David “Butch” House is a lifelong resident of England, Arkansas, so the political newcomer decided to throw his name into the hat for mayor of England.
House defeated John Siems in the Nov. 6 general election. Former Mayor Danny Maynard did not seek re-election.
“I just felt that I could offer something to this community,” said House, who is a 1968 graduate of England High School. “I could make sure the city was accountable. I actually didn’t run against the two guys [in the race]. I just ran because I thought I could do a good job, and it just happened that I won, you could say.”
House, who is a Democrat, defeated alderman and England School Board president Dudley Webb in the May preferential primary.
“I really think he would have been a good mayor,” House said of Webb. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m ready for the challenge. I think I can do a good job.”
After House won the November election, he said he contacted longtime Carlisle Mayor Ray Glover, who is starting his fourth term in office, as well as newly elected Lonoke Mayor Trae Reed.
“Ray has been doing this for 12 years,” House said. “He’s been there and done that. His wisdom is unbelievable. Then you get someone like Trae, and I’ve only visited with him one time personally, but his thoughts, his ideas, are from somebody who is younger and is looking at different avenues. Sharing some of that will be a great experience for me.”
House said Reed had already texted him about some meetings for mayors, and House wasn’t able to make the first one.
“But I will make the next one,” House said. “I just want to be involved in what’s going on in the area. I think that will help England; just the communications back and forth will be a good deal.
“We’re not in competition. We’re here in this county to help each other. I really look forward to being around some of those guys, too, just for what we can get off of each other. Anything that anyone can share with our community — we’re more than welcome to see what we can learn from somebody else.”
Glover said he looks forward to working with House.
“I told Butch when we talked, ‘Anytime you need to talk or have a problem, just give me a call,’” Glover said. “If I can help him, I sure will. I really like Butch. I think England did a good thing by electing him.
“Butch is going to do an excellent job. He’s stepping into pretty heavy shoes in Danny Maynard, who was a really good mayor of England. Butch is really concerned about England. He’s wanting to get things done.”
After graduating from England High School, House attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in management and labor in 1972. He went to work on a farm, owned by his new wife’s family. House’s wife, Patti, died in 2010 from breast cancer. He married his current wife, Beverly, in 2011.
“My dad never did farm,” House said. “He was an electrician. I was never on a farm until I got married and worked for Bobby Wright for five years. In 1978, I rented some land and started farming and was there for over 30 years. I have been retired since 2013. I’ve done just about what I’ve wanted to do.”
During his farming career, House said, he always worked hard — just not on Sundays.
“People who have been around me would probably say there is no way I can do anything part time,” House said. “When I farmed, it was a full-time devotion. Now I will say this: All of the years I farmed, we never drove a tractor and we never cut any crops on Sundays. I just felt that God could do more for me if I just wouldn’t work on Sunday. Of course, I never did farm like these guys do now, where they have thousands upon thousands of acres. Most of the time, we had 1,200 acres, and 1,500 would be the maximum.
“We would go out and change our water on Sunday morning and get out of there, but never drove a tractor, never planted, never harvested.”
House said he was ready for a new challenge after retirement.
“I farmed all my life,” he said. “I was able to buy one little ole farm. I’ve enjoyed my time off it. I feel like this is a need, and hopefully, I can serve the city well. I’m humbled by being elected; that’s for sure.”
England’s population was estimated at 2,744 in 2017. The city-limit sign reads 2,830 from the 2010 census.
“I promised the people when I talked to them that I would take care of business,” he said. “And that is my goal — to make sure the finances are spent in the right way, and we are accountable and that we get the right people in the right areas to best serve our people.”
For the time being, there will be no major changes in personnel for the city, House said.
“I think for the beginning, it’s going to be a learning process, and we’ll probably just stay like we are,” House said. “We’ll just have to work through it and see what happens and go from there.”
House said he read a story about how former Arkansas football coach Lou Holtz handled his players and got them ready for a game. He said Holtz would get rid of the ones who did not want to work.
“You’ve got to take that approach until you know which ones are with you,” House said. “You’ve got to stay with them all. It will work itself out. It always does.”
House wants to market the city of England in such a way to attract more people and businesses to the town.
“I think one thing that we need to do is, we need to help market our community in a way that people see what we’ve got,” House said. “We’ve got good people here. We’ve got a good school. We’re close to Little Rock. We’re only 25 minutes to the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. We’d be a good place for people to retire. We’ve got a good community center. There is lots of hunting and fishing in our area. We’ve got low crime. We’re small enough that people know one another.
“It’s amazing to me that when something happens in our community, whether it’s good or it’s negative, they turn out to help one another. Those are things that we can expand upon and that people need to know if they are interested in getting out of some of the other areas in central Arkansas and coming to a place like this.”
House said he, along with most mayors, wants his city to grow.
“What we need as much as anything is that we need the opportunity for jobs here, instead of being a total bedroom community for people who work somewhere else, then just come back here,” House said. “One of the things when I decided to do this was, I called a whole lot of the younger couples, and I’m talking about the ones who could live anywhere in central Arkansas. I asked them, ‘What are you doing living here? Why do you want to live here?’”
House said he was told many times over that this is where the people grew up, like himself.
“They like going to church in a small community,” he said. “They like people knowing who they are. They don’t mind people keeping up with them, so to speak. It’s just the love that people show in this community. It’s appreciated, even by the younger people — a lot who are professionals who want to live here.”
As far as jobs, House said, he’s looking at different ways to get more in his area.
“We’re looking. … I want England to find its little niche,” he said. “We’re not going to get the big businesses, but there’s got to be some industry out there that would fit our community and that would benefit them and bring a few jobs in here. We’ve just got to have the right opportunity, and we’ve got to expand our infrastructure and make sure that we’re sound.”
House said he’s done research on the internet about what it would take for that to happen.
“The communities that do well have good water and good sewer systems,” he said. “If you’re going to grow, you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got those things for businesses to want to be here, and the access to the highways.”
While England is not on a major interstate, the city is about 20 minutes from Interstate 440 and 25 minutes from Interstate 40.
“I think we’re close enough,” House said. “We’re not as close as Lonoke and Carlisle with Interstate 40, but we’re not that far away.”
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.