County Judge Jeff Arey retires after nearly 30 years in public service
County Judge Jeff Arey never expected to spend almost 30 years in public service.
That three-decade tenure ends Sunday at 2 p.m. when County Judge-elect Matt Brumley is sworn into office.
“Honestly, it’s something I never really thought about doing, it’s not something I grew up expecting to do,” he said.
His family owned a business in Haskell for over 40 years, called the Arey General Store.
Before Arey took over the business, it was his dad’s.
Arey described it as a classic general store that sold anything from nails to pizza. He said it was a great business to grow up around and eventually own.
However, Are said he always admired a former Mayor of Haskell, Billy Quantz. He said Quantz came to him one day and encouraged Arey to get more involved in his community and asked Arey to run for city council.
“At the time, I didn’t want to do it, I was a young man with a family, but he kept appealing to me to get involved in my community. I saw the wisdom in this and got involved with the city council, just trying to make a difference,” said Arey.
Arey joined the Haskell City Council in 1995. He described the experience as informative and educational.
“You realize when you get in there, that not everything is what it seems like on the outside. When you get involved, you realize the people that serve on the city council or the quorum court have a lot of decisions to make and they only have so many resources,” he said.
After just one term on the city council, Mayor Quantz decided to retire from public office. Arey then decided he should run for Mayor, he won the election in 1998 and served as the mayor of Haskell for 16 years.
Arey enjoyed his time as mayor and said it was a formative part of his life. He said there were a lot of different issues and problems that small towns have to deal with but that he had a dedicated and talented staff that he relied on heavily. He said during his tenure they had good cooperation with the community.
“It was a hard job, not easy but I enjoyed it. I felt like sometimes we were making a difference, making improvements. I’m very proud,” he said.
Before Arey was the county judge, Lanny Fite served in the position. Fite now serves as a State Rep. in the Arkansas General Assembly. Arey during his time as Mayor, he and Fire worked together on several issues.
“Lanny certainly became a great mentor for
me. I learned a lot from him,” he said.
When Fite decided to run for State Rep., he encouraged Arey to replace himself as county judge.
Arey followed the advice and won the election to the position in
2014.
He said he’s proud of several accomplishments from his time as county judge.
“It’s hard to pick one particular thing, there are so many different issues to deal with as the county judge from emergency management, to transportation, to road issues, to economic development and to county government itself,” he said.
Arey said he believes the county made good strides in all of those areas during his tenure. He said some of the accomplishments that mean the most to him were moving towards a combined 911
system for the county, upgrading the county’s ambulance service, upgrading the weather warning system, and creating a financial management department within county government. He said one of the highlights of economic development was the creation of the Saline County Career and Technical Campus.
“I think the impact it’s going to make on individual lives and the impact those individuals and students will have on the future is important,” said Arey.
He said that the students are the ones who will make the difference in the community and around Central Arkansas because they are the future.
“That campus will pay dividends for decades to come and those benefits will come from the kids,” said Arey.
“I have been so fortunate
and I give a lot of credit to the things that were accomplished, they weren’t accomplished by me, they were accomplished by the great staff in Haskell and Saline County. This was not me, this was a group, this was a team effort. I have made some lifelong friends here in Saline County that I work with, as well as the City of Haskell, and I owe them so much gratitude,” said Arey.
Arey will finish his tenure as County Judge when the near year begins and Matt Brumley will take the reigns of the county government. Arey said he intends to spend quality time with his family and take some vacations. However, while he’s retiring from public office, he says he’s not retiring completely. He said he will still manage some rental properties and plans to remain involved in the community through volunteer work.