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Rogers Native becomes Jonesboro City Planner

City of Jonesboro

The City of Jonesboro has hired Derrel Smith as the new City Planner. 

On Tuesday, the city announced that Smith was hired to replace long time city planner Otis Spriggs who stepped down in June to work in Huston, TX.  

54-year-old Smith retired from serving as the city planner for the city of Rogers after 22 years.  In an official statement, he said he wanted to go back to being a city planner after he “realized how much he missed it.” 

In Rogers, Smith supervised the city’s planning department while managing a $1 million budget and 11 employees. 

According to the City of Jonesboro, Smith has experience in many projects involving streets, wayfinding signage, downtown revitalization, and lighting.  

Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perin released the following statement in regards to Smith being hired:

I feel wonderful because I believe we have found a city planner in Derrel with 20 years’ experience in one of the state’s fastest growing communities.  In a city experiencing the growth that Jonesboro has been seeing, you have to have a city planner who can expect the unexpected. Losing Otis worried me, because he was so good at his job. But everything I’ve heard about Derrel is complimentary, and I’m excited to have him coming on board.

His first day at work is August 15.

A Northeast Arkansas native from Wynne, I’ve been involved with radio for about 15 years. I got my Bachelor of Arts degree from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, where I also served as an award-winning News Director for 2 years at KSWH-LP.