Richard Harris

New Russellville mayor says casino not good for city

Richard Harris, the new mayor of Russellville, spent most of his career as a chemist and engineer for Arkansas Nuclear One power plant. Harris said Arkansas Tech University is a bright spot in the city. An opponent of the proposed casino, Harris said Arkansas Tech has students graduating with engineering, prelaw and premedicine degrees. “I’d rather strive to get industry and jobs for those people and have a community we’re proud of,” he said.
Richard Harris, the new mayor of Russellville, spent most of his career as a chemist and engineer for Arkansas Nuclear One power plant. Harris said Arkansas Tech University is a bright spot in the city. An opponent of the proposed casino, Harris said Arkansas Tech has students graduating with engineering, prelaw and premedicine degrees. “I’d rather strive to get industry and jobs for those people and have a community we’re proud of,” he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE In the Feb. 3 River Valley & Ozark Edition, the Front & Center on Russellville Mayor Richard Harris on Page 4V incorrectly stated why former Pope County Judge Jim Ed Gibson left office in December. Gibson did not run for re-election in 2018, and he was succeeded by Ben Cross.

New Russellville Mayor Richard Harris thought he’d put politics behind him in 2016 after his second term on the City Council ended.

Then the casino controversy arose.

“The issue that made me run [for mayor] was ultimately the casino issue,” Harris said. “During the campaign, my opponent would not state whether he was for or against it. I was clearly against it.”

Harris was referring to incumbent Mayor Randy Horton, whom Harris defeated in a runoff with 59 percent of the vote.

State Constitutional Amendment 100, passed by voters in November, will allow casino licenses in Pope and Jefferson counties, and at the racetracks in Hot Springs and West Memphis.

Russellville is being considered for a 600-room, $254 million hotel and casino built by Gulfside Casino Partnership.

However, Pope County voters rejected Amendment 100 and also passed a local ordinance that would require the county judge or the Quorum Court, or the mayor if the facility is built in the city limits, to get the permission of voters in a local election before supporting a casino license.

After he lost the election, Horton wrote a letter in support of the casino. So did County Judge John Ed Gibson, who did not run for re-election in 2018. Those letters caused an uproar among those who oppose the casino.

Harris makes no bones about how he feels.

“I don’t believe it’s good for our community; it’s not the type of community I want to live in,” he said of a casino. “I came to Russellville years ago and raised my kids here. I think a casino is not in line with our community’s standards, values, and I don’t think we need the potential crime and corruption and issues that [a casino] brings with it.”

Harris said Arkansas Tech is the third-largest university in the state, and it has students in engineering, premed, prelaw and more.

“I’d rather strive to get industry and jobs for those people and have a community we’re proud of rather than take a short route to a casino that’s going to bring tax dollars,” he said.

The Arkansas Racing Commission has a draft of changes to its proposed casino rules. “[Changes to Rule 2] state that an application has to be submitted with a letter from a current county judge, quorum court and/or mayor,” Harris said. “If that wording change goes forth, … anything done by the previous administration is null and void.”

The Racing Commission is receiving public comments before a public hearing is held at 11 a.m. Feb. 21 in the commission’s office, 1515 W. Seventh St. in Little Rock, and Harris will be there.

Last week, state Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, proposed legislation that echoes the proposed change to the Racing Commission rule. If adopted, endorsements for casino applications would have to come from county judges, quorum courts or mayors who are in office at the time of the application.

“The constitutional amendment is in place, and it’s going to be there unless we get it before a majority of voters,” Harris said. “That’s not likely to happen.

“Pope County is on the amendment. All we can hope for now is to get a level playing field … to get those letters thrown out so the people in Pope County, in Russellville, can elect people in office who will listen to what their desires are, so if the tide changes and they decide they want a casino, they can have a local election or elect someone in office who will support that.”

Harris said that, realistically, he knows Gulfside Partnership could file a lawsuit to challenge any change.

“We could wind up right back where we are now, but I’m optimistic that the Racing Commission is going to approve the wording, and any lawsuit won’t result in overturning the Racing Commission’s ruling.”

Harris, 59, an engineer by profession, first ran for the Russellville City Council in 2010 “almost on a whim,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in politics, anyway. I thought it would be good to get involved.”

He lost.

Harris ran unopposed in 2012 and served two terms.

“I thought, ‘Now I’ve done my city politics,’” he said.

However, he said that as a city councilman, he saw interactions that bothered him about how the city government was being run.

“I was upset at the previous administration, personally, because … I didn’t think they were listening to the community,” Harris said.

