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- [00:02]
A
Hello and welcome to arnet, the show that shines a light on the trailblazers, game changers and hardworking heroes driving Arkansas forward. From bold entrepreneurs to community champions, we bring the stories that inspire and ignite progress. Now here's your host, David Bratton.
- [00:28]
B
Hello and welcome everybody to the ARNET podcast. I am out here. I brought the Mallard Island Lawn Service mobile studios out here to the beautiful Woodlawn Ranch. And my guest today is Mike Verkler. Mike is running for Lonoke county or Lonoke County Judge.
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A
Yes, sir.
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B
There you go. Mike, how you doing today?
- [00:51]
A
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.
- [00:52]
B
Absolutely. I appreciate you coming on the show.
- [00:54]
A
Absolutely. I always like love to engage with a. With our citizens and friends.
- [00:58]
B
Yes, sir. Hey, for our listeners, I know you, but for our listeners, tell them a little bit about yourself, a little history about you.
- [01:06]
A
You bet. I been in Cabot most of my life. My dad was a military career military. So we traveled occasionally. I've always kept a home here. Long Camp was always our home. So grew up here. Was a senior in high school the year the tornado hit, 1976. I remember that and destroyed our town and our. And loss of life and everything. But the Cabot started growing at that point and so graduated from Cabot and went to Arkansas State University at Jonesboro with intentions of going to law school. And it didn't take me long to realize that that just wasn't my path. I took the classes, got a pre law degree, turned into a criminal justice degree and was ready to get in the work field rather than going to higher education. Went back and got associate degree in agriculture which I use a lot now on my farm. But. And from there I went to the Little Rock Police Department and best choice ever made. I had three job offers when I come out of college as a federal railroad agent, which required me to go to East St. Louis in Chicago and for six years. And so that was a, that was a no for me. State police. I went as far as taking a physical with them. I got hired by the state police. I got offered a job and my choices were Warren and West Memphis.
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B
Oh wow.
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A
And I was such a home, homebody. I didn't want to leave home. Long County.
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B
Right.
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A
And so Little Rock police offered me a job. I'd already been to police academy. Not bragging, but finished first my class. And so I was getting ready to go to Little Rock Police and start on the street with a field training officer and they decided they were going to have a rookie school. So I went ahead and went to Little Rock police academy also. 20 weeks. And at the time I was like, I'm already certified. I wish I didn't have to go anymore school, but met some great friends, lifelong friendships, and so very glad. I went to Little Rock Police Academy also.
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B
Oh, absolutely.
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A
Spent 28 years there. One of the best wonderful years of my life.
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B
And what year do you retire?
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A
I regret in 2010.
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B
Okay.
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A
And once I was there working just about every division there was, and. But one of my callings was to be a voice for those who don't have a voice a lot of times. And so I joined the Fraternal Order of Police, which is a police union, and. And served for many years there. The longest serving president served seven terms, consecutive terms as the president of fop. Right. And proud to say I represented the most brave men and women you'll ever meet in your life.
- [03:43]
B
Oh, 100%. I believe that for sure.
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A
And great organization. Someone said when I left there in 2010, which was my, my retirement, 28, I could have stayed a lot longer. Why did you leave? I said, I'm leaving cause I love the job. Someone said, that makes no sense. You, you got a car, you drive home, you got weekends off, you got day shift, you got a wonderful squad of people that works or around you. I said, that's the reason I'm leaving. I want to leave. While I love the job, so many people leave a career and like, I can't wait to leave. I got so many days left. I left when I absolutely loved it.
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B
Right.
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A
And I wanted to do something else in my life also. I wanted to cowboy and ranch and, and look at other fields. And so I don't regret leaving. I. I enjoyed my career immensely, though.
- [04:28]
B
Oh, yes, I agree. I know you and I work together. I came on in 2001, I went over to the motorcycle squad. And of course you were in Hit and Run, but it was traffic services, and we worked side by side together. That was some of the best times of my life.
- [04:47]
A
Mine too. What a brotherhood and sisterhood. The policing has changed a lot in America and Arkansas, particularly in Little Rock particular. But it's still a bunch of dedicated men and women that we can be proud of.
- [05:03]
B
Oh, absolutely. Now, tell me what a lot of people get confused when they hear county judge. Tell us, what does the office you're running for? The county judge. What. What does a county judge do?
