December 16, 2025 • 45 mins
Growth doesn’t wait for perfect plans, and neither should we. In this conversation with Pea Ridge Mayor Nathan See, we dig into the nuts and bolts of turning a fast-growing town into a resilient, welcoming city, without losing the neighborly spirit that drew people there in the first place. From his years in the street department to the mayor’s office, Nathan brings a builder’s mindset and a clear lesson from UCA’s Community Development Institute: community development is everyone’s job.
We talk strategy where the rubber literally meets the road: Highway 72. That corridor is the hinge on which Pea Ridge’s future swings, shaping safety, retail attraction, and freight access. Nathan shares new momentum on funding, the realities of phasing to four lanes, and why site selectors watch mobility before they ever run the numbers. Then we zoom out to regional planning: wastewater capacity, stormwater, and shared solutions that outlast election cycles and city limits.
The human side of growth takes center stage. A poverty simulation at CDI reshaped how Nathan writes policy and frames tradeoffs, pushing the city to design for families who juggle school schedules, limited transit, and tight budgets. We unpack a community-led rebrand that signals a modern identity while honoring local history, plus a pragmatic approach to parks, annexation, and long-range land use. Housing affordability gets a bold treatment through innovative construction, high school workforce pathways, and the search for a distribution hub. And for small business owners, Nathan outlines an 18-month storefront concept designed to turn hustle into sustainable brick-and-mortar.
If you care about smart growth, inclusive planning, and practical leadership, this story offers a field guide: build the network, set the timeline, and make every win visible.
Subscribe, share with a friend who loves city-building, and leave a review to tell us what your community is doing right, and what you want to learn more about next.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Gatling, andwe are bringing the University
of Central Arkansas to NorthwestArkansas.
Each episode, we will talk withleaders, alumni, and innovators
driving this region forward.
People who are shapingindustries and defining what is
next for our state.
(00:22):
Let's get started.
Hey everybody, welcome back toanother edition of Central to
NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm Paul Gatling, and todaywe're going to talk about
community development and howthat connects directly to the
University of Central Arkansasthrough a nationally recognized
program that we run, have beenrunning for about 40 years.
(00:42):
It's called the CommunityDevelopment Institute, or CDI.
And I'm going to give you alittle background on that
straight from the website thatyou could Google around and find
CDI.
So it started in 1987, and eachyear, community and economic
development leaders from acrossthe country come to UCA for
hands-on training on how tostrengthen their towns and
(01:03):
regions.
And over three years of courses,the participants learn practical
skills and things like planningand leadership and workforce
development and building stronglocal economies.
And CDI is taught by experiencedpractitioners and supported by
the Walton Family Foundation,and it's designed for anyone who
wants to make an immediate,positive impact in their
(01:24):
community.
And one of those leaders is myguest today.
He is P Ridge Mayor Nathan C,who has used CDI to transform
the way his community plans forwhat a lot of people are
planning for in NorthwestArkansas, and that's growth, but
also how to make opportunitiesfrom that growth.
Nathan, it's great to see youhere.
Thanks very much.
SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
Paul, thank you very much for the invitation.
I appreciate you and youradvocacy for P Ridge.
And, you know, it's just anhonor to be here with you today.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Well, I appreciate you.
I know you're busy.
I know uh Christmas time isright around the corner, uh, and
you've got a lot of thingsplanning.
Uh, but again, like you say, youyou're such a big proponent of
UCA's uh CDI program.
And what I love about it is umyou didn't come to it as a UCA
alum.
You're not a UCA alum, but youcame to it as a mayor who is uh
(02:11):
wanting to um you know expandyour toolkit and take advantage
of the things that are offeredthere uh that you can bring back
to your community that is uh,like we said, changing rapidly,
growing rapidly.
So we're gonna get into thosedetails a little later, but just
really how do you put thatimpact into words?
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
How do you uh being part of the CDI and and and
being part of all the peoplethat are there, how do you put
that impact into words that it'sI I would say that whenever you
go through CDI, you create atoolbox of tools that you leave
with that you're able to go backto your city and implement and
create things that maybe youweren't doing before and you
find different ways of doingthings.
(02:50):
Um, you know, whenever you'rethinking about economic
development, a lot of peoplejust think about tax-based
revenue.
And so going through CDI, yourealize that there's an umbrella
of things that fall undereconomic development and that
community developmentfacilitates economic
development.
And so um there's a lot of keycomponents that we walked away
from from CDI with, and we are,you know, being able to
(03:11):
implement those in differentareas from planning to land use
to um just having conversations,just getting the community
involved and letting their voicebe heard.
And so at the end of the day,you know, you're gonna have
those people that are cavepeople or nimbys, and and but at
the end of the day, you want tobe able to incorporate those
(03:32):
into your community so they seethat there's value in what
you're doing with the growththat's coming.
I would much rather, and it'ssaid by by uh John Kitt uh
Chadwell out of Newport, I wouldmuch rather be growing than not
growing.
And a lot of people just, youknow, we need to embrace that
growth and not fight the growth.
Um, so you know, there's a lotof a lot of great things that
(03:53):
come out of it.
And so I'm sure we'll get intomore of that here in the
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
These are the types of uh Yeah, we will get into it.
Those are the types ofconversations we want to have on
this platform.
But first, let's get into theconversation about um Nathan C.
And you and I have gotten toknow each other um a lot better
uh the last couple of years.
Uh we've met we talked a fewtimes um uh when I was at the
Northwest Arkansas BusinessJournal.
You were just elected mayor, Ibelieve, November of 2022, I
(04:20):
guess.
That's correct.
So about three years ago, anduh, but have you know over 20
years of experience working foruh the city, uh mostly with the
street department and thesuperintendent of the streets
and a Pea Ridge high schoolgraduate.
So um let's just talk a littlebit first about your story
because I think it's a good one.
Uh you've lived in uh, I thinkyou moved to Pea Ridge when you
were what, 11, 12, 12 years old.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_00 (04:41):
Where did you move from?
Moved from Catusa, Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_01 (04:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:44):
Uh we moved to Pea Ridge.
My dad um was uh was acontractor and he would chase
storms to do repairs to hail ortornado or whatever it may be.
Well, Arkansas had a really badice storm, and so it collapsed a
bunch of the turkey and chickenhouses.
And so he got a contract and wemoved over here, followed that,
and um, we didn't know we weregonna stay here forever, but we
(05:06):
did, and I'm I'm I'm glad wedid.
Right.
Um, you know, Arkansas,everybody, whenever you say
you're going to Arkansas, what'sin Arkansas that you're going
for?
Um, but Northwest Arkansas is adifferent piece.
Uh and so um we moved here andum my dad uh did uh houses for a
while whenever he was here.
He went into building somehouses called he had a company
(05:27):
called Six C Construction.
There were six of us in thefamily, and so um that was his
name.
And then later on he changed itto Blackhawk Construction.
Uh my mom worked for Walmart fora little while and then went
into the postal carrier businessand was in the postal carrier
business for 30 plus years.
Uh committed, I mean, she wascommitted and she got like
Samaritan uh awards from theU.S.
(05:48):
Postal Service.
So um service, I would say, isin my blood to be able to carry
out the service that's at hand.
SPEAKER_01 (05:55):
Right.
And so Blackhawk, by the way, ifyou're not familiar, P Ridge
High School Black Hawk, the twoproud P Ridge high school alum.
And so you started out after uhhigh school, you started your
professional career working forthe city, right?
Working for the streetdepartment there in PC.
SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
That's correct.
Um, whenever I was a junior inhigh school, I was an
entrepreneur, had my ownembroidery business called His
Emblem Embroidery, and I sold itin 2020 or 2003, and then I went
to work for the city in 2003 asa contract labor, just mowing
the green spaces.
Um, who would have thought itwas going to become what it is
today?
(06:29):
And so uh, whenever uh in 2005,I became assistant
superintendent on the streetside.
And in 2010, I was uh promotedby mayor uh Jockey Crabtree, who
was my predecessor.
And he uh he took me in andsaid, you know what, I want I
need you to be the streetsuperintendent.
And so I was a streetsuperintendent from 2010 until I
was elected in 2022 as mayor.
SPEAKER_01 (06:52):
Yeah, when you say um 2005 and Pea Ridge, I think
of um Mike Herrod and the deadtea offense for the P Ridge High
School football team.
That's that's where my uhconnection to Pea Ridge goes
back as the sports editor of thedaily paper in Bentonville, the
Benton County Daily Record.
Um, and I covered a lot offootball games out at the old
(07:12):
football field.
Yeah, the old Powell, where itjust went to a dead end and to
find a parking spot.
And uh, we called it the largestoutdoor cocktail party in Benton
County.
That's a true statement.
And so, like me, and more soyou, you've had a front row seat
for just uh growth that youprobably couldn't even fathom 20
years ago and what Pea Ridge wasthen and what it's becoming.
(07:35):
So walk me through those earlyyears of uh working in the
street department um at PeaRidge and then kind of contrast
that to uh the issues of todayversus those issues that you
were dealing with 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_00 (07:48):
Yeah, I you know, I'll say that you know, whenever
I started, there were three ofus that worked there on the
street side of things.
And actually we were combinedbetween water and street
together.
Um there were six of us alltogether, and we kind of
overlapped for a little bit todo both both jobs and get them
done.
The um the big thing that Iwould tell you is between 2010
or 2000 and 2010, we grew at110% in the city.
(08:11):
And so that was an astronomicalamount of growth.
Um, and so there was a lot moredevelopment happening then.
A lot of education happenedduring that time for our city um
from the development standpoint,from the planning standpoint of
being able to find out allright, what what do we need to
be regulating and what do we notto be regulating?
And so from the from the streetside, we were doing a lot of
(08:33):
inspections on streets andcompaction and drainage.
And so we had to grow our staffin a matter of two years.
We had to add three other peopleon just for the inspection piece
because we had so much growthcoming in.
And so, whenever you do that,you have to really know that
whenever you're hiring people,that you're hiring people that
(08:54):
can do the job, because youdon't want to be the one to say,
yes, we're changing things forthe better, and then find out 10
years later that it wasn't forthe better.
Um, so for what we were doingtoday in in the in the uh in the
world of the city of Pea Ridge,uh, I will say that it's
probably the same struggles thatwe had back then,
infrastructure.
Uh infrastructure is always thebig thing whenever we have
(09:14):
growth at that amount, thatpercentage.
And so we are uh working on thatevery day.
We're working on infrastructureand you know, keeping up with
the road miles.
You know, I think right nowwe're at 160 uh lane miles.
Whenever I was there, we hadabout 80 lane miles.
And so we've doubled in lanemiles.
And that means that, okay, wegot more streets to take care
(09:36):
of, we got more residents totake care of.
And uh I will say that we wewe've executed well.
SPEAKER_01 (09:43):
So I would think, and you maybe agree with me, the
most important of those lanemiles is about a nine or 10 mile
stretch connecting Bentonvilleto P Ridge.
Yes, sir.
Right the highway there.
What can you tell me about howimportant that is to get that
stretch or roadway widened inorder for, if you don't, it's
gonna clog your growth, it'sgonna stifle your growth.
