Ep. 4 - Inside Pea Ridge’s Growth Plan

Growth doesn’t wait for perfect plans, and neither should we. In this conversation with Pea Ridge Mayor Nathan See, we dig into the nuts and bolts of turning a fast-growing town into a resilient, welcoming city, without losing the neighborly spirit that drew people there in the first place. From his years in the street department to the mayor’s office, Nathan brings a builder’s mindset and a clear lesson from UCA’s Community Development Institute: community development is everyone’s job.

We talk strategy where the rubber literally meets the road: Highway 72. That corridor is the hinge on which Pea Ridge’s future swings, shaping safety, retail attraction, and freight access. Nathan shares new momentum on funding, the realities of phasing to four lanes, and why site selectors watch mobility before they ever run the numbers. Then we zoom out to regional planning: wastewater capacity, stormwater, and shared solutions that outlast election cycles and city limits.

The human side of growth takes center stage. A poverty simulation at CDI reshaped how Nathan writes policy and frames tradeoffs, pushing the city to design for families who juggle school schedules, limited transit, and tight budgets. We unpack a community-led rebrand that signals a modern identity while honoring local history, plus a pragmatic approach to parks, annexation, and long-range land use. Housing affordability gets a bold treatment through innovative construction, high school workforce pathways, and the search for a distribution hub. And for small business owners, Nathan outlines an 18-month storefront concept designed to turn hustle into sustainable brick-and-mortar.

If you care about smart growth, inclusive planning, and practical leadership, this story offers a field guide: build the network, set the timeline, and make every win visible. 

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Transcript

Welcome And CDI Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:01

This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast. I'm your host, Paul Gatling, and we are bringing the University of Central Arkansas to Northwest Arkansas. Each episode, we will talk with leaders, alumni, and innovators driving this region forward. People who are shaping industries and defining what is next for our state. Let's get started. Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition of Central to NWA, a UCA podcast. I'm Paul Gatling, and today we're going to talk about community development and how that connects directly to the University of Central Arkansas through a nationally recognized program that we run, have been running for about 40 years. It's called the Community Development Institute, or CDI. And I'm going to give you a little background on that straight from the website that you could Google around and find CDI. So it started in 1987, and each year, community and economic development leaders from across the country come to UCA for hands-on training on how to strengthen their towns and regions. And over three years of courses, the participants learn practical skills and things like planning and leadership and workforce development and building strong local economies. And CDI is taught by experienced practitioners and supported by the Walton Family Foundation, and it's designed for anyone who wants to make an immediate, positive impact in their community. And one of those leaders is my guest today. He is P Ridge Mayor Nathan C, who has used CDI to transform the way his community plans for what a lot of people are planning for in Northwest Arkansas, and that's growth, but also how to make opportunities from that growth. Nathan, it's great to see you here. Thanks very much.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Paul, thank you very much for the invitation. I appreciate you and your advocacy for P Ridge. And, you know, it's just an honor to be here with you today.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Well, I appreciate you. I know you're busy. I know uh Christmas time is right around the corner, uh, and you've got a lot of things planning. Uh, but again, like you say, you you're such a big proponent of UCA's uh CDI program. And what I love about it is um you didn't come to it as a UCA alum. You're not a UCA alum, but you came to it as a mayor who is uh wanting to um you know expand your toolkit and take advantage of the things that are offered there uh that you can bring back to your community that is uh, like we said, changing rapidly, growing rapidly. So we're gonna get into those details a little later, but just really how do you put that impact into words?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

How do you uh

Meet Mayor Nathan C

SPEAKER_00 2:30

being part of the CDI and and and being part of all the people that are there, how do you put that impact into words that it's I I would say that whenever you go through CDI, you create a toolbox of tools that you leave with that you're able to go back to your city and implement and create things that maybe you weren't doing before and you find different ways of doing things. Um, you know, whenever you're thinking about economic development, a lot of people just think about tax-based revenue. And so going through CDI, you realize that there's an umbrella of things that fall under economic development and that community development facilitates economic development. And so um there's a lot of key components that we walked away from from CDI with, and we are, you know, being able to implement those in different areas from planning to land use to um just having conversations, just getting the community involved and letting their voice be heard. And so at the end of the day, you know, you're gonna have those people that are cave people or nimbys, and and but at the end of the day, you want to be able to incorporate those into your community so they see that there's value in what you're doing with the growth that's coming. I would much rather, and it's said by by uh John Kitt uh Chadwell out of Newport, I would much rather be growing than not growing. And a lot of people just, you know, we need to embrace that growth and not fight the growth. Um, so you know, there's a lot of a lot of great things that come out of it. And so I'm sure we'll get into more of that here in the Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

