For 20 years, Bella Vista retiree has contributed to state

Shirley Borhauer's career in public service began after she retired to Bella Vista in 1987. Now that term limits have ended her time as a state representative, her next job is on the city council as Bella Vista becomes an incorporated town.

Published: December 2, 2006

By Marilyn Lanford
Rogers Correspondent

Marilyn Lanford

"Retired" state legislator Shirley Borhauer talks on the phone at her home in Bella Vista. She will be one of the first city council members in the newly incorporated town.

Marilyn Lanford

"Retired" state legislator Shirley Borhauer talks on the phone at her home in Bella Vista. She will be one of the first city council members in the newly incorporated town.

BELLA VISTA -- Like the community she lives in, Shirley Borhauer is in a state of transition.

At 80, she was just elected to the new city council of Bella Vista after completing her third and final term as representative in the Arkansas legislature.

In the recent election, she introduced two different pieces of legislation that were voted on -- both of which passed. Residents statewide know she is the main sponsor of the amendment to allow charitable bingo and raffles. It was overwhelmingly supported by voters Nov. 7. The other was a bill to incorporate Bella Vista as a city. Local residents agreed during the November elections to become an incorporated town.

After a career as a school nurse in Chicago, Shirley and her husband Bill retired and moved to Bella Vista in 1987.

"We lived in Chicago all of our lives until we retired," she said. "Practically every month we would get an invitation to come here to Bella Vista through Cooper Communities. Bill kept throwing it away. But one year I said, 'Let's just go down there and see.' We came down and fell in love with the place."

The Borhauers belong to St. Bernard Parish. According to Borhauer, her career in Arkansas politics all started with a charity function.

She said, "I had belonged on the school board in Chicago so when they were looking for someone to run for parish council, I said, 'OK, I can't golf everyday like my husband did.' So I ran for that and served six years. Then I got interested in the POA (Property Owners Association) meetings. I decided to run for that. But the nominating committee didn't accept me."

However, their refusal came in the form of a phone call to Borhauer in the middle of a fund raiser in her home for the children's shelter.

"Sixteen ladies were all sitting here when I got off the phone and I said, 'They don't want me to run for the POA.' One lady said, 'We'll get a petition.' They took it out and got me on the POA where I served for six years," she said.

This was followed by two terms on the quorum court. In 2001 she was elected a state representative.

It was during the last session in 2005 that her two bills were introduced. Starting in 2005 interest was beginning to grow to incorporate Bella Vista into a city. After the population of 5,000 had grown to approximately 25,000, Borhauer began to work on a bill in the legislature to put the incorporation on the ballot.

About this time, interest in another hot button issue in Arkansas politics -- non-profit organizations sponsoring bingo and raffles for fund raising -- began to surface.

"Some of the people from the VFW and the American Legion had contacted me and explained how they used raffles and bingo as fundraisers for their scholarships and asked me to introduce a bill," Borhauer said.

Because she is Catholic and Catholics are a minority in the state, she decided to put the emphasis on the VFW and American Legion and other fraternal organizations that would like to raise money for charity.

"There are only four Catholics in the House and none in the Senate. You don't want to start pushing things for your church even though they are good ideas," she said.

In looking back over her three terms in the Arkansas legislature, Borhauer commented on the political journey she has been on since retiring in Bella Vista.

"The interesting thing is that if I had sat down on the first day of retirement and said 'I want to be in the House of Representatives, that's what I am aiming for, ' -- which I didn't -- I would have done everything I did to be ready for that," she said. "It seemed like something was always popping up and I would say, 'All right, I will do that.'"

When asked about the difficulty of passing the charity bingo and raffle bill, Borhauer said, "Every session we can approve three constitutional amendments. Twelve amendments were put before the committee and out of those 12, mine was the only one that made it. I don't know why."

The process of taking a bill to the committee means that the legislator sponsoring the bill comes to talk to the committee.

She said, "What I did was call the VFW, the Knights of Columbus, the American Legion and eight guys came to speak for the bill."

When it came time to vote on the bill, the response both in the House and Senate was overwhelming.

"I had 81 people out of 100 in the House and 21 out of 35 in the Senate voting for it. This bill didn't need any amendments to it," she said.

In her legislative battles Borhauer describes herself as "a little old grandma, a Catholic Polish lady from Chicago."

She and her husband Bill were at one time in charge of the food pantry for St. Bernard Church.

"Once a month we would collect food and a truck would come from Gravette to take it to their Care and Share program," she said. "There the ministers would let the people who needed the food get it from the pantry. Last year after Father Andy (Smith) announced he wanted everyone to bring a bag of groceries to the next Sunday Mass everyone came up and helped. The next day Bill and the committee had to pack it all in boxes. We had 75 boxes of food."

The transition now of Bella Vista to city status will require a lot of time and effort from the mayor-elect and the new city council. The transfer of equipment and departments will have to take place in some kind of legal format for the new administration to assume responsibility.

Borhauer said, "As a city we don't have anything yet. We are just going to have to work through it. We are not taking anything from anyone because it is ours to begin with. We have paid for all of it with our assessments. We know it will be better, but it won't be better right away. As a city we will get turn-back funds -- not tomorrow morning, but soon."

Not only has Borhauer kept her sense of humor through all of her political endeavors, but she is also known for her common sense. She will often mention her constituents and their needs.

"There are some Democrats and some Republicans who just vote the party line," she said. "I have to figure out what would be best for the people here. You don't want to listen to all that big stuff. You have to do what you think is right."