History

John A. Cooper established Cherokee Village in 1954. In 1969, Cooper was instrumental in forming the Cherokee Village Suburban Improvement District to provide fire security protection service, to provide, operate and maintain recreational facilities and to maintain the area's streets and roads. Empowered under the laws of the state of Arkansas, the District's Board of Commissioners assessed annual levies against property parcels to ensure the ability of the District to meet its maintenance obligations.
In 1994, a group of military veterans “kaffee klatched” weekly at the “Copper Feather”, long a lounge-restaurant serving-as-meeting room adjacent to Town Center. Discussions centered around perceived denied citizens’ rights unavailable because of the lack of a representative governing body to address these concerns.
Interest generated by rumor began to attract others to the meetings. Attendance grew and interest in the idea of a ‘government’ swelled. Several savvy citizens began to talk “incorporation.” The idea caught hold and the citizens formed a group initially labeled the “Concerned Citizens Committee.”
To give the group legitimacy, those involved volunteered to serve as officers for the group and the officers, in addition to appointing a board of directors and committees, solicited the aid of attorney Mark R. Johnson. Johnson helped the group obtain 501-C-3 status as a corporation and on December 14, 1995, the Concerned Citizens Committee and Board of Directors became a reality. The CCC elected Lou Pote as committee chairman. Bob Lauer served as vice-chair, Bill Rich assumed treasurer duties, and Dick Ahlers recorded activities as secretary and Jake Bustad rounded up Murray Rudd and Bill Raymond to ensure that the committee would grow through memberships and donations. Marge Rogers took on the responsibility of board chairman.
 Organizational committees evolved over a series of meetings with the officers. Oral Henderson, Everret (“Ev”) Compton, Marge Rogers and Bob Lauer took on overall planning for all the committees to ensure coordination of efforts in the quest for incorporation.
Since the effort would eventually have to involve every single citizen residing within the boundaries of Cherokee Village, Marge Rogers, Kate Dettling and Paul Eastman began identifying residents with the aid of Sharp and Fulton County voter registration lists. To cover costs incurred – legal, advertising, supplies – Tom Thompson, Jim Boehmler and Jerry Knapp sought donations under the auspices of a “Finance Committee.” A legal committee comprised of Jake Bustad, Bill Raymond and Murray Rudd worked as liaison between the board and the attorney. Oral Henderson, Ev Compton and Louisa Relyea worked on documenting all the paperwork required to avoid glitches in the process to meet state and county requirements for this endeavor.
Three volunteers who unselfishly contributed countless hours, a great effort, indomitable spirit, boundless enthusiasm and support to their fellow team members, passed away during or shortly after the incorporation project. Everett Compton, Paul Eastman and Murray Rudd are memorialized with a plaque and three Bradford pear trees located in the parkway at Town Center.
To solicit citizen signatures on a petition for presentation to the Sharp and Fulton County Judges, Frank Arnold (Sharp) and Curren Everett (Fulton), the committee began drafting a White Paper based on a format used by another Cooper Community seeking incorporation, Bella Vista, in northwest Arkansas in its attempt to incorporate. The paper explained what would be required to incorporate, what the results of incorporation would mean for the citizens and for the existing governing entity, the Cherokee Village Suburban Improvement District 1, how the city would finance itself, and what benefits of incorporation would accrue should incorporation become a reality.
As the White Paper developed, Board Chairman Marge Rogers solicited the assistance of the Arkansas Municipal League and the Fairfield Bay (AR) mayor who had recently engineered the incorporation of that community. Don Zimmerman, director, Arkansas Municipal League met with the CCC membership and detailed the goals the board would have to meet to qualify for consideration by Sharp and Fulton counties. Paul Mueller, mayor, Fairfield Bay, worked with the committees to steer them through the maze of legal demands and to encourage them with ‘war stories’ developed during the incorporation of Fairfield Bay. Several committees also met with Mueller on his own turf to receive guidance on petition efforts and on future city committees should the Village incorporation occur. Henderson interviewed county and state agency officials to compile the information detailing the impact that the counties and state agencies would have on an incorporated city. Lauer and Henderson assembled the paper for presentation at community meetings and at signature gathering efforts.
When the Board of Directors decided that the White Paper answered everyone’s questions satisfactorily and that sufficient numbers of signatures petitioning incorporation were documented, the formal request for incorporation took place at Omaha Center on December 20, 1996 before both the Sharp and Fulton County Judges. Attorney Mark Johnson and John Shamburger, Fairfield Bay, represented petitioners while County Clerks Tommy Estes (Sharp) and Gene Maguffee (Fulton) were on hand at the request of the County Judges (Frank Arnold, Sharp; Curren Everett, Fulton).
