Candidates for Bella Vista City Council to face off Dec. 3

BELLA VISTA, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — In Bella Vista, multiple candidates are vying for seats on the Bella Vista City Council after two runoff races were declared. In Ward 1, incumbent councilman Jerry Snow and political new-comer Travis Harp came within 9 percentage points of each other.

In Arkansas, certain nonpartisan elections may trigger a runoff due to a '40/20′ rule. The rule requires that a candidate wins the election by at least 40%, and that the runner-up must be defeated by a margin of at least 20%.

Benton County officially announces runoff elections

According to pending Benton County election results, Jerry Snow gathered 6,198 votes, or 38.40%. However, Travis Harp gathered 4,807, or 29.78%. Two other candidates participated in the race for the Ward 1, Position 1 seat, but did not gather more than 20% of the total vote.

Kim Dennison, the Benton County Election Coordinator, says the election commission expected to see some runoff race across the county.

"We really weren't sure how many, but it was pretty much a given with as many races as we had that had more than two candidates," Dennison said.

Dennison says the runoffs will likely keep the candidates busy for the next couple of weeks as they work to regather their campaigns.

"It's really on the candidates. The candidates need to be out knocking on doors and getting fliers out to those voters in order to bring them out to know that there's an election happening," Dennison said.

Background: Jerry Snow

Councilman Jerry Snow says he has lived in Bella Vista for the past 29 years, and brings a wealth of experience to the table, having already served on the council for three terms, as well as one term on the Benton County Quorum Court.

"I believe I have built up that trust over a period of time," Snow said.

According to Snow, he has a background is in corporate law enforcement, primarily investigating financial crimes for companies like Walmart and Sam's Club. However, he now spends much of his time in his workshop, working with wood or metal, or serving the people of Bella Vista.

"I like the people, and I enjoy serving the people. I think that over the years that I have done that, I have been a representative for the people. Sometimes in the city administration, we forget, or we have a tendency to forget who we work for, and we work for the people," Snow said.

Background: Travis Harp

Travis Harp, who is also vying the city council seat, says he's a lifetime resident of the Northwest Arkansas region, but moved to Bella Vista two years ago to raise his family.

"Whenever I moved here it just immediately felt like home. Immediately felt like a place that we were going to establish roots and really, truly settle down and raise our family," Harp said.

According to Harp, he served five years in the United States Army, including fifteen months of intense combat with the 10th Mountain Division in Eastern Baghdad, Iraq. Harp says he now dedicates his life to public service, which he hopes to translate to the city council.

"I'm the only combat veteran on the ballot. I've served in the Fire and EMS profession for the last 15 years. I'm currently the Director of EMS and Operations for the Gravette Fire Department," Harp said.

Both candidates expressed a wide array of concerns for the city that they would like to see addressed if elected.

Concerns: Jerry Snow

Snow expressed concerns with infrastructure throughout Bella Vista.

"We have grown tremendously. I mean, we face a lot of problems that we're just not prepared to deal with. We've got we got infrastructure problems. We got problems with the the growth that we have experienced, that our infrastructure was just not prepared to deal with," said Snow. "We have 600 miles of streets. We got more miles of streets in Bella Vista than there is in the city of Little Rock, and a lot of those streets are narrow streets, not made for two vehicles to pass without issue."

Snow also expressed concerns about commerce and sales tax revenue.

"We don't have the commercial business base that will supply the sales tax revenue that we need to deal with those issues... I hope that the Blue Crane Group, the Walton Group will be able to somehow assist the city in the future because they own so much property in Bella Vista now, and they're in a position, I believe, to basically control commerce in Bella Vista. I know they have the resources to attract viable businesses to Bella Vista that will produce sales tax revenue that we need," Snow said.

Snow also shared that he would like to see a proper sewage system installed within the city.

"One issue that I've already brought up that is going to be a big issue, and that is a sewer system from Bella Vista. A big percentage of the homes in Bella Vista are on septic systems. I believe at some point that possibly the health department is going to say 'you've reached the saturation point. You're not going to be able to build any more homes in Bella Vista without a sewer system,'" Snow said.

Concerns: Travis Harp

Harp says one of the primary platforms of his campaign is to reduce restrictions and promote freedom in Bella Vista.

"One of my platforms is to empower freedom and avoid excessive government restrictions while maintaining our safe and vibrant community. It's a very beautiful place to live and I want to keep it that way and do my part to keep it that way," Harp said. "For example, the fact that you can't have a white fence is just ridiculous. That's something that the citizens want to be done with, and I would like to help with things like that."

Harp also expressed a desire to promote development.

"I would love to see some more collaboration with the POA, with Cooper Communities, and with Blue Crane now on board. So, I think it's important to develop and establish and maintain positive, good working relationship with them. I think that moving forward, people like myself could bring that to the table a little better so than we've done in the past," Harp said.

He says he would like to see a simplified permitting process in the city, to increase sales tax revenue.

"Another one of my platform ideas is to have a one stop permit shop. A lot of the construction employees, a lot of the business owners, and a lot of the contractors and builders have expressed to me concerns about the overcomplicated permitting system," Harp said. "I think that that's an easy, cheap solution that we can bring to those that want to do business in Bella Vista. I think if we do that, we'll have more development and be able to capture more of the sales tax, because currently I think the numbers show we're only capturing about 10% of sales tax from our residents."

Harp also proposed ideas like enhancing access to recycling, expanding Police, Fire, and EMS services, and tackling the issue of roadkill.

What does each candidate believe differentiates them from the other?

"I think number one, it's going to be experience. I've got a tremendous amount of experience in government, in city government, county government, and government in general. That's something that can only be replaced by more experience or additional experience. Also just a general acquaintance with the people. The number of people that I am acquainted with that I do know, which I would like to think that I got the larger number of votes because of the the people that I am acquainted with that consider me a friend," said Jerry Snow.

"I think the demographics are changing, and I think our representation should, too. I'm the only combat veteran on the ballot. I've served in the Fire and EMS profession for the last 15 years. I'm currently the director of EMS and operations for the Gravette Fire Department, and I think it separates me from from Jerry specifically because that's where the overwhelming majority of our city's budget is allotted to, and that's where I'm a subject matter expert in. So it only makes sense to me to elect someone that can appropriately advocate for those departments," said Travis Harp.

Election Information

Early voting for the runoff races will start on Nov. 26. The official election day is set for Dec 3.

A full list of runoff races and voting locations can be found here .