These are the types of uh Yeah, we will get into it. Those are the types of conversations we want to have on this platform. But first, let's get into the conversation about um Nathan C. And you and I have gotten to know each other um a lot better uh the last couple of years. Uh we've met we talked a few times um uh when I was at the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. You were just elected mayor, I believe, November of 2022, I guess. That's correct. So about three years ago, and uh, but have you know over 20 years of experience working for uh the city, uh mostly with the street department and the superintendent of the streets and a Pea Ridge high school graduate. So um let's just talk a little bit first about your story because I think it's a good one. Uh you've lived in uh, I think you moved to Pea Ridge when you were what, 11, 12, 12 years old. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Where did you move from? Moved from Catusa, Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Uh we moved to Pea Ridge. My dad um was uh was a contractor and he would chase storms to do repairs to hail or tornado or whatever it may be. Well, Arkansas had a really bad ice storm, and so it collapsed a bunch of the turkey and chicken houses. And so he got a contract and we moved over here, followed that, and um, we didn't know we were gonna stay here forever, but we did, and I'm I'm I'm glad we did. Right. Um, you know, Arkansas, everybody, whenever you say you're going to Arkansas, what's in Arkansas that you're going for? Um, but Northwest Arkansas is a different piece. Uh and so um we moved here and um my dad uh did uh houses for a while whenever he was here. He went into building some houses called he had a company called Six C Construction. There were six of us in the family, and so um that was his name. And then later on he changed it to Blackhawk Construction. Uh my mom worked for Walmart for a little while and then went into the postal carrier business and was in the postal carrier business for 30 plus years. Uh committed, I mean, she was committed and she got like Samaritan uh awards from the U.S. Postal Service. So um service, I would say, is in my blood to be able to carry out the service that's at hand.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Right. And so Blackhawk, by the way, if you're not familiar, P Ridge High School Black Hawk, the two proud P Ridge high school alum. And so you started out after uh high school, you started your professional career working for the city, right? Working for the street department there in PC.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

That's correct. Um, whenever I was a junior in high school, I was an entrepreneur, had my own embroidery business called His Emblem Embroidery, and I sold it in 2020 or 2003, and then I went to work for the city in 2003 as a contract labor, just mowing the green spaces. Um, who would have thought it was going to become what it is today? And so uh, whenever uh in 2005, I became assistant superintendent on the street side. And in 2010, I was uh promoted by mayor uh Jockey Crabtree, who was my predecessor. And he uh he took me in and said, you know what, I want I need you to be the street superintendent. And so I was a street superintendent from 2010 until I was elected in 2022 as mayor.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, when you say um 2005 and Pea Ridge, I think of um Mike Herrod and the dead tea offense for the P Ridge High School football team. That's that's where my uh connection to Pea Ridge goes back as the sports editor of the daily paper in Bentonville, the Benton County Daily Record. Um, and I covered a lot of football games out at the old football field. Yeah, the old Powell, where it just went to a dead end and to find a parking spot. And uh, we called it the largest outdoor cocktail party in Benton County. That's a true statement. And so, like me, and more so you, you've had a front row seat for just uh growth that you probably couldn't even fathom 20 years ago and what Pea Ridge was then and what it's

Early Growth And Infrastructure Strain

SPEAKER_01 7:35

becoming. So walk me through those early years of uh working in the street department um at Pea Ridge and then kind of contrast that to uh the issues of today versus those issues that you were dealing with 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah, I you know, I'll say that you know, whenever I started, there were three of us that worked there on the street side of things. And actually we were combined between water and street together. Um there were six of us all together, and we kind of overlapped for a little bit to do both both jobs and get them done. The um the big thing that I would tell you is between 2010 or 2000 and 2010, we grew at 110% in the city. And so that was an astronomical amount of growth. Um, and so there was a lot more development happening then. A lot of education happened during that time for our city um from the development standpoint, from the planning standpoint of being able to find out all right, what what do we need to be regulating and what do we not to be regulating? And so from the from the street side, we were doing a lot of inspections on streets and compaction and drainage. And so we had to grow our staff in a matter of two years. We had to add three other people on just for the inspection piece because we had so much growth coming in. And so, whenever you do that, you have to really know that whenever you're hiring people, that you're hiring people that can do the job, because you don't want to be the one to say, yes, we're changing things for the better, and then find out 10 years later that it wasn't for the better. Um, so for what we were doing today in in the in the uh in the world of the city of Pea Ridge, uh, I will say that it's probably the same struggles that we had back then, infrastructure. Uh infrastructure is always the big thing whenever we have growth at that amount, that percentage. And so we are uh working on that every day. We're working on infrastructure and you know, keeping up with the road miles. You know, I think right now we're at 160 uh lane miles. Whenever I was there, we had about 80 lane miles. And so we've doubled in lane miles. And that means that, okay, we got more streets to take care of, we got more residents to take care of. And uh I will say that we we we've executed well.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

So I would think, and you maybe agree with me, the most important of those lane miles is about a nine or 10 mile stretch connecting Bentonville to P Ridge. Yes, sir. Right the highway there. What can you tell me about how important that is to get that stretch or roadway widened in order for, if you don't, it's gonna clog your growth, it's gonna stifle your growth. How important is that to get that stretch widened? And how and when is that going to happen?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

