PrairieGrove2022

PGTELCO Celebrates Rick Reed

He attended Morrow Elementary School and then went to Lincoln schools in eighth grade. He is a graduate of Lincoln High School. He joined the National Guard in high school and went to basic training before enrolling at the University of Arkansas to earn a degree in banking and finance in 1975. Reed and his wife, Raylene, moved to Prairie Grove after he graduated from the UA for him to work for Farmers and Merchants Bank in Prairie Grove. He worked there 11 years and then said he started looking around for another job. The Parks family called him up and offered him a job with the local telephone company. Reed said he “jumped at the chance” because he liked the area, but he also told the Parks they would have to teach him about the telephone business “because I knew nothing about it.” Reed started with PGTELCO on April 1, 1996 and did the company’s accounting for four years, but he also spent two years following construction and installation crews, selling telephone systems and performing other work to learn about the company. In 1990 Reed replaced David Parks as general manager, which Parks said gave him the opportunity to branch off and get into other investments for the company. Around the same time, Reed was appointed to serve on PGTELCO’s board of directors. As general manager, Reed said he has mid-managers who were responsible for areas such as the outside plant, central office, accounting and business office. He helps them coordinate and operate their departments. Reed has seen the telephone business change dramatically over the years. Of course, the biggest change for PGTELCO is the Internet, Reed said. “We’ve slowly gone from being a landline company to an Internet service provider. We still offer landlines, but they are not in very high demand any longer,” he said. To show the change, he said PGTELCO now has 3,500 landlines and 5,000 broadband customers. Customers are moving to bandwidth and want as much as they can get, Reed said. “That’s sort of been our goal, to build out the Internet network. I like to liken it to pipes. The bigger the pipe, the more speed you get.” As a Prairie Grove resident, Reed has been involved in the community. He served on Prairie Grove School Board for 21 years, at times being elected school board president. He’s been a member of Prairie Grove Lions Club since 1997, and has worked every Labor Day weekend volunteering with the Lions Club for the Clothesline Fair. He has chaired the Sight Committee for more than 30 years. “I’m proud of the charity work we’ve done with the Lions Club,” he said. Reed’s plans in retirement include more golfing, fishing and camping, traveling with his wife and spending time watching his grandchildren play sports. Parks said he will assume the general manager’s position.

After 36 Years, Time To Hang Up The Phone PGTELCO celebrated one of its own with a retirement party this past March, 2022 in honor of general manager Rick Reed. David Parks, president of PGTELCO, describes Reed as a “long- time telephone man.” Parks said Reed has played a key role in the family-owned company over the last three decades. “He’s been a loyal, very good part of our company. I think a lot of him and am very grateful to him,” Parks said, noting Reed also has been a key player in the state as a member of the Arkansas Telephone Association. “He’s well thought of in the community and well thought of in the industry, not just in the state but also in the country,” Parks said. Reed grew up in Morrow on a chicken farm until about age 14 and that farm work motivated him to want to go to college, he said.

Article courtesy of Lynn Kutter, Enterprise-Leader

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