(10:05):
How important is that to getthat stretch widened?
And how and when is that goingto happen?
SPEAKER_00 (10:12):
So it's very important for a couple of
different reasons.
For residential use, it'simportant, but for local
economy, it's important.
Whenever you have site selectorscome to your city, they look at
the NSE grass of your city.
And Highway 72 is the biggestpoint that they talk about.
If we can get that widened, thenwe can come here and build X.
Uh, Jared Wiley, director of RDot, have a great relationship
(10:33):
with R Dot.
Very, very pleased with whatthey've been doing in the state
of Arkansas and in NorthwestArkansas.
Um, and so we've been waiting 20plus years to be able to say,
hey, we're actually going to seesomething done on Highway 72.
And so in the 2027 STIP, they'veactually allocated$7 million for
right-of-ways and uh utilityrelocations along Highway 72
(10:55):
corridor.
And that's going to be able tomake it go to a four-lane.
The whole project would be 180million, probably, to do the
whole thing.
It's just crazy constructioncosts right now.
Right.
And so they'll probably phase itout through a six or seven year
period to be able to do theproject.
But that's hope for us to beable to grow that local economy
(11:17):
and bring things to PRIGHT thatwe currently can't have because
of that Highway 72 connector.
What's an example of that?
What can you bring that you thatyou don't have?
Retail.
Retail is huge.
Um, you know, if you can get,you know, Ross or TJ Maxx or um
some of those people, Aldi, youknow, something like that.
You know, we had theannouncement of Super Center
(11:38):
coming in, and so they'resupposed to be starting in 2026.
And I think that's going to be abig proponent for us to be able
to have more economic drive, isbecause now that we have a super
center, there'll be less peopletraveling to Rogers and
Bentonville for that, becausewe'll have one in in P Ridge.
Um, we've had multiple siteselectors with distribution
centers come in and um little uhindustry parks that wanted to
(12:03):
come in.
And it's just the NSC grace thatgets them from I-49 because
there's no shoulder, no passinglanes.
Um, it's just a big risk theytake whenever they're trying to
move freight.
SPEAKER_01 (12:13):
Yeah, I've I've heard it described as um, you
know, in the morning, it's aparade from P Ridge to
Bentonville.
In the afternoon, it's a PRidge, it's a parade from
Bentonville to Pea Ridge, up anddown the highway there.
When did you first begin tothink about uh expanding your
service to the city and uh andand think about leading the city
as a as a as a mayoralcandidate?
SPEAKER_00 (12:34):
Well, Mayor Crabtree um told me we we were in a
meeting uh and uh and he saidI'm not gonna run again.
I'm gonna retire.
And he said, I need to we needto find somebody to run.
And I said, Okay, I'll keep myeyes peeled and see what we can
find.
But you didn't raise your hand.
I didn't raise my handimmediately.
No, no, sir.
I said, I'm good on the streetside, I know it, I love it.
(12:56):
And uh and so And that wasenough to keep you busy, yeah.
Anybody job busy, yeah.
Yeah.
And so um we went back to acouple weeks later and he said
he called me into his office andhe said, We need to have a
conversation.
He said, you know, the thedeadlines, uh, we need to get
somebody in here that can makethis progress we've had going,
(13:18):
keep going.
And so I said, Well, who do youwant?
Who do you want to go after?
Is there somebody here?
And he said, Yeah, that oneright there in the chair right
there.
I want that one.
And uh I said, Really?
And so I said, Well, I need totalk to my wife and my family
and you know, pray about thingsand make sure this is where
where we need to be headed.
Um, had great support from thefamily, and uh, and I just felt
(13:39):
like okay, it's my time toserve.
And and whenever you're inpublic service, you're a servant
and you got to have that heartcarried out.
And um, I was like, all right,this is what you like, here am
I.
Let me let me do this.
And so uh we I said, okay, andhere we are today.
Um, he's been a greatencourager, Jackie has been.
(13:59):
He was there 28 years, he's gotuh connections all over the
state with the ArkansasMunicipal League and uh
different people that I justhave they've came to surround
me, you know, because of hisleadership.
They've came to say, hey, Jackiehas is a big proponent of you.
He wants us to come beside youand help you.
And so um, it's just been aneasy transition for the last
(14:22):
three years, honestly.
SPEAKER_01 (14:23):
Yeah, well, you've had um uh you've like you said a
lot of support from the family,but you also had a ton of
support at the ballot box onelection day.
Yeah.
And I'm assuming re-electioncoming up next year, right?
I'm assuming my plan is to run.
Plan to run again.
Yes, sir.
Okay, I'm sure I'm sure you'llhave uh the requisite support
then.
All right, for folks who haven'tuh driven through P Ridge in a
(14:45):
little while, how do youdescribe the town now?
How many people live in PeaRidge?
What do you say to those siteselectors and and people who are
curious about this town?
SPEAKER_00 (14:53):
I say, you know, Pea Ridge is about 13,000 in
population.
Our trade area, though, is about56,000 people that come to trade
uh in Pea Ridge.
And Pea Ridge is a small town.
Uh a lot of people call it thethe Mayberry, you know, of
Northwest Arkansas.
But we're we're we're a we're agrowing community that still has
(15:14):
small town feel.
Um, and I tell people thisbecause we as individuals create
the community in which we liveby the heart that we carry.
And so if we want to have asmall town feel, then let's take
care of our neighbors and let'stake care of people that may
need something.
And that's one thing I'll sayabout Pea Ridge is whenever you
(15:35):
come to P Ridge and and you'rethere, your family.
Because if there's somethingthat goes wrong and somebody
says, hey, I need help, you have13,000 people that are going to
be there to help you throughwhatever you're going through.
And that's what I feel that PRidge is is we're we're a small
town feel um in a growing,growing economy and growing
(15:55):
population, but we still loveand care for our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01 (16:00):
Yeah, uh growing like crazy.
Uh you had a community uh townhall meeting um you know
recently, and I was I came outto that, and I think you'd asked
a question of the people who'slived here for you know three
years or five, or whatevernumber you you raised to raise
your hand, and there were a lotfewer people that did not raise
their hand than did.
I mean, there were a lot ofpeople who are newer to P Ridge.
(16:22):
So it was was there a momentwherever maybe you were at the
street department or or maybeyou'd become married, whatever.
Was there a moment when thefirst signs that you saw that
that P Ridge was starting to hita new level of growth and a new
level of momentum?
SPEAKER_00 (16:37):
Yeah, I would say that whenever we realized that
in 2021, you know, we wentthrough COVID and then that went
away, and then we had a lot moregrowth happen in 21 and 22.
Um, and then, you know, fromfrom the street side, it never
really slowed down until COVIDhit from, you know, whenever I
was there in nine until 2019, itslowed down because of COVID.
(17:00):
But um, you know, I just thinkthat it's gonna keep going.
We're growing at over 10%annually as a city.
And um, I think that we have alot of opportunities to come for
our residents and for theregion.
Um, and you you mentioned itearlier, but the Walton Family
Foundation being greatsupporters of the region, um,
they they helped us send peopleto CDI and they help us with um
(17:26):
being able to create space forpeople to enjoy.
And so, you know, I'm just verythankful for them to give back
to the communities in which welive and the region, um, because
you know, it's uh you don't havepeople like that every day.
SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
How did um the community development institute
CDI, how did that first get onyour radar?
How did that uh when what wasthere a moment to say, yeah,
this is something I need to do?
SPEAKER_00 (17:50):
So I got with Danny Presley.
Danny Presley was on the um thechair, he was on the committee
for CDI, and he was a P Ridgeresident while he was at um he
was the manager at HolidayIsland, the city manager, and he
said, Hey, I have something topropose to you that you might
(18:10):
want to go do.
And I said, What is it?
And uh he said, Well, let's havecoffee and we'll talk about it.
And so he brought me this CDIidea, and he said, For where you
are and where you're gonna head,this is gonna be a great tool
for you to have.
And so we looked into it and Iwas like, man, this is really
good.
I I searched it up and foundsome stuff, and and he told me
some things that he walked awayfrom it with.
(18:31):
And so I said, Well, connect me,get me connected.
So he he connected me withShelby Fiegel at UCA, and
Shelby's phenomenal, by the way,and Tabitha and Tracy and uh
those those women right thereare go-getters, let me tell you.
But um, they they uh they said,Yeah, we'd love to have you.
And so we had a conversation andthey said, you know, Walton
(18:53):
Finland Foundation hassponsorships or scholarships for
this.
Would you want to use those?
And I said, sure, we'll usethem, you know.
And so by the Walton FannyFoundation, we were able to
attend myself and and uh andDustin Fi, our community
development director, uh, joinedme there.
And you know, whenever you'rethere, you create a whole
(19:14):
different group of connections.
Yeah, the network is the networkis phenomenal for what you can
get out of CDI.
And so um the first year it wasa little bit like what's this
gonna, you had to feel it out.
What's this gonna be like?
What are we gonna get out of it?
Um, you know, you always thinkin the background, it's just a
waste of time.
Um, but no, it's great.
It was a it was a fantasticthing to go through.
(19:35):
And we'll get into more details,I'm sure, for for what happened
at CDI.
SPEAKER_01 (19:39):
But yeah, right.
Well, just what was it like tolearn um in that kind of room?
Like you mentioned, you therewere mayors from you know Elkins
and and Prairie Grove and Lowelland city planners, and then but
there's also people from Texasand Missouri and and Oklahoma.
Just what was it like to to beable to learn from each other
and to network and have thoseconversations with people who
(19:59):
are going.
Through the same type of issues.
SPEAKER_00 (20:01):
You're able to find out that you're not the only
one.
And you're able to find out thatyou can probably come together
and create uh solutions toproblems better whenever you're
in the room together.
And so whenever you're talkingabout Dardanell or talking about
Russellville or Conway or Cabotor any of those cities, at the
(20:22):
end of the day, we all probablyhave the same issues, just on a
different magnitude.
Yeah, whether it's 13,000,that's right.
That's right.
Yep.
And so you're able to find outmaybe what not to do from some
of those cities that have beenthrough the growth stage that
you're fixing to go through.
Um, and so it's great to have bein the room with those people to
know like, hey, I realize thatyou're growing, but you need to
(20:45):
probably hone in more on thisrather than that, because that's
going to come anyways.
Um, but really engage thecommunity and get the community
to be um your your focal pointfor a little bit.
And so uh like I it's just avast uh opportunities whenever
you get in a room with peoplefrom from all over to be able to
(21:07):
know that, hey, I can pick upthe phone and call if I need
something, or they can pick upthe phone and call if they need
something because we're acohort.
We are uh together in this.
And for the three years thatwe're there, I had added an
employee from CDI, uh, createdgreat friends through CDI with
Ross Phillips and James, uhJames Bell.
(21:29):
And um, you know, it's just itreally just creates your your
portfolio of relationships uh tocarry you to the next level.
And one thing I I've saidmultiple times is your network
will determine your net worth.
And so who the people thatyou're around are gonna help you
execute well with what you wantto do, as long as they're the
(21:51):
right network that you have.