So it's very important for a couple of different reasons. For residential use, it's important, but for local economy, it's important. Whenever you have site selectors come to your city, they look at the NSE grass of your city. And Highway 72 is the biggest point that they talk about. If we can get that widened, then we can come here and build X. Uh, Jared Wiley, director of R Dot, have a great relationship with R Dot. Very, very pleased with what they've been doing in the state of Arkansas and in Northwest Arkansas. Um, and so we've been waiting 20 plus years to be able to say, hey, we're actually going to see something

Highway 72 And Economic Stakes

SPEAKER_00 10:45

done on Highway 72. And so in the 2027 STIP, they've actually allocated $7 million for right-of-ways and uh utility relocations along Highway 72 corridor. And that's going to be able to make it go to a four-lane. The whole project would be 180 million, probably, to do the whole thing. It's just crazy construction costs right now. Right. And so they'll probably phase it out through a six or seven year period to be able to do the project. But that's hope for us to be able to grow that local economy and bring things to PRIGHT that we currently can't have because of that Highway 72 connector. What's an example of that? What can you bring that you that you don't have? Retail. Retail is huge. Um, you know, if you can get, you know, Ross or TJ Maxx or um some of those people, Aldi, you know, something like that. You know, we had the announcement of Super Center coming in, and so they're supposed to be starting in 2026. And I think that's going to be a big proponent for us to be able to have more economic drive, is because now that we have a super center, there'll be less people traveling to Rogers and Bentonville for that, because we'll have one in in P Ridge. Um, we've had multiple site selectors with distribution centers come in and um little uh industry parks that wanted to come in. And it's just the NSC grace that gets them from I-49 because there's no shoulder, no passing lanes. Um, it's just a big risk they take whenever they're trying to move freight.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, I've I've heard it described as um, you know, in the morning, it's a parade from P Ridge to Bentonville. In the afternoon, it's a P Ridge, it's a parade from Bentonville to Pea Ridge, up and down the highway there. When did you first begin to think about uh expanding your service to the city and uh and and think about leading the city as a as a as a mayoral candidate?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Well, Mayor Crabtree um told me we we were in a meeting uh and uh and he said I'm not gonna run again. I'm gonna retire. And he said, I need to we need to find somebody to run. And I said, Okay, I'll keep my eyes peeled and see what we can find. But you didn't raise your hand. I didn't raise my hand immediately. No, no, sir. I said, I'm good on the street side, I know it, I love it. And uh and so And that was enough to keep you busy, yeah. Anybody job busy, yeah. Yeah. And so um we went back to a couple weeks later and he said he called me into his office and he said, We need to have a conversation. He said, you know, the the deadlines, uh, we need to get somebody in here that can make this progress we've had going, keep going. And so I said, Well, who do you want? Who do you want to go after? Is there somebody here? And he said, Yeah, that one right there in the chair right there. I want that one. And uh I said, Really? And so I said, Well, I need to talk to my wife and my family and you know, pray about things and make sure this is where where we need to be headed. Um, had great support from the family, and uh, and I just felt like okay, it's my time to serve. And and whenever you're in public service, you're a servant and you got to have that heart carried out. And um, I was like, all right, this is what you like, here am I. Let me let me do this. And so uh we I said, okay, and here we are today. Um, he's been a great encourager, Jackie has been. He was there 28 years, he's got uh connections all over the state with the Arkansas Municipal League and uh different people that I just have they've came to surround me, you know, because of his leadership. They've came to say, hey, Jackie has is a big proponent of you. He wants us to come beside you and help you. And so um, it's just been an easy transition for the last three years, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, well, you've had um uh you've like you said a lot of support from the family, but you also had a ton of support at the ballot box on election day. Yeah. And I'm assuming re-election coming up next year, right? I'm assuming my plan is to run. Plan to run again. Yes, sir. Okay, I'm sure I'm

Why Run For Mayor

SPEAKER_01 14:40

sure you'll have uh the requisite support then. All right, for folks who haven't uh driven through P Ridge in a little while, how do you describe the town now? How many people live in Pea Ridge? What do you say to those site selectors and and people who are curious about this town?

SPEAKER_00 14:53

I say, you know, Pea Ridge is about 13,000 in population. Our trade area, though, is about 56,000 people that come to trade uh in Pea Ridge. And Pea Ridge is a small town. Uh a lot of people call it the the Mayberry, you know, of Northwest Arkansas. But we're we're we're a we're a growing community that still has small town feel. Um, and I tell people this because we as individuals create the community in which we live by the heart that we carry. And so if we want to have a small town feel, then let's take care of our neighbors and let's take care of people that may need something. And that's one thing I'll say about Pea Ridge is whenever you come to P Ridge and and you're there, your family. Because if there's something that goes wrong and somebody says, hey, I need help, you have 13,000 people that are going to be there to help you through whatever you're going through. And that's what I feel that P Ridge is is we're we're a small town feel um in a growing, growing economy and growing population, but we still love and care for our neighbors.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah, uh growing like crazy. Uh you had a community uh town hall meeting um you know recently, and I was I came out to that, and I think you'd asked a question of the people who's lived here for you know three years or five, or whatever number you you raised to raise your hand, and there were a lot fewer people that did not raise their hand than did. I mean, there were a lot of people who are newer to P Ridge. So it was was there a moment wherever maybe you were at the street department or or maybe you'd become married, whatever. Was there a moment when the first signs that you saw that that P Ridge was starting to hit a new level of growth and a new level of momentum?

