Frank Anderson, city council member, former mayor, retires
Frank Anderson is starting his second retirement after 12 years in civil service, including eight years as Bella Vista’s first mayor and a four-year term on city council.
He worked to get Bella Vista incorporated and served as its first mayor. Anderson said getting a city started, especially with such a large beginning population, is one of his proudest accomplishments.
“I think the most important or most semi-noteworthy accomplishment is getting the city off the ground,” he said.
Anderson said he moved to Bella Vista to retire in 1987 after 28 years in the United States Air Force, which took him around the world as an internal auditor.
“We don’t see much combat, except fighting with the general officers, telling them they’re not doing their job right,” he said.
He started with the Air Force in 1959, right after graduating from the University of Omaha.
“The only job I ever really had was the Air Force,” he said.
He spent time in Japan and Morocco, he explained, ending his career at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
Anderson said the past 31 years is the longest he’s ever lived in one place — and this time he helped build a city.
His first retirement didn’t last long. He started on the golf advisory board in 1991, where he served about five years, including a couple as chairman.
He ended up running for POA board and said he was a little surprised to get elected. He spent two terms on the board — with two years as its chairman — and served as general manager for five months.
There was always a group, he said, which was interested in incorporating Bella Vista, in part because residents believed they
weren’t getting their share of tax dollars back from the county.
More than a decade ago, Anderson explained, he worked with a committee seeking to incorporate the city. They spent two years just gathering signatures, he said, as well as holding town hall meetings.
He also chaired an ad hoc committee building a roadmap for how to form the city from nothing, to discuss incorporating Bella Vista. This process took eight or nine months, he said, and produced a plan on acquiring equipment and services and projecting for the fresh municipality’s budget.
There were more town hall meetings to discuss this process, he said.
“We didn’t believe you could take it all over at once,” he said. “It’d be 90 days plus before we even got a dime.”
Acquisition of services was staggered out, he explained, with the POA handing over the keys to police, fire and streets over the course of several months.
Half a year before the 2007 election, Anderson explained that candidates had to be found to fill the elected positions — city council, attorney and mayor — to be ready if the vote to incorporate succeeded.
“We had people running for city council, mayor … when there wasn’t even a job,” he said.
Anderson ended up running for mayor and winning the election alongside the city’s incorporation.
“We really had no idea what we needed to do,” he recalled.
Officials followed the report his ad hoc committee generated fairly closely, Anderson explained, and the city did better than expected.
The city had money coming in after a few months and started taking over the police and fire departments while working closely with the POA and Cooper Communities.
City hall moved a few times before reaching its current position in the former POA building at Town Center, he said, though a new city hall could be on the horizon.
Anderson said he stayed in city government past the first term because he wanted to see a few projects through — particularly the construction of Fire Station 4 and the streets department building.
During the last city council meeting, mayor Peter Christie thanked Anderson for his work over the years.
“Thank you for 12 solid years,” he said.
Anderson said that he’s going to continue to work with the Rotary Club and the Bella Vista Foundation board.
He’s done plenty of traveling, he said, though he may take a few more trips.
Beyond that, he expects to spend a little more time at reading and recreation.
“I’m too old to plan to do much of anything,” Anderson said. “Play a little golf, do a few things and continue to age.”