UNDER CONTROL

Forged in fire, Castleberry uses experience to lead Conway

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After 32 years of public-service work as a firefighter, newly elected Mayor Bart Castleberry doesn’t let a little heat bother him. Castleberry may be new to the political scene, but he has no intention of blowing smoke as he strives to lead the city like he led as fire chief.

Castleberry said he finds enjoyment from getting to work as a public servant at a new level.

“[I enjoy] working with people, the City Council and city departments to continue making Conway the place where each of you wants to live, and where your family wants to stay — where you feel safe and take pride in our city,” he said.

Castleberry has fought the many elements in Conway that cause destruction. His goals are to make Conway safer by improving streets and repairing flooding issues, and the effort began his first day on the job.

“We are working in conjunction with Conway Corp. on our street projects. By using our street-management program, once a street is identified as needing repair, Conway Corp. will work with us on a timeline that allows them to replace their infrastructure — i.e. sewer, water, electric — prior to us resurfacing,” Castleberry said. “That way we do not have to cut a newly paved street should an underground problem arise.”

Conway Corp. is assisting the city by using cameras in the downtown drainage ditches to identify which ones need to be hydrojetted, which is using water under high pressure to clean out the pipes, as well as identifying collapsed pipes. With this advancement, Castleberry said, he hopes the efforts will alleviate some of the downtown flooding.

Many strategies are in place to get Conway structurally sound, including easier access to the landfill through an app, the Dave Ward Drive pedestrian overpass, the Markham Street redevelopment, the Arkansas 25 bypass, restriping streets, sending fire and police personnel to diversity training and more.

“As far as achieving, we want to continue being the city everyone else strives to be,” he said. “There are so many programs and opportunities for the future.”

Castleberry said that during his tenure, he envisions Conway continuing to rebuild infrastructure and investing in the city to generate a better economy.

“There is nothing holding Conway back. We have been and will continue to develop our social and economic status in Arkansas — from an educational aspect, as well as a skilled-labor aspect,” Castleberry said.

Castleberry said his motto is “customer service,” and he’s instilling that in city [I enjoy] working with people, the City Council and city departments to continue making Conway the place where each of you wants to live, and where your family wants to stay — where you feel safe and take pride in our city.” — BART CASTLEBERRY CONWAY MAYOR employees by having department heads return residents’ phone calls in a timely and courteous manner.

Making sure city employees give good customer service is the easiest part of the job, Castleberry said.

“We have tremendous city employees who work hard for the people,” he said. “This job is everything I hoped it would be. I enjoy arriving early, strategizing with department heads and working with the public. When people ask me how I like it, I always answer, ‘I am having the time of my life.’”