So um, but no, CDI, uh I wouldrecommend it to anybody in the
public service or not in thepublic service.
Anybody that's engaged in thecommunity, right?
You you need to be a part ofCDI.
Um, and we were the first class,I believe Shelby said, that had
that many mayors in it, whichwas awesome to see the mayors
(22:14):
coming out, because like I said,if we're not advocating for our
communities as mayors, then whatare we doing?
Um, and so I think that that's abig piece for me is to know that
I'm advocating 110 for P Ridge,for it to grow and and be
prosperous in a way that itmaybe wouldn't have been had I
not to been to CDI.
SPEAKER_01 (22:35):
Right.
And you've said that um CDI hasreally reshaped your leadership
philosophy.
Give me an example of that.
What is uh maybe a concept or atool uh that you got there that
really clicked and you were ableto bring that back to PRIDEG
with you?
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
Don't RD everything and think that you can take
anything from another city anduse it for your city because you
won't be successful.
Um another thing with leadershipis knowing that whenever you
have people in the room, youwant to have people in the room
smarter than you because if youdon't, then who's gonna drive
(23:10):
the success after you?
And so be able to have thatsecession plan for your
communities.
And uh leadership is such a hugething in any aspect.
But whenever you're talkingabout growing a city, growing
departments, and growingeconomic drive, you have to
realize that your leadershipthat you have are what people's
(23:33):
watching.
What are you doing differentlythan anybody else?
Number one, I want to beaccessible.
I want people to know you cancall me, text me, email me.
I want to be accessible to youat any time that I need to be
there.
Uh, because if you're notaccessible to them, then it kind
of throws like, I thought youwere our mayor.
I thought you were supposed tobe here.
(23:54):
Um and so we want I want to beaccessible to the people from
them from being able to enjoyfamily together or being at
events together.
And um, I want to, you know,everybody is welcome.
And you know, everybody wants tobe accepted, number one thing.
Um, and be able to be have adiversity.
Diversity is good.
(24:15):
You need to have that.
You need to be able to letpeople uh come into your
community and be acceptedregardless of anything in their
background.
And so we really have embracedthat and really have said that
we want to be the community thatmakes you feel like you're at
home.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:33):
Those are all big uh concept ideas for a place that's
really growing in a lot ofareas.
Your infrastructure, you talkedabout, is probably top of mind
every day.
Yes.
Your uh your diversity, your uhinclusion, your proactive versus
reactive development.
So, how much of your time do youspend um thinking in those
terms?
(24:53):
You mentioned something else atyour town hall meeting, um,
thinking about growth in decadesand not uh in increments, two to
three years.
You've got to think about both,but how do you balance that?
How do you think about we've gotto think about P Ridge in 20
years, right?
Uh, because in 20 years it'sgonna look a lot different, but
it's also gonna look differentin three years, too.
SPEAKER_00 (25:11):
I'd say your 20-year plan is something that you look
for.
And I always tell people your20-year plan is probably really
gonna be your 15-year plan.
Your three-year plan is probablygonna be something you're gonna
do at two.
And so make sure that you'reable to look at those plans and
make them execute them well.
But whenever you're thinkingabout a long-term plan, you got
(25:32):
to know where you're going.
Like you got to have a vision,you got to be able to show the
people, hey, this is where we'reheaded.
And, you know, master streetplan is gonna look like this,
master yet land use plan isgonna look like this.
Lay it out there for the peopleto see and let the people catch
the vision of where you'reheaded.
The vision where we're headed isgrowth and opportunities for
(25:53):
all.
You know, we want to grow, wewant to have opportunities for
all, and we want to createspaces for all to play at the
end of the day.
That's kind of our three mottos,if you will.
Um, and so parks is big for usin the next two years, uh,
infrastructure in the next fiveyears, local economy is
incorporated into that as well.
And then next 20 years is gonnabe all right, where are we gonna
(26:15):
grow out to as far asannexations?
Are we headed south?
Are we headed east?
You know, are we headed west?
Um, so that's gonna be the nextbig thing of looking for um that
land that we're gonna be able togo into the city of P Ridge to
create P Ridge to be extendedtheir territory.
Um, even if I'm not here, it'llbe set up for the next person
(26:38):
that that takes over.
Um, you always want to be ableto set the next person up for
success that is gonna take overafter you.
SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
So all of that to me sounds like um P Ridge's path to
smart growth, right?
And so I I use that phrase uhintentionally.
You wrote a um an op-ed that waspublished in the Northwest
Arkansas Business Journal.
I'll I'll give them some um somepublicity here, my great former
employer.
But that was your guestcommentary, and that was the
headline.
(27:06):
So I what does smart growth looklike?
What does that mean to you?
What does that mean to P Ridge?
SPEAKER_00 (27:11):
I think as a region, we have to think regionally.
We have to come together more asa region than individuals and
come to the table and say, whatare we gonna do about
transportation?
What are we gonna do aboutwastewater?
What are we gonna do aboutstormwater?
Uh, those are good the bigissues that are fixing to come
down.
And as a region, we need to befocused more on a regional
impacting than thinking about,okay, P Ridge, we're gonna take
(27:33):
care of ourselves, but where isall of this gonna end up?
Well, if it's gonna end up inBella Vista, then we need to
have a regional something inBella Vista or Garfield or
Gateway or wherever it may be.
Um, smart growth is getting thatvision to show regionally we're
gonna be able to do X in amatter of 10 or 20 years, as
long as the region can cometogether and make something
(27:54):
happen.
And so we are really gonna haveto hone in on some regionally
impacting things that we can dotogether.
Um, I do know that the WaldenFamily Foundation and um the uh
the health department have cometogether to do a regional study
for wastewater in in NorthwestArkansas.
And so that's gonna be workingits way through in the middle of
2026.
(28:15):
Wastewater is a big thing.
You got to be able to flush yourtoilet.
Uh, I tell everybody you canflush your toilet at Pea Ridge.
Um, but that's because we wereahead of the growth.
You know, you have to beproactive to the growth rather
than reactive, not saying thatthe other cities weren't.
I think they just explodedextremely fast and weren't
expecting that.
And so it's one of those lessonslearned for the P Ridge is to
say, hey, we need to, we need topay attention to what happened
(28:38):
because we we don't want to bethat person.
And so that's what we're doingnow is trying to be proactive
and be able to set up somefunding mechanisms for a
wastewater plant expansion if wehave to.
We're doing a we're doing awater tower and some
transmission line stuff in thefuture.
Um, so we're just trying to planfor the future rather than being
reactive, being proactive to it.
(28:59):
Because I would I tell everybodythe growth is coming.
Like we just have to, we have toembrace it.
It's gonna come and it's itwe're gonna grow.
And that's healthy.
That's healthy growth to be ableto have that happen.
SPEAKER_01 (29:10):
Yeah, let's be proactive about it.
Absolutely, Ryan.
You've also made the point thatum that businesses and site
selectors are choosing PRIDGE.
Um, they aren't just looking atpopulation numbers, right?
They are uh looking at uh yourinfrastructure and and um your
schools and communities.
And I know you said parks aregoing to be a big uh opportunity
(29:31):
focus for you the next couple ofyears.
Um, how did CDI influence theway uh that you communicate the
story of P Ridge on a lot ofthose different levels?
SPEAKER_00 (29:41):
I would say that it helps me communicate because
whenever you think aboutcommunity development, a lot of
people think or are in themindset of community development
being a building permit personor a person that does code
enforcement.
Well, guess what?
Community development is all ofus together.
Community development is everyperson in your community, and
(30:02):
we're developing a vision and aplan together so we can execute
our vision and plan for ourcommunities as one.
Um, and so whenever I wentthrough CDI, it really hit me
for the 10-step rule.
Yeah, whenever you go throughit, there's a 10-step process of
doing things.
And I use the 10-step process,and it's um don't ask me to say
(30:25):
what I did.
I was just gonna say it's it'sum anyway, we'll it's in the um
we can look it's in the CDIprocess of the 10-step rule, and
Shelby would probably be verydisappointed if but since I
didn't know it.
Um, but that's the process thatwe use whenever we think about
community development, andeverything's community
development.
I don't care if it's a parkspace, fire station, police
(30:46):
station, um, uh you know, a newretail place coming in, all of
that's community developmentbecause you're creating spaces
for people to go.
Um, you're creating thirdspaces.
And so there's a lot of languagethat CDI used in the trainings
that you go through that I'musing because I went through
that.
Uh I I wouldn't have known thosethird spaces and and these
(31:08):
different languages withoutgoing through that.
Um, but whenever you we did anew brand through CDI, we went
through Thrive and did a newbrand for our our for P Ridge
because we felt like we neededto have something a little bit
more welcoming and havesomething that popped, you know,
for people to see, oh, P Ridge,life's better on the ridge, you
know, that's our motto.
(31:29):
Because we do believe thatlife's better on the ridge.
And we do believe that P Ridgehas a great future to come for
the residents who are there andfor the region.
SPEAKER_01 (31:41):
What made you decide?
And you mentioned Thrive, andthat's the great um nonprofit in
Helena led by uh Will Staley anduh and our Center for Economic
Development at UCA.
What made you decide that it wastime to refresh how uh P Ridge
is branded and how P Ridge isviewed?
I mean, it seems like a smallthing, but it's not a small
thing.
It's not a small thing.
SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
Your brand is your main driver.
If people, your first impressionis what people get.
So whenever they go into yourcommunity and they see a welcome
to P Ridge sign, um, it's goodthat they see welcome to P Ridge
and not just, and nothingagainst the battlefield at all,
but we just had some cannons anda sunrise.
That was our logo.
Um, but we had to change itbecause we have changed as a
(32:24):
community since then.
Um, and we incorporated stillthe military into it because of
the way we did the badge for themilitary park and the star for
the military.
And so um, whenever we thoughtabout doing the brand, we
brought the community together.
Will and Ryan brought the mediato community together and said
he they asked them fivequestions.
What does P Ridge look like?
(32:44):
What does PRidge smell like?
What do you like about P Ridge?
What do you not like about PRidge?
And what can we create P Ridgeto be?
And so whenever we went throughthat process, we came up with
what we have today.
Um and so it wasn't uh it wasprobably we had a a committee of
people that was on that with us,and some of the committee people
(33:05):
have only lived in P Ridge twoyears, and one of them was our
uh editor for P Ridge Times,Annette Beard was on there, and
she's a native of P Ridge, andso they were very open about
hey, let's talk about this, weneed to add this.
But I let the committee reallydrive it, and then because I
want them to be ownership,ownership is what I want them to
see, and so whenever we wereable to do that, they you know,
(33:28):
the community came out and Ilove the new logo.
We had a big brand push, hadshirts we sold, yeah.
Um, and so and you know, wedidn't have shirts with our old
logo.
We had our old logo for 30something years.
Uh, we never had merchandisewith our old logo.
Our old logo didn't say P Ridgeon it anywhere, to be honest
with you.
(33:48):
It just had, like I said,cannons of mountain and sunrise.
Um, and then you just add thefont wherever you want to add
the font.