- [05:16]
A
Well, there's. There's circuit judges and there's county judges. A circuit judge is a law judge. They have a Law degree and they hear chancery, juvenile, criminal cases, all the, all the courts that they can put you in jail or adjudicate sentencing for child custody or land disputes or probate, stuff like that. But the county judge, the best way to describe it is kind of the mayor of the county.
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B
Okay.
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A
So the county judge's duties are they're in charge of all county buildings and equipment, regardless if it's the sheriff's officer, the clerk or the assessor or the collector. All those offices, all those equipment falls under the jurisdiction of the county judge. And so they're required responsible for replacing those for insurance claims or whatever. They administrate all that. And then the county judge itself, the office itself has the solid waste management, 911 mapping system, of course, the office staff, the janitorial staff for the whole county, all the buildings and probably the. And it has the emergency management falls on that division and then road department, which is the biggest, that has the most work required and the biggest budget.
- [06:37]
B
Okay, so you're basically. You said the mayor. I'm going to refer it to the CEO. You're basically the CEO of the entire county.
- [06:43]
A
Yeah. Now, you're not in charge of the elected officials in their office like the clerk and the treasurer and assessor, collector, sheriff, coroner. They have their own staff. They're elected just like you are by the people. They don't answer to the county judge. They run their own office. And then you have the quorum court that does budgets and ordinances to allocate the money at different areas. And each department head turns in a budget request, including a county judge that's approved by the quorum court. And then you administrate your elected office.
- [07:16]
B
Gotcha. Okay, well, I know a lot of people online get that confused when they see the name judge, the word judge. You know, I've seen them ask about criminal cases. I'm like, you know, it really doesn't work that way. I think people just need to hear, what does the county judge do?
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A
Well, the fact it's got judge, it can be confusing.
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B
Right.
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A
There is cases where right aways easements, land disputes. The county just hears some of those cases.
- [07:44]
B
Sure.
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A
And of course does his research. The good thing is you got a staff of attorneys through the Arkansas association of Counties that are well versed on anything that may come up. If you can think of it's happened somewhere in Arkansas. So you got a staff of attorneys to advise you. Then you got what you call Amendment 55, which is the guidelines for county judge. And it tells you Everything the county judge can legally do, what they can't do, the procedure to do it, and, and suggestions along the way, but it's all very statutory.
- [08:16]
B
Gotcha. Okay, well, Mike, I got some, I got some questions here. I researched online and tried to find what basically social media and stuff people are asking around. So I just kind of plucked some of those questions and made up my own couple. All right, so we'll start with these questions here. You've served the citizens of Lonoke county and you have an understanding of how to. How things operate here in the county if elected. What's something you would do differently than your predecessors doing now?
- [08:48]
A
Well, any administrator is not to be the same as the other. I've worked for the current county judge for four or five years and someone says, well, why don't you make changes? Well, my whole life I've had a chain of command, whether it be the police department growing up, whatever the judge is in charge. Someone the other day said, well, if you don't agree, why don't you quit? Well, during my term at the Little Rock police had five different chiefs. I didn't always agree with them, but I didn't quit my job. And that's not to say that me and the judge don't get along because we do.
- [09:23]
B
Right.
- [09:24]
A
I know he's the boss, he makes decisions. And would I do some things different? Sure, I. He's more on, on main throwaways and I think we got a good throwaway system. But I think some of the side roads needs to be addressed more. And of course I'll address it. I'll allocate funds for that. And there's nothing more frustrating than when you get up to go to work and the road's rough and it damages your vehicle and you come home and you go through the same road. It's. It's frustrating, it's depressing. I get that you got to fix these roads with the money you got to work with. And like blacktop roads, asphalt is 120,000amile now.
- [10:08]
B
Wow.
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A
There's 808 miles in long County. So you can do the math. And you can't fix them all blacktop. But a lot of people don't need blacktop roads. The south in the county, lots of those farmers want gravel roads. They want level, they want the water to flow down the ditches because they're bringing 100 some thousand pound equipment down them every day.
- [10:27]
B
Right, right. I was going to ask some of that.
- [10:29]
A
Sure. So what works for them may not work in the north or central in the county, but so roads will be a priority. Right now we have a storage facility in England. We have our road department in Lonoke. And so some days when we have a disaster or weather or just maintenance, sometimes we're driving a road grader or a piece of equipment from England, Arkansas all the way to Highway 5 in Cabot. And so I've spoke with some, with the mayors. I think we can form a quick partnership to share some facilities with the city, city of Cabot in particular. We can store rock, gravel, things of that nature, our materials and, and store equipment there and have some of the men report there every day. And, and we have a road foreman that supervises them and he does a great job. He's very knowledgeable.
