rock Island Bridge in May 2002, producing deeds to the bridge and the 1-acre parcel where the foot of the bridge touches on the north riverbank.
Glover's claim temporarily caused angst over whether plans by Little Rock and the Clinton Presidential Foundation to rehabilitate the abandoned railroad bridge would go forward. The bridge, later renovated for $8.1 million, is now the eastern end of the 15.6-mile loop of the Arkansas River Trail bike and pedestrian pathway through both cities.
"You own what is affixed to the property that is owned by you," North Little Rock City Attorney Jason Carter said last week.
Glover's claim resulted in the Clinton Foundation placing a hold on a $4 million grant it would provide the city of Little Rock to put toward the bridge work. Little Rock had just purchased property for $3 million from Union Pacific Railroad that officials believed included the bridge.
After the Clinton Foundation announced that it would stop its contribution unless the ownership question could be resolved, Glover relinquished his interests in the bridge. He also agreed to North Little Rock solving the crisis, by selling to the city the 1-acre parcel for $100,000 in late May 2002.
The City Council agreed in 2010 to buy an adjacent parcel for $78,000.
"We paid him $178,000 for two pieces of property in two separate transactions," Carter said. "I have no document accepting any donation to the city of North Little Rock."
Hardin, also Glover's attorney in 2002, recalled Thursday that "formal documents" were filed with the city of Little Rock deeding the bridge to it.
"There was a specific grant made to the city of Little Rock on the bridge itself," separate from North Little Rock's land purchase, Hardin said. "At that point, the Clinton Foundation was upset that it would delay their plans. So to avoid that, he would do as necessary, and agreed to make that transfer.
"Obviously, the effects it would have had on North Little Rock in not completing the bridge in a timely fashion was extremely important to the city of North Little Rock," Hardin said. "He donated it for the benefit of North Little Rock."
George Glover, Roy Glover's son and president of the family business, said Thursday that he didn't know how the monument idea came about. About the bridge transactions, he said he recalled that his father "owned the land there" at the foot of the bridge, but not other details.
"I think he did sell [the parcel] to the city of North Little Rock and then donated the rest of it to Little Rock," Glover said.
Smith, who was North Little Rock's director of Commerce and Governmental Affairs at the time, said Glover could have slowed the progress toward the bridge work or "stopped it for a long time," especially if the issue had gone to court.
"He could have been ornery about it if he wanted to," Smith said. "But he chose not to and made the project happen. The bridge itself was given to the city of Little Rock. Mr. Glover owned part of that bridge that didn't belong to the railroad."
Smith added, "The Glover family, over the last 20 years, they've cleaned up that whole [riverside] area. All those old, worn-out, nasty rent houses and all, and they did that on their own with their own money."
The Glovers also were responsible for helping North Little Rock retain the Ben E. Keith food distribution company, which relocated from Pike Avenue this year to a $70 million distribution center dedicated in April.
The Glovers had owned the property and passed on an offer to sell it at Smith's request to hold it for the Ben E. Keith relocation, instead of letting the company move out of the city, Smith said Friday.
"He ended up taking a chance for us, losing the sale he already had," Smith said, referring to a talk he had with George Glover. "It finally all worked out. If he hadn't agreed to help the city by holding off on that sale, we might have lost Ben E. Keith.
"That kind of family, if you're ever going to give a family a pat on the back, that's the kind of family you want to do it for," Smith said. "So I said sure [on the monument]."
Metro on 10/25/2015