But uh the new logo um and newbrand for P Ridge, I would say
has been embraced and beenembraced well.
SPEAKER_01 (34:01):
Yeah, well, nothing will spark opinion like a new
logo and a logo reveal and andchange um something like that.
But I think you have you havethe requisite street cred, uh,
having been raised in P Ridgeand graduated.
I mean, when somebody asks youwhat do you like and don't like,
I mean, you can answer thattruthfully.
You're a P Ridge guy.
You're you're not just themayor, you're a P Ridge guy.
I want to go back to one of theum the exercises at CDI that we
(34:25):
have talked about um that kindof had an impact on you is the
poverty simulation.
Oh my god.
Um, and you wrote about that inyour article.
Um, how did that experience uhreally kind of change the way um
that you thought about planningand thought about uh leadership
in your community?
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
I would say poverty simulator is something that will
change anybody's perspective onthat.
But whenever we were goingthrough it, we were, I was going
through it as a young boy whosemom couldn't drive and I had to
get to school.
And so going through the processof realizing that transportation
(35:01):
is huge, um, and knowing thatwhenever you're going through
life as an individual, your lifeis different than other people's
lives.
Um, we all have a different lifethat we live.
And so whenever you're goingthrough poverty assimilator, it
opens your eyes to reality insome aspects of life for a lot
of different reasons, fromelderly uh not having people
(35:22):
come check on them, to maybe theguy that just got out of prison
that needs to get it to work forus.
How do we get them to work forus?
Um, to being able to go to thelocal bank and talk to the local
bank about the being able to bea supporter of an event.
Um, and that's the povertysimulator will open your eyes.
And we're gonna do one inAugust, I think, of 2026 with
(35:44):
our city council in planningtogether.
Um, and Shelby and Tabitha areputting it together.
But we're gonna do one because Iwant them to experience it.
And a lot of them probably didexperience in real life,
whenever they were growing up,probably.
And it's probably gonna bringback some things in life that
they had to go through orstruggles or whatever it may be.
(36:04):
But I think it's good sometimesthat we go through the poverty
simulator to realize that we'reputting maybe regulations where
we shouldn't put regulations,um, that we're hand-tying people
where they can't afford to behand-tied.
They can't afford to not be ableto go to work, they can't afford
to not have food or not be ableto get to a food bank.
Um, and I think that's justsomething that I got out of
(36:27):
poverty simulator was um toomany times we get in our own way
as a community.
SPEAKER_01 (36:32):
It sounds like um you mentioned earlier that
inclusive growth is going to bevery important.
It sounds like this exercise isprobably uh the most impactful
that you could have done forthat.
SPEAKER_00 (36:45):
Right.
It'll bring tears to your eyes,to be honest with you, whenever
you're going through it, becauseyou don't realize, and you put
it into perspective of this isreal life for some people
whenever you're doing it.
And you don't realize what a lotof people go through day in and
day out of just trying to makeends meet and just trying to
support their family or justtrying to get an education, you
(37:06):
know.
Um, from high school, there's athing that I will tell you, we
have bright futures at PRICH.
Bright futures was we were likethe first or second one in the
state to get it.
But there's a story about brightfutures, and it brought me to
the poverty simulator uhsituation also as a boy was
always late to get to highschool.
He was always late to class.
And the teacher said, Why areyou always late to class?
(37:27):
You've been late three timesthis week.
He said, Well, my mom and dadhave to go to work to make ends
meet, and I have to walk mybrother to school, and then that
takes time to get to highschool.
And they said, Well, what can wedo to help you?
And so the counselor said, Youknow, the bus goes right by your
house to just ride the bus.
Well, my brother can't ride thebus, he's handicapped.
(37:49):
So we have to find a differentway to get him to school.
And so that's just some stuffthat you don't realize.
That's in real life situations.
Um, another story is a kid whoum walked down the hallway and
his shoes weren't tied.
And the teacher says, tie yourshoes, you know, and he said,
Well, kind of embarrassed, but Idon't know how to tie my shoes.
(38:10):
These are my brother'shand-me-downs.
I never had to tie my shoes.
And so, you know what they did?
The school went and got a pairof velcro shoes and gave him the
right size shoe, number one, andgave him a pair of shoes that he
could be confident in.
And that's, I think, is a lot ofthings through the poverty
simulator is giving the peoplethe confidence to be successful
and giving them the tools to beable to be successful.
(38:31):
And from a community standpoint,if you're not growing that next
generation in leadership andgiving them the confidence, then
we're going to be hurting 20years from now.
SPEAKER_01 (38:41):
I noticed uh that the CDI 2026 application period
is now open.
Are there going to be othersfrom P Ridge that follow in your
footsteps?
Are they going to apply and gothrough that?
SPEAKER_00 (38:51):
We actually have our active transportation
coordinator going and our parksand recs director going.
Uh uh Joshua Johnson is ouractive transportation
coordinator and Caleb Turner,our parks director, is going.
Um, because I want everybody togo through it.
And I think that they'll getsomething out of it that they'll
bring back and be able toimplement something different
than what we are doing.
(39:12):
Um, if anything else, it givesthem an opportunity to network
with people and be able to be ina room with people that they can
bounce conversations off of.
SPEAKER_01 (39:22):
Yeah.
And and all that will come backto P Ridge, your community, and
make your community uh strongerand better.
But at some point we're we'regonna stop calling P Ridge a
community and it's gonna becalled a city.
That's right.
You're gonna go from a town to acity.
So let's talk about, let's say,the year 2035.
What does what does P Ridge looklike uh in the year 2035?
What do you see?
SPEAKER_00 (39:42):
Well, Highway 72 will be widened by 2035.
I'm gonna speak that out rightnow.
Um a lot of retail space, uh alot of multifamily.
Um, and I believe it'll be aprosperous, a prosperous city.
Um and people will be um peoplewill enjoy and and love too.
To live in Pea Ridge.
You know, it's a place they'regoing to call a home.
(40:03):
And it's a place where peopleare going to be able to build
families and build generationalfamilies and not have to worry
about my kid can't afford rent.
They have to live in anothercity because rent's too high.
Workforce housing is a hugething for us to go after right
now.
We're actually making a trip ina couple of weeks to Scottsdale,
Arizona, to look at some ideasof what we can do in P Ridge for
(40:24):
workforce housing to be able tocreate it to where those people
can be in P Ridge.
My daughter recently gotmarried, and she and her uh new
husband were looking for a placeto rent in P Ridge.
And they're like, man, we can'tfind anything without$1,800 a
month.
It's just crazy.
And starting off, they can'tafford that.
And so it really hit home withme in that aspect of, hey, I
(40:46):
would like my kids to be able tolive here.
And so how do we create that?
What are we doing to do tocreate it to where the next
family that moves to Pea Ridgeand has a high school graduate
that goes and gets married andwants to wants to have a family
in Pea Ridge, how do we createthat to happen?
And so that's what we're workingon now is workforce development.
SPEAKER_01 (41:04):
Yeah, embracing that growth, like you said, but at
the same time um stillmaintaining that community vibe,
the small town vibe.
I'm curious how you gotconnected or how you got pointed
to Scottsdale, Arizona as like auh best practice that you want
to learn more about.
SPEAKER_00 (41:19):
So we went to, I went to Right to Start
Entrepreneurship inFayetteville.
I was on the panel for them.
And uh I spoke about P Ridgethere, spoke about, you know,
hey, we're ready, we're open forbusiness.
And some guys that were at Rightto Start came and visited with
me two days later from uhthey're actually from Hawaii, is
where they're out of, from Maui.
And they came and visited andsaid, Hey, we want to do this
(41:40):
plan.
Uh seems like Pea Ridge may bethe place for us to do it.
And so we just kind of startedthe conversation there and over
the last month, uh, reallycreated to where we really like
this product that they can theycan offer at a less cost for
people to have a home.
Um, that is as or better than aframe-built home.
(42:01):
And so we're gonna go toScottsdale and and check it out.
It's called Strata.
Strata is the company.
Uh they do a uh a home that'sused with Sabscreet, which is
like a concrete interior andoutterior and exterior,
fireproof, uh hurricane ratedfor 250 mile-an-hour winds.
There's a lot of great thingsthat they offer, but it's
cheaper than a regular home.
Um, four guys can build a housetogether.
(42:24):
And so we're gonna incorporatethat into the high school and
create some workforcedevelopment opportunities
through the high school.
If we can get them to land in PRidge, um, they also are looking
to do a distribution center.
And so we're hoping that theycome to P Ridge and land a
distribution uh distributioncenter as well.
SPEAKER_01 (42:40):
You you're killing all the birds with all the
stones with these things, you'rechecking them off.
SPEAKER_00 (42:44):
We're trying to create the best P Ridge we can
create.
Yeah, you know, and and youknow, at the end of the day,
that's what you want for anycity.
SPEAKER_01 (42:50):
Yeah.
Besides, I'm gonna I'm gonnadefault and say that highway 72
widening is is the big thing.
Besides that, what is thechallenge that you are uh most
determined to tackle, let's sayin the next five to seven years?
Economic growth.
SPEAKER_00 (43:05):
Economic growth is a huge thing for me to tackle.
And not just economic growth,but I would really, really like
to push for entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is somethingthat I think uh we're missing as
a city and giving entrepreneursthat opportunity to uh have a
brick and mortar.
I have a plan in my head, but Idon't know how to make it work.
(43:26):
Uh, I talked about it right tostart, and I'm like, I don't
know if I should have said that,but you know, I have a plan of
being able to create it to wherewe have a partnership with
somebody to do an 18-month planfor entrepreneurs that can come
into a storefront, create an18-month opportunity for them.
And if it doesn't work in 18months, then they no longer are
there.
But if they get to stay there,they get to grow their business
and maybe do a businessexpansion in the region because
(43:49):
they had an opportunity for an18-month commitment.
Right.
And so um it's it's an idea.
I'm I'm gonna talk to the WaltFinn Foundation and see if we
can do something together uh tocreate that.
But that's one of my biggestthings is building local economy
and creating PRICH to have spacefor all to enjoy together.
Um, families are huge.
Family values are huge for me.
(44:10):
And green it, being able to goplaces with your family to enjoy
together is what we want tocreate.
SPEAKER_01 (44:18):
Well, very good.
We'll leave it there.
Nathan, thanks very much.
This has been great.
Thank you for sharing your storyand telling us a little bit more
about you, but also being such atremendous proponent uh for the
community development instituteat UCA.
I know it means a lot to theinstitution uh to see leaders
like you go through it, have awonderful experience and bring
that back to their communitybecause that's what the program
(44:41):
uh has been set up for uh for 40years almost.
For folks listening who who wantto keep up with P Ridge and
learn more about you and learnmore about the city, where can
they go online?
Where can they go on socialmedia?
SPEAKER_00 (44:52):
City of pridge.com.
You go on there and I actuallydo a weekly newsletter uh that
we send out to over a thousand,no, thirteen, thirteen thousand
people.
Uh, and several don't even livehere.
Um, and so we um we just want toget people out there and get the
news out to them.
So yeah, city of pridge.com.
Uh my email is n-se at city ofpridgear.gov.
