Texarkana, Ark., welcomes new city manager

TEXARKANA, Ark. (KSLA) - After weeks of interviews conducted by the board of directors in Texarkana, Ark., Robert Thompson is now the new city manager.

“You have a great team of individuals here. My job is to make sure that I can help them and enhance their efforts to move forward,” Thompson said.

Monday, Sept. 18 was Thompson’s first day on the job; he spent it getting to know his staff.

“My objective is to work with the leadership already in place, identify their concerns, and enhance them, look at how we can make the dollars go further, how we can address the community, public leaders, and citizens to find out what they need to be more better off with respect to the city,” said Thompson.

Thompson, who is 56 years old, comes to the area from DeFuniak Springs, Fla., a city with a population of around 7,000 people, where he also served as city manager. Thompson says was attracted to the ArkLaTex because he felt Texarkana is a progressive city with good leadership and industries. However, Thompson says there’s room for improvement.

“I’m not a miracle worker. I’m not professing to be one. I’m a great leader from that prospective, but at the end of the day, I’m here to make this place my home,” Thompson explained.

The city has been operating with an interim city manager for nearly six months now, and officials say they’re glad to have the position filled with the appointment of Thompson.

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