GUEST COLUMN | Growing Rogers deserves continued investment

You get used to the hum of Northwest Arkansas, but when the grid goes down, the city gets quiet. It was two full weeks. That’s how long it took for power to flicker back on in the neighborhood I call home after the tornado tore through Rogers last year. Trees had fallen so thick on the roadways that we couldn’t even get out to get gas. Fences were scattered across lawns like discarded toys, and nearby homes were eventually marked for demolition.

Living in Rogers means watching the skyline change. Whole Foods is open in the Pinnacle area attracting big crowds, and the Hooters on Pinnacle Boulevard has become a late-night staple for many after UAFS football games. But that growth creates pressure on the infrastructure we all rely on. When the twister hit, it exposed exactly how fragile those systems are when pushed to their limits.

We’re all seeing the same thing: Rogers is expanding, and that brings a mix of excitement and exhaustion. New developments pop up, and the population shifts, but the basics—the roads, the power poles, the storm drains—don’t always keep pace with the pace of development. My street was a mess for months. We spent one Friday evening shoveling six inches of water off our driveway just so we could drive two blocks down to a neighbor’s house.

Recovery looks different in Rogers than it might in a smaller town. Here, we’ve got a workforce that moves fast and a community that rallies when things get ugly. While people were clearing wreckage from their driveways, donors stepped up to make sure the food banks had enough stock. The recent community drives in Rogers showed just how much neighbors will bleed for each other when disaster strikes. Local contributions kept the shelves stocked when the supply chains got jammed up, proving that the secret sauce

Source: NWA Democrat Gazette