(45:16):
So reach out to me and let'sconnect.
SPEAKER_01 (45:18):
Yeah, you can connect with Nathan too on uh
social media if you just searcharound.
He's a pretty active guy onsocial media, which I like.
All right, Nathan, great.
Paul, thank you very much forthe invitation again.
Appreciate it.
All right, we appreciate you fortuning in to this edition of
Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
Until next time, go Bears.
That's it for this episode ofCentral to NWA, a UCA podcast.
(45:41):
I'm Paul Gatling, SeniorDirector of Northwest Arkansas
Engagement for the University ofCentral Arkansas.
Be sure to subscribe to the showand follow UCA on all the
appropriate social media.
I'll see you next time onCentral to NWA.
This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Gatling, andwe are bringing the University
of Central Arkansas to NorthwestArkansas.
Each episode, we will talk withleaders, alumni, and innovators
driving this region forward.
People who are shapingindustries and defining what is
next for our state.
(00:22):
Let's get started.
Hey everybody, welcome back toanother edition of Central to
NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm Paul Gatling, and todaywe're going to talk about
community development and howthat connects directly to the
University of Central Arkansasthrough a nationally recognized
program that we run, have beenrunning for about 40 years.
(00:42):
It's called the CommunityDevelopment Institute, or CDI.
And I'm going to give you alittle background on that
straight from the website thatyou could Google around and find
CDI.
So it started in 1987, and eachyear, community and economic
development leaders from acrossthe country come to UCA for
hands-on training on how tostrengthen their towns and
(01:03):
regions.
And over three years of courses,the participants learn practical
skills and things like planningand leadership and workforce
development and building stronglocal economies.
And CDI is taught by experiencedpractitioners and supported by
the Walton Family Foundation,and it's designed for anyone who
wants to make an immediate,positive impact in their
(01:24):
community.
And one of those leaders is myguest today.
He is P Ridge Mayor Nathan C,who has used CDI to transform
the way his community plans forwhat a lot of people are
planning for in NorthwestArkansas, and that's growth, but
also how to make opportunitiesfrom that growth.
Nathan, it's great to see youhere.
Thanks very much.
SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
Paul, thank you very much for the invitation.
I appreciate you and youradvocacy for P Ridge.
And, you know, it's just anhonor to be here with you today.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Well, I appreciate you.
I know you're busy.
I know uh Christmas time isright around the corner, uh, and
you've got a lot of thingsplanning.
Uh, but again, like you say, youyou're such a big proponent of
UCA's uh CDI program.
And what I love about it is umyou didn't come to it as a UCA
alum.
You're not a UCA alum, but youcame to it as a mayor who is uh
(02:11):
wanting to um you know expandyour toolkit and take advantage
of the things that are offeredthere uh that you can bring back
to your community that is uh,like we said, changing rapidly,
growing rapidly.
So we're gonna get into thosedetails a little later, but just
really how do you put thatimpact into words?
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
How do you uh being part of the CDI and and and
being part of all the peoplethat are there, how do you put
that impact into words that it'sI I would say that whenever you
go through CDI, you create atoolbox of tools that you leave
with that you're able to go backto your city and implement and
create things that maybe youweren't doing before and you
find different ways of doingthings.
(02:50):
Um, you know, whenever you'rethinking about economic
development, a lot of peoplejust think about tax-based
revenue.
And so going through CDI, yourealize that there's an umbrella
of things that fall undereconomic development and that
community developmentfacilitates economic
development.
And so um there's a lot of keycomponents that we walked away
from from CDI with, and we are,you know, being able to
(03:11):
implement those in differentareas from planning to land use
to um just having conversations,just getting the community
involved and letting their voicebe heard.
And so at the end of the day,you know, you're gonna have
those people that are cavepeople or nimbys, and and but at
the end of the day, you want tobe able to incorporate those
(03:32):
into your community so they seethat there's value in what
you're doing with the growththat's coming.
I would much rather, and it'ssaid by by uh John Kitt uh
Chadwell out of Newport, I wouldmuch rather be growing than not
growing.
And a lot of people just, youknow, we need to embrace that
growth and not fight the growth.
Um, so you know, there's a lotof a lot of great things that
(03:53):
come out of it.
And so I'm sure we'll get intomore of that here in the
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
These are the types of uh Yeah, we will get into it.
Those are the types ofconversations we want to have on
this platform.
But first, let's get into theconversation about um Nathan C.
And you and I have gotten toknow each other um a lot better
uh the last couple of years.
Uh we've met we talked a fewtimes um uh when I was at the
Northwest Arkansas BusinessJournal.
You were just elected mayor, Ibelieve, November of 2022, I
(04:20):
guess.
That's correct.
So about three years ago, anduh, but have you know over 20
years of experience working foruh the city, uh mostly with the
street department and thesuperintendent of the streets
and a Pea Ridge high schoolgraduate.
So um let's just talk a littlebit first about your story
because I think it's a good one.
Uh you've lived in uh, I thinkyou moved to Pea Ridge when you
were what, 11, 12, 12 years old.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_00 (04:41):
Where did you move from?
Moved from Catusa, Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_01 (04:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:44):
Uh we moved to Pea Ridge.
My dad um was uh was acontractor and he would chase
storms to do repairs to hail ortornado or whatever it may be.
Well, Arkansas had a really badice storm, and so it collapsed a
bunch of the turkey and chickenhouses.
And so he got a contract and wemoved over here, followed that,
and um, we didn't know we weregonna stay here forever, but we
(05:06):
did, and I'm I'm I'm glad wedid.
Right.
Um, you know, Arkansas,everybody, whenever you say
you're going to Arkansas, what'sin Arkansas that you're going
for?
Um, but Northwest Arkansas is adifferent piece.
Uh and so um we moved here andum my dad uh did uh houses for a
while whenever he was here.
He went into building somehouses called he had a company
(05:27):
called Six C Construction.
There were six of us in thefamily, and so um that was his
name.
And then later on he changed itto Blackhawk Construction.
Uh my mom worked for Walmart fora little while and then went
into the postal carrier businessand was in the postal carrier
business for 30 plus years.
Uh committed, I mean, she wascommitted and she got like
Samaritan uh awards from theU.S.
(05:48):
Postal Service.
So um service, I would say, isin my blood to be able to carry
out the service that's at hand.
SPEAKER_01 (05:55):
Right.
And so Blackhawk, by the way, ifyou're not familiar, P Ridge
High School Black Hawk, the twoproud P Ridge high school alum.
And so you started out after uhhigh school, you started your
professional career working forthe city, right?
Working for the streetdepartment there in PC.
SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
That's correct.
Um, whenever I was a junior inhigh school, I was an
entrepreneur, had my ownembroidery business called His
Emblem Embroidery, and I sold itin 2020 or 2003, and then I went
to work for the city in 2003 asa contract labor, just mowing
the green spaces.
Um, who would have thought itwas going to become what it is
today?
(06:29):
And so uh, whenever uh in 2005,I became assistant
superintendent on the streetside.
And in 2010, I was uh promotedby mayor uh Jockey Crabtree, who
was my predecessor.
And he uh he took me in andsaid, you know what, I want I
need you to be the streetsuperintendent.
And so I was a streetsuperintendent from 2010 until I
was elected in 2022 as mayor.
SPEAKER_01 (06:52):
Yeah, when you say um 2005 and Pea Ridge, I think
of um Mike Herrod and the deadtea offense for the P Ridge High
School football team.
That's that's where my uhconnection to Pea Ridge goes
back as the sports editor of thedaily paper in Bentonville, the
Benton County Daily Record.
Um, and I covered a lot offootball games out at the old
(07:12):
football field.
Yeah, the old Powell, where itjust went to a dead end and to
find a parking spot.
And uh, we called it the largestoutdoor cocktail party in Benton
County.
That's a true statement.
And so, like me, and more soyou, you've had a front row seat
for just uh growth that youprobably couldn't even fathom 20
years ago and what Pea Ridge wasthen and what it's becoming.
(07:35):
So walk me through those earlyyears of uh working in the
street department um at PeaRidge and then kind of contrast
that to uh the issues of todayversus those issues that you
were dealing with 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_00 (07:48):
Yeah, I you know, I'll say that you know, whenever
I started, there were three ofus that worked there on the
street side of things.
And actually we were combinedbetween water and street
together.
Um there were six of us alltogether, and we kind of
overlapped for a little bit todo both both jobs and get them
done.
The um the big thing that Iwould tell you is between 2010
or 2000 and 2010, we grew at110% in the city.
(08:11):
And so that was an astronomicalamount of growth.
Um, and so there was a lot moredevelopment happening then.
A lot of education happenedduring that time for our city um
from the development standpoint,from the planning standpoint of
being able to find out allright, what what do we need to
be regulating and what do we notto be regulating?
And so from the from the streetside, we were doing a lot of
(08:33):
inspections on streets andcompaction and drainage.
And so we had to grow our staffin a matter of two years.
We had to add three other peopleon just for the inspection piece
because we had so much growthcoming in.
And so, whenever you do that,you have to really know that
whenever you're hiring people,that you're hiring people that
(08:54):
can do the job, because youdon't want to be the one to say,
yes, we're changing things forthe better, and then find out 10
years later that it wasn't forthe better.
Um, so for what we were doingtoday in in the in the uh in the
world of the city of Pea Ridge,uh, I will say that it's
probably the same struggles thatwe had back then,
infrastructure.
Uh infrastructure is always thebig thing whenever we have
(09:14):
growth at that amount, thatpercentage.
And so we are uh working on thatevery day.
We're working on infrastructureand you know, keeping up with
the road miles.
You know, I think right nowwe're at 160 uh lane miles.
Whenever I was there, we hadabout 80 lane miles.
And so we've doubled in lanemiles.
And that means that, okay, wegot more streets to take care
(09:36):
of, we got more residents totake care of.
And uh I will say that we wewe've executed well.
SPEAKER_01 (09:43):
So I would think, and you maybe agree with me, the
most important of those lanemiles is about a nine or 10 mile
stretch connecting Bentonvilleto P Ridge.
Yes, sir.
Right the highway there.
What can you tell me about howimportant that is to get that
stretch or roadway widened inorder for, if you don't, it's
gonna clog your growth, it'sgonna stifle your growth.
(10:05):
How important is that to getthat stretch widened?
And how and when is that goingto happen?
SPEAKER_00 (10:12):
So it's very important for a couple of
different reasons.
For residential use, it'simportant, but for local
economy, it's important.
Whenever you have site selectorscome to your city, they look at
the NSE grass of your city.
And Highway 72 is the biggestpoint that they talk about.
If we can get that widened, thenwe can come here and build X.
Uh, Jared Wiley, director of RDot, have a great relationship
(10:33):
with R Dot.
Very, very pleased with whatthey've been doing in the state
of Arkansas and in NorthwestArkansas.
Um, and so we've been waiting 20plus years to be able to say,
hey, we're actually going to seesomething done on Highway 72.
And so in the 2027 STIP, they'veactually allocated$7 million for
right-of-ways and uh utilityrelocations along Highway 72
(10:55):
corridor.
