Oakland Mayor Will Be Honored For Decades Of Service
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Oakland Mayor James Riley Swearengen’s public service spans four decades.
OAKLAND – The Oakland Area Chamber of Commerce will host its annual Elected Officials Appreciation Day on Nov. 2 with Mayor James Riley Swearengen as the special honoree. The event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Chamber office at 304 Holly Street and all elected officials in attendance will be recognized.
Swearengen, who will not seek re-election next year, will complete his ninth term as mayor in June, 2025. He also served five years as an Oakland alderman.
“I will be right at 75 when my term ends in June,” Swearengen reported about his decision to not seek another term. “And this is a full time job. My phone never stops ringing, even when I take a vacation.”
Mayor Swearengen reported some of the biggest challenges the town has faced while he served were dealing with a declining tax base and the need to annex areas near I-55 that required special legislative approval.
“As businesses declined in the original part of the town, we had to reach out and annex where the new businesses were opening,” the mayor explained. “I remember when we were annexing in the 1980s, going toward the interstate, and at the same time Tillatoba down below us gave up their charter and was no longer a municipality.”
Swearengen also recalled working with cities and town in the county and the Yalobusha County Board of Supervisors to create an industrial park on the western side of the county.
“People from all over the county came together and formed an economic development organization, “ Swearengen said. “That effort led to opening of the infamous beef plant,” the mayor added.
The beef plant only operated for three months in 2004 but the impact was long-lasting as the successor company, Ajinomoto, currently employees over 400 workers at the same site just north of Oakland on Hwy. 51.
“I wish that plant had been there when I was a young man,” Swearengen said. “Jobs were scarce.”
In addition to his public service, the mayor was employed with McQuay/Luvata/Modine in Grenada until his retirement in 2017. He made the daily 25 mile commute to Grenada for 45 years.
Infrastructure requirements for the plant included a natural gas line and Swearengen has served as chairman of the Oakland Yalobusha Natural Gas District since it creation.
“We ran the gas line from Coffeeville to Oakland and have expanded it to the Tillatoba area and Cossar State Park,” Swearengen said.
While the big projects garner the most attention, the mayor cited daily operations are what make a little town function.
“In a small town, you don’t always have department heads. A mayor has to be the department head for everything,” Swearengen explains. “Some days you have to figure out something on the computer. The next day you are working on a sewer pump or water line. Or you may be out in the middle of the night helping clean up after a storm,” the mayor explained.
He and his wife, Rose Love Swearengen, have been married for 50 years. They have six children and 10 grandchildren. They attend Alvis Grove Baptist Church where he serves as Chairman of the Board of Officers. He is also a long-time member of Davis Chapel Masonic Lodge, the Booker Royal Arch Lodge Oakland, and the Yalobusha County Branch of the NAACP since 1983 and has served that organization as President.
Swearengen is also life-long native of Oakland and attended Walker High School in Oakland. He attended Arkansas State University to receive a Certification in Public Administration.
He pointed to a bright future for Oakland with renewed motivation.
“They are working on a grocery store in Oakland, that is one thing we need here,” the mayor said. “We need other stores and businesses. Housing is another challenge, not only for Oakland but for the entire county. But there is more energy here now than anytime during my lifetime.
For more information about the Elected Officials Appreciation Day, contact the Chamber at oaklandareachamber@gmail.com or leave a message at 601-853-3942. The public is invited.
