Local Councilwoman to retire
Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008
BELLA VISTA - Bella Vista City Council member Shirley Borhauer, 82, decided not to seek re-election this year, choosing to end, at the end of the year, a public career that also included service on the Benton County Quorum Court and in the Arkansas House of Representatives.
Borhauer and her husband, Bill, moved from Illinois to Arkansas in 1988, intending to retire.
Instead, she ran for a position on the Parish Council at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Bella Vista, then served six years on the Bella Vista Property Owners Association Board of Directors.
She served four years on the county's top legislative body, the Benton County Quorum Court. There, Borhauer was a longtime supporter of a traffic signal for the intersection of Greenwich Drive and U. S. Highway 71, of construction on the Sugar Creek Bridge and of other projects.
In 2000, she won a three-way race for the Republican nomination for state representative and served three terms in the Arkansas Legislature.
Term-limited, she won a seat on the first-ever Bella Vista City Council, but said at the outset that she only planned to serve one term.
"Here I am back in Bella Vista, on the City Council until January, and then I'm not going to be in public office for anything," Borhauer said with a laugh. "I've had a good run. The only reason I ran (for City Council ) is I thought: Since I was the one who got the bill passed, maybe I ought to be around to give them a little help," she said.
Borhauer referred to the state law that set up the election in which unincorporated Bella Vistans chose to form a city. She was instrumental in getting that law enacted and admits it's a great satisfaction to see the new town in operation.
She is modest about her accomplishments on the council. "I think I did help in some ways, but I think they could have done without me. … I don't think I did anything fabulous as a City Council member. I just tried to be at the meetings and not be a pain in the neck," she said.
The longtime nurse took required refresher courses and kept her nurse's license current until this year. "I know, at 82, no one's going to call me and say, ' Would you work in this clinic ? ' and I'm not going to go," she said, with another laugh.
Still, she's seriously and keenly interested in health issues. Borhauer served on the Aging, Children, Youth and Military and Veterans Affairs committee for six years, the Public Health Committee for four, and looks back with some satisfaction on her health-related legislative efforts - especially those that secured assistance for people in need.
"The thing about those committees were, you felt like you were doing something worthwhile for the people who needed to be represented, you know. For example, when a bill would come out for funding the disabled (people's ) programs, some people kind of pooh-poohed that, like they pooh-poohed the preschool program. So I would get up at the committee and say to them: ' You look at some of these people coming here asking for help, in wheelchairs or (with ) other kinds of disabilities. You know, every one of us is one automobile accident away from being one of these people, '"Borhauer said.
She's also proud of an initiative that removed vending machines from elementary schools. "You make a little money on the vending machines, but you're hurting the kids' health. That's not what a school is for," she said.
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