And that's going to be able tomake it go to a four-lane.
The whole project would be 180million, probably, to do the
whole thing.
It's just crazy constructioncosts right now.
Right.
And so they'll probably phase itout through a six or seven year
period to be able to do theproject.
But that's hope for us to beable to grow that local economy
(11:17):
and bring things to PRIGHT thatwe currently can't have because
of that Highway 72 connector.
What's an example of that?
What can you bring that you thatyou don't have?
Retail.
Retail is huge.
Um, you know, if you can get,you know, Ross or TJ Maxx or um
some of those people, Aldi, youknow, something like that.
You know, we had theannouncement of Super Center
(11:38):
coming in, and so they'resupposed to be starting in 2026.
And I think that's going to be abig proponent for us to be able
to have more economic drive, isbecause now that we have a super
center, there'll be less peopletraveling to Rogers and
Bentonville for that, becausewe'll have one in in P Ridge.
Um, we've had multiple siteselectors with distribution
centers come in and um little uhindustry parks that wanted to
(12:03):
come in.
And it's just the NSC grace thatgets them from I-49 because
there's no shoulder, no passinglanes.
Um, it's just a big risk theytake whenever they're trying to
move freight.
SPEAKER_01 (12:13):
Yeah, I've I've heard it described as um, you
know, in the morning, it's aparade from P Ridge to
Bentonville.
In the afternoon, it's a PRidge, it's a parade from
Bentonville to Pea Ridge, up anddown the highway there.
When did you first begin tothink about uh expanding your
service to the city and uh andand think about leading the city
as a as a as a mayoralcandidate?
SPEAKER_00 (12:34):
Well, Mayor Crabtree um told me we we were in a
meeting uh and uh and he saidI'm not gonna run again.
I'm gonna retire.
And he said, I need to we needto find somebody to run.
And I said, Okay, I'll keep myeyes peeled and see what we can
find.
But you didn't raise your hand.
I didn't raise my handimmediately.
No, no, sir.
I said, I'm good on the streetside, I know it, I love it.
(12:56):
And uh and so And that wasenough to keep you busy, yeah.
Anybody job busy, yeah.
Yeah.
And so um we went back to acouple weeks later and he said
he called me into his office andhe said, We need to have a
conversation.
He said, you know, the thedeadlines, uh, we need to get
somebody in here that can makethis progress we've had going,
(13:18):
keep going.
And so I said, Well, who do youwant?
Who do you want to go after?
Is there somebody here?
And he said, Yeah, that oneright there in the chair right
there.
I want that one.
And uh I said, Really?
And so I said, Well, I need totalk to my wife and my family
and you know, pray about thingsand make sure this is where
where we need to be headed.
Um, had great support from thefamily, and uh, and I just felt
(13:39):
like okay, it's my time toserve.
And and whenever you're inpublic service, you're a servant
and you got to have that heartcarried out.
And um, I was like, all right,this is what you like, here am
I.
Let me let me do this.
And so uh we I said, okay, andhere we are today.
Um, he's been a greatencourager, Jackie has been.
(13:59):
He was there 28 years, he's gotuh connections all over the
state with the ArkansasMunicipal League and uh
different people that I justhave they've came to surround
me, you know, because of hisleadership.
They've came to say, hey, Jackiehas is a big proponent of you.
He wants us to come beside youand help you.
And so um, it's just been aneasy transition for the last
(14:22):
three years, honestly.
SPEAKER_01 (14:23):
Yeah, well, you've had um uh you've like you said a
lot of support from the family,but you also had a ton of
support at the ballot box onelection day.
Yeah.
And I'm assuming re-electioncoming up next year, right?
I'm assuming my plan is to run.
Plan to run again.
Yes, sir.
Okay, I'm sure I'm sure you'llhave uh the requisite support
then.
All right, for folks who haven'tuh driven through P Ridge in a
(14:45):
little while, how do youdescribe the town now?
How many people live in PeaRidge?
What do you say to those siteselectors and and people who are
curious about this town?
SPEAKER_00 (14:53):
I say, you know, Pea Ridge is about 13,000 in
population.
Our trade area, though, is about56,000 people that come to trade
uh in Pea Ridge.
And Pea Ridge is a small town.
Uh a lot of people call it thethe Mayberry, you know, of
Northwest Arkansas.
But we're we're we're a we're agrowing community that still has
(15:14):
small town feel.
Um, and I tell people thisbecause we as individuals create
the community in which we liveby the heart that we carry.
And so if we want to have asmall town feel, then let's take
care of our neighbors and let'stake care of people that may
need something.
And that's one thing I'll sayabout Pea Ridge is whenever you
(15:35):
come to P Ridge and and you'rethere, your family.
Because if there's somethingthat goes wrong and somebody
says, hey, I need help, you have13,000 people that are going to
be there to help you throughwhatever you're going through.
And that's what I feel that PRidge is is we're we're a small
town feel um in a growing,growing economy and growing
(15:55):
population, but we still loveand care for our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01 (16:00):
Yeah, uh growing like crazy.
Uh you had a community uh townhall meeting um you know
recently, and I was I came outto that, and I think you'd asked
a question of the people who'slived here for you know three
years or five, or whatevernumber you you raised to raise
your hand, and there were a lotfewer people that did not raise
their hand than did.
I mean, there were a lot ofpeople who are newer to P Ridge.
(16:22):
So it was was there a momentwherever maybe you were at the
street department or or maybeyou'd become married, whatever.
Was there a moment when thefirst signs that you saw that
that P Ridge was starting to hita new level of growth and a new
level of momentum?
SPEAKER_00 (16:37):
Yeah, I would say that whenever we realized that
in 2021, you know, we wentthrough COVID and then that went
away, and then we had a lot moregrowth happen in 21 and 22.
Um, and then, you know, fromfrom the street side, it never
really slowed down until COVIDhit from, you know, whenever I
was there in nine until 2019, itslowed down because of COVID.
(17:00):
But um, you know, I just thinkthat it's gonna keep going.
We're growing at over 10%annually as a city.
And um, I think that we have alot of opportunities to come for
our residents and for theregion.
Um, and you you mentioned itearlier, but the Walton Family
Foundation being greatsupporters of the region, um,
they they helped us send peopleto CDI and they help us with um
(17:26):
being able to create space forpeople to enjoy.
And so, you know, I'm just verythankful for them to give back
to the communities in which welive and the region, um, because
you know, it's uh you don't havepeople like that every day.
SPEAKER_01 (17:41):
How did um the community development institute
CDI, how did that first get onyour radar?
How did that uh when what wasthere a moment to say, yeah,
this is something I need to do?
SPEAKER_00 (17:50):
So I got with Danny Presley.
Danny Presley was on the um thechair, he was on the committee
for CDI, and he was a P Ridgeresident while he was at um he
was the manager at HolidayIsland, the city manager, and he
said, Hey, I have something topropose to you that you might
(18:10):
want to go do.
And I said, What is it?
And uh he said, Well, let's havecoffee and we'll talk about it.
And so he brought me this CDIidea, and he said, For where you
are and where you're gonna head,this is gonna be a great tool
for you to have.
And so we looked into it and Iwas like, man, this is really
good.
I I searched it up and foundsome stuff, and and he told me
some things that he walked awayfrom it with.
(18:31):
And so I said, Well, connect me,get me connected.
So he he connected me withShelby Fiegel at UCA, and
Shelby's phenomenal, by the way,and Tabitha and Tracy and uh
those those women right thereare go-getters, let me tell you.
But um, they they uh they said,Yeah, we'd love to have you.
And so we had a conversation andthey said, you know, Walton
(18:53):
Finland Foundation hassponsorships or scholarships for
this.
Would you want to use those?
And I said, sure, we'll usethem, you know.
And so by the Walton FannyFoundation, we were able to
attend myself and and uh andDustin Fi, our community
development director, uh, joinedme there.
And you know, whenever you'rethere, you create a whole
(19:14):
different group of connections.
Yeah, the network is the networkis phenomenal for what you can
get out of CDI.
And so um the first year it wasa little bit like what's this
gonna, you had to feel it out.
What's this gonna be like?
What are we gonna get out of it?
Um, you know, you always thinkin the background, it's just a
waste of time.
Um, but no, it's great.
It was a it was a fantasticthing to go through.
(19:35):
And we'll get into more details,I'm sure, for for what happened
at CDI.
SPEAKER_01 (19:39):
But yeah, right.
Well, just what was it like tolearn um in that kind of room?
Like you mentioned, you therewere mayors from you know Elkins
and and Prairie Grove and Lowelland city planners, and then but
there's also people from Texasand Missouri and and Oklahoma.
Just what was it like to to beable to learn from each other
and to network and have thoseconversations with people who
(19:59):
are going.
Through the same type of issues.
SPEAKER_00 (20:01):
You're able to find out that you're not the only
one.
And you're able to find out thatyou can probably come together
and create uh solutions toproblems better whenever you're
in the room together.
And so whenever you're talkingabout Dardanell or talking about
Russellville or Conway or Cabotor any of those cities, at the
(20:22):
end of the day, we all probablyhave the same issues, just on a
different magnitude.
Yeah, whether it's 13,000,that's right.
That's right.
Yep.
And so you're able to find outmaybe what not to do from some
of those cities that have beenthrough the growth stage that
you're fixing to go through.
Um, and so it's great to have bein the room with those people to
know like, hey, I realize thatyou're growing, but you need to
(20:45):
probably hone in more on thisrather than that, because that's
going to come anyways.
Um, but really engage thecommunity and get the community
to be um your your focal pointfor a little bit.
And so uh like I it's just avast uh opportunities whenever
you get in a room with peoplefrom from all over to be able to
(21:07):
know that, hey, I can pick upthe phone and call if I need
something, or they can pick upthe phone and call if they need
something because we're acohort.
We are uh together in this.
And for the three years thatwe're there, I had added an
employee from CDI, uh, createdgreat friends through CDI with
Ross Phillips and James, uhJames Bell.
(21:29):
And um, you know, it's just itreally just creates your your
portfolio of relationships uh tocarry you to the next level.
And one thing I I've saidmultiple times is your network
will determine your net worth.
And so who the people thatyou're around are gonna help you
execute well with what you wantto do, as long as they're the
(21:51):
right network that you have.
So um, but no, CDI, uh I wouldrecommend it to anybody in the
public service or not in thepublic service.
Anybody that's engaged in thecommunity, right?
You you need to be a part ofCDI.
Um, and we were the first class,I believe Shelby said, that had
that many mayors in it, whichwas awesome to see the mayors
(22:14):
coming out, because like I said,if we're not advocating for our
communities as mayors, then whatare we doing?
Um, and so I think that that's abig piece for me is to know that
I'm advocating 110 for P Ridge,for it to grow and and be
prosperous in a way that itmaybe wouldn't have been had I
not to been to CDI.
SPEAKER_01 (22:35):
Right.
And you've said that um CDI hasreally reshaped your leadership
philosophy.
Give me an example of that.
What is uh maybe a concept or atool uh that you got there that
really clicked and you were ableto bring that back to PRIDEG
with you?
