Conway mayor race awaits night's ballots

CONWAY -- Former Fire Chief Bart Castleberry held a wide lead Tuesday night in a three-way race to serve as Conway's first new mayor since 1999.

Castleberry, 58, led Mark Elsinger, a retired major at the Conway Police Department, and Scott Grummer, Conway city planner. Castleberry, who will take office in January if elected, is now the city's director of permits and inspections.

With only early and absentee ballots released, unofficial results were:

Castleberry 10,920

Elsinger 5,074

Grummer 2,354

Election Commission Chairman Paul Foster said the commission board decided not to release additional votes until all were counted because of the county's election software and the fact that the county now uses voting centers rather than precincts.

Other results were delayed past midnight because of software problems.

Castleberry said he was "very humbled" by his strong showing. "It's been fun, it's been tiring," he said.

The Conway mayor's job is a nonpartisan office that pays $102,336 annually and is a four-year term.

The current mayor, Tab Townsell, did not seek re-election and will soon move into the executive director's position at Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for central Arkansas.

Castleberry, who worked for the fire department for 33 years, was chief for 20 of them. He retired from the job in 2013.

All three candidates -- Castleberry as well as Elsinger, 62, and Grummer, 46 -- said street maintenance would be a top priority if elected.

Improving streets and expanding infrastructure are important so Conway can continue to attract new jobs and opportunities, Castleberry said.

Castleberry clearly had name recognition throughout the city of more than 64,000 residents. Signs promoting his campaign seemed to outnumber almost anyone else's political yard signs in town.

Castleberry said the city would soon have about $1.1 million more annually for street repairs than it's had in each of the past three years. The city has been spending that sum annually from state turnback funds to help with access to the planned Central Landing shopping center, he said. But the money will be available for other uses starting in 2017, he said.

Castleberry also campaigned on his "executive-level experience ... managing multimillion-dollar budgets in both good times and bad."

State Desk on 11/09/2016

Upcoming Events