Meeting the Manager
/Jay Ellington, new Arkansas city manager, begins to make his mark on Texarkana
by PEYTON SIMS
photo by PEYTON SIMS
While visiting Glacier National Park, Jay enjoyed the rugged mountains and pristine forests.
Despite a city line that lies between Texas and Arkansas, nothing can divide us –– and our new city manager is determined to live by these words. On June 1, 2021, Jay Ellington officially took the title as the Texarkana Arkansas City Manager. Coming from Ruston, Louisiana, Jay is ready to embrace the changes that come from moving town to town.
“Texarkana is probably as close to my roots as I could come back to. I’ve kind of worked my way up through department heads and administrative management so this position fits my career,” he said. “Ruston is about the same size community of around 30,000-35,000. It has two universities, Louisiana Tech and Grambling State, so it probably has a little higher student population there than what we have here in Texarkana.”
Jay with his wife, Kathy, at Yellowstone National Park.
It’s no surprise that a city won’t change for the better all on its own. Through his years of experience, Jay hopes to enrich the city of Texarkana like he’s already done in many other locations throughout his career. “With Ruston being a vibrant city that’s doing something new while attracting people to the area, that helped me be able to manage some big projects for them,” he said. “One was a big sports complex development, and I’ve done some contracts for other capital projects for the city, so I just know on the Arkansas side especially we’ve got some challenges in making our revenues go as far as we can. I’ve had some good experience of working with underfunded services and trying to figure out what’s the best way to utilize what we have.”
Before packing his bags for Texarkana, Jay didn’t hesitate to put his family first. Knowing that his family won’t be but a short drive away made this job that much more ideal. “What attracted me to Texarkana is probably the close-to-home relationships. I’ve got family in Shreveport as well as other places in Louisiana. My wife has family in North Louisiana also, so being this close to home and being able to apply my management trade is another factor that attracted me to this area. Being able to work with multiple partners and governmental agencies is probably one of my strengths. I just love the uniqueness of this city by itself.”
Jay in Virginia with his granddaughter, Landry Burns, and daughter-in-law, Teri Ellington.
With any new job that requires a family to relocate and head out of state comes the expected hassles of trying to make a new place feel like home. “My family has always had to follow me around the country. I had to move my kids in high school to other places, so they weren’t really happy with me at first. My oldest son actually moved up here also. My other two children are in northern Virginia with their families and our grandkids,” Jay said. “We’ll be getting back and forth to northern Virginia every once in a while, but we have a nice airport here, and we’re building a nice new terminal, so we’re going to jump on a plane and get to Virginia when we need to.”
While only holding the position of city manager for a little over a month, Jay knows the importance of bringing our entire community together –– because in the end, this mindset can certainly pay off. “My favorite part about my new job so far has been getting to know the people and beginning to create relationships with our partners and our citizens,” Jay said. “We have all been trying to provide the best level of service we can. I would say the future of our city is bright and that we have all types of opportunities in front of us. We just have to figure out the best way to get there.”