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yeah, I would say that whenever we realized that in 2021, you know, we went through COVID and then that went away, and then we had a lot more growth happen in 21 and 22. Um, and then, you know, from from the street side, it never really slowed down until COVID hit from, you know, whenever I was there in nine until 2019, it slowed down because of COVID. But um, you know, I just think that it's gonna keep going. We're growing at over 10% annually as a city. And um, I think that we have a lot of opportunities to come for our residents and for the region. Um, and you you mentioned it earlier, but the Walton Family Foundation being great supporters of the region, um, they they helped us send people to CDI and they help us with um being able to create space for people to enjoy. And so, you know, I'm just very thankful for them to give back to the communities in which we live and the region, um, because you know, it's uh you don't have people like that every day.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

How did um the community development institute CDI,

Pea Ridge Today And Identity

SPEAKER_01 17:45

how did that first get on your radar? How did that uh when what was there a moment to say, yeah, this is something I need to do?

SPEAKER_00 17:50

So I got with Danny Presley. Danny Presley was on the um the chair, he was on the committee for CDI, and he was a P Ridge resident while he was at um he was the manager at Holiday Island, the city manager, and he said, Hey, I have something to propose to you that you might want to go do. And I said, What is it? And uh he said, Well, let's have coffee and we'll talk about it. And so he brought me this CDI idea, and he said, For where you are and where you're gonna head, this is gonna be a great tool for you to have. And so we looked into it and I was like, man, this is really good. I I searched it up and found some stuff, and and he told me some things that he walked away from it with. And so I said, Well, connect me, get me connected. So he he connected me with Shelby Fiegel at UCA, and Shelby's phenomenal, by the way, and Tabitha and Tracy and uh those those women right there are go-getters, let me tell you. But um, they they uh they said, Yeah, we'd love to have you. And so we had a conversation and they said, you know, Walton Finland Foundation has sponsorships or scholarships for this. Would you want to use those? And I said, sure, we'll use them, you know. And so by the Walton Fanny Foundation, we were able to attend myself and and uh and Dustin Fi, our community development director, uh, joined me there. And you know, whenever you're there, you create a whole different group of connections. Yeah, the network is the network is phenomenal for what you can get out of CDI. And so um the first year it was a little bit like what's this gonna, you had to feel it out. What's this gonna be like? What are we gonna get out of it? Um, you know, you always think in the background, it's just a waste of time. Um, but no, it's great. It was a it was a fantastic thing to go through. And we'll get into more details, I'm sure, for for what happened at CDI.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

But yeah, right. Well, just what was it like to learn um in that kind of room? Like you mentioned, you there were mayors from you know Elkins and and Prairie Grove and Lowell and city planners, and then but there's also people from Texas and Missouri and and Oklahoma. Just what was it like to to be able to learn from each other and to network and have those conversations with people who are going. Through the same type of issues.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

You're able to find out that you're not the only one. And you're able to find out that you can probably come together and create uh solutions to problems better whenever you're in the room together. And so whenever you're talking about Dardanell or talking about Russellville or Conway or Cabot or any of those cities, at the end of the day, we all probably have the same issues, just on a different magnitude. Yeah, whether it's 13,000, that's right. That's right. Yep. And so you're able to find out maybe what not to do from some of those cities that have been through the growth stage that you're fixing to go through. Um, and so it's great to have be in the room with those people to know like, hey, I realize that you're growing, but you need to probably hone in more on this rather than that, because that's going to come anyways. Um, but really engage the community and get the community to be um your your focal point for a little bit. And so uh like I it's just a vast uh opportunities whenever you get in a room with people from from all over to be able to know that, hey, I can pick up the phone and call if I need something, or they can pick up the phone and call if they need something because we're a cohort. We are uh together in this. And for the three years that we're there, I had added an employee from CDI, uh, created great friends through CDI with Ross Phillips and James, uh James Bell. And um,

COVID, Acceleration, And Regional Support

SPEAKER_00 21:30

you know, it's just it really just creates your your portfolio of relationships uh to carry you to the next level. And one thing I I've said multiple times is your network will determine your net worth. And so who the people that you're around are gonna help you execute well with what you want to do, as long as they're the right network that you have. So um, but no, CDI, uh I would recommend it to anybody in the public service or not in the public service. Anybody that's engaged in the community, right? You you need to be a part of CDI. Um, and we were the first class, I believe Shelby said, that had that many mayors in it, which was awesome to see the mayors coming out, because like I said, if we're not advocating for our communities as mayors, then what are we doing? Um, and so I think that that's a big piece for me is to know that I'm advocating 110 for P Ridge, for it to grow and and be prosperous in a way that it maybe wouldn't have been had I not to been to CDI.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Right. And you've said that um CDI has really reshaped your leadership philosophy. Give me an example of that. What is uh maybe a concept or a tool uh that you got there that really clicked and you were able to bring that back to PRIDEG with you?

