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July 20, 2007

Smith eyes future of Blooming Grove

By Chase Springer The Corsicana Daily Sun Fri Jul 20, 2007, 05:51 PM CDT

BLOOMING GROVE — He has a degree in Airspace Engineering and worked for NASA for over 10 years. Now, Alva Smith, 67, serves as mayor of the city of Blooming Grove.

“I love this place,” Smith said. “My goal is to provide municipal services as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. I like to see the improvement of life in the city of Blooming Grove.”

Smith was born and raised on a farm on the border of Navarro and Ellis counties and graduated from Frost high school. Before attending college at the University of Texas in Austin, Smith married Jane, now 67, of Blooming Grove who supported him as he obtained a degree in Airspace Engineering.

From UT, Smith transferred to the University of Houston where he obtained his degree. He then worked at the Johnson Spacecraft Center for five years until he transferred to the NASA program in Dallas in 1969, as a DOD Liaison. Smith and his wife then moved back to Jane’s home town of Blooming Grove, where they still live today. His career turned to seven years in municipal engineering then into federal organization management. He finally retired in 1999 after working for several years with the Environmental Protection Agency of Dallas.

“It was a long road to becoming mayor,” Smith said. “I worked for 39 years in engineering, 25 of those years were with four different federal agencies. I was elected four terms on the Blooming Grove school board back in the 1980s and have been on the city council for over four years, one and a half of which I served as mayor.”

Smith began service for the City Council of Blooming Grove when he and former Mayor Gene Hollingsworth were approached by concerned residents asking them to run for city office. When Hollingsworth died nearly two years ago, Smith accepted the position as mayor and ran again after finishing Hollingsworth’s term.

The school system is a matter of great pride to Smith and he has faith that the younger generation will come through for the city. He encourages younger involvement in the City Council as well as continued support of Blooming Grove ISD.

“We have a tremendous school here,” Smith said. “We may have a town of only 840 but when the school is in session, there are 700 more added to the population. I would just like to see some of the younger generation get involved in the town politics. We have a Council of six and only two of them are younger than 50.”

Smith has yet to decide if he will run for re-election when his term as mayor expires next year. He wishes to do a lot of things he had planned to do in retirement, including spending time with his three adult children and five grandchildren. However, Smith has high hopes for the future of Blooming Grove and hopes for many years of continuing community involvement.

“I see a lot more challenges than changes,” Smith said. “We are fighting for our lives as far as funds go but we have survived for 117 years and nothing has been repossessed yet. We hope to just keep going on.”

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Chase Springer may be contacted via e-mail at chase@corsicanadailysun.com

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