Editor’s note: This is part of a series of profiles of the alderman on the Bryant City Council.
By Martin Couch
Bryant’s Ward 4 City Council member Brenda Miller is no stranger to Saline County government or serving Bryant.
Twelve years ago, Miller signed on with the Bryant City Planning Commission under Mayor Paul Halley and served for 10 years. She also served 18 years in Saline County government in the assessor’s office and now is finishing a term since December on the City Council for a departed councilman.[more]
“I enjoy serving people,” Miller said. “I like trying to help people find them a good school and that’s the reason I served on the Bryant School Board for five years. I think Bryant is the place to live and raise a family. I am committed to serving, so we can grow our community. I love this town and that’s basically why I want to serve the people.”
The Council elected Miller to serve out the remainder of a term when a councilman moved out of state and she has plans to run again for the position in the fall.
“I would like to continue to serve the people and if they elect me I will continue to work for them,” Miller said.
And Miller stays in touch with all aspects of Bryant, especially Bishop Park.
“We have a lot of meetings and things going on in Bryant,” she said. “The new park is going to be phenomenal. I toured the building once and it’s unbelievable what we’re going to have, as well as huge tournaments that it will bring into the area.”
Miller wants to continue to help bring those types of revenue-making, family-oriented places to Bryant.
“I also serve them as far as coordinating the traffic,” she said. “We do have some issues with the one-way service roads to get the traffic circulating through the city. We want to get people to Bryant as comfortable as we possibly can and we need commerce to come to the area.”
Miller touts the Bryant Chamber of Commerce for doing a “fantastic” job in bringing in commerce and promoting the city on a daily basis.
“Everything is right here in Bryant and it’s convenient,” Miller said. “I love how it’s progressed, and other businesses look at that data. We can draw from a customer base of 54,000, because of the surrounding area and that’s why businesses are looking at this area.”
However, there are concerns that Miller noted.
“When I served on the planning commission and now on the city council, it has always been the drainage of Hurricane Creek and that area of the Bryant,” she said. “We have a lot of water flow and more drainage issues, but we have a full-time engineer who looks at these issues and recommends where we need to invest our money to take care of them. Those are concerns that the people have.
“We have a fantastic fire department as well as a police department,” Miller continued. “Safety and fire issues are there like they are in some other communities. We are solid. We just need the money to take care of our drainage from Westpointe all the way to Bishop Park.”
Miller noted that the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department will replace a small bridge at Forest Drive in 2011 and grants the city will receive as of July 1 will go to help take care of the problems on Rodeo Drive.
“I think the water drainage is the main issue,” Miller said. “Of course, we want more and more commerce and more traffic circulation and those things are understandable and the Council and the Mayor have set aside grants for our urban development.”
