As a native of Helena, Mayor Kevin Smith has always loved the Mississippi River. At age 22, he paddled down the river from Minnesota to New Orleans.
"I had a friend with me the first two weeks," says Smith as he drives me around the Delta town. "But he had to go back to work after two weeks. After that, it was just me and my dog."
Smith, a 1980 graduate of Helena-West Helena Central High School, graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1984. Washington is where we met. The Arkansas Democrat sent me there in 1986 to cover Congress. In the fall of that year, Democrats regained control of the U.S. Senate, and Sen. Dale Bumpers of Arkansas was named to chair the Senate Small Business Committee. Smith was working for Bumpers at the time.
"The senator came to several of us and offered us positions on the Small Business Committee staff, which paid better than the jobs we had," Smith says. "He told us to come up with initiatives he could champion as the committee chairman."
Smith and another Bumpers staffer from Arkansas, Chuck Culver, seized on the idea of a study that would focus on the lower Mississippi River Delta and suggest solutions for the persistent poverty there. In 1988, Smith convinced Bumpers to let him spend a week in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky examining the work of the Appalachian Regional Commission. I convinced my editors to let me tag along and write stories about poverty in Appalachia. One story in the series explained what a federal-state partnership similar to the ARC might look like in the Delta.
Who could have guessed at that time that congressional passage of Bumpers' Lower Mississippi River Delta Development Act later that year would lay the groundwork for Congress to create the Delta Regional Authority in 2000? Who could have guessed that the 2000 bill would be signed by a president from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, as one of his final acts before leaving office? Who could have guessed that I would be appointed by President George W. Bush to help lead the DRA in 2005?
Smith and I just happened to make it as far as Louisville on Kentucky Derby weekend to end the 1988 trip. During that week, I heard Smith talk for hours about Helena, the Delta, and the things he would like to accomplish. In 1992, at age 30, he was elected to the Arkansas state Senate, representing parts of nine Delta counties. Smith served for 10 years while also helping run his family's Smith Insurance Agency at Helena.
In 1996, Smith was one of five men (the others were Winston Bryant, Lu Hardin, Bill Bristow and Sandy McMath) who entered the Democratic primary when U.S. Sen. David Pryor announced he wouldn't run again. Smith's campaign was underfunded from the start. Bryant and Hardin made it into a runoff that Bryant won. Bryant, in turn, lost to Republican Tim Hutchinson in the fall.
Smith came up with the idea of walking 1,000 miles across Arkansas during the campaign. Though his campaign wasn't a success, Smith has fond memories of walking from town to town. Like the trip down the Mississippi River years earlier, it shaped his life.
Last August, Smith decided to give up a comfortable existence in private business and run for mayor of what has technically been Helena-West Helena since a 2005 vote to consolidate the two cities. These days almost everyone just says Helena.
The politics here are of the rough-and-tumble variety. As is the case in many Delta cities, race relations often are strained.
Smith won a December runoff against James Valley, a former Helena mayor, with 51.3 percent of the vote. Since taking office last month, he has begun an aggressive effort to clean up blighted properties. Helena is one of the state's most historic cities, and Smith loves history. His focus these days, though, is on the future rather than talking about Helena's once-prosperous past.
"A century ago, Helena was what northwest Arkansas is today," Smith says. "It was the part of the state where people were moving because there were jobs. We were among the top cities in the country for the hardwood lumber industry with several big mills. Now we have to find our place in the 21st century.
"I do believe we've hit bottom and are ready to begin heading back up. We have the river, plenty of water and affordable housing. I'm seeing people who grew up in this part of the state come back when they retire, and I'm seeing young people come here to visit during events such as the King Biscuit Blues Festival and wind up staying. People these days are looking for towns with character and a sense of place. Helena has that. We just have to be sure they can make a decent living and that their kids can get a good education."
Smith notes the excitement in another Arkansas Delta city--Pine Bluff--about a casino that soon will be built there. Helena, in essence, already has a casino. Yes, Isle of Capri is in Mississippi. But it's just across the bridge from downtown Helena, and most of its employees come from Arkansas. Smith would like to see a waterfront hotel and marina on the Arkansas side of the river with shuttles that take people to Mississippi to gamble. He's not spending too much time just yet on such plans. The basics must come first.
"I don't want to be one of those people with yet another grand Helena renaissance plan who then fails to deliver," he says. "We didn't get in this position overnight, and our problems won't be resolved overnight."
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 02/20/2019