- [11:20]
B
Right. Is big county.
- [11:22]
A
It's a big county. A lot of miles and a lot of different services.
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B
Yeah. If you drive from, let's say the north end of the county, let's Highway 5 and 319 all the way down towards Hummin Oak is our other border.
- [11:34]
A
Hummin Oak, I mean that's an hour drive. We're 20 miles from Stuttgart. We border Jefferson County, Arkansas county, both.
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B
Okay.
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A
Up on other end, White County, Faulkner County, Plassey County. So it's a long drive if you're driving a piece of equipment you use. Utilize a whole day of no productivity getting that equipment there.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
I think we can improve our methods there. And, and then I want to look at some leasing equipment. We buy equivalent. We got some good equipment. I think it needs, some of it needs to be updated. The good thing about when you lease something, you can lease a half a million dollar piece of equipment for a very reasonable rate. And if it breaks in half, you call the people you're leasing from and they own two halves and, and, and bring another piece of equipment to replace the one that broke in half. And so there's some merit there. It has to be a combination of both leasing and purchasing.
- [12:36]
B
Right.
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A
And, and then, and then, you know, there's some, there's some other deals I want to, I'd like to start a park system in the county. A lot of communities doesn't have that right. I've fought with some landowners in the north end of county that's not rural, most of our other counties rural. And agriculture is a big base for us. Our farmers are very important to us and their tax base is unmeasurable. But in the north end of county, 48% of people rent, and in America it's higher than that. And a lot of people Rent by choice, some rent by necessity. But they come home from work, they're stuck in apartments, they're stuck in their houses. Depends on the time of the year or the weather. They got nothing to do.
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B
Right.
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A
So I've talked to some local landowners that would donate land. Say, we'll start with 40 acres, which is a large piece of land, and you break it up into thirds or fifths. A third of an acre is a big garden, if you ever gardened before. That's a lot of stuff that can go in that little small ground there. You're not a kid, so you measure that off and free the public. And you have a system to sign people up and they can come out in the evenings and plant their garden. I've got some people with agriculture department in Arkansas that could provide seed and some of the input to it. I got some agriculture graduates, young and old, some are retired, that would love to help with a program. And you can bring your kids, you can bring your family, you can bring lawn chairs and plants, your vegetables, fruits, flowers, and if you don't eat, I'll give it away. But more importantly, you're teaching life skills to your family, your kids, and it lets you get out of the house.
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B
Get you out of the house not
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A
looking at four walls where you're depressed and like, you know, I'm gonna go to town, but I gotta stay in traffic. And once I get there, I'm gonna just go to grocery store and come back home. If you ever want something different to do in our county.
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B
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great idea. Parks. County parks.
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A
You bet.
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B
Yeah. Spread them out across the county. That's good. Now, the county judge, you must work. You'd mentioned the quorum court a minute ago. So you must work closely with the quorum court to pass budgets and ordinances. How do you build a consensus with the JPS to get that done?
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A
Well, there's 13 districts in our county, and they're all. They're all very different. Some of them are different needs. A district one in. In England, their constituents has a lot more different needs than District 12 on Highway 5 or Magus Creek or Greystone. Their. Their needs are different. Their wants are different. So you. You get with all them and assess their needs and hear their. Here, their complaints. Because there is complaints that come in and.
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B
Oh, sure.
- [15:19]
A
And. And complaints are part of the system. I mean, complaints are not always bad. Complaints are information for you a lot of times, but you work with them. The quorum courts. Unlike city council, City council sets policy and they determine what goes on in that city. The county government is structured much different. And the fact that quorum court passes ordinance, ordinance is allocating money so they. They control your budget. But if you turn in a budget, it's reasonable. They approve it based on your needs from past years. Unanticipated revenue is always hard to figure, but a treasurer does a good job telling us what is available, what they anticipate will be available the next year. So the corn court really just allocates the funds. And when I say pass ordinances like that, there is committees like personnel committee and things like that that make recommendations to the court. But as far as running any of the offices, quorum court, unlike a lot of states, doesn't have as much power as you think. And it's. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It's just our statutory systems made up.
