New mayor has heart for Mountain Pine

Morgan Wiles was elected the new mayor for the city of Mountain Pine on Nov. 6. Wiles was born and raised in Mountain Pine, having graduated from Mountain Pine High School in 2002.
Morgan Wiles was elected the new mayor for the city of Mountain Pine on Nov. 6. Wiles was born and raised in Mountain Pine, having graduated from Mountain Pine High School in 2002.

MOUNTAIN PINE — One of the biggest things Morgan Wiles is dreading about being mayor is sitting at the Thanksgiving table with his family.

“In a town like this and living in a small community, most of your family is still here,” Wiles said. “I have a lot of family on every single street. So from now on, every Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’m going to hear about what I am doing terribly.

“I have a lot of pressure on me to do great things.”

Wiles was elected the new mayor for the city of Mountain Pine in Garland County. He won with 56 percent of the vote, defeating three other candidates, including Chris Isom, Ed N. Jones and James E. Long Sr.

“There were several great candidates who probably could have done as good a job as I will do,” Wiles said. “What worried me a little bit was there were four people running.

“When I saw four people were running, I thought the vote would be split, and it would end in a runoff. I was surprised that I actually had the majority.”

Wiles was born and raised in Mountain Pine, having graduated from Mountain Pine High School in 2002. He went into the military right out of high school, serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004.

“When I was growing up here, it was a little better town than it is now,” Wiles said. “There are some things in the past that haven’t been done over the years that need to be done.

“I think this city is dependent on the county and other entities within the state instead of doing what it needs to do itself and run in a professional manner.”

When Wiles, 34, started getting more involved with the city, he heard complaints about “little bitty things that should have been easily handled by the city’s administration.”

He said that at first, he considered running for state representative, but he had several community members ask him to run for mayor instead.

“I believe they know my heart,” Wiles said. “I think people see I am for this community. I have a ton of stuff going on, but I am willing to drop it for four years to make sure this community is back on its feet and get it to where it needs to go. … I want to get a lot of the rumor mill and stigma that it has on top of it out of here.”

Mountain Pine currently has a population of about 750 people, but Wiles hopes to increase that number to 2,200 by the end of his four years in office.

“I am very confident in my ability to achieve my goals, and right now, I don’t see anything in my way of making this a better town,” Wiles said.

He said he has had a passion for public office since he was in middle school.

“I have wanted to do something politically,” he said. “I’m kind of enamored with becoming a public leader and changing things for the better.

“I hope to start with this city.”

Wiles is replacing interim mayor Tammy Bailey, who was sitting in place of former Mayor Rick Petty. Wiles said Petty experienced some medical issues throughout his term.

“I had to take over for him at one time, and then Tammy took over from the treasurer’s spot,” Wiles said. “The council placed us there both times.”

Wiles is the city’s third mayor in as many years after Petty was elected in 2016. Wiles served as interim mayor from February to April of this year. He said his time as interim mayor almost deterred him from running for the office.

“For a small town, for the first year, it is going to be a ton of work,” Wiles said. “I didn’t know if I could take it all on myself with my businesses. But my business partners and management team during this process have all agreed to have my back and help take care of what needs to be taken care of.

“We all have the same goal in this company. We take pride in actually rebuilding a town in Garland County. For a business here, that is something great to see, is to take pride, and we love doing anything for this community.”

Wiles owns two businesses: WinChoice USA, a window-replacement retailer that operates in eight states, and Morfe Windows, which operates out of Mountain Pine. Morfe Windows manufactures 100 percent of the windows for WinChoice USA. One of Wiles’ business partners is Shuan Keefe, who has known Wiles since he was 5 years old.

“He is a very thoughtful person, and he cares deeply about others,” Keefe said of Wiles. “He is very motivated and gets things done.

“He is a very hard worker, and he is very committed to this community.”

Keefe, who lives in Little Rock, said he and Wiles have been in business together for six years.

“He’s always been very ambitious and very motivated and is a problem-solver,” Keefe said. “He has always wanted to give back to this community, and our business success has allowed him to do that.

“That’s really what motivates him to be the mayor, because he really wants to make a change here.”

Wiles said he has four major goals that he hopes to accomplish as mayor. He wants to protect the citizens from any kind of animal attack and to get “our animal-control unit back to where it needs to be in handling those ordinances.” He said the city has a dog pound, a dog kennel and animal-control equipment, but he said the city doesn’t use it.

“I also want to increase our police presence to a full-time status,” Wiles said. “My third goal is the annexation of some property.”

He said Cozy Acres — a portion of land that sits near the back side of the city — is an island that the county still holds onto, but Wiles believes the property falls under the enclave rule.

“I also want to provide some public housing,” Wiles said. “That’s a goal of mine, is to provide more public housing within the city limits.”

Wiles said these goals may sound simple for a city the size of Mountain Pine, but “these are simple things that this city doesn’t operate under.”

“If we operate under all of our ordinances and get our city cleaned up the way it needs to be, then no matter how small the goals are, they will get taken care of,” Wiles said.

“I think he is going to do a phenomenal job as mayor because he has never really failed at anything he has tried,” Keefe said. “He is really passionate about helping the community.”

Wiles said one of his biggest concerns for the city of Mountain Pine is its infrastructure.

“We have some budgetary concerns that need to be managed correctly,” Wiles said. “The town has plenty of money coming in to do what it needs to do; it just needs to be organized the correct way.

“One of my primary concerns is nuisance homes, and one of the concerns of citizens is that the city’s marshal and the county officers don’t work well with each other.

“We need to make sure we get that done, and that starts from having a professional council and a professional mayor.”

Wiles has a girlfriend of three years in Bayleigh Vinson, and he has four kids: Madison 16, Annabelle, 14, Trysen, 10, and Casslee, 5.

“City government is very easy,” Wiles said. “There are rules put in place, and we have to abide by those rules.

“As long as that happens, and the department heads and the mayor hold everything accountable, everything else falls into place.”

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events