On January 31, 1997, Fulton County Judge Curren Everett signed a court order stating that there were no impediments in the petition to incorporate. Cherokee Village West was born. Elections produced a mayor, Marjorie A. Rogers, a city clerk, Susan Maynard and a council comprised of Fritz Lorentzen, Hobie Weisman, Jay Torbit, Buddy White and Allen Maxedon.
On February 6, 1997, Sharp County Judge Frank Arnold denied the petitioners and Cherokee Village resident Jack Campbell filed suit in Fulton County District Court against the incorporation.
Cherokee Village resident Pat Just took the reins as Chair of the Concerned Citizens Committee and mobilized the finance committee to garner funds for attorney fees. Attorney Mark Johnson successfully defended the lawsuit in Fulton County and this cleared the way for Cherokee Village West to proceed with the annexation of the Sharp County portion of the Village over the protests of the Sharp County Judge who had no legal remedies to prevent the process from happening. A subsequent vote for annexation (with Cherokee Village West and the annexed citizens in Sharp County participating) made the city of Cherokee Village a unified city on April 28, 1998. Sharp County Judge Frank Arnold signed the court order on April 30. In November of the same year, another election named Marjorie Rogers as mayor, Susan Maynard as clerk, and the council was expanded to include wards determined by census statistics for the entire city. The council increased from five to eight (with two persons representing each ward, at large) and the following took seats at the council table: Tom Paul, Ray Torbit, Dan Dennis, Roger Radebaugh, Jay Torbit, Joe Waggoner, Louisa Relyea and Marty Betz. Shortly after the council formed, Joe Waggoner resigned and Chuck Bartlett volunteered to serve the remainder of the term.
After both the mayor’s kitchen and an office space at the Tri-County Regional Waste Facility had served as “city hall” for several months, the city leased space in Town Center and city hall re-located to space previously occupied by Boatmen’s Bank in February 1999. Excitement and energy caught on and the mayor’s wise and aggressive leadership, along with an enthusiastic, dedicated and supportive council established twice monthly meetings. These efforts produced committees to address immediate needs of planning and zoning, roads, police, animal control and airport affiliation. (The Cherokee Village airport, managed by a regional authority comprised of the cities of Highland, Cherokee, Ash Flat and Sharp County, was located within city limits). After he financed his own training and certification, the city hired Tom Hrezo as building inspector to ensure that building codes and city ordinances were maintained.
 During the year 2000, the city hired Larry Smith, Horseshoe Bend, as the first police chief, commanding a force comprised of a lieutenant and four patrolmen to satisfy state statutes as a city of the first class with a population of 4,868. Cherokee Village became the largest city among the three counties of Sharp, Fulton and Izard counties. Shortly thereafter, city coffers were enriched through the establishment and fine collection system of a municipal court. Sharp County Attorney Kevin King contracted to serve as Judge while Dora Lee Schaffert and Wally Schultz volunteered as court clerks. Police department reserve officers, also volunteers, served as bailiffs.
In April 2000, the mayor, clerk, council, police department and building inspector moved into new quarters. Town Center’s defunct and vacant grocery store became the property of the city after the council negotiated a purchase price with developer Eben Daggett.
Hours and hours of volunteer labor preceded the move. Once the grocery store components were gutted and electrical, telephone and HVAC installed, and dividing walls put in place, along with add-on windows, an army of volunteers invaded the premises and completed the remodeling. As many as 15-20 people at a time were sanding, sawing and painting to put on the finishing touches. Office spaces for the mayor, city council room, police department offices, committee work rooms, map and file rooms, storage spaces, new restrooms, building inspector’s office, reception area, clerk’s office and court clerk’s office all melded into the finished product. The mayor’s staff capped the project by decorating the building throughout. Innumerable hours of labor and a few hefty donations made city hall the showplace of Town Center. The Grand Opening – an open house – was an historic event.
Other accomplishments during the term of the first mayor and council included several miles of repaved roads, flood plain maps for insurance purposes, tourism promotion efforts and the establishment of a senior citizens center to provide twice weekly meals at Thunderbird Recreation Center.
With the 2002 election year, an era ended and the city entered into a new phase under new management.
Between 1999 and 2004, the city assumed SID's responsibility for security, fire protection and road maintenance. Because the city has a first class rating (by reason of population) and is mandated to have, t a minimum, a city marshal, the SID security staff evolved in the Cherokee Village Police Department in 1999. Later, through contractual arrangements that included subsidy payments from SID property assessments, the city assumed responsibility for the fire department and road maintenance. Personnel in both departments became city employees.
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