SPEAKER_00 (22:49):
Don't RD everything and think that you can take
anything from another city anduse it for your city because you
won't be successful.
Um another thing with leadershipis knowing that whenever you
have people in the room, youwant to have people in the room
smarter than you because if youdon't, then who's gonna drive
(23:10):
the success after you?
And so be able to have thatsecession plan for your
communities.
And uh leadership is such a hugething in any aspect.
But whenever you're talkingabout growing a city, growing
departments, and growingeconomic drive, you have to
realize that your leadershipthat you have are what people's
(23:33):
watching.
What are you doing differentlythan anybody else?
Number one, I want to beaccessible.
I want people to know you cancall me, text me, email me.
I want to be accessible to youat any time that I need to be
there.
Uh, because if you're notaccessible to them, then it kind
of throws like, I thought youwere our mayor.
I thought you were supposed tobe here.
(23:54):
Um and so we want I want to beaccessible to the people from
them from being able to enjoyfamily together or being at
events together.
And um, I want to, you know,everybody is welcome.
And you know, everybody wants tobe accepted, number one thing.
Um, and be able to be have adiversity.
Diversity is good.
(24:15):
You need to have that.
You need to be able to letpeople uh come into your
community and be acceptedregardless of anything in their
background.
And so we really have embracedthat and really have said that
we want to be the community thatmakes you feel like you're at
home.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:33):
Those are all big uh concept ideas for a place that's
really growing in a lot ofareas.
Your infrastructure, you talkedabout, is probably top of mind
every day.
Yes.
Your uh your diversity, your uhinclusion, your proactive versus
reactive development.
So, how much of your time do youspend um thinking in those
terms?
(24:53):
You mentioned something else atyour town hall meeting, um,
thinking about growth in decadesand not uh in increments, two to
three years.
You've got to think about both,but how do you balance that?
How do you think about we've gotto think about P Ridge in 20
years, right?
Uh, because in 20 years it'sgonna look a lot different, but
it's also gonna look differentin three years, too.
SPEAKER_00 (25:11):
I'd say your 20-year plan is something that you look
for.
And I always tell people your20-year plan is probably really
gonna be your 15-year plan.
Your three-year plan is probablygonna be something you're gonna
do at two.
And so make sure that you'reable to look at those plans and
make them execute them well.
But whenever you're thinkingabout a long-term plan, you got
(25:32):
to know where you're going.
Like you got to have a vision,you got to be able to show the
people, hey, this is where we'reheaded.
And, you know, master streetplan is gonna look like this,
master yet land use plan isgonna look like this.
Lay it out there for the peopleto see and let the people catch
the vision of where you'reheaded.
The vision where we're headed isgrowth and opportunities for
(25:53):
all.
You know, we want to grow, wewant to have opportunities for
all, and we want to createspaces for all to play at the
end of the day.
That's kind of our three mottos,if you will.
Um, and so parks is big for usin the next two years, uh,
infrastructure in the next fiveyears, local economy is
incorporated into that as well.
And then next 20 years is gonnabe all right, where are we gonna
(26:15):
grow out to as far asannexations?
Are we headed south?
Are we headed east?
You know, are we headed west?
Um, so that's gonna be the nextbig thing of looking for um that
land that we're gonna be able togo into the city of P Ridge to
create P Ridge to be extendedtheir territory.
Um, even if I'm not here, it'llbe set up for the next person
(26:38):
that that takes over.
Um, you always want to be ableto set the next person up for
success that is gonna take overafter you.
SPEAKER_01 (26:46):
So all of that to me sounds like um P Ridge's path to
smart growth, right?
And so I I use that phrase uhintentionally.
You wrote a um an op-ed that waspublished in the Northwest
Arkansas Business Journal.
I'll I'll give them some um somepublicity here, my great former
employer.
But that was your guestcommentary, and that was the
headline.
(27:06):
So I what does smart growth looklike?
What does that mean to you?
What does that mean to P Ridge?
SPEAKER_00 (27:11):
I think as a region, we have to think regionally.
We have to come together more asa region than individuals and
come to the table and say, whatare we gonna do about
transportation?
What are we gonna do aboutwastewater?
What are we gonna do aboutstormwater?
Uh, those are good the bigissues that are fixing to come
down.
And as a region, we need to befocused more on a regional
impacting than thinking about,okay, P Ridge, we're gonna take
(27:33):
care of ourselves, but where isall of this gonna end up?
Well, if it's gonna end up inBella Vista, then we need to
have a regional something inBella Vista or Garfield or
Gateway or wherever it may be.
Um, smart growth is getting thatvision to show regionally we're
gonna be able to do X in amatter of 10 or 20 years, as
long as the region can cometogether and make something
(27:54):
happen.
And so we are really gonna haveto hone in on some regionally
impacting things that we can dotogether.
Um, I do know that the WaldenFamily Foundation and um the uh
the health department have cometogether to do a regional study
for wastewater in in NorthwestArkansas.
And so that's gonna be workingits way through in the middle of
2026.
(28:15):
Wastewater is a big thing.
You got to be able to flush yourtoilet.
Uh, I tell everybody you canflush your toilet at Pea Ridge.
Um, but that's because we wereahead of the growth.
You know, you have to beproactive to the growth rather
than reactive, not saying thatthe other cities weren't.
I think they just explodedextremely fast and weren't
expecting that.
And so it's one of those lessonslearned for the P Ridge is to
say, hey, we need to, we need topay attention to what happened
(28:38):
because we we don't want to bethat person.
And so that's what we're doingnow is trying to be proactive
and be able to set up somefunding mechanisms for a
wastewater plant expansion if wehave to.
We're doing a we're doing awater tower and some
transmission line stuff in thefuture.
Um, so we're just trying to planfor the future rather than being
reactive, being proactive to it.
(28:59):
Because I would I tell everybodythe growth is coming.
Like we just have to, we have toembrace it.
It's gonna come and it's itwe're gonna grow.
And that's healthy.
That's healthy growth to be ableto have that happen.
SPEAKER_01 (29:10):
Yeah, let's be proactive about it.
Absolutely, Ryan.
You've also made the point thatum that businesses and site
selectors are choosing PRIDGE.
Um, they aren't just looking atpopulation numbers, right?
They are uh looking at uh yourinfrastructure and and um your
schools and communities.
And I know you said parks aregoing to be a big uh opportunity
(29:31):
focus for you the next couple ofyears.
Um, how did CDI influence theway uh that you communicate the
story of P Ridge on a lot ofthose different levels?
SPEAKER_00 (29:41):
I would say that it helps me communicate because
whenever you think aboutcommunity development, a lot of
people think or are in themindset of community development
being a building permit personor a person that does code
enforcement.
Well, guess what?
Community development is all ofus together.
Community development is everyperson in your community, and
(30:02):
we're developing a vision and aplan together so we can execute
our vision and plan for ourcommunities as one.
Um, and so whenever I wentthrough CDI, it really hit me
for the 10-step rule.
Yeah, whenever you go throughit, there's a 10-step process of
doing things.
And I use the 10-step process,and it's um don't ask me to say
(30:25):
what I did.
I was just gonna say it's it'sum anyway, we'll it's in the um
we can look it's in the CDIprocess of the 10-step rule, and
Shelby would probably be verydisappointed if but since I
didn't know it.
Um, but that's the process thatwe use whenever we think about
community development, andeverything's community
development.
I don't care if it's a parkspace, fire station, police
(30:46):
station, um, uh you know, a newretail place coming in, all of
that's community developmentbecause you're creating spaces
for people to go.
Um, you're creating thirdspaces.
And so there's a lot of languagethat CDI used in the trainings
that you go through that I'musing because I went through
that.
Uh I I wouldn't have known thosethird spaces and and these
(31:08):
different languages withoutgoing through that.
Um, but whenever you we did anew brand through CDI, we went
through Thrive and did a newbrand for our our for P Ridge
because we felt like we neededto have something a little bit
more welcoming and havesomething that popped, you know,
for people to see, oh, P Ridge,life's better on the ridge, you
know, that's our motto.
(31:29):
Because we do believe thatlife's better on the ridge.
And we do believe that P Ridgehas a great future to come for
the residents who are there andfor the region.
SPEAKER_01 (31:41):
What made you decide?
And you mentioned Thrive, andthat's the great um nonprofit in
Helena led by uh Will Staley anduh and our Center for Economic
Development at UCA.
What made you decide that it wastime to refresh how uh P Ridge
is branded and how P Ridge isviewed?
I mean, it seems like a smallthing, but it's not a small
thing.
It's not a small thing.
SPEAKER_00 (32:01):
Your brand is your main driver.
If people, your first impressionis what people get.
So whenever they go into yourcommunity and they see a welcome
to P Ridge sign, um, it's goodthat they see welcome to P Ridge
and not just, and nothingagainst the battlefield at all,
but we just had some cannons anda sunrise.
That was our logo.
Um, but we had to change itbecause we have changed as a
(32:24):
community since then.
Um, and we incorporated stillthe military into it because of
the way we did the badge for themilitary park and the star for
the military.
And so um, whenever we thoughtabout doing the brand, we
brought the community together.
Will and Ryan brought the mediato community together and said
he they asked them fivequestions.
What does P Ridge look like?
(32:44):
What does PRidge smell like?
What do you like about P Ridge?
What do you not like about PRidge?
And what can we create P Ridgeto be?
And so whenever we went throughthat process, we came up with
what we have today.
Um and so it wasn't uh it wasprobably we had a a committee of
people that was on that with us,and some of the committee people
(33:05):
have only lived in P Ridge twoyears, and one of them was our
uh editor for P Ridge Times,Annette Beard was on there, and
she's a native of P Ridge, andso they were very open about
hey, let's talk about this, weneed to add this.
But I let the committee reallydrive it, and then because I
want them to be ownership,ownership is what I want them to
see, and so whenever we wereable to do that, they you know,
(33:28):
the community came out and Ilove the new logo.
We had a big brand push, hadshirts we sold, yeah.
Um, and so and you know, wedidn't have shirts with our old
logo.
We had our old logo for 30something years.
Uh, we never had merchandisewith our old logo.
Our old logo didn't say P Ridgeon it anywhere, to be honest
with you.
(33:48):
It just had, like I said,cannons of mountain and sunrise.
Um, and then you just add thefont wherever you want to add
the font.
But uh the new logo um and newbrand for P Ridge, I would say
has been embraced and beenembraced well.
SPEAKER_01 (34:01):
Yeah, well, nothing will spark opinion like a new
logo and a logo reveal and andchange um something like that.
But I think you have you havethe requisite street cred, uh,
having been raised in P Ridgeand graduated.
I mean, when somebody asks youwhat do you like and don't like,
I mean, you can answer thattruthfully.
You're a P Ridge guy.
You're you're not just themayor, you're a P Ridge guy.
I want to go back to one of theum the exercises at CDI that we
(34:25):
have talked about um that kindof had an impact on you is the
poverty simulation.
Oh my god.
Um, and you wrote about that inyour article.
Um, how did that experience uhreally kind of change the way um
that you thought about planningand thought about uh leadership
in your community?
