Sherwood Mayor Virginia Hillman Young faces City Council member Mary Jo Heye-Townsell in a run-off election Dec. 6.
Heye-Townsell has served in Ward 2 since 2011 as well as the street committee and is currently on the parks and recreation and senior citizen committees. She is a certified public official through the Arkansas Municipal League and has served on the advisory council for large first class cities and the public safety committee.
Heye-Townsell is also a registered nurse at UAMS in the maternal/infant unit. After her son died in 2000 as the result of a medical error, Heye-Townsell took on coaching the Sherwood Sharks Swim Team. The team grew to over 300 participants and was the largest in the state. Then, she was given the opportunity to be a council member and run for mayor.
Upon joining the City Council, Heye-Townsell said she recalled the mayor telling her to "stop with the big ideas, stop dreaming" and that Sherwood's best days were "in the rearview mirror."
"After years of trying to take initiatives and getting nowhere, trying to move our city forward, I realized that until we had leadership on the top, that there's very little from a City Council seat that you can really do to change the course of your city," she said. "I have spent years studying and researching and learning what more successful communities than ours are doing and have done and what we could do to make our city stronger, more prosperous and a better place to live for all of its citizens."
If elected, Heye-Townsell's priorities are commercial growth, highway and road development, parks and recreation renovation, and public safety. She said it's all about making Sherwood's community safer, more livable and enjoyable.
Heye-Townsell also said she has pushed for more transparency and communication by having city council meetings live streamed online.
"There was pushback on that originally. I was literally told 'the less people know, the happier they are and as long as their garbage is picked up, and as long as there's a low crime rate, then they're good.' Well, I believe the opposite," she said. "I believe that the more people know, the more they're willing to invest their time and energy into their own communities."
Heye-Townsell mentioned that open positions on committees and city commissions are not advertised publicly, but many "intelligent and creative people" in Sherwood are ready to step into those positions and be a resource.
When voters see her name on the ballot, Heye-Townsell said she wants them to know that she is full of passion and energy for the city of Sherwood.
"I want them to think that good ideas and that all voices matter and that we've got to be open to innovation and creativity," she said. "We don't need to just be continually doing the same old, same old and expect different results. It's time for change."
Young, who has served as Sherwood's city clerk and treasurer, is the president of the Arkansas Municipal League. She was elected mayor in a special election in 2007 and has served four-year terms since.
In the years since her election, Sherwood has grown by about 10,000 people, Young said.
"When I came into office in 2007, we were down to about $2 million in reserves. Today, we have about $19 million in reserves," she said. "So that's been a real concentrated effort by the whole team to increase our reserves because we were too close to the edge."
Young said she is proud that Sherwood is recognized as one of the safest cities in Arkansas. She has replaced at least 10 to 12 patrol cars a year and added new police officer positions. The Sherwood Fraternal Order of Police has endorsed her campaign.
"Public safety is one of the top priorities, I believe, for our residents," Young said. "We can make lots of improvements in regards to whether it be parks, which is needed, but any improvements that we make will be moot if people are not safe here."
One of Young's priorities moving forward is to establish a school district in Sherwood. A feasibility study has been done and the tax base of support is there, she said.
"We are waiting, I believe in public schools, local schools," she said. "My opponent did not, but I sent my kids to local public schools here and I feel like, as a leader, that if local schools are not good enough for you to send your child to, then you need to be doing something to correct it."
Young said she's also working on an all-inclusive playground for children of all skill levels and abilities to enjoy. Through the American Rescue Plan Act funding, the city has enough to start designing these new parks. After the proposals are presented to the planning commission and adopted by the City Council, the real work can begin, she said.
Another issue Young is focused on is the "wet" versus "dry" areas in Sherwood, meaning restaurants and grocers who either sell alcohol or do not. In the northern parts of the city, everything is dry, so certain grocery stores do not want to open in competition with the other side where they can sell alcohol.
Young said there's proposed 2023 legislation being written now to try to address the "defunct townships."
"What they're saying is, there's an old state law that says this township, Gray, was voted dry back in the '50s. So an old portion of Sherwood gets in that defunct township and cannot go wet without another vote," she said. "They're trying to get some legislation that would address that. It's a unique situation to Sherwood and Jacksonville."
Young's other recent projects include a new public works facility that includes sanitation and the street department, totaling $10 million to $11 million.
"Once we move our public works to another area, there will be some opportunity in our existing location off North Hills Boulevard to expand and improve our animal shelter," she said. "Our animal shelter has outgrown its facilities and it needs some improvements as well and there's plenty of open space that we can build a much larger dog park. That's important."
A new full time city economic developer has joined Young in many of these efforts, she said. Josh Alexander is a retired Air Force veteran and has brought a lot of contacts and energy with him, Young said.
When voters are at the polls again for the run-off, Young wants them to remember her experience and leadership thus far.
"I have some real concerns and I don't think our residents realize there has been no discussion about experience in this race," she said. "I believe we've got proven leadership, whenever we work as a team and bring us to a financially sound organization."
Early voting begins Tuesday at the Pulaski County Regional Building, 501 W. Markham St., Little Rock, weekdays through Dec. 5 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., according to the Pulaski County Election Commission. Additional early voting locations are First Christian Church of Sherwood, 2803 Kiehl Ave. and Sherwood Bethel Baptist Church, 112 N. Jeff Davis St., Jacksonville, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays beginning Tuesday and ending Dec. 2.
On election day, polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.