Doug Fowler
Doug Fowler has lived in Bella Vista for more than 9 years, and he retired three years ago. His campaign website is http://dougfowlerforalderman.org. • “To be sensitive to the citizens of the community and to be open,” Fowler said. “To consider the impact on your citizens.”
“You have to be considerate of everyone,” he said. “They all have different needs, different desires, different opinions of what they want this community to be.”
“You have to try and find that line,” he said, “and be in tune with all the demographics that are here today.”
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“I’m running because I’ve always had a desire to help the community,” he said.
Until his retirement, he said, his job with Kraft Foods had him moving all over the country, particularly through urban centers. Between work and the scale of these areas, he said, it was hard to get involved with the community.
“I find myself in a place where I have the time, have the opportunity, and have the desire to help this community,” he said. • Fowler said his work with Kraft Foods gave him a healthy experience base to enter a public leadership position.
“I started out in a traditional sales role,” he said, “and I worked my way into positions of greater responsibility.”
His work with Kraft Foods, he said, gave him a great deal of experience interacting with a wide array of people across the nation.
“You have to develop a very high ability to interact with all those different groups,” he said. “Within Bella Vista, it’s not very different.”
Working not only within the city, but with outside entities is important, he said.
“You have to have people who have the energy and the commitment and the desire to do these things,” he said. “And I do.”
“We don’t live in a bubble here,” Fowler said. “We have to think outside the box a little bit and learn other avenues.”
Additionally, he said, he has connections to different demographics in the area.
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“I don’t know if I really see challenges,” Fowler said. “I just really see opportunity. You know, this is a really awesome place here.”
“I think they have some good leadership here,” he said. “People with good vision.”
He did also say that Bella Vista lacks some commercial amenities, and providing them could prove difficult.
“If you want to get your car washed, gosh, you have to go to Bentonville,” he said. “If someone wants to build a business like that here, it needs to be structured such that it doesn’t disrupt the beauty.” • “I don’t believe anybody should be able to do just anything,” Fowler said. “I certainly think there should be some controls in place, but they can’t be prohibitive.”
“Most of the time,” he said, “I think people are responsible with what they want to do.”
It’s important, he said, because structures can affect the entire neighborhood’s property values. But an overly strict ordinance, he said, could make construction very cost prohibitive.
But it’s also important, he said, to research an issue like this far more thoroughly before coming up with a specific solution.
“I’m in the mode of educating myself on where the city is,” he said. “So to just jump in and say ‘I want to do this,’ or ‘I want to do that’ is jumping ahead. I want to be thoughtful in my process.”
Rory Crivello
Rory Crivello moved to Bella Vista in 1991, a year after moving his parents here. • “Communicating with other council members,” Crivello said, “to review, pass ordinances and resolutions that are in the best interests of the city. Quite simply put, those are the job requirements.”
But there’s a little bit more to it than that, he said.
“An alderman needs to bring to the table ideas and improvements to the city to make it safe for the public and in the best interests of the city’s growth,” Crivello said.
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“Being a citizen of the city for some time,” he said, “I haven’t seen it develop. So I’d like to give back to the city in a way that I think I can.”
“I think it’s my time to give back to the city,” he said. “It’s a great place to live and raise a family, and I’d like to see it keep going in the direction it’s headed.”
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Creating and developing more commercial property, he said, is a significant issue. There is plenty of residential space to build on, he said, but commercial space is very limited.
“While building houses is important,” he said, “we’re losing potential tax dollars by our citizens traveling to other cities to spend their money. These are tax dollars we’re losing because we don’t have commercial businesses.
“Morey’s Auto Body is great,” he said. “They do great work. Those are the kind of businesses we need to stay here.”
Crivello said that he also foresees potential trouble with Arkansas Highway 340 when the Bella Vista bypass is complete, and the most practical solution would be to widen it to three lanes.
“That will be a major thoroughfare to connect to I 49 once it’s completed,” he said. • “I think the accessory structures should be handled on a case-bycase basis,” he said, “because the types of lots we have annexed.” Bella Vista has a wide array of different types of neighborhoods and homes, he said, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to make a set of rules that does each justice.
“For example,” he said, “restrictions on a standard shed should be different for a country home than a more urban area. You want to be fair to everybody and you can’t be fair to everybody with a set of across-the-board stipulations.”
“You’ve got a city, a POA,” Leffler said, “and I just don’t think they work well together.”
Getting the different authorities in the area to work well together, he said, could prove very difficult.
Another issue, he said, is a lack of lighting at night on Bella Vista’s twisty roads.
“When it’s dark, it’s dark,” he said. “It’s almost a hazard driving around out here at night. Our signs are worn out, they don’t reflect light.”
Leffler said that some people