In an interview with this newspaper eight years ago when Bart Castleberry was fire chief, he said his goals for the future included having grandkids and not getting into politics.
Meet Grandpa, the new Conway mayor.
Castleberry, 58, won the mayoral election in November without a runoff in a three-man race against Mark Elsinger, a former police officer, and Scott Grummer, a city planner.
Conway native Castleberry, who has been the city’s director of permits and inspections for 3 1/2 years, acknowledged that he once said in an interview he wouldn’t run for office.
“I know; I was going to retire — that was really my goal, but so many people approached me about it,” he said.
He and his wife, Melissa, have three grown sons, and the highlights of his life are their granddaughter, Spencer Layne, 3 1/2, and grandson, Knox, 16 months.
Castleberry recalled the “intervention” his wife, one of their sons and daughter-in-law had with him one night. They sat him down at the kitchen table and told him he had to start saying no when the grandchildren asked for candy, especially before dinner.
Castleberry said he listened, nodded and agreed. His family all left “pleased,” he said.
Shortly afterward, Spencer Layne came up, held Castleberry’s face in her little hands and said, “’Gampa, can I have some candy?’” He stood firm.
“I said, ‘No, honey, you can’t have any candy — it’s almost suppertime. But if you sit down here with Grandpa, you can have some ice cream and chocolate milk.’” He laughed gleefully as he retold the story.
Conway residents shouldn’t expect him to be such a pushover as mayor, but he said he will be approachable. On this day, he is sporting a beard he started growing after the campaign and has already bagged several deer this season.
“The mayor works for the people,” he said. Castleberry said he developed a “real spirit of customer service” as a firefighter.
Customer service is a phrase he uses repeatedly.
Castleberry has worked for the public almost all his life, and most of it in downtown Conway.
After a stint in construction for Arkla Gas, now CenterPoint, he took over his family’s grocery store, Castleberry’s Market, in downtown Conway. That’s when he got to know the firefighters and was drawn like a moth to a flame to the camaraderie and excitement.
He was a firefighter for 32 1/2 years, 20 of them as chief.
Castleberry has seen Conway in the worst and best of times — from the Detco chemical-plant explosion in 2004, in which two employees were seriously injured, to two downtown fires and housing Hurricane Katrina refugees in 2010. He was the commander for the city, and he coordinated and created the Family Intake Center when the evacuees came by busload to Conway. Marilyn Moix and Marilynn Nabholz, both of Conway, were invaluable, too, he said.
The call from the Arkansas governor’s office about the residents of New Orleans came in about 2 a.m., Castleberry said, and “we were told they’d been fed, hydrated and medicated; they were just looking for a place to sleep.”
When they arrived, Conway officials found the evacuees had not been taken care of in any of those ways.
“We had dog bites, gator bites, four criticals,” he said. “It looked like a mobile MASH unit out there.”
Castleberry knew what to do, No. 1, because he was trained as a firefighter, but he had gained experience after 9/11. He and Jack Bell, chief of staff for Conway, were members of the Arkansas crisis response team for the National Organization for Victim Assistance.
He and Bell were in New York and New Jersey for a week, “and at that time, it was still a rescue operation,” Castleberry said. They worked at the Family Intake Center with the victims’ loved ones and family members, doing everything from getting basic information to “the heavier stuff,” such as issuing death certificates.
“We used what we learned at the [9/11] Family Intake Center to actually build our Family Intake Center here in Conway,” he said.
Castleberry recalled one man whose wife was killed in the terrorist attacks. They both were in the military, and the man “handled it like a soldier” until he placed his wife’s driver’s license on the table. “It swarmed on him. He said, ‘She’s not coming back, is she?’”
Bell, who will stay on in the Castleberry administration, said, “I think he’s going to be a great mayor. I think he’s got good natural leadership skills; he’s had leadership experience. He’s got good common sense — that always helps. He’s got good ideas for the city; we’ve already discussed some things to look forward to doing in the next few years. He’ll be different from Mayor Townsell, but I think he will do a very good job.
“We’ve made a good choice,” Bell said.
Supporters, like military veteran and former city employee Wes Craiglow of Conway, touted Castleberry’s experience on his mayoral-campaign website, which includes managing multimillion-dollar budgets and supervising more than 100 firefighters by the end of his career.
Castleberry and his wife have run four successful businesses, he said. One is Needs Creek Family Farms, where they raise sheep. He said he was going to retire and become a sheep farmer full time.
However, he said Mayor Tab Townsell called and asked him about the code-enforcement job. Castleberry, a master plumber and a graduate of Arkansas Tech University with a degree in emergency management/administration, said he thought he could help.
“It was really lacking in customer service,” he said of the department. Castleberry said the first thing he did was bring in licensed people to supervise each area — plumbing, electricity, HVAC, construction.
When Townsell announced that he wasn’t running again after 18 years in office, Castleberry said residents started calling him and encouraging him to run.
“We prayed about it and went from there,” he said, referring to his wife and himself.
One of Castleberry’s constant themes in the campaign was infrastructure — street improvements. He said infrastructure hasn’t kept up with growth in Conway, with its 63,000 residents.
Castleberry said that in 2016, the city has spent $400,000 “and some change on street repairs.”
However, $28 million in street-repair needs have been identified by Finley Vinson, director of the street department and city engineer.
Castleberry said the “little silver lining” is that the city is receiving state turnback funds, $1.1 million a year, for 10 years. The money has been used for three years for infrastructure for Central Landing, a proposed shopping development on former airport property.
The next seven years, the funds can be put into street repairs.
Castleberry said he has visited individually with members of the Conway City Council about some of his ideas, which he wants to wait until he’s officially in office to discuss.
“One thing you’re going to see is positive, friendly, interested public service from all departments,” he said.
“We’ll be working on Tab’s budget for 2017,” Castleberry said, which is about $60 million.
“One of the small things I want to do is hire a purchasing officer who buys everything from light bulbs to firetrucks, researches RFQs (requests for quotation) and warranties. We will be able to get the best product out there for the best price. I think there’s a more economical way of doing purchases for our city,” he said.
Castleberry said he doesn’t have anyone in mind for the position.
“We’ll have to advertise for that. It will have to be someone well-versed in public law and all that. I think it’s going to save us money in the long run,” he said.
“It’s all about public service and taking care of people. Sure, the budget’s important, but the most important thing is to do what’s best for Conway and the people of Conway,” Castleberry said.
He said he will not be partial to firefighters.
“Public safety has to be at the forefront of any city, and that’s police and fire,” he said.
Castleberry said he has worked under three former mayors — the late Bill Wright, David Kinley and Townsell.
“All those men had different personalities; all three were excellent in different areas,” he said. Castleberry called Wright a “compassionate, warm person; Kinley a “phenomenal businessman;” and Townsell “a visionary.”
Castleberry said a firefighter asked him once how he wanted to be remembered when he died.
“I want to be known as a public servant. I want to do what’s best for the people of Conway; I want to be transparent. When it’s all said and done, I want to be known as Bart.”
And Grandpa.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.