State of the City address

Greenland, AR 

February 2024

By Mayor Jim Renfrow

This is the beginning of my second year as your Mayor in Greenland. I am happy to report today that our city is doing extremely well and is growing with new residents and new businesses daily. The city is financially sound and in fact we are soon to move forward on a more than $7 million-dollar wastewater expansion project that will open up more opportunity for growth in our city. 

In 2023 we issued nearly 150 new permits for residences and businesses while this year 2024 is looking to exceed that number easily. We currently have three large scale developments under review by our planning commission which will provide a new neighborhood of 400 plus homes and more retail sales spaces in our city. We have a new gas station set to begin construction very soon and many other businesses just opened in our industrial area on Lillie Ave.  We have several new food trucks operating inside the city limits due to creating our new mobile vendor code, and we have a new restaurant scheduled to open very soon. This is just the start of the growth we expect to see in the next year. 

The focus of my city administration has been to enable business owners in Greenland by making the pathway to starting and running a business in our city much easier than it has been in years past. Through much hard work by our city staff, including our city attorney, city recorder/ treasurer, city engineer company, and the city planning commission, we have adjusted the permit processes and fees for services to be more inline with business needs, less time to obtain those permits, and less paperwork. Now more than ever before are the goals to include a cleaner, safer, and more robust city to best serve our citizens.

Several items completed (or near completion) are our Master Bike trail Plan to connect Mount Kessler Park to our Greenland Nature Park on the White River, with a soon to be built Arkansas Game and Fish Commission parking lot, a kayak river entrance, and a fishing rock platform. We have repaired many roads in the city and are soon to receive an Arkansas State funded road improvement overlay for $300k set for execution in 2024. We also have a plan to annex some currently state funded roads and trade the main Wilson Street portion to ARDOT for them to maintain that road area, which will save city residents money in road improvements. There are new utility improvements to Taylor Park underway with electricity and heat to be added to the restrooms for year-round use by park users. In addition, improvements were made to the parking area of the city baseball fields and community center.

With all of the forward momentum, I feel that this year is going to be a great turning point for our city. With island annexations already completed, and two new annexations in the upcoming election, we should add 500 or more new residents to our city. This is an exciting time to be your Mayor and I appreciate you electing me to office. I look forward to the next few years serving as your mayor. 

Mayor Jim Renfrow

City of Greenland