- [16:30]
B
I got you.
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A
So they don't tell any department head elected official how to run their office. But you want. You want cooperation with them, you want harmony with them because they're serving the same constituents you are.
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B
Oh, absolutely.
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A
Yeah. I would look forward to working with each and every one of them. And I have worked with them in the past.
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B
Yeah. Now, excuse me, you mentioned complaints. People calling in complaints. What. What would be your plan to ensure complaints didn't disappear or just go unaddressed?
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A
I implemented a deal about a year ago when I got more involved with the road department for the judge's office. So we have a secretary that has other duties but is designated to take in calls. Complaints. Some of them not complaints are requests.
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B
Sure.
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A
Like our covert fell in or. Right now, the policy in the county is if you need a covert put in, you purchase a covert. This is the first covert, you know, for new residents or whatever. And we put them into our specifications. That way we know the water flows correctly, we know the land is even there. And we do the 911-811 call. We facilitate that for you. And so we're paying for the gravel and the manpower and labor and everything.
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B
Okay. And that's on the first culvert.
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A
Yes.
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B
Gotcha.
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A
And after that, if it's to the extent it's not letting water flow properly or are being interfering with the traffic flow, then the county replaces those.
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B
Yeah, so.
- [18:00]
A
So some of those are complaints, Some of them requests rough roads, potholes is a constant, ongoing battle. And I think we can address that with some new methods that the state highway department is adapting. And I've been to some classes and they've teaching me some new things and I think we can address that and try to improve our infrastructure.
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B
Sure.
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A
And then of course with the price of asphalt, there's only so many of those roads you can do. It's just. It's just a math game.
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B
Right. So since we're on the topic of roads, you know, roads is always a hot topic. Hot topic for the county judge.
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A
Yeah, statewide it is, right?
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B
Yeah, it's everywhere. It's not just here. But what is your formula for deciding which roads get the asphalt, which get chip seal and which will remain gravel?
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A
Well, it's. You don't play any favoritism or who's politically for you're against if you're elected. You represent everybody. Don't matter what party they're from, who they, who they supported. That's not how our system is made. That's not how work under me. I don't ask them. Did you support me? Yes. That's. That would. That's just ridiculous. Yeah. It's improper. It's not acceptable behavior. And so we can do traffic counts. If we have a road that's got 5,000 cars a day, then that's going to have to be probably a blacktop surface to hold up. Our schools are very important to us. We work closely with the superintendent and transportation departments and see their needs and how many buses they have and how many kids are picking up and delivering. And so you put all that in and analyze what money you got to work with. And of course the very worst roads probably need fixed the first.
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B
Right.
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A
And then some of them can. Can wait a little bit. But nobody wants to be the person that goes last. Everybody wants to go first. And I get that. I live on state highway so I'm not faced with that other than occasion. My state highway is really rough and you know, I can't wait for the highway department new road out here. But.
- [20:02]
B
Right.
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A
It's. It's a money issue. You go through a series of studies. You realize that like I said earlier, some parts of the county need or want blacktop. I mean if you put a blacktop road in the farming community with a hundred thousand pounds equipment, within a week it's just chunked up getting in everybody's oil pan.
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B
Why sure.
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A
So depends on the part of the county, depends on the traffic flow, depends on the safety and some. The highway department gives us some funds every year. Their deal is they like to connect two state highways. So for instance in the north end of county, say go from Highway 38 and it goes all the way to 321, which is Dogwood. So if you notice now, dogwood is blacktop. That's a cut through for people which means a lot of traffic. And it connects them to another state highway which eventually gets them to an interstate system or whatever work they're going through or business. So you. So you utilize those state funds and the state designates those routes. Graham Road for instance, we just got through asphalt and the state paid for that some funds that we had available to us. But that went from Highway 9 to backside Jacksonville, which is the interstate. Right. So that's. That's kind of dictated for you sometimes.
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B
Yeah. Okay. Now you'd meant you talked about possibly looking at leasing a fleet lot. County maintains its own fleet. They have road graders and road crews. Do you believe that's more cost effective operation doing stuff in house? I know you just mentioned leasing. Or have you ever looked at more competitive bidding process where you bid to private contractors for major county projects?
