Mayoral candidates present their platforms at Realtors’ forum

Mayoral candidates present their platforms at Realtors’ forum

Ford: ‘ Now we have an opportunity to go to the polls and elect the leader that will take this city into the future.’

news@theeveningtimes.com

Last Tuesday evening, the Eastern Arkansas Realtors Association presented a question-and-answer forum for the six hopefuls seeking the mayor’s seat at the West Memphis Civic Center to a capacity crowd of interested voters. Realtor Mike Ford hosted the event, moderated by ASU Mid-South Chancellor Debra West. Ford said the election would set the direction and momentum for the city for West Memphis and explained the purpose behind the set of questions tossed out to the six candidates for mayor.

“You heard from candidates that had a passion and a vision for the city,” said Ford. “Now we have an opportunity to go to the polls and elect the leader that will take this city into the future. I still say this is the most important election in the entire county in the last 25 years. We are fortunate to have six candidates running for mayor that come with optimism and vision for a better community.”

Candidates made opening and closing statement with four deliberate questions from the Realtors association.

Focused on housing, infrastructure, growth and vision, Ford said, “Every home closing in Eastern Arkansas puts $60,000 directly into the local economy. That’s the reason we need to get housing (issues) right in the local community.”

Ford himself hoped for an optimistic candidate that would fulfill the role of an ambassador’s mayor of the largest city in the county.

“I am looking for a cheerleader for the city of West Memphis,” said Ford.

Each candidate was asked to share their vision for the city. Collaborative solution building was all the buzz for candidates throughout the entire series of questions. The city planning and economic development departments have been conducting citizen focus group for its 20-year long range plan. The crowd buzzed the most whenever candidates pointed out east side blight, particularly on Broadway.

The Realtors plied a housing question to each candidate. Debra West asked, “How would your administration address West Memphis’ housing reality, and specifically, the lack of new construction, how to encourage infill, and your ideas to develop the eastern side of the city?”

“It is a buyer market today for existing homes,” said candidate Croom. “The market is devastated. There is a higher percentage of renters than home owners by a 60/40 split. That has got to turn around for the city to turn around. The quality of rental property has to turn around. There are rough houses in every neighborhood. The city can tear down those homes for $3000 and turn those around and sell that property. The east end of Broadway has been neglected for 30 years. It’s got to be improved with the Big River Crossing (BRX) complete, the entrances to our city in East Broadway and also on Missouri street, there is money available to fix them but we take the funds and put them on the water tower. The water tower is a sore piece with me. If I was mayor I’d work with the Realtors association and others to improve the housing situation.”

Johnson named every real estate company in the city and said his administration would work with Realtors to develop housing solutions. The candidate called for affordable housing in all corners if the city.

“We are going to develop a strategy to bring property owners to the table,” said Johnson. “I’ve noticed hundreds of empty lots and dilapidated homes in the city.

We must communicate with property owners. We don’t want to take homes inherited from parents. We’ll engage a program as they do in little Rock, by the Arkansas Development Financial Authority (ADFA).

They award $450,000.

We’ll do five $90,000 homes. Only 50 percent needs to be paid back with a one percent interest rate.

In West Memphis we allot $250,000 to rehab homes, $25,000 each on ten homes. And no money has to be paid back for that.

“We have forgotten East Broadway and neglected the east side of town,” said McClendon, who touted a HUD and state programs while developing a land bank.

“They go in there if they spend $25,000 to fix it up, they sell it to the home owner for only $26,000,” said McClendon. “It’s important to have home ownership in West Memphis.

Second, we need to promote home ownership but ADFA is normally used on existing homes. We must also create the land bank and make sure we acquire all the land, then we can afford to build homes within our community. We must reduce the crime on the east end. We must improve the infrastructure, improve the streets. This will come through community development.”

Parker wanted to capitalize on low rates from city owned utilities and cut red tape. He identified organizations and non-profits to help redevelop housing.

“Starting with new construction, you have to offer incentives,” said Parker.

“One incentive is we own our own utility company which is one percent invested in a coal producing facility. That’s why we have the lowest utility rates in the state. We need to take advantage of that. It will take reorganizing the community development department to bring people to the table that want to bring development here. If they get a lot of red tape they will go elsewhere where is easy to sell property.

“My uncle and I did an ADFA project in Turrell, so I am really familiar with that. We can build $50,000 of housing at a time, we do it in the county all the time. The land bank, Little Rock and Jonesboro are taking advantage of it. It puts property under the care of a non-profit. They have public, private and nonprofit relationships. They do private housing and commercial property. That is something we need to take advantage of.”

Leonard urged citizens to pull together to shape up the city to attract developers.

“Bottom line new development from developers,” said Leonard. “So, you have to be available, ready for developers to come into the city. We need to make our city safer, rehab dilapidated housing, and cleanup our city. We need every city on the west side of town and the east to partner up to clean our city, to make it presentable for those that would want to come to invest in our city.

“Yes, we’d partner with our Realtors association.

It’s a no brainier. It’s what they do every day. It is their expertise. We must, must invest in our own city. If the city comes together we’ll have a better place to live, work and thrive. We must collaborate together and with the experts. Then we can have a better east end of town. Grants, what you must understand is they have stipulations and ending periods. At the end the city must sustain that initiative and have a plan.”

Taylor called for a task force to address the maze of housing issues.

“I would create a housing task force bringing to together the departments of planning and community development, economic development, public works, utilities along with inviting our Realtor friends and home builders, ASU Mid-South along with the West Memphis School District to look at ways to create public/ private partnerships and develop a range of housing,” said Taylor. “We need market rate single family housing. We need starter homes. We need aging in place housing. We need affordable owner occupied and affordable rental housing. We need upscale apartments, the millennial population much prefers renting. They want rental property to be adjacent to mixed use where they can live, work and play. The BRX and the Delta River Regional Park make utilizing that area perfect for developing that part of Broadway, perfect for Millennials.

By John Rech