Kyle Osborne

Searcy mayor wants to see changes, attract new industry

New Searcy Mayor Kyle Osborne stands inside city hall, where he took office Jan. 1. Osborne worked for the Searcy Police Department for 30 years, including six as police chief, before retiring in December 2012.
New Searcy Mayor Kyle Osborne stands inside city hall, where he took office Jan. 1. Osborne worked for the Searcy Police Department for 30 years, including six as police chief, before retiring in December 2012.

Kyle Osborne left the insurance business in 1980 to become a small-town marshal, and he’s continuing his passion for public service as the new mayor of Searcy.

Osborne, a former Searcy Police Chief, replaces former mayor David Morris, who did not seek reelection.

“I knew that Mayor Morris was completing his eighth year as mayor,” Osborne said. “I had heard some rumors that he was considering not running for re-election. I visited with some people and told them I was considering running. They committed to supporting me.”

Osborne, 60, said, he loves helping people.

“It’s hard to say what motivates someone to want to get into public service,” he said. “But I enjoy working with people and trying to make things better. I always have.”

Osborne has lived in White County all his life. He graduated from McRae High School in 1978. He attended Arkansas State University-Beebe for a time, then sold insurance in Little Rock.

“I did that for several years,” Osborne said. “My dad was a friend of [former] Little Rock Police Chief [Walter E.] “Sonny” Simpson. I went by one day and talked to

Mr. Simpson, and he encouraged me to apply for the Little Rock Police Department.

“I wasn’t even considering a career in law enforcement. It didn’t really interest me to even apply. But later, I thought about it and thought that might be something I was interested in.”

After talking to his father, Osborne said, he applied for a job as city marshal for the city of McRae.

“I found out that that town I grew up in was needing a city marshal,” Osborne said. “I went over and talked to the mayor, and he ended up hiring me for that position,” Osborne said. “I left the insurance business and became a public servant on Sept. 4, 1980. That was my first day of work in the city of McRae.”

Osborne said he worked in that job for about a year and a half before taking a position as a patrol deputy with the White County Sheriff’s Office, which is when he moved to Searcy.

“I spent almost a year there,” Osborne said. “In December of 1982, I went to work for the Searcy Police Department.”

Osborne spent 30 years with the Searcy Police Department, working his way up through the ranks, with the last six as chief. Osborne recently hired Steve Hernandez as the permanent replacement for Eric Webb, who retired in November. Hernandez was the public information officer for the Searcy Police Department.

Osborne said it’s rewarding to be able to hire someone for the position he once held.

“He and I have the same vision for the city,” Osborne said of Hernandez. “Visiting with him on his budget, it brought back a lot of old memories. It felt a little strange. Because of the job I really believe that he is going to do, it takes a lot of the worry away.”

Osborne retired Dec. 31, 2012, from the Searcy Police Department.

“It was time,” he said. “I had completed 30 years. My personal opinion, it was time to step aside and let someone else take over. Honestly, I felt I was ready to retire. That lasted about three months. I realized I wasn’t the retiring type.”

Osborne worked for a trucking company for about six months then retired again. After a short sabbatical, Osborne went to work for the state in the parole and probation office with the Arkansas Department of Correction in Searcy.

Osborne said there are some things he wants to see changed in the city.

“Some departments, in my opinion, need more attention than they were getting,” he said. “I really want to make a difference in those departments. One of these is parks and recreation.”

Osborne said that while he wants to make a difference in the various departments, that is not a slight on the people who are running them.

“We have great department heads,” he said. “I’m not just saying that. We have some great employees. In my opinion, some departments over the years had been neglected just enough that I was hearing complaints.”

Osborne said that with parks and recreation, its budget has not increased much over the years, and the department has had more things added to its umbrella, including the Searcy Swim Complex, which opened in 2017.

“Now that I’m here, I’m looking at the budgets for those areas,” Osborne said. “I can see why there are issues. There is just so much money to go around. Over the years, their budget hasn’t increased to the point to keep up with everything that has been added to that department. There are just so many things that fall under the umbrella of parks and recreation that it’s almost impossible for them to keep up with all that.”

Since taking office Jan. 1, Osborne has spent most of his time working on the city budget.

“We have to have a budget completed by the end of this month,” Osborne said. “The city clerk and I are just now to the point where we can really start visiting with the department heads and making some adjustments to the budget. Then we’ll have to get with the City Council and show them where we’re at, make recommendations to them to accept the budget, then have a special meeting to do that.”

While working on the budget, Osborne said, he’s had an open-door policy.

“I want to hear the issues,” he said. “I told people when I was running for this position that my door is open — come on in. They are taking me up on that. For the first couple of weeks, I was basically putting out fires. People would call, or a lot would come by City Hall.

“I’m not going to say that everyone who came in here wanted to complain. A lot of people have issues. They want my opinion on what was going to happen with certain things.”

One of Osborne’s top priorities is the job market in Searcy.

“There has to be a way to get industry back in Searcy,” he said. “Industry, over the years, has relocated from Searcy. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. I said that when I was campaigning. … I’m working with the chamber of commerce and the Searcy Regional Economic Development Corp. and working on some programs to try to attract new industry to Searcy and, possibly, expand the industry that is already here.

“If we can get the jobs, everything is is going to fall into place per se.”

Buck Layne is president of the Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce. He said Osborne will be a board member of both the chamber and the economic development corporation.

“We look forward to working with him and the new City Council,” Layne said. “I think [Osborne] is very progressive-minded, very business-minded. I think a lot of things that the chamber and economic-development corporation have wanted to do, I think he will be a good partner, as well as the City Council, in regard to moving ahead on those type of programs. We’ll get together and put some priorities together.”

Osborne said he’s known Layne for years.

“He’s good at what he does,” Osborne said. “We’ve got to have something to offer new businesses. That’s what we’re working on. From what I’ve picked up in meetings, Buck gets calls all the time [from businesses] wanting to look at Searcy and see what it has to offer, wanting to know if we have this amount of property with the infrastructure in place and sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t. It just becomes a competition so to speak to attract that industry or business to Searcy. It’s a daily grind.”

Osborne knows he can’t change things in Searcy by himself, but he is looking forward to the challenge.

“If it was easy, anyone could do it,” he said. “It takes cooperation of the City Council, chamber, SREDC. There are organizations that we have to work hand in hand with. There’s no way I can go out and do all of this by myself. Fortunately, I have an excellent working relationship with the council and the chamber and business leaders in the community. I’ve had numerous meetings with these people the first couple of weeks, and those people seem to be on board.”

Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events