Metroplan chief easing out after 30 years

Metroplan Executive Director Jim McKenzie (right) visits with Jim Lynch and other friends and colleagues during a reception Dec. 14 honoring McKenzie with Metroplan’s Jack Evans Regional Leadership Award.
Metroplan Executive Director Jim McKenzie (right) visits with Jim Lynch and other friends and colleagues during a reception Dec. 14 honoring McKenzie with Metroplan’s Jack Evans Regional Leadership Award.

Jim McKenzie has stepped down from the top post at Metroplan after nearly 30 years.

But he won't be leaving the planning field or even the agency just yet.

The new executive director, former Conway Mayor Tab Townsell, said he wants to tap McKenzie's knowledge on several issues, including the Interstate 30 corridor project and the Mid-Arkansas Water Alliance.

"We're going to retain him part time while we get through a few tough issues," Townsell told the Metroplan board of directors last month. "I-30 is not done. [The water alliance] isn't wrapped up."

The Metroplan board and staff have been heavily involved in the I-30 corridor project.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has identified $631.7 million in state and federal road and bridge construction funds that are available to upgrade the 6.7-mile corridor through downtown Little Rock and into North Little Rock.

It stretches from Interstate 530 in Little Rock to Interstate 40 in North Little Rock, and includes a section of I-40 from John F. Kennedy Boulevard to U.S. 67/167, also in North Little Rock. The project includes replacing the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River and widening the corridor to eight or 10 lanes.

Planning began in early 2014. The contract for the project isn't expected to be awarded until 2018 and construction will take up to four years.

The Metroplan board will have a say in the final scope of the project.

The Mid-Arkansas Water Alliance is made up of more than two dozen water systems, including Central Arkansas Water, in eight central Arkansas counties. The alliance is working to identify and secure more water for the customers the systems serve for the next 50 years, primarily by requesting water allocations from Greers Ferry Lake and Lake Ouachita, both of which are managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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The alliance is closing in on another agreement with the Corps for more water allocations from Lake Ouachita. McKenzie has been an alliance board member and served as board's ex-officio secretary/treasurer.

Townsell said it is better for Metroplan to tap McKenzie's knowledge on those and other issues while he gets up to speed.

"You'll get to see him around while I use him as training wheels to learn how to ride this bike called Metroplan," Townsell said.

The details won't be worked out until a meeting between McKenzie and Townsell this week, McKenzie said. He said he expects to be paid on an hourly basis as a part-time employee.

McKenzie's knowledge is considerable.

In 1988, McKenzie took over an agency that had a $883,000 budget, 20 employees and 13 local governments in two counties on its board. It also ran the transit system.

He leaves an agency that now has a $3 million budget, 14 employees and 29 local governments in five counties on its board, which also now includes the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, Rock Region Metro and three nonvoting local governments as members.

During McKenzie's tenure, Metroplan completed five long-range transportation plans for central Arkansas and was involved in several projects of regional significance, including the Arkansas River Trail, the Big Dam Bridge, Two Rivers Bridge and the River Rail Trolley.

"That is a key role for Metroplan -- a neutral forum to bring people together to solve problems and to take advantage of common opportunities," McKenzie, 67, said.

He said he leaves the agency with other unfinished business.

McKenzie noted the agency pledged in 1997 to develop and construct a dozen railroad overpasses around the region by 2020. The overpasses eliminate railroad crossings and "reconnect communities," he said.

Nine have been completed or are under construction, a 10th was removed from the list, and overpasses in Mayflower and Jacksonville remain to be built. "Promise made and promise kept," McKenzie said. "We have to stay the course on that."

He said Metroplan needs to complete a study of the proposed Arkansas 89 corridor in north Pulaski County as a potential replacement for the proposed North Belt Freeway, a project that never found traction and was removed from the region's long-range transportation plan.

McKenzie also still believes Little Rock and North Little Rock have a need for a fourth downtown bridge.

"I still think the Chester Street bridge is a good idea," he said. "The need is going to continue to be there."

The Arkansas River Trail remains unfinished," McKenzie said.

"We've got to close the loop here in downtown, reach out to Pinnacle Mountain State Park and then work with the Highway Department to get ... bike-friendly shoulders on state highways out to Conway and over Toad Suck and back out to Pinnacle State Park," he said.

McKenzie also said the need remains for a dedicated funding source for transit in the region, an idea Metroplan staff has advocated since the agency spun off what is now known as Rock Region Metro in 1988.

"The future never quits coming at you," he said. "As much as we've done, there are things that are still undone."

Metro on 01/03/2017

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