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A
So. So we have. We do some bidding currently. Was familiar with it. Some controversy involved with the right of way mowing contract. And that was before my time, before I got here. Yeah, they. They were some accusations of double billing and. And the state got involved. The state investigated that and it got settled. I don't know all the particulars about that. That was before my time. I was the merchant management director when that transpired. But. So there is some leasing. We occasionally lease out gravel hauling for stockpiling. We've got five dump trucks that we operate daily. They're going out and putting material out for us to build roads, patch roads, repair roads. So if we. It makes more cost efficient sense to get people stockpiled for sometimes if this price is reasonable.
- [22:42]
B
Oh I bet. Yeah.
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A
That's going all the way to the rock quarry and take them out to our sites so we can leave the yard in the morning, for instance, with five load trucks. The materials are there and we got the equipment and manpower to load those. So it's. So you look at, you look at a little bit of everything.
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B
Yeah. Okay. You know, you would know way better than me, but Lono County's got a lot of agriculture. With that comes. You'd spoke on earlier comes the use of heavy equipment and grain trucks, you know, using the roads. How do you balance the needs of the farmers with the reality of their heavy equipment could possibly damage a road?
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A
Well, I mean for one, they contribute to the tax base in a very big way in our county. And we're thankful for our farmers. Some of our farmers get criticized for Saying, well, they're tearing up the roads and they're driving new trucks and they're making all this money. Well, right now in America, farming is at a crisis. The government's going to have to step in and right now to get a farm loan, they tell you what you're going to grow and how much you're going to grow it and they expect you to make a margin from it. And that's, that's the agriculture situation in America. That is really not my, it's my concern, but it's not my, my field by any means and I have no say so in it. But you want to accommodate those farmers. There's a saying where I come from. Don't, don't criticize a farmer or rancher with your mouthful.
- [24:07]
B
Absolutely.
- [24:08]
A
Because those people, myself included in that. I'm a rancher. We raise cattle and sell a lot of cattle, sell a lot of hay. We're helping feed the world, we're feeding America and we're proud to do it. We take a lot of pride in being a third generation farmer and rancher. My family, my wife's family. So you want to accommodate them. Did you just find a happy medium? They're fine with gravel roads. You know, some of them need a blacktop road from go to one interstate to, I mean one highway to the other. We put that. And they use their vehicles there. They don't usually get on those roads. Those farmers are conscientious. If they tear the road up, it may not get fixed in a timely manner. So they don't fit heavy equipment on the, on the wrong roads. Yeah, so they're, they do a very good job of taking care of their, of their needs down there as far as not tearing up stuff they shouldn't. Water flow is a big issue in any farming community and Long county is one of the largest. If I think they're the number one soybean producer in Arkansas.
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B
Okay, I didn't know that.
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A
And of course, Arkansas is the number one rice producer in the world.
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B
Yes.
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A
And I think we're the number two soybean producer in the world. So Long county is a huge agriculture hub for America and the world. And so used to you'd have some farmers that farm 3, 4, 5,000 acres, which is a large farm. And when I was coming up, and now we're in that range where they're farming 25, 35, 45, 50,000 acres. Really, some farmers are farming that and, and they're up and down these roads with. And of course they're Buying equipment from our dealers are here in Long County. They're buying fuel, they're buying. They're buying seed. I mean, they produce a lot of commerce for the people that supply to the farmers. So they're, they're. They're a big important part of our county and we certainly want to work with them.
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B
Absolutely. Now, Mike, you win the county, you win the county judge position. What's your vision for Lonoke County? Kind of give us your overall vision.
- [26:09]
A
What.
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B
How would you like to see it?
- [26:12]
A
Sure.
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B
At the end of your term?
- [26:14]
A
Sure. Well, my. I've served a lot of different boards and organizations and not bragging because there's nothing to brag about. I've always been a public servant. I've always joined organization with the intent of trying to make improvement of it. I served as four terms as chairman of the state Horse show association, the largest horse show in America. And I left it much better than I found it. The finances was not in dire straits, but it was needing improvement and I improved it 1000% my first year. And someone said, how'd you do that? So I cut costs and raised more money. It's that simple math. But. So I want to leave Long. Can you better found it and it's in good shape. I think it's a great place to live. I wanted to be somewhere where it says, like right now, a lot of us is, man, I'd love to live in northwest Arkansas. Bentonville and Rogers and Springdale and Fayetteville. What a fabulous place to live. It is beautiful up there. Traffic congestion is starting to make it not as beautiful, but it's a wonderful place. Arkansas people are flocking there. One of the fastest growing community communities in America. I would love for Long County. When you say, what about Lawn County? What about Cabot? What about Lonoken or Carlisle or England or Ward or Austin? I want people to say, that's a great place to live. I used to live there. And we moved because of the job or my kids graduated. We moved to the lake. I want people to say, Long county is a wonderful place to live. And, and when you improve the roads, when you improve the quality of living with parks and. And different things like that, you make it a place everybody wants to go to. And so I want to improve on what we got and, and keep the infrastructure intact and build on it. And so like I say, leave, leave. Long came there and I found it.
