Jimmy Witt has been tempted a couple of times to move out of his hometown of Dardanelle, but he couldn’t do it.
Now he’s mayor-elect of the city.
Witt, 53, is a former Yell County judge, downtown business owner, licensed lobbyist and banker.
“The hunger to give back was what was driving me,” Witt said. “I almost moved outside the city limits a couple of times, and I just couldn’t do it. I had a nagging feeling that I wanted to do something for the city of Dardanelle.”
Mayor Carolyn McGee, who served for more than two decades, didn’t run for re-election.
Witt said he knew it was his time.
For one thing, he pointed out, his political contacts and connections are getting older.
Witt works part time for his well-known father, James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under then-President Bill Clinton. The senior Witt operates Witt Global Partners, and Jimmy Witt said he conducts some governmental relations work, as needed, for his father and handles the family farming operations.
Witt said he used his well-connected dad to his advantage.
“I’d be crazy not to,” he said, laughing. “I used him a lot more, I guess, when I was judge. It was 20 years ago this year I was elected judge; it was 1998. When I needed advice about who to contact or where to go to find something, he, of course, was always willing and able to help.”
Jimmy Witt said he is proud of what he accomplished as county judge.
“We accomplished a lot in six years,” he said. “The No. 1 biggest thing I did was start 911 in Yell County. That was a three-year project. That was something I felt like we had to do; it was a health-and-safety matter. We renamed all the roads in the county and saved a lot of lives.”
He said that during his tenure, 26 miles of road were paved, and more than $1 million in grants were received every year for various projects, from building a fire department to water-line extensions and more.
“We tore down the old armory to prepare for the courthouse annex that is in Dardanelle right now,” he said.
“Judge Brad Wear, my bestest buddy, came in after me and finished the firefighter training center in Danville and built the annex.”
Ware died of cancer in 2015, at age 47, and Witt’s mother, Lea Ellen, died in 2013 after a five-year battle with a rare type of cancer, he said.
“It changed my thought process about people, and the little things just aren’t worth getting that worked up over. I try to do as much as I can every day for someone,” he said. “I really seriously do that. Whatever I’m going to be doing, I try to have a blast doing it.”
Witt said he’s already told city employees to expect to have fun every day when he’s mayor.
“We’re going to laugh; we’re going to have fun,” he said. “It’ll be infectious, and hopefully, it’ll spread through the town. We’ll have complaints, but that’s OK. We’ll figure out how to help.”
Yell County Sheriff Bill Gilkey won his election the same year as Witt was named county judge.
“Jimmy, he’s a very hands-on person,” Gilkey said. “When he takes on a project, he’s very calculating, from the planning stages to the actual construction part of the project, all the way to the end with it.”
Gilkey described Witt as thoughtful and not prone to knee-jerk reactions.
“He spends probably more time than he should thinking about certain things and events that come his way, but the other thing with that is, that’s a good trait to have,” Gilkey said.
“The other thing I like about Jimmy is, he’s a visionary,” Gilkey said. “He can look at a situation and see where it’s at and look down the road and come up with an ideal situation” for it to be successful in the future.
“He’ll work night and day to get it to that, if at all possible,” Gilkey said.
Witt envisions an idyllic community like the one he remembers from his childhood. He grew up with one brother, Michael, and he remembers playing outside until the streetlights came on.
“We’d ride our bicycles all over this town. I knew places I could stop and get a Coke or a candy bar,” he said. “I know we live in an era when we are never going to live in that comfort again, but I want that feeling.”
Witt, who will celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary in February with his wife, Anita, wants that atmosphere for their sons, Parker, 21, and Jesse, 16.
As much as he loves the small-town feeling, Witt said, he also wants to see Dardanelle grow.
“Clarksville, Paris, smaller cities like ourselves are progressive and growing,” he said. “We’re sitting right here on the river. … We have some tremendous opportunities for tourism. To do that, we’re going to have to expand.”
Witt said he was talking to a Dardanelle City Council member about that subject the other day.
“We’re kind of like a balloon filled to capacity right now,” Witt said. “We’ve got to make room for growth.”
Witt is a member of the Dardanelle School Board.
“Our school system is top notch. They’re continuing to push the bar and push kids” for excellence, and the community should, too, he said.
“I want to seek out the smaller industry. We’ll never have bigger industry like Russellville, but we can capitalize on the 15-to-20-employee industry,” Witt said. “Some machine shops here are paying well.
“I want to build really good strong partnerships with our schools, and local churches, and our police department will work hard.”
Witt said he is ready to jump into projects.
“I want to immediately get started on building an amphitheater on the river downtown,” he said. “There’s been a lot of talk about that, but it’s never gotten off the ground. I think I have found an avenue for grant money to help us expedite that.”
His goal is to see two or three events a month booked at the amphitheater, with 100 to 200 people attending, which would encourage businesses to locate on Front Street, he said.
“I would like to see a new hotel here in Dardanelle, more state of the art, newer,” he said.
Dardanelle has bass tournaments, Mount Nebo, and parks that provide opportunities for soccer and baseball tournaments, he said.
“I want to be able to house these people,” Witt said.
That’s not all.
“I want to build a museum here in town on the river,” he said. “We have so much history on this river, from the great Council Oaks to all the Civil War stuff.”
Witt said that financially, the city is in good shape.
Downtown has bounced back from a fire in 2015 that destroyed three historic buildings, with businesses like Millyn’s rebuilding.
“Lynne Murphy has done a tremendous job building back the store. It’s beautiful,” Witt said.
“The City Council and mayor have started one block of renovations on sidewalks and streetlamps,” he said, “so we’ll continue pushing that down the street.
“We’ve got some things started; we just need to finish.”
And Witt plans to stay put in his hometown long after they’re done.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.