Simmons First National Corp. is leading a coalition of civic, business and government leaders in Pine Bluff in an initiative called "Go Forward Pine Bluff" designed to invigorate the city and grow its tax base.
Simmons will fund the effort through its Simmons First Foundation. The bank, based in Pine Bluff, made the announcement Monday.
Through the 1980s, Pine Bluff was considered the state's No. 3 city in prominence behind Little Rock and Fort Smith and its Pine Bluff Convention Center was the state's premier entertainment and concert venue, hosting the likes of Elvis Presley and Bob Hope. But the last 20-30 years have seen a decline in population and economic development. Its population, peaking at about 60,000, currently sits at roughly 49,000.
Simmons Chairman and CEO George Makris told Arkansas Business that the bank holding company wants to lead a communitywide effort to get Pine Bluff back on track and noted the city's three public school districts as a possible starting point.
"We have three public school districts, one without a permanent superintendent and all three struggling financially and academically," he said. "We have a whole generation of students underserved by our public schools and we've got to put that on the table."
Makris said fixing the city's schools is a priority but road maps to solutions are available. "But like an alcoholic, first you have to admit there's a problem," he said. "We have to make tough choices."
Makris didn't want to speculate on the feasibility of consolidating the districts, but said it's an option.
"I wouldn't want to say it's a probability, but it's a possibility," he said. "Especially in Arkansas, we know that trying to consolidate school districts is as touchy as any subject can be."
Makris said if the Pine Bluff, Dollarway and Watson Chapel districts ultimately are not consolidated, he hopes a degree of student accountability is introduced into the city's schools.
"They haven't been doing that very well," he said.
The Go Forward Pine Bluff group will utilize the work of the 20/20 Commission as a baseline for its work to develop a strategic plan for the city, according to a Simmons press release.
Makris said the initiative will help pinpoint how to direct the city's efforts most effectively. If successful, he said the bank could use its foundation to replicate the program in other cities within the Simmons footprint.
According to the news release, execution of the plan's objectives is scheduled to begin in January 2017 with a planned completion date of Dec. 31, 2018.
"It’s time for a comprehensive strategic plan that will guide this city into the next decade," said Mary Pringos, who will serve as the chairman of the Go Forward Pine Bluff task force, in the release. "For the plan to be successful, all sectors of the community must be involved in the planning process. What we don’t want is a report that will sit on a shelf and gather dust. The objective is to produce a plan that the community buys into, one that establishes clear, measurable goals and has concrete steps for achieving those goals."
Pringos is the president of Pinellas LLC and a member of the Simmons First Foundation board.
Tommy May, former Simmons chief and CEO of the Simmons First Foundation, will join her on the task force. He listed four ways the group can achieve success:
- Recruit a fully inclusive planning team that has the capacity and the desire to spend many hours during the next 12 months making recommendations that likely will result in significant change.
- Embrace the successes that came from the 20/20 effort and then focus full attention on the difficult tasks that must be done to attract and retain jobs and families in Pine Bluff.
- Ability to pass the torch from the planning group to the appropriate organizations that will implement the plan in 2017 and 2018.
- Ability to identify resources that will fund the execution of the plan.
Other task force members include Irene Holcomb, George Stepps, Byron Tate, Laurence Alexander, the Rev. Glenn Barnes, Chuck Morgan, Lou Ann Nesbitt and Catherine Smart.
Carla Martin will chair four pillar steering committees:
- Economic development, chaired by Nick Makris
- Education, Scott Pittillo
- Infrastructure and government, Rosalind Mouser
- Quality of life, Kaleybra Morehead.
The task force will select five core members for each pillar group with one task force member serving on each pillar group.
Applications to serve on the steering committees are available through the Simmons First Foundation through Dec. 15. The steering committees will begin meeting in January and present a final plan by the end of November 2016.
The process will be facilitated by Jim Youngquist of the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
"By growing the tax base, we will ensure that we can better fund city services and put an end to population loss," Pringos said in the release. "We’re at a turning point in this city, and development of the plan will get us moving in the right direction. We hope to be able to point to visible results. The bottom line is that the city must decide where it wants to go and then start down that path. The plan will be our road map for the future. Our ultimate goal is to make Pine Bluff a city that people want to call home."