For example, during his term on the City Council, he said, residents of his ward showed up in big numbers to protest a rezoning in their neighborhood for a commercial building, a senior residential center.

“The council voted overwhelmingly not only to ignore them, but did it in one reading rather than have three readings,” he said, which is the typical procedure.

“The people in my ward said, ‘We don’t want this. It’s a business; we don’t want it.’ They didn’t take it lying down. They got a petition together to overturn the council’s decision,” Harris said.

An election on the rezoning proposal overturned the council’s decision, he said.

“That led me to believe we had an administration that didn’t necessarily look out for what the citizens wanted,”

he said.

And that is the point Harris makes about a casino — voters showed at the polls that they don’t want it in the city.

That’s not to say Harris doesn’t want growth and jobs.

“Most everything I’m about is tied to economic development,” he said.

Smash It Sports of Rochester, New York, made a pitch to the Russellville City Council to partner with the city on a

$20 million baseball complex.

“We would build the fields, and they would operate and manage it, set up tournaments,” he said.

Harris said that despite what some residents think, no decision has been made on the proposal.

“We’re looking at the viability is all we’re doing,” he said.

Harris said a committee of the Advertising and Promotion Commission will look into it, “and what I’ve challenged them to do is go ask the hard questions.” He said those questions include whether the complex will be sustainable, will the number of teams be what the company projects and whether the city can afford it.

“This baseball complex is really part of economic development as well,” Harris said. “If it could bring in the number of people they say and run at a profit, it would be a boon to hotels and restaurants.”

Harris said he’s also interested in quality-of-life amenities.

“I’m going to be pushing for biking and mixed-used trails,” the kind of activities that will attract people to the city, he said.

Although the 1 1/2-year-old aquatic center has value for the community, Harris said, it is operating at a deficit and isn’t what some voters expected.

“It’s got a negative perception because a lot of people wanted a water park, and they got an indoor swimming pool. That was poor communication on the city’s part,” he said. “The aquatic center in itself is a nice facility, and it’s hosting meets — the school system is having a state meet in February. They’re excited, and I’m excited.”

However, Harris said, the center needs more members, adding that he may enlist Arkansas Tech marketing students to create a marketing plan for the aquatics center.

Planning is part of Harris’ personality.

“I want to develop a plan for growth in this community, a strategic plan for where we want to be in 10 years,” he said. “The goal is to put together a team to start developing that plan. Otherwise, we will be sitting here in 10 years and look just like we do today.”

Harris said he wants to see jobs available in Russellville to “keep young people here rather than running off to Northwest Arkansas or wherever they might go.”

He moved to Russellville 36 years ago after a somewhat chaotic childhood. Born in Mississippi, “my father was a drinker and couldn’t keep a job,” Harris said. That meant his family moved frequently — they lived in Pine Bluff,

El Dorado “and pretty much every community in between.”

His mother was a homemaker for Harris, his sister and two brothers. He graduated from Hampton High School, the only person in his family to earn a high school diploma.

However, Harris is quick to point out that his sister, Sandra Crowe of Russellville, earned a GED and is a physical-therapy assistant.

“I’m very proud of her,” he said.

He graduated from Henderson State University in

Arkadelphia with a degree in chemistry, and he has a master’s degree in operations management from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Harris worked at Arkansas Nuclear One for 32 years. He retired in 2015 as an emergency planning manager. He then worked as a specialized engineer for Enercon, dealing with probabilistic risk analysis in reference to nuclear plants.

“I’m really happy with the council that the citizens of Russellville put together for me,” he said. The council includes four incumbents and four new members.

One of those is Rick Harrell, who served from 2003-2006 and was elected in November for another term.

Harrell said he’s known Harris for a long time, and they are members of the same Sunday School class.

“He’s a very compassionate man,” Harrell said. “He’s quiet, pretty reserved, but I see Richard as a man of character. He really thinks about what he believes in; his faith motivates him. What he sees in people — he tries to see the best in the person; he’s not judgmental. He’s very open to listening and evaluating.

“My impression is that he’s such a man of integrity that he’s going to do the right thing, regardless of pressure.”

The casino issue is a case in point.

“He wasn’t afraid to tackle that,” Harrell said.

Harris knows he and the council won’t always see eye to eye.

“We’re kind of in the honeymoon period, but right now, I’m really, really positive. We have people who are asking hard questions and people who want progress,” Harris said. “There’s good dialogue among the council members. If we can maintain that energy, that synergy going forward the next four years, I think you’re going to see a lot of positive things happen in our community.”

A community that he hopes doesn’t include a casino.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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