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B
Right. Absolutely. Okay, we're getting close to the end here. I like to keep these around 30, no more than 45 minutes, certainly. But what separates you from your opponent? And why. Why should you be the choice?
- [28:20]
A
Well, I think it starts at leadership. Everything I've ever done, I said last night at a debate that what I stand for is my word. And someone says, well, how do we know to take your word? But there's no guarantee except my history. How do you take anybody's word that you meet or don't know or know. Know a lot about you look at their history. If they have a lifetime of history, then you pretty well can trust that. And I've been married almost 39 years. I made a commitment to my wife, and I thank the Lord for my wife every day. God's blessed me there, but I made a commitment and I stuck to it. I started my career at Little Rock police. 28 years without a blemish on my record. And that takes a lot to work in place, work as you know, and. Because there's a lot of. A lot of things that go on that you got to make some flip decisions, right? But I dedicated that and, And I finished with honor and same way with my service as a police union head. I made it better. I spoke for the people that couldn't speak. And, and then my personal finances, I. I've always paid my bills. And you don't. You don't borrow more money than you can pay back. And just like county finances, you don't spend more than there. You don't ever overspend your budget. You. You put some back for a rainy day, just like for your household. Unexpected expenses can. Can wipe you out. And, you know, if you say, well, I have young people all the time come to me and say, hey, help me, Help me figure out a budget. And I said, well, you haven't got any money for unexpected expenses. What does that mean? Washer dryer, tires on your car, insurance premium that got raised. You got a plan for rainy day? I've got skills and all that I've been in leadership for. You can read my resumes on the different things I've served in. And so I've got leadership ability. I currently work at departments. Right now, there's not a day goes by at Long County Road Department, which is our largest apartment, our biggest budget by far, that I can't operate any piece of equipment if. And I usually don't. But my, My idea of a county judge. There's some days you. You wear a jacket and a tie because you got meetings and you're meeting with dignitaries and you're trying to get grants and, and you're going to formal functions, sure, but 85% to me it's a working man's job. I'm in wringer, pants, shirt, cowboy hat, jeans, boots, whatever. Come home with grease on my hands and clothes. But if a bulldozer operator doesn't show up tomorrow, I can get on that bulldozer and operate. I can get on a track hole and operate. I can open up a water flow, I can put in a culvert and work on a bridge that is down that equipment can't cross. I've got those skills and I got the work ethic. And you know there's a saying. The farmer's work is never done or rancher's work is never done. I'm a worker. I don't have a lot of hobbies. Work is my hobby.
- [31:21]
B
Right.
- [31:22]
A
No one outworks me. I haven't ever had a history of leaving anything baron I didn't find. I've never left any organization. I've been involved with financial difficulties and I'm not going to start now. If I tell someone, if you call me and said my ditch has stopped up, if I say I'm going to be there at 8:00 tonight, you leave the light on because I'm coming. Eight o', clock, right. I tell you something, I'm doing it. I'm a man of my word. I always have been. I'm not going to start changing. I'm no politician. I. I'm not going to start being a politician if I get elected. I'm a worker. I'm a hard worker. I'm honest, I'm fair. I don't watch here still. And what I tell you is what it is. I'm in my work. That's what I have to offer these people. Long county.
- [32:03]
B
Well, I know you speak the truth on that. I worked with you, you know, from 2001 to the day you retired. And I know you serve the people of Little Rock is very honorable. And even as the president of the fop, you stood up for officers when they needed to stand it up for.
- [32:23]
A
Certainly.
- [32:23]
B
And I appreciate that. And I know you've got a servant's heart and you do a real good job here in Lonoke County.