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Don't RD everything and think that you can take anything from another city and use it for your city because you won't be successful. Um another thing with leadership is knowing that whenever you have people in the room, you want to have people in the room smarter than you because if you don't, then who's gonna drive the success after you? And so be able to have that secession plan for your communities. And uh leadership is such a huge thing in any aspect. But whenever you're talking about growing a city, growing departments, and growing economic drive, you have to realize that your leadership that you have are what people's watching. What are you doing differently than anybody else? Number one, I want to be accessible. I want people to know you can call me, text me, email me. I want to be accessible to you at any time that I need to be there. Uh, because if you're not accessible to them, then it kind of throws like, I thought you were our mayor. I thought you were supposed to be here. Um and so we want I want to be accessible to the people from them from being able

Discovering CDI And Networking Value

SPEAKER_00 24:00

to enjoy family together or being at events together. And um, I want to, you know, everybody is welcome. And you know, everybody wants to be accepted, number one thing. Um, and be able to be have a diversity. Diversity is good. You need to have that. You need to be able to let people uh come into your community and be accepted regardless of anything in their background. And so we really have embraced that and really have said that we want to be the community that makes you feel like you're at home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Those are all big uh concept ideas for a place that's really growing in a lot of areas. Your infrastructure, you talked about, is probably top of mind every day. Yes. Your uh your diversity, your uh inclusion, your proactive versus reactive development. So, how much of your time do you spend um thinking in those terms? You mentioned something else at your town hall meeting, um, thinking about growth in decades and not uh in increments, two to three years. You've got to think about both, but how do you balance that? How do you think about we've got to think about P Ridge in 20 years, right? Uh, because in 20 years it's gonna look a lot different, but it's also gonna look different in three years, too.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

I'd say your 20-year plan is something that you look for. And I always tell people your 20-year plan is probably really gonna be your 15-year plan. Your three-year plan is probably gonna be something you're gonna do at two. And so make sure that you're able to look at those plans and make them execute them well. But whenever you're thinking about a long-term plan, you got to know where you're going. Like you got to have a vision, you got to be able to show the people, hey, this is where we're headed. And, you know, master street plan is gonna look like this, master yet land use plan is gonna look like this. Lay it out there for the people to see and let the people catch the vision of where you're headed. The vision where we're headed is growth and opportunities for all. You know, we want to grow, we want to have opportunities for all, and we want to create spaces for all to play at the end of the day. That's kind of our three mottos, if you will. Um, and so parks is big for us in the next two years, uh, infrastructure in the next five years, local economy is incorporated into that as well. And then next 20 years is gonna be all right, where are we gonna grow out to as far as annexations? Are we headed south? Are we headed east? You know, are we headed west? Um, so that's gonna be the next big thing of looking for um that land that we're gonna be able to go into the city of P Ridge to create P Ridge to be extended their territory. Um, even if I'm not here, it'll be set up for the next person that that takes over. Um, you always want to be able to set the next person up for success that is gonna take over after you.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

So all of that to me sounds like um P Ridge's path to smart growth, right? And so I I use that phrase uh intentionally. You wrote a um an op-ed that was published in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. I'll I'll give them some um some publicity here, my great former employer. But that was your guest commentary, and that was the headline. So I what does smart growth look like? What does that mean to you? What does that mean to P Ridge?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

I think as a region, we have to think regionally. We have to come together more as a region than individuals and come to the table and say, what are we gonna do about transportation? What are we gonna do about wastewater? What are we gonna do about stormwater? Uh, those are good the big issues that are fixing to come down. And as a region, we need to be focused more on a regional impacting than thinking about, okay, P Ridge, we're gonna take care of ourselves, but where is all of this gonna end up? Well, if it's gonna end up in Bella Vista, then we need to have a regional something in Bella Vista or Garfield or Gateway or wherever it may be. Um, smart growth is getting that vision to show regionally we're gonna be able to do X in a matter of 10 or 20 years, as long as the region can come together and make something happen. And so we are really gonna have to hone in on some regionally impacting things that we can do together. Um, I do know that the Walden Family Foundation and um the uh the health department have come together to do a regional study for wastewater in in Northwest Arkansas. And so that's gonna be working its way through in the middle of 2026. Wastewater is a big thing. You got to be able to flush your toilet. Uh, I tell everybody you can flush your toilet at Pea Ridge. Um, but that's because we were ahead of the growth. You know, you have to be proactive to the growth rather than reactive, not saying that the other cities weren't. I think they just exploded extremely

