With the hulking build of a former collegiate football player and a charismatic charm and enthusiasm for life as booming and as his baritone voice, when El Dorado city councilman and anti-violence advocate Willie McGhee walks into a room -- let alone addresses one full of professionals -- people pay attention. And that’s exactly what happened when the former police officer and mental health professional spoke this week in Magnolia during the Columbia County HEALTH Coalition’s year-end luncheon.

The Calion native’s story is one that draws upon the power of love and the need to help others. McGhee was adopted as an infant after his biological mother was unable to provide for her six kids nearing starvation and was taken into the home of a woman who he said was “filled with love.” With her third-grade education, his adopted mother raised not only McGhee, but many of his siblings as well, all while beginning and involving the children in community events such as 4-H Club, Boy Scouts of America, trash clean-up, the church, and more.

“What I do is basically what I saw this woman do in my life,” McGhee said.

After graduating from Norphlet High School and attending Henderson State University, the Union County man took on jobs with law enforcement, the Boys and Girls Club, and a hospital psychology unit. With his personal and professional background combined with a desire to reach out to others and pay back the ones that raised him, McGee is now a sitting city councilman for El Dorado’s Ward 3 and a nonprofit awareness head for a “stop the violence” campaign, urging young people to “quit killing each other when they get angry.”

“I wanted to get involved because I felt like I needed to give back,” he said.

McGhee was so dedicated to the campaign, that every Saturday for five years, he held signs on the side of El Dorado roads asking for aggravated homicides to be stopped.

The key topics at his guest appearance in Magnolia involved the upcoming 2020 Census and the opioid “crisis” that is ongoing in Arkansas. McGhee is chairman of the 2020 Census Committee in El Dorado.

“People don’t realize how important the population count is to our community and to our state,” he said.

The councilman noted that some may be skeptical of the federal headcount, and especially with anything marked “U.S. Government” on it, but he stated that not participating only hurts one’s own area and region.

“Treat that 2020 Census form like a check in the mail,” he said, “ because it is. It actually determines how much turnback money we get for our county and our city.”

The population count determines turnback funds for a decade.

“The census is only once every 10 years,” McGhee said.

Arkansas is in the same census region as many midwestern states, according to McGhee. In the last count in 2010, Wisconsin’s mailer census return was around 85%. The Arkansas count was 67%.

“We were the lowest state in the group,” McGhee added. “That means we lost millions and millions of dollars just because we didn’t turn a piece of paper in.”

The councilman noted that anyone, regardless of age, can “get on board” and help get the word out for the April 1, 2020, census count. Jobs are available that pay ranging from up to $15 to $21 per hour and residents from within a community are encouraged to apply to help aid in the count. A mass effort to count everyone, including nursing home residents, university students, prisoners, the homeless, and others, is also underway.

“If someone is sleeping under the bridge, they’re going to track them down,” McGhee said.

Although some may still be wary of giving away resident counts to the government, McGhee noted that the census is about one thing, and one thing only -- collecting the proper population figures.

“They don’t care whether you have four families living in the house or where you get your check from, or your status -- that is not their concern,” he said. “They just want to know how many heads you got in your house so we can get an accurate count of how many people we are trying to serve in our communities.”

Census counts can be filled out online at www.census.gov or the forms will be in the mail closer to April 1, 2020. McGhee also stated that if the form is not filled out, “you will get a knock on your door.”

OPIOIDS

McGhee is an member of the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program (COAP). He was appointed in August by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. As part of the $20 million, grant-funded program, $1.5 million has been set aside for McGhee and others on the COAP team to research collect data for nine months in the state -- which is the second worst state in the Union, followed only by West Virginia, for abuse and over-prescribing of opioids, according to McGhee.

“People have been picked from different parts of the state of Arkansas to try to see where we can be most effective in combating this crisis – this war we’re in,” he said.

McGhee’s area includes Columbia, Cleveland, Ouachita, and Union Counties. The key data points he is attempting to pin down are deaths, hospital and emergency rates, and overdoses caused by opiate-based drugs.

“I’m in the process right now of trying to get together judges, prosecuting attorneys, drug court people, doctors, and therapists to get together and collect this data that we will send to the University of Oklahoma to compile it all together,” he added.

The data will give the state a better guide to see where resources need to be allocated for facilities, education, case-workers, and medication experts for the area. Currently, according to McGhee, the nearest drug rehabilitation facility for the Columbia County area is 100 miles away.

“If someone is on drugs or you have a family member that is struggling, it’s hard to get them 100 miles sometimes,” McGhee said. “That’s one thing where we have an opportunity.”

The data collection period is still set to last another three to four months, according to the councilman.