judges. The work he did had a wide range of people that he needed to deal with. He got a lot of good experience in that area.” The biggest challenge, he says, will
always be funding for roads, whether at the state or federal level. “We’ve been fortunate enough
that the people voted for two statewide highway programs two years in a row,”
Bennett said. “I think that’s one of the things I’m most proud of, because no other state in the country has done that, and it gives us another $3 billion worth of construction, but it’s for a very small percentage of the highway sys- tem. It’s all for the interstates and some other major corridors, but we’ve got a lot of rural highways we’ve still got to take care of, too.”
The rewards of the director’s job
are many, but chief is “seeing a project completed that we’ve worked on a long time and seeing the benefit the people get out of it,” Bennett said. “I love trav- eling around the state and meeting with the local people to talk about what the needs are and working toward a solu- tion to meet them. I think that’s the most rewarding part of it.”
Scott Bennett: At A Glance
AGE: 49 HOMETOWN: Blytheville CURRENTLY LIVING IN: Saline County near Bryant
COLLEGE: University of Arkansas, B.A. and master’s in civil engineering
FAMILY: Wife, Heather Bennett (editor of Little Rock Family); children Madeline, 14, and Matthew, 12 YEARS WITH AHTD: 26, named director in 2011
FAVORITE SPORT: “Growing up it was always baseball. Matthew has played more football than he has anything else, and football has really become my favorite sport, my favorite to watch, and it was my favorite to coach.
FAVORITE MUSIC: Country
FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTIST: “I don’t really have one. I just like music. Of course, the kids have me listening to some other stuff that is a little bit catchy sometimes, but it ain’t country.”
WHAT’S A DATE NIGHT FOR YOU AND HEATHER? “When you have kids, you don’t get nearly as many of them. But what we’ve done recently is, the kids have been in a group of friends who have gone to the movie. We’ll drop them off there at the Promenade, and she and I will go eat at one of the restaurants there and just get a chance to sit and talk. There have been times we’ve gone through a drive- through and sat in the car just so we can sit and talk.”
WHO WOULD BE GUESTS AT YOUR “DREAM” DINNER? “I’d have to have my wife there, so that would be one … This is going to sound weird, but I would love to have Frank Broyles and Houston Nutt at dinner together. I’d like to hear those stories, if they would talk.”
FAVORITE BOOK: Heather and I have read together just a lot of books about raising children and now raising teenagers and things like that. Of course, she comes up with a lot of those from her work at Little Rock Family. You know, I read so much here at work that it’s just, a lot of times, as boring as it can be, and we spend a lot more time talking about what she’s read than me reading myself.”
BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE: “For my career, it was my brother Danny. He’s nine years older and became a civil engineer. A lot of people always said he and I were a lot alike. In sports, it was another one of my brothers, Steve, who still lives in Blytheville. He actually coached me in T-ball and Little League baseball. He’s 10 years older than I am. A lot of it would’ve been my brothers and then my mom, really. And Heather’s had a lot to do with it. She’s helped me grow up a lot for the most part.”
FAVORITE MOVIE: “Since it’s the time of year it is, it’s either Elf or [National Lampoon’s] Christmas Vacation. That may tell you a little bit about my personality.”
FAVORITE VACATION GETAWAY: “The beach in Destin. We branched out a little bit a couple of years ago, and I had to go to Washington, D.C., for a few days for a meeting. Heather and the kids went with me, and we stayed for a week beyond that and just absolutely loved it. … That was a lot of fun, but we missed the beach. We’re going to go to Charleston, S.C., next time.”
FAVORITE MEAL AT HOME: “U.S. Pizza. I would pick that over a steak. If I had to pick a last meal, though, it would be my wife’s spaghetti. She didn’t even know how to cook when we met.”
PHILOSOPHY ON LIFE: “Try to have a little bit of fun. Life’s too short to take everything so seriously. Try to laugh a little bit every day. Work is work, and this is a great career, but when I go home it’s time for the family and to have a little bit of fun.”
ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 6 2014
27
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