In retrospect, it's clear that former Pulaski County Judge Floyd G."Buddy" Villines was a visionary. Villines was county judge for 24 years, serving until the end of 2014. He was a master at combining federal, state, county and municipal funds to achieve common goals.
Witness Simmons Bank Arena in downtown North Little Rock or the three pedestrian bridges over the Arkansas River--the Big Dam Bridge, the Junction Bridge, the bridge at the Clinton Presidential Center. Witness Two Rivers Park and the Statehouse Convention Center.
County money was even involved when the Central Arkansas Library System decided to redo the former Fones Brothers hardware warehouse in the middle of what's now Little Rock's River Market District. One of Villines' last major projects was convincing the Pulaski County Quorum Court to set aside $20 million in county funds to ensure that the Broadway Bridge wouldn't be a standard bridge connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock. Instead, it's an architectural delight.
In a column about Villines several years ago, I wrote: "He redefined the job. We used to think of county judges as being primarily responsible for roads and bridges in unincorporated parts of a county. Villines focused on quality-of-life issues such as arenas, trails and parks. Pulaski County had been hurt by half a century of litigation involving its public schools. Thousands of families fled to places such as Cabot, Benton, Bryant and Conway. Without the initiatives Villines championed, I have no doubt the exodus would have been greater."
County Judge Barry Hyde, who took office in 2015, might not keep as high a profile as Villines did, but Hyde is every bit the visionary Villines was. Though not at the rate of neighboring counties, Pulaski County continues to gain population. And Hyde, a no-nonsense former construction executive, continues to redefine the role of county judge.
For instance, people generally think of homelessness as a problem to be solved at the municipal level. But Hyde is taking a countywide approach, establishing what's known as a community village in the southwest part of the county. The village eventually could house as many as 400 people.
"This is a place where the chronically homeless can finally be at home," Hyde said in his State of the County address in February. "The community will provide residents with stability, safety and the opportunity to earn a living while meeting their physical and emotional needs."
During his time in office, Hyde has seen county government reduce its energy consumption by 68 percent, resulting in taxpayer savings of almost $500,000 a year. The county also has contributed to the development of what will be a 1,000-acre industrial supersite at the Port of Little Rock. That site, which already is drawing national attention, is expected to attract a large manufacturer to the county.
"We've done everything from making playground improvements to working closely with Central Arkansas Water and others to improve the infrastructure in unincorporated parts of the county," Hyde tells me over lunch in downtown Little Rock. "We'll also do a land-use plan for the unincorporated areas. I'm not talking about urban-style zoning. But I firmly believe that a failure to plan is a plan to fail.
"County judge is an elected position, but this job isn't about advancing a political agenda. It's about improving life for those who live in a county. I believe we've been able to move the bar."
Hyde grew up in a working-class suburb of Cleveland. His father was a factory mechanic, and his mother was a beautician. Hyde's mother, a Cajun from south Louisiana, met her husband at a USO dance during the Korean War. The couple moved to the area of Ohio where he was raised.
Hyde joined the U.S. Air Force after high school and was assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base in the mid-1970s. Part of the base's mission was overseeing Titan II missiles buried across north-central Arkansas. Hyde was on the launch team. After leaving the Air Force, he was an apprentice carpenter for a time before moving to Texas to work for construction giant Brown & Root.
He was in Texas from 1978-81 before coming back to Arkansas to work in commercial construction for Pickens-Bond Construction Co. Hyde later opened an Arkansas office for a Texas-based construction company. That company went under, leading to the establishment of Hydco Inc. in 1987.
"I bought a used desk and began the company in the corner of my living room," Hyde says. "I worked day and night looking for construction jobs."
Hyde told an interviewer in 2021: "You can't be in the building or development business if you're not an optimist. But you can't do it for very long if you're not looking for what could go wrong tomorrow. Hydco was 16 hours a day. ... I was bidding, I was trying to cultivate more work and I was out there doing the job."
Hydco is still going strong, though Hyde no longer has ownership in the company. Hyde long had been active in civic affairs. In 2000, he decided to run for the Arkansas House of Representatives, where he served three terms. After retiring from the construction industry, Hyde headed to his condominium at Panama City Beach, Fla., and thought about opening a barbecue restaurant on the beach.
When Villines announced he would be leaving office, friends began to call Hyde and urge him to return home and run for county judge. The transition went smoothly. At age 66, Hyde shows no signs of slowing down. There's still too much to accomplish in Pulaski County.
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.