Shelman, hired in the middle of the summer, now has an office in City Hall where his walls display a set of antlers (eight points), a couple crosses and two plaques won in a Texas Team Trail fishing tournament. One of them says Big Bass.
Shelman has certainly caught a big one, though, in winning his job in Hope. He knows this is a chance to take in experience with the full spectrum of ways a small city is run. “It'll take a while to fully understand it. It's not a job you just learn in two or three days or three weeks. It takes a while to really sit down and just absorb all the many different things that go on within a city,” he said earlier this week.
But if anyone is prepared for the job of helping City Manager J.R. Wilson manage Hope, it is Shelman. He brought with him over 14 years of state government experience, most recently superintending at White Oak Lake State Park.
Before all this, Shelman was born in Arkansas and raised in Magnet Cove, a town with a population in 2020 of 692, slightly to the south southeast of Hot Springs along Highway 270. His mom was an art teacher in Hot Springs and his father a mechanical engineer with Lockheed Martin.
“Magnet Cove is a neat little small town, one store across the road from the school,” Shelman said “[It had] all the typical sports and such. Agri is big. [I took] some agri classes and learn[ed] the welding and different things. It's just typical small town USA.”
He was always aware of the city next door, though, even making it a point to know its history and culture. “I grew up going to Hot Springs. I pretty well [became] immersed in the history of Hot Springs. The gangster museum tells the story pretty well, Al Capone and so forth. Everybody came down there to bathe in the Hot Springs waters. And I grew up around the lakes there as well. We frequently went over to Lake Catherine and had a little summer recreation there.”
When he was in school, Shelman did take part in junior high band, but mainly focused on a job. “Instead of extracurricular activities, I went to work, and we needed money at the time, and so my dad and I would do odd and end jobs after school and weekends and stuff when I was younger, until I was old enough to go and get my own jobs, and when I started into college, I worked jobs and internships that went along with my degree,” Shelman said, adding that one of his jobs was with the City of Hot Springs, in the city’s recreation department.
“My first government job was a city job, as a matter of fact. I didn't know at the time, but I was learning a lot about how everything works with municipalities and government,” he said. “The internship was at the ball fields … So we managed money and organized softball tournaments and maintained the fields and properties and ordered products.” He also saw how his department connected with the sanitation and street departments.
After high school graduation and starting at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Shelman began to focus on a career running recreation departments. The coursework for this ranged widely among differing subject areas. “A lot of the classes were accounting management and some psychology and things like that, and then a bunch of other classes tied back to recreation and parks management, which included things like land improvements and just various things. And it all seemed very interesting to me,” he said. The courses did not just include management of employees but also management of people enjoying the parks and recreation facilities.
With college education at the time, and today, often assigning large-scale projects, Shelman was involved in an effort to redesign a part of the DeGray Lake Park. “We designed what could have been a future campground or swimming area, an improved area of the lake,” he said.
After graduating from Henderson on a Friday, he started a new job on a Monday as a seasonal ranger at Lake Ouachita. In that position, Shelman said, “That introduced me to emergency services.” Shelman found himself learning a lot in a hurry. “We went to police academy over here at East Camden. We did emergency medical response, law enforcement, some fire protection, wildlife fire protection, operating emergency boats and swift water rescue.’
From there, Shelman took a position as Park Ranger in Hempstead County, namely Washington, Arkansas, where he would undergo a kind of postgraduate education, including formal training in park management and more: “That's where I really got the bulk of my initial training in the government world. I managed everything from emergency services to a restaurant and maintenance crew, major maintenance, capital outlay stuff, all that, all that fun stuff. And of course, special events. Everybody knows it for the jonquil festivals.”
Next, in 2015 another lake job came open and Shelman took it, this time at Lake Catherine, which he already knew well from childhood trips there. “I was there for about three years as a park ranger. that park is just a few miles from my home, childhood home, and there I was [in]primary emergency response and marina operations as well.”
After serving a couple years, 2018 and 2019 as an Assistant Superintendent at Cossatot River State Park, Shelman became superintendent at White Oak Lake State Park near Bluff City. “That was my first park as superintendent. So I oversaw the whole operation,” he said. Park management, Shelman said, has a similarity to town management. “It's like running a small city. It has all the different tasks and areas and departments in a park that you have in the city. You get your wastewater and utilities and stores and little economy almost just within the park.”
In addition, Shelman served as the president of the board of directors of the Upper White Oak Fire Department, learning about compliance with state requirements and applying for and winning state financing grants. He was also involved in response to fires.