SPEAKER_00 (34:41):
I would say poverty simulator is something that will
change anybody's perspective onthat.
But whenever we were goingthrough it, we were, I was going
through it as a young boy whosemom couldn't drive and I had to
get to school.
And so going through the processof realizing that transportation
(35:01):
is huge, um, and knowing thatwhenever you're going through
life as an individual, your lifeis different than other people's
lives.
Um, we all have a different lifethat we live.
And so whenever you're goingthrough poverty assimilator, it
opens your eyes to reality insome aspects of life for a lot
of different reasons, fromelderly uh not having people
(35:22):
come check on them, to maybe theguy that just got out of prison
that needs to get it to work forus.
How do we get them to work forus?
Um, to being able to go to thelocal bank and talk to the local
bank about the being able to bea supporter of an event.
Um, and that's the povertysimulator will open your eyes.
And we're gonna do one inAugust, I think, of 2026 with
(35:44):
our city council in planningtogether.
Um, and Shelby and Tabitha areputting it together.
But we're gonna do one because Iwant them to experience it.
And a lot of them probably didexperience in real life,
whenever they were growing up,probably.
And it's probably gonna bringback some things in life that
they had to go through orstruggles or whatever it may be.
(36:04):
But I think it's good sometimesthat we go through the poverty
simulator to realize that we'reputting maybe regulations where
we shouldn't put regulations,um, that we're hand-tying people
where they can't afford to behand-tied.
They can't afford to not be ableto go to work, they can't afford
to not have food or not be ableto get to a food bank.
Um, and I think that's justsomething that I got out of
(36:27):
poverty simulator was um toomany times we get in our own way
as a community.
SPEAKER_01 (36:32):
It sounds like um you mentioned earlier that
inclusive growth is going to bevery important.
It sounds like this exercise isprobably uh the most impactful
that you could have done forthat.
SPEAKER_00 (36:45):
Right.
It'll bring tears to your eyes,to be honest with you, whenever
you're going through it, becauseyou don't realize, and you put
it into perspective of this isreal life for some people
whenever you're doing it.
And you don't realize what a lotof people go through day in and
day out of just trying to makeends meet and just trying to
support their family or justtrying to get an education, you
(37:06):
know.
Um, from high school, there's athing that I will tell you, we
have bright futures at PRICH.
Bright futures was we were likethe first or second one in the
state to get it.
But there's a story about brightfutures, and it brought me to
the poverty simulator uhsituation also as a boy was
always late to get to highschool.
He was always late to class.
And the teacher said, Why areyou always late to class?
(37:27):
You've been late three timesthis week.
He said, Well, my mom and dadhave to go to work to make ends
meet, and I have to walk mybrother to school, and then that
takes time to get to highschool.
And they said, Well, what can wedo to help you?
And so the counselor said, Youknow, the bus goes right by your
house to just ride the bus.
Well, my brother can't ride thebus, he's handicapped.
(37:49):
So we have to find a differentway to get him to school.
And so that's just some stuffthat you don't realize.
That's in real life situations.
Um, another story is a kid whoum walked down the hallway and
his shoes weren't tied.
And the teacher says, tie yourshoes, you know, and he said,
Well, kind of embarrassed, but Idon't know how to tie my shoes.
(38:10):
These are my brother'shand-me-downs.
I never had to tie my shoes.
And so, you know what they did?
The school went and got a pairof velcro shoes and gave him the
right size shoe, number one, andgave him a pair of shoes that he
could be confident in.
And that's, I think, is a lot ofthings through the poverty
simulator is giving the peoplethe confidence to be successful
and giving them the tools to beable to be successful.
(38:31):
And from a community standpoint,if you're not growing that next
generation in leadership andgiving them the confidence, then
we're going to be hurting 20years from now.
SPEAKER_01 (38:41):
I noticed uh that the CDI 2026 application period
is now open.
Are there going to be othersfrom P Ridge that follow in your
footsteps?
Are they going to apply and gothrough that?
SPEAKER_00 (38:51):
We actually have our active transportation
coordinator going and our parksand recs director going.
Uh uh Joshua Johnson is ouractive transportation
coordinator and Caleb Turner,our parks director, is going.
Um, because I want everybody togo through it.
And I think that they'll getsomething out of it that they'll
bring back and be able toimplement something different
than what we are doing.
(39:12):
Um, if anything else, it givesthem an opportunity to network
with people and be able to be ina room with people that they can
bounce conversations off of.
SPEAKER_01 (39:22):
Yeah.
And and all that will come backto P Ridge, your community, and
make your community uh strongerand better.
But at some point we're we'regonna stop calling P Ridge a
community and it's gonna becalled a city.
That's right.
You're gonna go from a town to acity.
So let's talk about, let's say,the year 2035.
What does what does P Ridge looklike uh in the year 2035?
What do you see?
SPEAKER_00 (39:42):
Well, Highway 72 will be widened by 2035.
I'm gonna speak that out rightnow.
Um a lot of retail space, uh alot of multifamily.
Um, and I believe it'll be aprosperous, a prosperous city.
Um and people will be um peoplewill enjoy and and love too.
To live in Pea Ridge.
You know, it's a place they'regoing to call a home.
(40:03):
And it's a place where peopleare going to be able to build
families and build generationalfamilies and not have to worry
about my kid can't afford rent.
They have to live in anothercity because rent's too high.
Workforce housing is a hugething for us to go after right
now.
We're actually making a trip ina couple of weeks to Scottsdale,
Arizona, to look at some ideasof what we can do in P Ridge for
(40:24):
workforce housing to be able tocreate it to where those people
can be in P Ridge.
My daughter recently gotmarried, and she and her uh new
husband were looking for a placeto rent in P Ridge.
And they're like, man, we can'tfind anything without$1,800 a
month.
It's just crazy.
And starting off, they can'tafford that.
And so it really hit home withme in that aspect of, hey, I
(40:46):
would like my kids to be able tolive here.
And so how do we create that?
What are we doing to do tocreate it to where the next
family that moves to Pea Ridgeand has a high school graduate
that goes and gets married andwants to wants to have a family
in Pea Ridge, how do we createthat to happen?
And so that's what we're workingon now is workforce development.
SPEAKER_01 (41:04):
Yeah, embracing that growth, like you said, but at
the same time um stillmaintaining that community vibe,
the small town vibe.
I'm curious how you gotconnected or how you got pointed
to Scottsdale, Arizona as like auh best practice that you want
to learn more about.
SPEAKER_00 (41:19):
So we went to, I went to Right to Start
Entrepreneurship inFayetteville.
I was on the panel for them.
And uh I spoke about P Ridgethere, spoke about, you know,
hey, we're ready, we're open forbusiness.
And some guys that were at Rightto Start came and visited with
me two days later from uhthey're actually from Hawaii, is
where they're out of, from Maui.
And they came and visited andsaid, Hey, we want to do this
(41:40):
plan.
Uh seems like Pea Ridge may bethe place for us to do it.
And so we just kind of startedthe conversation there and over
the last month, uh, reallycreated to where we really like
this product that they can theycan offer at a less cost for
people to have a home.
Um, that is as or better than aframe-built home.
(42:01):
And so we're gonna go toScottsdale and and check it out.
It's called Strata.
Strata is the company.
Uh they do a uh a home that'sused with Sabscreet, which is
like a concrete interior andoutterior and exterior,
fireproof, uh hurricane ratedfor 250 mile-an-hour winds.
There's a lot of great thingsthat they offer, but it's
cheaper than a regular home.
Um, four guys can build a housetogether.
(42:24):
And so we're gonna incorporatethat into the high school and
create some workforcedevelopment opportunities
through the high school.
If we can get them to land in PRidge, um, they also are looking
to do a distribution center.
And so we're hoping that theycome to P Ridge and land a
distribution uh distributioncenter as well.
SPEAKER_01 (42:40):
You you're killing all the birds with all the
stones with these things, you'rechecking them off.
SPEAKER_00 (42:44):
We're trying to create the best P Ridge we can
create.
Yeah, you know, and and youknow, at the end of the day,
that's what you want for anycity.
SPEAKER_01 (42:50):
Yeah.
Besides, I'm gonna I'm gonnadefault and say that highway 72
widening is is the big thing.
Besides that, what is thechallenge that you are uh most
determined to tackle, let's sayin the next five to seven years?
Economic growth.
SPEAKER_00 (43:05):
Economic growth is a huge thing for me to tackle.
And not just economic growth,but I would really, really like
to push for entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is somethingthat I think uh we're missing as
a city and giving entrepreneursthat opportunity to uh have a
brick and mortar.
I have a plan in my head, but Idon't know how to make it work.
(43:26):
Uh, I talked about it right tostart, and I'm like, I don't
know if I should have said that,but you know, I have a plan of
being able to create it to wherewe have a partnership with
somebody to do an 18-month planfor entrepreneurs that can come
into a storefront, create an18-month opportunity for them.
And if it doesn't work in 18months, then they no longer are
there.
But if they get to stay there,they get to grow their business
and maybe do a businessexpansion in the region because
(43:49):
they had an opportunity for an18-month commitment.
Right.
And so um it's it's an idea.
I'm I'm gonna talk to the WaltFinn Foundation and see if we
can do something together uh tocreate that.
But that's one of my biggestthings is building local economy
and creating PRICH to have spacefor all to enjoy together.
Um, families are huge.
Family values are huge for me.
(44:10):
And green it, being able to goplaces with your family to enjoy
together is what we want tocreate.
SPEAKER_01 (44:18):
Well, very good.
We'll leave it there.
Nathan, thanks very much.
This has been great.
Thank you for sharing your storyand telling us a little bit more
about you, but also being such atremendous proponent uh for the
community development instituteat UCA.
I know it means a lot to theinstitution uh to see leaders
like you go through it, have awonderful experience and bring
that back to their communitybecause that's what the program
(44:41):
uh has been set up for uh for 40years almost.
For folks listening who who wantto keep up with P Ridge and
learn more about you and learnmore about the city, where can
they go online?
Where can they go on socialmedia?
SPEAKER_00 (44:52):
City of pridge.com.
You go on there and I actuallydo a weekly newsletter uh that
we send out to over a thousand,no, thirteen, thirteen thousand
people.
Uh, and several don't even livehere.
Um, and so we um we just want toget people out there and get the
news out to them.
So yeah, city of pridge.com.
Uh my email is n-se at city ofpridgear.gov.
(45:16):
So reach out to me and let'sconnect.
SPEAKER_01 (45:18):
Yeah, you can connect with Nathan too on uh
social media if you just searcharound.
He's a pretty active guy onsocial media, which I like.
All right, Nathan, great.
Paul, thank you very much forthe invitation again.
Appreciate it.
All right, we appreciate you fortuning in to this edition of
Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
Until next time, go Bears.
That's it for this episode ofCentral to NWA, a UCA podcast.
(45:41):
I'm Paul Gatling, SeniorDirector of Northwest Arkansas
Engagement for the University ofCentral Arkansas.
Be sure to subscribe to the showand follow UCA on all the
appropriate social media.
I'll see you next time onCentral to NWA.
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