Jacksonville Mayor Bob Johnson and challenger Jeff Elmore, who face each other in a runoff election, pledge ways to improve residents' quality of life.
Early voting begins on Monday and the last day to vote is Dec. 6 in the mayoral runoff of this city of more than 29,000, home to the Little Rock Air Force Base.
Elmore has been a resident of Jacksonville for the past 15 years, served the Second Baptist Church as a pastor and is now co-owner of United Abstract and Title real estate and title insurance company.
Around last year, Elmore decided he wanted to run for mayor to bring a "new way of thinking."
"I want to instigate and bring about change," he said. "My family's here, I'm a small-business owner here in town, both my boys are in Jacksonville High School, they love it and I want to have a better community for them and for everybody that's already here. We want to expand and grow and make more people want to live here in Jacksonville because it's a great place."
If elected, Elmore's priorities include: restoring pride, respect and integrity in the city's government; economic development, improving quality of life; public safety; and increasing police and first responder funding.
"We need to get back to basics and we need to get a ball rolling," he said. "There needs to be stability and integrity restored. That's first and foremost. If that's in place, if everything's functioning as should be at the top, then that will roll out and trickle down to all other aspects of the government, which then allows us to move forward ... bringing in new business, new industry, fixing things that need to be fixed and so forth."
Elmore is ready to bring in entertainment, retail shopping, dining and other things to improve quality of life for Jacksonville. Other efforts he is focused on include improving sidewalks, street lighting and salary bases for first responders.
"We need fantastic first responders, which we have. Our issue is keeping them," he said. "We get our police officers and firefighters poached by other agencies around the state, so we get great people, we train them, but then others will come waving more money on, so we need to make a more concerted effort to keep the responders that we have here, which brings about keeping crime down and aids the furtherment of that quality of life."
Elmore said he wants voters to know that he's ready to make real change in Jacksonville.
"I want to see our people grow, thrive, enjoy life here in town," he said. "Make your voice known, it's time for change. If you're wanting to do things differently than we've done before, come out on December 6 and vote."
Johnson started his political career in 1998, when he was appointed to the Pulaski County Quorum Court by former Gov. Mike Huckabee. He served a total of 10 years on the Quorum Court, then ran for state representative in 2014. He was reelected in 2016, and in 2018 he was elected Jacksonville mayor.
Johnson is also a certified public accountant with his own business, Johnson and Jones Accounting.
In his time as mayor, Johnson said he helped Unity Health Hospital establish a presence in Jacksonville. It will open in January 2023. His skills as a CPA allowed him to increase the city's reserves to their highest level in the past 15 years. Johnson said that within the last three city budgets he has approved 11% in raises for the city of Jacksonville workers. In his first campaign, Johnson said he promised to remove the tax burden for military retirees and he was able to do so.
Another accomplishment for Johnson is the 500 new lots open for development and 10 new subdivisions under construction. Now, Johnson is working on a new inner-city bus system with an affordable ride price.
His other efforts are geared toward city parks, streets and sidewalks, and public safety. He's proud of Chief of Police Brett Hibbs, and he said he wants to "keep the ball rolling" and "take it home, go to the finish line" with his future plans.
When Unity Health opens next year, Johnson said it will be a great economic developer in itself with the new jobs and other businesses it will bring. He said the relationships he's formed through his political career have helped him get the city to where it is today.
"We have a prior relationship which opens doors that normally couldn't be opened," he said. "I'm a regional thinker. I have this theory in my head, all ships rise in a high tide, what's good for Pulaski County is good for Jacksonville, what's good for the state of Arkansas is good for us. So it works back and forth and you try to make it better and I always want to leave it better than I found it and in the place I'm in, I have and I'm proud of that, but I'm really proud of what we're going to accomplish going forward."
Johnson said Jacksonville is one of the only cities that has its own ambulance service and its response time is the fastest because the drivers are only focused on local emergencies.
"I've got a great fire chief, EMS and a great police chief, I've got good directors and I'm really excited to see where we can go," he said.
Step-rate pay for first responders is another change Johnson wants to implement. Tearing down the city's old fire station is another project Johnson is planning to start by next year. Adding a splash pad next to the neighborhoods nearby is also part of the new construction plan for the area.
Recently, the city completed a significant park inspection with plans for Wi-Fi equipped parks with 360-degree cameras for police, Johnson said.
"I believe in innovation, better police through technology, we're getting more drones, we're putting more cameras around, we're doing more things that gets us more eyes on the streets," he said. "Those things are important; that's what I want to continue to carry on."
Due to Jacksonville's recent uptick in properties under construction, more people will move in and bring their business to the city, Johnson said. The city's new school district has seen 700 new students enroll in the past year, which is growth it hasn't seen in a long time, he said.
“The future of Jacksonville may have never looked brighter since the air base changed in the 70s,” he said.
Major change and improvements take time, Johnson said, adding that the speed of a city is the speed "of an iceberg" because of the many moving parts to approve and complete projects, attract new businesses, implement a bus system and more.
"It's for the protection of the people, that's why it takes a long time, because you don't want to rush into things," he said. "You want to stay positive and cities can't make 'uh-oh's.'"
Johnson said he wants voters to remember the progress made thus far and said "we're moving forward" when at the polls.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Johnson's statement: “The future of Jacksonville may have never looked brighter since the air base changed in the 70s,” as he spoke about the city's growth over the past few years.