Dear colleagues and friends,
It has been a whirlwind in my world, lately! How about yours?
One of the exciting things I can report on is the trip I took to the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference in Washington, D.C., in March. It was my second time to attend this event, and what a terrific trip it was. Thanks to my involvement with our amazing League, I get how important it is to take the time for things like this.
It was especially great to take my seat on the two NLC committees on which I’ve been asked to serve this year. Given my background and current IT job, I am now on the Information and Communications Committee and the new Artificial Intelligence Committee. These two advisory groups are comprised of some incredibly talented tech folks and municipal government leaders, and I can’t wait to learn from and with them. In each meeting, I did my best to let them know just how growth-oriented the technology sector in our state is, especially in the world of cybersecurity. Our partnership with the Forge Institute and many other efforts are already showing good results, and I’m honored to have seats at these important tables on behalf of you all. Other members of our delegation are also serving on different NLC committees and boards, and I want to thank each of them for taking the extra time to do that. We are making sure that Arkansas is well represented at the national level.
As I write this, we are two days away from the great solar eclipse! Of course, by the time you read this it will have come and gone. Was it a bust? Was there an overwhelming crush of visitors? Did the apocalypse get underway? Something tells me we landed somewhere in the middle of those three options. In all seriousness, I hope you and your community fared well and were able to take advantage of whatever opportunities came your way. In Cave City, civic groups held a few well-attended events during the weekend run-up to April 8, but as a city we simply encouraged everyone to get out in the community, grab some lunch from a local restaurant, and head to our beautiful city park to enjoy our 4 minutes and 9 seconds of totality together. Rather than organize a big event, we decided instead to do our best to just be present and enjoy it with family and friends. I can say that we are seeing an uptick in out-of-town visitors this weekend, with hotels and other lodging mostly sold out. You’ll have to catch me after reading this to see how it all turned out.
The next big event for us will be the League’s 90th Convention. What a milestone, friends! If you were able to attend the winter conference in January, you know that our League team tore the lid off and looked at everything with a fresh set of eyes. That turned out to be a great idea, and the feedback we received from everyone was overwhelmingly positive. Anything that maybe missed the marked was documented and will be improved upon in June. I sure hope you’re making plans to attend because it’s going to be a real party. Not only will we have great speakers, tremendous breakout sessions and opportunities to network with each other, but overall, it’s just going to be a ton of fun! We will celebrate all that the League has done for cities and towns these past 90 years, and we’ll also look ahead to what we can do together in the coming decades, Lord willing. If you’re not registered to attend, please do so as soon as possible. Remember, it’s also my birthday week and my wish is that you’ll all be there. Unfortunately, this will be my last convention to preside as your League president. You know what they say about time flying by? It feels like I blinked and here it is winding down. But you can rest assured I plan to stay active and engaged going forward, because I just love the League and love you all as dear friends and colleagues. I can’t have it any other way.
Finally, in Cave City we are so close to wrapping up the renovation projects that will see us move into “new” buildings for our city hall and police department! It has been a process, no doubt about it, but I have learned so much and our community has made so much progress by taking this on. We will finally have some places from which to do the daily business of our city that are worthy of the work and the people who are there doing it. We are saving some historic buildings in our oldest section of town and putting our local government operations right at the heart of Main Street. I love it! Once we have a firm end date, we will schedule a grand opening party and I’ll send out information on that in case any of you would like to come and celebrate with us.
God bless you, friends. Stay strong out there. We are the doers and the change makers that our cities and towns need. Our role is not one of petty division and distraction, but of a continual heart for our people and the courage to do what needs to be done, in a way that nobody else can do it. We must simply do our best. Too much is at stake.
For greater communities and a greater state,
Jonas Anderson
Mayor, Cave City
President, Arkansas Municipal League
