Johnson 72741 Sandwiched in Postal Identity Crisis

You can eat a great dinner at James at the Mill in Springdale and get a good night’s sleep at the Townplace Suites in Fayetteville.

If you need a premium office, you can lease Class A space at 4100 Corporate Center Drive in Springdale. If you need your hair and nails done, you can stop by Salon A La Mode in Fayetteville.

And if you’re in the market for a $250,000 home in a nice neighborhood near the Northwest Arkansas Mall, there’s one for sale in Springdale.

The problem is all these places are actually in Johnson. But since Johnson does not have its own ZIP code for street addresses, all businesses and residences in Johnson officially have Springdale and Fayetteville addresses.

As a result, Johnson remains nearly invisible in comparison to its much bigger neighbors to the north and south, especially for newcomers and for those looking at Northwest Arkansas online.

Even the mailing address for Johnson City Hall — 2904 Main Drive, Fayetteville, AR 72704 — excludes Johnson.

The catch is Johnson has its own ZIP code (72741) for P.O. boxes. In a bid to maintain its presence, Johnson uses its name, the P.O. box and the ZIP code, and has to pick up its mail each day at the post office at 1590 E. Joyce Blvd. in Fayetteville.

Buddy Curry, the mayor of the little town with the big identity problem, is trying to change all that. Thus far he’s had no success, but he doesn’t plan on quitting anytime soon.

“I’m not giving up,” he said.

Curry is trying to gain from the postal service a Preferred Last Line, or PLL, which would give businesses and residents the option of using Johnson and the Johnson ZIP code in street addresses.

In response to his first request for a PLL, Curry was rebuffed by postal service representative Cary Chism.

“After carefully reviewing the possible effects the assignment of the PLL would have on operations, it was determined the request could not be accommodated,” Chism wrote. “Postal delivery designations do not necessarily coincide with city, township and county boundaries and are not adjusted solely for the purpose of providing local identity.”

In short, adding Johnson to Springdale’s code, 72762, and Fayetteville’s, 72704, would cause confusion.

The postal issue is so confusing that “a lot of people don’t know they live in our town,” Curry said. “People come up here [to City Hall] asking where they vote in Springdale elections.”

In some cases, business owners go to Springdale or Fayetteville for their business licenses, not Johnson.

In an effort to increase the town’s profile, Curry, who in October 2011 assumed the unexpired term of deceased former Mayor Lonnie Barron, had a website installed at www.cityofjohnson
.com in early 2012.

While the identity issue is annoying, it’s not yet critical. But the stakes are about to increase in Johnson. By spring, the $17-million program that includes Johnson Mill Boulevard, a new road north of Main Drive from Interstate 540 to Johnson Road, should be done.

The three-lane is expected to bring in new retail and commercial investments.

It would be nice, Curry said, for those new businesses to have Johnson addresses and for people to know that they are doing business in Johnson, not Springdale and Fayetteville.

“We can no longer afford to be a bedroom community,” Curry said. “We have to bring in business to maintain our town.”

A concern of Curry’s is that one day the lack of an identity would give way to a movement in Johnson to de-incorporate and to annex into Springdale and Fayetteville.

“That’s one of my fears,” Curry said. “I would fight that tooth and nail.”