Editor’s note: This is the third in a series about Mark Simmons’ impact to bring an airport to Northwest Arkansas. Simmons, along with other prominent businessmen, worked to overcome challenges and opposition to bring Northwest Arkansas National Airport to the area.
The Northwest Arkansas Council formed in 1990 with three key objectives: widening Highway 412 from Springdale through Siloam Springs to connect with the Cherokee Turnpike to Tulsa, completing U.S. 71 to link Kansas City to Shreveport, La., and building a regional airport. The last of the three was the most controversial.
Since the formation of the council was initiated by Sam Walton, Don Tyson and J.B. Hunt, some complained the new airport’s only purpose was to benefit big business. This belief gained strength when the earliest discussions suggested the airport would primarily service cargo though the emphasis shifted to passenger service in less than a year.
Mark Simmons, who served on the council’s board for nearly 30 years, remembered discussions about building a 12,000 foot runway to allow for freighters from China. “We thought the airport would have to be economically justified by cargo,” he said. “As it turned out, passenger traffic was more than enough to justify the airport.”
Other concerns are captured in a short letter a Fayetteville resident wrote to Senator David Pryor. “The air and noise pollution…would destroy our beautiful Ozarks,” she wrote. “Not to mention higher taxes.” Another worry was that major change was being brought to Northwest Arkansas without public consent. Opponents called for a referendum on the airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration had been very encouraging since 1990, and it was clear that civic leadership throughout the region supported the airport. Each of Northwest Arkansas’ five principal cities — Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville and Siloam Springs, as well as Washington and Benton counties — selected two representatives to serve on the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority. Siloam Springs’ representatives were Simmons (Simmons Industries) and Bill Foreman (Franklin Electric). By early 1992, the FAA said further funding for the airport project depended on a show of public support.
The authority set the vote to coincide with the national election of Nov. 3, 1992. While ballots asked residents whether their jurisdiction should maintain membership within the authority, the question at hand was widely interpreted as simply whether voters were for or against the airport.
Unlike the vote in 1969, residents were not asked to pay new taxes. The authority vowed the airport would be paid for by a combination of government and private sources, and if tax revenues were eventually needed, none would be raised without public approval.
An internal challenge the authority faced was that its first chairman was ambitious, hardworking and, by all accounts, aggressive. Simmons remembered one event at Tontitown where a verbal confrontation between a critic and the chairman threatened to come to blows. This was no way to win an election. The authority tapped Simmons to take over as chairman.
“I don’t know how many town meetings I went to that involved that election,” Simmons said. In the months before the vote, he responded to concerns, met with opponents, countered negative letters to the editor, and, in a time before the Internet, ensured information was available to the public at libraries and community centers.
In the meantime, Simmons presided over discussions about airport site selection, attended meetings in Texas with the FAA, met with leaders in Fayetteville concerned about the future of Drake Field and helped raise $16,000 to fund an environmental study. He was at the board’s helm when federally protected Ozark blind cave fish were found in a stream near the airport site, which meant seeking measures to safeguard the fish to the satisfaction of the FAA and Environmental Protection Agency.
On the day of the vote, Simmons said most people living in Northwest Arkansas believed the region needed an airport “that can handle jets and enter the modern era of air transportation.” The ballot numbers proved him correct. Siloam Springs approved of the airport with a vote of 81.5%, the highest of all the cities. Given the threat to Drake Field, it wasn’t a surprise that the positive vote in Fayetteville was lower — 70.8% — though still convincing. Overall, support for the airport proposal came in at 74%.
After the vote, Simmons said he had always been confident the region’s residents wanted a new airport, though, following numerous exchanges with opponents he was not aware that the level of support was as high as it was. “I think the FAA is going to view this as a mandate to fund this airport for the people of Northwest Arkansas who need it,” he said. “It looks to me like, finally, after all these years, an airport may be built.”
And, of course, it was. The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport opened for business in November 1998.
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