Mayor Bill Johnson

MEMORIES______________ Mayor Bill Johnson

Continued from Page 7C

State Senator Keith Ingram paid tribute to Johnson’s career with a thumbnail sketch.

“He retired from John Deere dealerships and he is the best numbers guy I have ever been around,” said Ingram. “He is brilliant. At the time he retired Arkansas Power and Light (now Entergy) was part of Middle South Utilities. They built a power plant called Grand Gulf and Arkansas was going to get no power but we were going to be a charged with a dramatic increase in West Memphis. One group thought the best thing to do was to sell the city utility to APL. Billy went down and worked for 8 months without pay and got the fiscal house in order.”

In the long run saving the utility boded well for city customers. The utility rates are the lowest in the region, certainly lower than what Entergy gets for electricity. Johnson filled in the details of his second career job, the one that brought him out of retirement and into city business.

“I received a petition signed by 35 individuals asking me to take the job to head the utilities,” said Johnson. “There was an effort underway by some to sell the utilities. They had a 41 percent rate increase and it was necessary. That rate increase should have been piecemealed in instead of all at once. City Council had abolished the board and there was a lot of turmoil and they wanted to see what I could do about it. I told them I would stay two years. I stayed thirteen.”

The finances in the city were 180 degrees opposite of today. Now days the sanitation department has dipped into utility coffers to cover payroll and expenses. In the early ‘80’s the utilities had to borrow from sanitation to keep afloat.

See MEMORIES on Page 10B