Leadership Lessons From CDI

SPEAKER_00 28:30

fast and weren't expecting that. And so it's one of those lessons learned for the P Ridge is to say, hey, we need to, we need to pay attention to what happened because we we don't want to be that person. And so that's what we're doing now is trying to be proactive and be able to set up some funding mechanisms for a wastewater plant expansion if we have to. We're doing a we're doing a water tower and some transmission line stuff in the future. Um, so we're just trying to plan for the future rather than being reactive, being proactive to it. Because I would I tell everybody the growth is coming. Like we just have to, we have to embrace it. It's gonna come and it's it we're gonna grow. And that's healthy. That's healthy growth to be able to have that happen.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Yeah, let's be proactive about it. Absolutely, Ryan. You've also made the point that um that businesses and site selectors are choosing PRIDGE. Um, they aren't just looking at population numbers, right? They are uh looking at uh your infrastructure and and um your schools and communities. And I know you said parks are going to be a big uh opportunity focus for you the next couple of years. Um, how did CDI influence the way uh that you communicate the story of P Ridge on a lot of those different levels?

SPEAKER_00 29:41

I would say that it helps me communicate because whenever you think about community development, a lot of people think or are in the mindset of community development being a building permit person or a person that does code enforcement. Well, guess what? Community development is all of us together. Community development is every person in your community, and we're developing a vision and a plan together so we can execute our vision and plan for our communities as one. Um, and so whenever I went through CDI, it really hit me for the 10-step rule. Yeah, whenever you go through it, there's a 10-step process of doing things. And I use the 10-step process, and it's um don't ask me to say what I did. I was just gonna say it's it's um anyway, we'll it's in the um we can look it's in the CDI process of the 10-step rule, and Shelby would probably be very disappointed if but since I didn't know it. Um, but that's the process that we use whenever we think about community development, and everything's community development. I don't care if it's a park space, fire station, police station, um, uh you know, a new retail place coming in, all of that's community development because you're creating spaces for people to go. Um, you're creating third spaces. And so there's a lot of language that CDI used in the trainings that you go through that I'm using because I went through that. Uh I I wouldn't have known those third spaces and and these different languages without going through that. Um, but whenever you we did a new brand through CDI, we went through Thrive and did a new brand for our our for P Ridge because we felt like we needed to have something a little bit more welcoming and have something that popped, you know, for people to see, oh, P Ridge, life's better on the ridge, you know, that's our motto. Because we do believe that life's better on the ridge. And we do believe that P Ridge has a great future to come for the residents who are there and for the region.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

What made you decide? And you mentioned Thrive, and that's the great um nonprofit in Helena led by uh Will Staley and uh and our Center for Economic Development at UCA. What made you decide that it was time to refresh how uh P Ridge is branded and how P Ridge is viewed? I mean, it seems like a small thing, but it's not

Planning In Decades, Acting Now

SPEAKER_01 32:00

a small thing. It's not a small thing.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Your brand is your main driver. If people, your first impression is what people get. So whenever they go into your community and they see a welcome to P Ridge sign, um, it's good that they see welcome to P Ridge and not just, and nothing against the battlefield at all, but we just had some cannons and a sunrise. That was our logo. Um, but we had to change it because we have changed as a community since then. Um, and we incorporated still the military into it because of the way we did the badge for the military park and the star for the military. And so um, whenever we thought about doing the brand, we brought the community together. Will and Ryan brought the media to community together and said he they asked them five questions. What does P Ridge look like? What does PRidge smell like? What do you like about P Ridge? What do you not like about P Ridge? And what can we create P Ridge to be? And so whenever we went through that process, we came up with what we have today. Um and so it wasn't uh it was probably we had a a committee of people that was on that with us, and some of the committee people have only lived in P Ridge two years, and one of them was our uh editor for P Ridge Times, Annette Beard was on there, and she's a native of P Ridge, and so they were very open about hey, let's talk about this, we need to add this. But I let the committee really drive it, and then because I want them to be ownership, ownership is what I want them to see, and so whenever we were able to do that, they you know, the community came out and I love the new logo. We had a big brand push, had shirts we sold, yeah. Um, and so and you know, we didn't have shirts with our old logo. We had our old logo for 30 something years. Uh, we never had merchandise with our old logo. Our old logo didn't say P Ridge on it anywhere, to be honest with you. It just had, like I said, cannons of mountain and sunrise. Um, and then you just add the font wherever you want to add the font. But uh the new logo um and new brand for P Ridge, I would say has been embraced and been embraced well.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Yeah, well, nothing will spark opinion like a new logo and a logo reveal and and change um something like that. But I think you have you have the requisite street cred, uh, having been raised in P Ridge and graduated. I mean, when somebody asks you what do you like and don't like, I mean, you can answer that truthfully. You're a P Ridge guy. You're you're not just the mayor, you're a P Ridge guy. I want to go back to one of the um the exercises at CDI that we have talked about um that kind of had an impact on you is the poverty simulation. Oh my god. Um, and you wrote about that in your article. Um, how did that experience uh really kind of change the way um that you thought about planning and thought about uh leadership in your community?

