New McRae mayor-elect wins race by one vote
MCRAE — Joel Pruitt has become a believer in the old adage one vote can make a difference. It did just that in his race for mayor of McRae.
Pruitt edged out his opponent, Trevor Goodwin, 106 to 105 in the Nov. 6 election. Both ran as independent candidates for the position, which had been held by Bob Sullivan, who is retiring after 16 years.
“No one asked for a recount, but they counted it again,” Pruitt said, smiling. “They found two more votes — one for him and one for me, … so I still won by one vote.”
Sullivan said he thought the election “was very, very amazing.”
“To think one vote made the difference. … If anyone thinks, ‘My vote doesn’t matter,’ they need to take a look at this election. One vote does count,” he said.
“I believe I have left the city in pretty good shape, but not near good enough, as I would have liked. Finances are always a problem with doing what you might want to do,” Sullivan said.
“I did get new sidewalks. … They are coming next year. And I got new overlays for the streets,” he said. “About half of them were done three or four years ago, and the rest will be done next year. So I did leave the city in pretty good shape.
“I think Mr. Pruitt will do a good job. I have told him that I don’t have a suitcase. … I’m not going anywhere. I will do all I can to help him.”
A native of McRae, Pruitt, 68, has served his community in the past. He was a member of the McRae City Council for 22 years and was on the school board for 12 years.
“I’ve always been active here in town. I made the decision to get back involved,” he said.
“I really did not campaign with a platform. We have some issues here … not anyone’s fault. We’re a small community. … Just like in all small communities, water and sewer are an issue. I hope to improve that. We have our own water-treatment plant, but we need some help with the sewer. … We need a qualified person to run it. We have people willing to help us get on our feet … until we can get approval to hire a sanitation person,” Pruitt said.
“We have good water. Our water tower holds a considerable amount. … We have a very good well … never had it go down or dry up,” he said.
“That’s one of the reasons I decided to run. … You don’t just sit and gripe about something. … You get involved and try to change it,” he said.
“I loved the old McRae that I grew up in,” said Pruitt, who graduated from McRae High School in 1968.
“I’d like to bring that back again. I’d like to pull the community together as a whole … bring back some of the fun,” he said.
“Our population sign says 600-plus, but I think it’s probably about 250 in town,” Pruitt said. “We don’t have a lot of business here. … The freeway (U.S. 67) took a lot away, just like it did in a lot of small towns. It’s hard to bring businesses here when most of the land is owned by farmers. … We are still a farming community.”
Pruitt said he looks forward to working with the McRae City Council.
“We have four [City Council] members. We have two that I don’t know yet. … They were just recently elected — Terry Hogan and Lori Marrs. Bobby Crisco was re-elected, and the fourth one, Rich Egan, did not have opposition this year,” Pruitt said.
“I think there is harmony on the council. I am fortunate to have such a good group of people to work with,” he said.
“The mayor is really like a fifth alderman,” Pruitt said.
“It is the mayor’s job to bring ideas … issues … to the table and let the council vote on them. The mayor’s job is like a salesman’s job, … and if the council members don’t like it, then it’s the mayor’s job to take it, rework it and bring it back to them again for a vote.
“I’m really excited about the job. … I like a good challenge.”
Following high school graduation, Pruitt served three years in the military — with the Army Airborne — during the Vietnam War era.
“I got three buddies to go with me, and we went to Little Rock and enlisted,” he said. “They bused us to boot camp at Fort Polk, Louisiana, then bused us to jump school at Fort Benning, Georgia. We wanted to do it before we had to … before we got married and had families.
“Patriotism seemed a lot stronger when I was growing up. Serving in the military was just what you should do. … It wasn’t if you should, but when.”
He said, however, that he never considered staying in the military after completing his three-year tour of duty.
After his military service, Pruitt came back home to McRae and went to work.
“I was a protein specialist with Quality Foods, which is now Performance Foods, training sales personnel on meat products,” he said. “I then went to work at U.S. Food Service, where I did the same thing.”
During his time at U.S. Food Service, he hosted a 30-minute television show, Arkansas
Flavor, on KLRT-TV Channel 16, with Ron Sherman.
“That was a lot of fun,”
Pruitt said. “We visited local restaurants.”
Pruitt retired from the food-service industry approximately 10 years ago.
Pruitt and his wife, Marianne, will celebrate their 46th wedding anniversary Dec. 23. Marianne is a former recorder-treasurer for the city of McRae.
The Pruitts have one son, Joey Pruitt, 42, who is a coach at Rose Bud. He and his wife, Paige, have a 9-year-old son, Reece, and a 4-year-old daughter, Hadley.
“We baby-sit Hadley every day. Joey and Paige are both teachers. We kept Reece every day, too, until he went to school. We love it,” Pruitt said.
“Next year, we’ll be empty nesters,” he said, laughing.
Pruitt said he became involved with the McRae School Board when his son started school.
“I was president of the school board when he graduated,” Pruitt said. “I signed his high school diploma, presented him with it at graduation, and we both went home.”
He said his son never considered joining the military.
“But I made sure he registered,” Pruitt said. “And I made sure he registered to vote. Voting is an honor. … If you do not vote, you have no reason to complain.”
Pruitt said his wife “threatened me when I told her I was going to run for mayor.”
“She was not the least bit interested in me doing that,” he said. “Time will tell if she changes her mind.”
Pruitt will be sworn into office Jan. 1.
He said he will be a fulltime mayor and work from an office at City Hall.
“My door will always be open,” he said.
The McRae City Council meets at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at City Hall. The public is always welcome to attend the meetings.
“We want the people to be involved,” Pruitt said.