Take a drive around major Fort Smith thoroughfares and there’s a good chance Jimmie Deer had a hand in most of the newer structures along the drive. In just the past seven years he’s had a direct say in more than $2 billion in construction.
But he’s been with the Fort Smith building department for 44 years, so the $2 billion is on the low side of residential, commercial and industrial development he’s helped get out of the ground and into personal, practical, and profitable use.
He retired July 11 as the city’s director of building services. That he ever made it to Fort Smith is a wonder. He was born in Dumas, Ark., where his parents did all they could to make a living out of that Delta dirt.
“We, my family, we were poor, and I mean we were for real poor,” Deer said in a recent interview. “I grew up in what was sharecropper housing. … No plumbing. Just a shack, you could say.”
His parents would move the family to Texas, California, Oregon and other states to find any seasonal agriculture work that was available.
“We chased the crops. We moved just about everywhere for those (harvest) seasons,” he said.
‘BREAK THAT CYCLE’
That kind life is tough on a family. His parents would separate when he was young, with Deer moving to Waldron with his mom and her family when he was in the seventh grade. He graduated from Waldron High School in 1974. Deer briefly entertained turning his passion for bull riding into a career, but changed his mind after a friend “really busted up his face” during a bull ride.
Deer was a star baseball player, and had a scholarship to play college baseball. The sharecropper life of chasing crops and the toll such a life could have on a family was something Deer wanted to put in the family’s rear-view mirror.
“Mainly I wanted to break that cycle, you know. I wasn’t trying to be rich rich, but stopping, you know, not having those hardships of being poor like that,” Deer said.
Deer graduated on a Monday, and married Patricia – Trish – on Friday. He walked away from the baseball scholarship, moved with his new bride to Lubbock, Texas, and worked as a truck driver for his father-in-law. Jimmie and Trish were building a life together, but in February 1975, Deer’s mother and brother were killed in a car wreck. He and Trish would move back to central Arkansas to take care of his little brother who had polio.
FACTORY ESCAPE
A few years later they would move to Fort Smith to be closer to Trish’s parents in Waldron. In Fort Smith he would work for Riverside Furniture. When approaching five years on the Riverside factory floor, Deer began to believe he was in the wrong place.
“I told her (Trish) that if I didn’t leave now, that I would probably be there on that floor for the rest of my life,” Deer said. “I was kind of looking for more, and there wasn’t, at least the way I saw it, there wasn’t a lot of room for that (career advancement) there.”
The father of three small children took a $1 an hour pay cut in July 1981 to begin work for the City of Fort Smith on a utility locator crew. He would work weekend shifts at a convenience store for extra money. Trish would become a teacher in the Fort Smith School District. She retired from that work five years ago, Deer said.
But the city in 1981 had better benefits, including tuition support. Deer took advantage of that and enrolled in surveyor and business courses. After a little more than a year of fixing water leaks he took a job in the city’s engineering department. In late 1983, he would take a job in the building department as a building inspector.
THE BIG PROJECTS
He was promoted in 1991 to the city’s building official, a job responsible for all permitting and inspections, He would be promoted to the department head – the job from which he retired – in 2018.
“The last 42 years, I’ve had a hand in most of that (construction), you know, with everything at Chaffee (Crossing) and those three big expansions at Mercy (hospital) and all of the additions at Sparks (now Baptist Health),” Deer said. “It was really an exciting time out there (Chaffee), with the college (Arkansas Colleges of Health Education) going in and all the manufacturing plants.”
Other projects Deer said he enjoyed being part of include the U.S. Marshals Museum, the Fort Smith Pavilion mall that includes Target, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, the large Riley Park residential development, numerous new structures built for the Fort Smith Public School District after a voter-approved millage package, and the public improvements – convention center, library expansion, riverfront park – following the 1996 tornado that hit downtown Fort Smith.
Deer also said he is proud of the department’s focus on getting all development plans reviewed within 10 business days.
“In other cities it can take months,” Deer said of the review process. “We’ve been told by the out-of-town guys, that work in other cities, that they love us. … So over the years, that has worked really well for us, and, I think, the developers, who get to know pretty quick what they need to do, if anything.”
‘ALWAYS FAIR’
But no matter how smooth the process may be, the person in charge of permitting and inspections is not always popular among developers. But Deer seems to have avoided being the bad guy. Deer, in his personality and temperament, is equal parts an affable church deacon, tough but fair high school principal, and Andy Taylor – without the badge.
Rocky Walker, owner of Cobblestone Homes and past president of the Greater Fort Smith Association of Home Builders, said he always knew Deer would be reasonable.
“Jimmy Deer was the epitome of a public servant,” Walker noted. “I always knew where I stood with Jimmy when it came to codes and inspections. There were a few times I didn’t agree with his decisions, but he was always fair, and offered practical solutions to issues we face as home builders. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. He will be missed, but he has left the department in good hands.”
Justin Green, owner of Justin Green Custom Homes and also a member of the Home Builders, said Deer created a “culture of integrity and collaboration” between city officials and developers.
“We didn’t always agree – especially when it came to code interpretations – but Jimmy never wavered on where he stood when it came to code enforcement,” Green noted. “Even when we saw things differently, he always approached the conversation with professionalism and a willingness to talk it through. That’s something I’ll always respect. As builders, it’s easy to feel at odds with inspectors, but Jimmy had a way of keeping things respectful and solution-focused. He stood firm, but he also worked with you.”
Deer said his retirement plans include following 10 grandchildren – with ages ranging from 23 to 14 – through their lives, which will include attending as many sporting events as possible. He and Trish also plan to travel, with Deer saying part of the travel includes Trish’s love of antique stores.
“I stand around, lean on racks and carry stuff out to the vehicle. That’s my new job,” Deer said with a laugh.