Smith announces bid for mayor

ROGERS — Carrie Perrien Smith says she has been thinking about running for Rogers mayor for awhile.

She will make it formal at 10 a.m. Saturday with an announcement at Frisco Park downtown.

Filing for municipal office starts at noon today and closes at noon Aug. 29.

“I’ve been planning this campaign for sometime. I became interested in what’s going on in our city after being in the business community,” Smith said Thursday. “I asked myself what I could do.”

Smith has attended City Council meetings regularly the past five years. She ran unsuccessfully for council in 2012 against 28-year incumbent Bob Goodwin and against four other candidates in 2014. Smith lost the 2014 election by 48 votes in a runoff.

Smith is founder of Soar With Eagles, a consulting and publishing company, and is an active leadership-level volunteer for a number of nonprofit groups in Rogers, including Service Corps of Retired Executives, Toastmasters, Job Searcher Initiative, Benton County Republican Women and previously served the Cancer Challenge for 10 years.

“My desire is to serve the community at a different level than the past,” Smith said. “I want to take everything I’ve done as a volunteer and leader and bring that to the city. I really feel like we need more people who are focused on business and have a strong leadership background.”

Smith spent six years at Texas Instruments and seven years in training and communications for WalMart Logistics. She earned a masters in business administration and a bachelors of science in organizational management from John Brown University in Siloam Springs. She also attended University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.

If elected, Smith said increasing interest in the development of the east side of Rogers, improving overall communications with residents, making the city a more visible presence in Northwest Arkansas and focusing on hunger relief would be among her primary concerns. Development, planning and transportation

would continue to be priorities as well.

“Carrie is a great communicator and she’s the type of person who always focuses on helping others,” said Willie Johnson, a supporter of Smith’s. “She’s always been fair, always been a hard worker and always got her sleeves rolled up. She has the ability to influence others in a good way, get the job done and get people to buy into a vision.”

Smith