Marsha Guffey is leaving the city of Benton to return to the world of academia, but she won’t be leaving city government behind.
Guffey, the city’s director of community development for the past three years, will become an economic research specialist in the Institute for Economic Advancement, a new division at University of Ark-ansas at Little Rock.
Before Guffey, 51, took her current job with the city, she taught graduate students in the UALR Institute of Govern-ment.
In her new position, she said she will be teaching economic education programs for professionals in economic development.
“The school wanted to ex-pand its training opportunities for government officials,” Guffey said.
“I will continue to work with mayors, councils, justices of the peace, county judges — just in a different form,” she said.
“It’s a really exciting thing,” Guffey added, saying she is pleased to have the opportunity to become involved in economic development training for local government officials.
Guffey said members of the Benton City Council have a “good understanding of what they need to do to keep Benton economically viable, but in a lot of communities, the elected officials aren’t as enlightened. I think it is a really smart move to go beyond economic development professionals and provide economic development education to City Council members and justices of the peace.”
Guffey said the UALR program will provide “really aggressive education opportunities” that can benefit government officials.
She will begin her job at UALR on Monday, April 27.
She said she enjoyed working with city employees.
“I have had the privilege of working with the very best people at the city of Benton,” Guffey said. “The employees of the city and Benton Utilities are first-rate and don’t get nearly the praise they deserve. These are really good people, and I will miss every one of them dearly.”
Guffey expressed appreciation to Mayor Rick Holland for “giving me the opportunity to work for the city of Benton.”
As an 18-year-old, Guffey developed an interest in public administration, she said. “I decided then that public administration was the field for me. Mayor Holland gave me a shot at doing this, and I have learned so much from being here.”
Guffey said she is especially proud of several accomplishments that occurred during her years with the city.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is getting the city’s Historic District established and getting downtown on the National Register of Historic Places. We have a great downtown. It’s a very valuable asset to us.”
She’s also pleased that we “got the revisions for the zoning ordinance for manufactured housing” and she hopes that new subdivision revisions regulations will be approved. “I think these are needed,” she said.
Also, she’s pleased that the city has completed its comprehensive plan and master street plan. “And we’ve brought up to date a lot of planning documents that had not been revised revised since the mid-1980s.”
“When I got here, a lot of people didn’t understand why they did what they did,” she said. “We now have a policy and procedures manual that explains the reasons why we ask people to do these things — both employees and citizens.”
Guffey said one of the “most exciting things” that has occurred in recent times is the city’s annexation of the Exit 114 area, which is a prime location for development.
“This was done last summer,” she noted.
In regard to her new job, Guffey said it is exciting to be “in on the ground floor of something and get to help shape it.”
“They are starting from scratch as far as local government officials training is concerned,” she noted.
Five people will be working in the unit, Guffey said. Included are Mark Good-man, who was with the Arkansas Economic Develop-ment Commission and will head the unit; and Ron Swager, who has been the head of the UALR Economic Development Unit and will be becoming a part-time member of the team.
The staff also will include Tonya Has, one of Guffey’s former students at UALR, and Rita Deloney.
Guffey resides in Bauxite with her husband, Stephen, a physical therapist who practices in White Hall and Pine Bluff. The Guffeys have a daughter, Sarah Kinser, 26, a graduate student at UALR, who manages the Web site for the Arkansas Community Foundation and is also a freelance writer; and a son, Daniel, 22, a student at UALR.
Guffey is the daughter of Dean and Ginger Kidd of Benton.
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