When he saw the ad this past spring from the City of Hope that called for applications for the position of assistant city manager, Shelman looked at the job as a logical next step. “This is a continuance of the direction I've been going with within government work and management, and I enjoy being able to work with the people and make decisions that benefit people,” he said.
Shelman was awarded the job of assistant manager in June and began his duties in July. He still says he has a lot to learn. “Day one I didn’t know we had a railroad that the city maintains. We’ve been visiting with them out there at New Millenium. It’s an important part of economic development.”
At the first Hope City Board meeting he attended, the main issue could not have been more momentous as it concerned whether or not the city would see its only hospital, Wadley Regional Medical Center, close due to the bankruptcy of its parent company, Steward Health.
“This hospital's been, you know, a big talk since I've been on board and but it's real great to see how the city and county come together and trying to work together to move this thing forward,” Shelman said, referring to the plan for Hope and Hempstead County to purchase the hospital’s real estate while Pafford Health Systems buys its license to operate. (At present the bankruptcy judge’s approval of the deal hinges on how a lawsuit filed by Steward against MPT, the current real estate owner, is decided.) Shelman added that though the decision is a heavy one, at least it gives him a chance to learn how an issue of that size is handled on the city level.
He is gaining a sense, too, of the other opportunities that Hope has for making its citizens’ lives better including one that will be on the ballot November 5th. Citizens will be able to choose whether to approve a one-cent sales tax to fund a new fire department headquarters, an aquatic rec center with both indoor and outdoor pools and major improvements to the city’s park facilities. Shelman said that he was excited by the possibilities and is confident Hope citizens will make good use of the parks and recreation upgrades.
At present, he’s involved in the planning of a marketing campaign so that Hope voters will not be surprised or put on the spot when they see the ballot items. “We want them to know ahead of time what it is, but it's this aquatic center, recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools and tennis courts, walking track inside of it. It's state of the art. It's going to be really nice.”
Shelman wants to dispel the myth that the sales tax is three cents because of the three ballot items voters must approve. In fact, the three ballot items are as follows, 1) a 7/8 cent tax for the construction of a new fire station, 2) a 7/8 cent tax for the approval of a new recreation facility and wide array of park and recreation improvements and 3) a 1/8 cent parks and recreation operating expense support tax. The three ballot items have a maximum increase of 1%. The fire station improvement and recreation facility will share the 7/8 cent sales tax until they sunset at payoff. The 1/8 cent tax would only be levied if the recreation center and parks improvement items are approved.
Shelman also wanted to emphasize an important date for Hope voters: “People that want to vote-- they need to register by October 7th. That's the last day you can register. This is for the general election this year, which will have the presidential election on it. So we expect a high voter turnout.”
Shelman got to preside over this year’s Watermelon Festival in the stead of City Manager J.R. Wilson, who was on vacation during those days. But Shelman was able to report to the city board Tuesday evening that the festival went well. An attempt by a local deer to interrupt the softball tournament was the only major flaw in an operation Shelman compared to a well-oiled machine.
The city board meetings are valuable, Shelman said, because the city directors “ask questions about what's the best method, or best path forward and appropriate, responsible use of funds, public funds, and make sure they’re going to benefit the public.”
For city government, there are seasons and the fall will be the season for generating next calendar year’s budget. On Shelman’s desk, in fact, was budget-related material. “I've been working with JR [Wilson] and Cindy [Clark], our finance director and learning the ropes and different funding sources and expenses and how it's all pushed together into one document to present to the board for approval this winter,” he said.
Meanwhile, at home, Shelman lives with a Hope native, his wife Heather Shelman, who he met while working at Washington. She teaches English at Yerger Middle School. They share a son, Tripp. Asked whether the two watch the city board meetings, Shelman said “She likes to watch along from the house.” If they attended in person, though, it might be more difficult. “We have to bring the boy with us, and a couple hours of sitting in a room, it's hard for a eight-year-old boy,” Shelman said.
At these meetings, attendees are often struck by the sheer amount of granular knowledge city managers draw on in presenting options to city board members. Shelman said he is trying to get there himself. Fortunately, he has a good mentor. “You need to be fluent in so many different things and have answers on the spot? That's one of the reasons you just don't learn this job overnight. You've got to be immersed in it for a while to really be able to answer those questions. J.R. has been wonderful. He's got a plan. He's giving me little doses and trying to, trying to develop a good foundation. And he's a good teacher,” Shelman said.
For now, Shelman has taken on the roles of human resources director and safety director and he looks forward to learning more. “We'll get there. It's been a fun ride so far, and I’ve met a lot of great people. The people of hope have been amazing,” he said.
