CARROLL COUNTY Beaver adds 2 to City Council
Petition filed to dissolve town
Thursday, November 26, 2009
LITTLE ROCK — Carroll County Prosecutor Tony Rogers received a petition Tuesday asking for the town charter of Beaver to be dissolved.
“It’s not a functioning town, and it hasn’t been a functioning town for many years,” said Susan Simler, a Beaver resident who helped gather signatures from owners of 24 of the city’s 45 properties, which she said is more than the 50 percent required.
“They’ve never been able to keep a full complement of aldermen, and we’re talking about going back for decades,”said Simler, who owns Beavertown Boarding, a kennel.
“They can petition all they want,” said Mayor Mary Hill, who lives next door to Simler. “I’ve never heard of a town being dissolved because a few unhappy citizens circulated a petition.”
Rogers said he would “look at the law and see what steps need to be taken.”
In 2000, the median age for residents of Beaver was 41.5, compared to the national average of 35.3, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That year, Beaver had a population of 95, up from 57 in 1990. TheCensus Bureau estimated the town had a population of 117 in 2008.
Cindy Ratliff and Debbie Lester were appointed to the Beaver City Council on Nov. 9, bringing the total number of aldermen to five. One position had been open since fall 2008. The other since July.
Lester is a lifelong Beaver resident. After growing up in Beaver, Ratliff lived for about 20 years in Addison, Ill., near Chicago. She moved back to Beaver in June.
Simler said the appointment of the new council members is an attempt to thwart her drive to have the town unincorporated. If Beaver were an unincorporated part of the county, it “wouldn’t change anything,” she said.
“The town has been run by a small number of people, some of them from behind the scenes, for a number of years,” Simler said. “It’s all a matter of power. That’s what it boils down to, and they don’t want to give up the power.”
Hill said part of the problem is demographics. When leaders reactivated Beaver’s dormant city charter in 1980, it was a retirement community, and retirees had time to serve the city in a variety of positions. Now, more young people live there. Beaver serves as a bedroom community forpeople who work in Rogers, Fayetteville, Eureka Springs and Berryville, she said.
“Since that time, the worm has turned,” said Hill. “The majority of the people are young. They’re working. They don’t have time to be firemen or man the park.”
The city’s Beaver Park, on the bank of the westernmost tip of Table Rock Lake, has space for 32 recreational vehicles and 10 tents.
Hill’s husband, William Hill, volunteers his time as Beaver’s city attorney.
Michelle Pool, who resigned in July from her job as treasurer/recorder in Beaver, helped Simler with the petition drive.
The joke around town, Simler said, is that if you move to Beaver, you’ll be asked to serve on the City Council.
“You may be asked to be on the council,” Hill said. “It’s up to you whether you want to serve. If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine. Your opinion is respected.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 18 on 11/26/2009
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