SPEAKER_00 34:41

I would say poverty simulator is something that will change anybody's perspective on that. But whenever we were going through it, we were, I was going through it as a young boy whose mom couldn't drive and I had to get to school. And so going through the process of realizing that transportation is huge, um, and knowing that whenever you're going through life as an individual, your life is different than other people's lives. Um, we all have a different life that we live. And so whenever you're going through poverty assimilator, it opens your eyes to reality in some aspects of life for a lot of different reasons, from elderly uh not having people come check on them, to maybe the guy that just got out of prison that needs to get it to work for us. How do we get them to work for us? Um, to being able to go to the local bank and talk to the local bank about the being able to be a supporter of an event. Um, and that's the poverty simulator will open your eyes. And we're gonna do one in August, I think, of 2026 with our city council

Defining Smart Growth Regionally

SPEAKER_00 35:45

in planning together. Um, and Shelby and Tabitha are putting it together. But we're gonna do one because I want them to experience it. And a lot of them probably did experience in real life, whenever they were growing up, probably. And it's probably gonna bring back some things in life that they had to go through or struggles or whatever it may be. But I think it's good sometimes that we go through the poverty simulator to realize that we're putting maybe regulations where we shouldn't put regulations, um, that we're hand-tying people where they can't afford to be hand-tied. They can't afford to not be able to go to work, they can't afford to not have food or not be able to get to a food bank. Um, and I think that's just something that I got out of poverty simulator was um too many times we get in our own way as a community.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

It sounds like um you mentioned earlier that inclusive growth is going to be very important. It sounds like this exercise is probably uh the most impactful that you could have done for that.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Right. It'll bring tears to your eyes, to be honest with you, whenever you're going through it, because you don't realize, and you put it into perspective of this is real life for some people whenever you're doing it. And you don't realize what a lot of people go through day in and day out of just trying to make ends meet and just trying to support their family or just trying to get an education, you know. Um, from high school, there's a thing that I will tell you, we have bright futures at PRICH. Bright futures was we were like the first or second one in the state to get it. But there's a story about bright futures, and it brought me to the poverty simulator uh situation also as a boy was always late to get to high school. He was always late to class. And the teacher said, Why are you always late to class? You've been late three times this week. He said, Well, my mom and dad have to go to work to make ends meet, and I have to walk my brother to school, and then that takes time to get to high school. And they said, Well, what can we do to help you? And so the counselor said, You know, the bus goes right by your house to just ride the bus. Well, my brother can't ride the bus, he's handicapped. So we have to find a different way to get him to school. And so that's just some stuff that you don't realize. That's in real life situations. Um, another story is a kid who um walked down the hallway and his shoes weren't tied. And the teacher says, tie your shoes, you know, and he said, Well, kind of embarrassed, but I don't know how to tie my shoes. These are my brother's hand-me-downs. I never had to tie my shoes. And so, you know what they did? The school went and got a pair of velcro shoes and gave him the right size shoe, number one, and gave him a pair of shoes that he could be confident in. And that's, I think, is a lot of things through the poverty simulator is giving the people the confidence to be successful and giving them the tools to be able to be successful. And from a community standpoint, if you're not growing that next generation in leadership and giving them the confidence, then we're going to be hurting 20 years from now.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

I noticed uh that the CDI 2026 application period is now open. Are there going to be others from P Ridge that follow in your footsteps? Are they going to apply and go through that?

SPEAKER_00 38:51

We actually have our active transportation coordinator going and our parks and recs director going. Uh uh Joshua Johnson is our active transportation coordinator and Caleb Turner, our parks director, is going. Um, because I want everybody to go through it. And I think that they'll get something out of it that they'll bring back and be able to implement something different than what we are doing. Um, if anything else, it gives them an opportunity to network with people and be able to be in a room with people that they can bounce conversations off of.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Yeah. And and all that will come back to P Ridge, your community, and make your community uh stronger and better. But at some point we're we're

Communicating Community Development And Rebrand

SPEAKER_01 39:30

gonna stop calling P Ridge a community and it's gonna be called a city. That's right. You're gonna go from a town to a city. So let's talk about, let's say, the year 2035. What does what does P Ridge look like uh in the year 2035? What do you see?