- [32:29]
A
Yeah, I don't plan to. I don't plan to ever retire from. I'm not saying that I wouldn't stay forever as judge if elected. But regardless if I'm judge or not, I'm gonna be working hard every day. I'm gonna be serving the community. It may be a paid job, maybe volunteer. But if I'm convinced, if I lay down and say, all right, I'm done, I'm quitting, I'm retiring, I'm going to take it easy, I'm going to sit on the porch, I'm convinced I'm dead in a couple years. You got to keep going. If you're motivated to work and serve, better keep moving. Yeah. You don't change that lifestyle.
- [33:01]
B
Right.
- [33:02]
A
And Lord put us here to work. And I'm convinced that's my calling.
- [33:06]
B
Absolutely. Now I believe that because you know, when I retired I started my own little side hustle business. And for that exact reason you just said, matter of fact, you taught it it to me. You've got to stay busy. You've got to, you got to keep working. For sure. Well Mike, I appreciate you. Let me bring the Mallard island lawn service mobile studio out here, the Woodlawn Ranch. This is a beautiful place you got here and I appreciate you coming on the show.
- [33:29]
A
Yeah, certainly we're proud of our place. Someone told me today said, you're lucky. I said, you're right. I said the harder we work, I mean the harder we work, the luckier we get. But all I can tell you is my back. In the 80s we bought this place and the house was 85 years old. And we since then built a new house. We were fortunate enough to be able to. We didn't have any heat and air. We had a wood stove and we bought five year old trucks and cars. We drove them five years, fix them ourselves, went out to eat once a month and built what we have here. And we're very proud of it because we did it the hard way, we did it the honest way.
- [34:06]
B
Right.
- [34:06]
A
And we didn't spend more than we made. And I'm the same way as can you, I won't spend more than we got. So it's all about life experiences.
- [34:15]
B
Yes sir. Yes.
- [34:16]
A
So thank you for having me.
- [34:18]
B
I appreciate it Mike and everybody out there listening. I appreciate you guys tuning in. And I believe early voting starts when
- [34:27]
A
it starts the 17th.
- [34:29]
B
Okay. This is going to release on 17th. So starts today.
- [34:32]
A
Yeah. So it'll be Tuesday. Normally there was three or four locations. Now there's seven or eight early voting locations. So Austin, Ward, Cabot, I have two. England, Carlisle, Loan, Oak, I think. Hum, no. And then on election day, which is March 3rd, statewide election day, there's 13 precincts.
- [34:55]
B
Oh, okay.
- [34:56]
A
And I plan to visit those. I'll take vacation from my job, be out visiting with the people. You can't interfere with voting nor should you be able to.
- [35:04]
B
Right.
- [35:05]
A
But I'll be visible and letting people know that I need their vote. I tell people all the time. I'm easy to get hold of. For 35 years I've had the same phone number, 501-831-2828. Write it down. Call me. I'd love to visit with you if I'm elected. Call me. I'll take criticism because criticism can lots of times be constructive and I'm a person that tries to work out and compromise and we'll figure out a solution one way or another.
- [35:33]
B
That's awesome. Hey, one last thing. I know your daughter probably runs your page. What is your, do you know your, your Facebook page?
- [35:44]
A
Yeah. Mike Burke for Long County Judge.
- [35:45]
B
Mike Verkler for Long Oak County Judge everybody.
- [35:48]
A
I have a, I have a person that runs that my daughter assists on it.
- [35:51]
B
Okay.
- [35:51]
A
She's, she works for the education part for the co op and BB and she, she and her husband, I got a wonderful son in law by the way. She and her husband have four and a half year old triplets.
- [36:03]
B
Triplets.
- [36:05]
A
Two girls and a boy. So we buy three of everything here and we're so blessed. And, and they're going to be fourth generation ranchers. They'll inherit this place someday.
- [36:15]
B
Yes.
- [36:16]
A
And but so she's busy but she does assist.
- [36:20]
B
Gotcha. Gotcha. But that's Mike Verkler for Lono County Judge on Facebook. You guys can can find that. Follow it and you will keep up with the latest. Mike, I appreciate you being on the show. We're going to wrap it up. And Mr. Producer, we are sending this back to you sir. Thank you.
- [36:40]
A
That's a wrap for this episode of the ARNET podcast. We're grateful to have you as a part of our community. If you enjoyed today's show, share it with a friend or leave us a. It really helps us keep telling these important stories. And don't forget to check out the podcast description for more on our guest and topics. Thanks again for listening and make sure to follow the show so you'll never miss an episode of the ARNET podcast. This has been a Mallard island Media and Mr. Producer Production.