Gateway — For more than half a century, nearly two-thirds of their lives, Bill and Lida Schnitzer have served the tiny community of Gateway on the Arkansas/Missouri border.

“It was just life,” Mrs. Schnitzer said. “No reason - you just do it.”

Bill was a native of Garfield, attended Bayless School and then graduated from Rogers High School.

Lida Ellis, born in Elkhorn Tavern before the Pea Ridge National Military Park bought the properties to create the park, went to first grade at Ozark School, then moved to Texas, then moved back to Gateway. Her homeplace was on the corner of Indian Creek Road and U.S. Highway 62 in an area formerly known as Clantonville.

The two were married Dec. 17, 1954.

About 1960, former Gateway Mayor Ada Walker asked Lida to be recorder/treasurer.

“Bill’s mom had been there for years ... his dad (Ted) was an alderman,” Lida said.

Gateway was incorporated in 1934. Mrs. Walker had been mayor for 25 years, Schnitzer recalled.

“When it came time for an election, I quit as recorder/treasurer,” she said, explaining that she ran for a City Council position.

“There were very few people registered to vote.”

So, Schnitzer and her husband served on the City Council. In 1989, she became mayor, a position she held until the 2010 election, when David White won the election.

In addition to her civic duties, Schnitzer worked for a few years at Dillons in Rogers, sold Avon and owned and operated the Ozark Trading Post. She was also the assistant post master in Gateway until caring for her husband, Bill, after his stroke, demanded all of her time.

“We were a very small town then,” she said, explaining that until the 2005 annexation increasing the town’s size from 116 to 494 residents.

“Being involved is not just because you’re needed,” she said. “Itmakes you feel better.”

Bill Schnitzer was instrumental in getting city water to Gateway and served as president of the water association.

The couple has two children, Pamela Ann Shaw and Billy Schnitzer Jr., six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Son Billy works for the city and daughter, Pam, is the manager of Gateway Rural Water Association, the water department herfather helped create. Bill Schnitzer Sr. also was one of the founding members of Volunteer Ambulance Service. Bill Sr. worked at Daisy for 37 years, farmed with his father, and raised cattle.

In 1998, the land was bought for the city park.

Saturday, city leaders gathered at the park to dedicate the arch constructed this past year under former Mayor Schnitzer’s direction reminiscent of thearch which spanned the highway leading east out of Gateway.

“We used to have an arch over what used to be 47 highway,” Schnitzer said.

“The arch has been a goal of the community since it was knocked down in 1950 by a 1950 Oreo two-ton flatbed lumber truck.”

Several local craftsmen are using their skills to create the arch. Randall James of Brightwater is doing the rock work. Ricky Bobo ofSpringdale is crafting the metal portion of the arch.

Jeff Mason of Gateway is doing the electrical work.

The new arch is designed by T.J. McGuire and Associates. Angie Wofard will design the landscaping.

Renard Bray donated the rocks.

The city park land was purchased in 1998.

Gateway received a GIF Community Enhancement Grant of $12,000 which was used to construct the arch.

News, Pages 1 on 10/12/2011