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Well, Highway 72 will be widened by 2035. I'm gonna speak that out right now. Um a lot of retail space, uh a lot of multifamily. Um, and I believe it'll be a prosperous, a prosperous city. Um and people will be um people will enjoy and and love too. To live in Pea Ridge. You know, it's a place they're going to call a home. And it's a place where people are going to be able to build families and build generational families and not have to worry about my kid can't afford rent. They have to live in another city because rent's too high. Workforce housing is a huge thing for us to go after right now. We're actually making a trip in a couple of weeks to Scottsdale, Arizona, to look at some ideas of what we can do in P Ridge for workforce housing to be able to create it to where those people can be in P Ridge. My daughter recently got married, and she and her uh new husband were looking for a place to rent in P Ridge. And they're like, man, we can't find anything without $1,800 a month. It's just crazy. And starting off, they can't afford that. And so it really hit home with me in that aspect of, hey, I would like my kids to be able to live here. And so how do we create that? What are we doing to do to create it to where the next family that moves to Pea Ridge and has a high school graduate that goes and gets married and wants to wants to have a family in Pea Ridge, how do we create that to happen? And so that's what we're working on now is workforce development.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Yeah, embracing that growth, like you said, but at the same time um still maintaining that community vibe, the small town vibe. I'm curious how you got connected or how you got pointed to Scottsdale, Arizona as like a uh best practice that you want to learn more about.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

So we went to, I went to Right to Start Entrepreneurship in Fayetteville. I was on the panel for them. And uh I spoke about P Ridge there, spoke about, you know, hey, we're ready, we're open for business. And some guys that were at Right to Start came and visited with me two days later from uh they're actually from Hawaii, is where they're out of, from Maui. And they came and visited and said, Hey, we want to do this plan. Uh seems like Pea Ridge may be the place for us to do it. And so we just kind of started the conversation there and over the last month, uh, really created to where we really like this product that they can they can offer at a less cost for people to have a home. Um, that is as or better than a frame-built home. And so we're gonna go to Scottsdale and and check it out. It's called Strata. Strata is the company. Uh they do a uh a home that's used with Sabscreet, which is like a concrete interior and outterior and exterior, fireproof, uh hurricane rated for 250 mile-an-hour winds. There's a lot of great things that they offer, but it's cheaper than a regular home. Um, four guys can build a house together. And so we're gonna incorporate that into the high school and create some workforce development opportunities through the high school. If we can get them to land in P Ridge, um, they also are looking to do a distribution center. And so we're hoping that they come to P Ridge and land a distribution uh distribution center as well.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

You you're killing all the birds with all the stones with these things, you're checking them off.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

We're trying to create the best P Ridge we can create. Yeah, you know, and and you know, at the end of the day, that's what you want for any city.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Yeah. Besides, I'm gonna I'm gonna default and say that highway 72 widening is is the big thing. Besides that, what is the challenge that you are uh most determined to tackle, let's say in the next five to seven years? Economic growth.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Economic growth is a huge thing for me to tackle. And not just economic growth, but I would really, really like to push for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is something that I think uh we're missing as a city and giving entrepreneurs that opportunity to uh have a brick and mortar. I have a plan in my head, but I don't know how to make it work. Uh, I talked about it right to start, and I'm like, I don't know if I should have said that, but you know, I have a plan of being able to create it to where we have a partnership with somebody to do an 18-month plan for entrepreneurs that can come into a storefront, create an 18-month opportunity for them. And if it doesn't work in 18 months, then they no longer are there. But if they get to stay there, they get to grow their business and maybe do a business expansion in the region because they had an opportunity for an 18-month commitment. Right. And so um it's it's an idea. I'm I'm gonna talk to the Walt Finn Foundation and see if we can do something together uh to create that. But that's one of my biggest things is building local economy and creating PRICH to have space for all to enjoy together. Um, families are huge. Family values are huge for me. And green it, being able to go places with your family to enjoy together is what we want to create.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Well, very good. We'll leave it there. Nathan, thanks very much. This has been great. Thank you for sharing your story and telling us a little bit more about you, but also being such a tremendous proponent uh for the community

Poverty Simulation And Inclusive Policy

SPEAKER_01 44:30

development institute at UCA. I know it means a lot to the institution uh to see leaders like you go through it, have a wonderful experience and bring that back to their community because that's what the program uh has been set up for uh for 40 years almost. For folks listening who who want to keep up with P Ridge and learn more about you and learn more about the city, where can they go online? Where can they go on social media?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

City of pridge.com. You go on there and I actually do a weekly newsletter uh that we send out to over a thousand, no, thirteen, thirteen thousand people. Uh, and several don't even live here. Um, and so we um we just want to get people out there and get the news out to them. So yeah, city of pridge.com. Uh my email is n-se at city of pridgear.gov. So reach out to me and let's connect.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Yeah, you can connect with Nathan too on uh social media if you just search around. He's a pretty active guy on social media, which I like. All right, Nathan, great. Paul, thank you very much for the invitation again. Appreciate it. All right, we appreciate you for tuning in to this edition of Central to NWA, a UCA podcast. Until next time, go Bears. That's it for this episode of Central to NWA, a UCA podcast. I'm Paul Gatling, Senior Director of Northwest Arkansas Engagement for the University of Central Arkansas. Be sure to subscribe to the show and follow UCA on all the appropriate social media. I'll see you next time on Central to NWA.