The same day a familiar face was hired to lead the Eureka Springs City Adverting and Promotion Commission, a well-publicized member of the commission stepped down.

At the CAPC’s regular meeting on Wednesday, April 26, finance director Scott Bardin, who has been interim tourism director the past three months, was unanimously picked to become the commission’s executive director.

He will make $80,000 a year and replaces Madison Dawson, who resigned in January. Dawson has been regional marketing director for Berryville-based Brashears Furniture since February, according to her LinkedIn page.

“Exciting, I love it,” Bardin said to commissioners after the vote, standing up with his fists raised in the air above his head. “I’m so excited. I’ve been interim finance director, I’ve been interim director, and now I’m director.

“Thank you so very much. Just thank you so much.”

Meanwhile, shortly after Bardin’s selection, CAPC chairman Chris Clifton announced that commissioner and former chair Jeff Carter resigned earlier in the day.

Carter’s resignation means there are no longer any members on the commission who are involved as defendants in an ongoing lawsuit filed by now-former CAPC employees and contractors and one former commissioner.

Carter had been on the commission since 2019 and had a second term approved last year. His seat wasn’t set to expire until June 30, 2025.

“I was surprised and he just told us he wanted to focus on family, business and health,” Clifton wrote in an email to the Eureka Springs Times-Echo answering a question about Carter’s resignation.

“We want to thank Jeff for his service time and serving on the commission. I thank him for that,” Clifton said at the April 26 meeting.

The vote to name Bardin to lead the CAPC came after a 32-minute executive session.

Once the open session resumed, commissioner Steve Holifield moved to name Bardin executive director and set his salary. Holifield’s motion was seconded by Mark Hicks.

“Congratulations, Scott, you’re doing an awesome job,” commissioner Chris Jones said during commissioner comments.

Commissioner David Avanzino added: “Scott, congratulations. I think you know that we have your back. We’ll ask a lot of questions, and sometimes it’ll be uncomfortable, but it’s part of the job.” Clifton wrote in an email to the Times-Echo that Bardin was one of three applicants who interviewed for the position.

“Out of our applicants we invited 5 to interview, 2 ended up withdrawing and 3 interviewed,” Clifton wrote. “All 3 that interviewed had prior A&P leadership experience.”

Sources reported that former CAPC executive director Mike Maloney, who held that position for eight years before resigning in 2019, was one of the candidates who was interviewed.

The work Bardin did as interim tourism director — all while maintaining his duties as finance director — was key in the decision to select him, Clifton wrote.

“Scott volunteered to step up when basically the rest of the staff had resigned,” Clifton wrote. “Leaders lead, especially when things get tough and that’s what Scott has done and it’s because he has and exudes a love and strong passion for Eureka Springs to be successful.

“He had already demonstrated a very strong fiduciary responsibility in his role as financial director and I think that has earned him a lot of trust with many stakeholders and business leaders in town. He has been the interim for almost the 90 days we had asked him to be and he has quickly made an impact, building staff, rebuilding trust and repairing relationships in town, painting a strong tourism vision, etc.”

Clifton said he thinks Bardin will be a “great leader” for tourism in Eureka Springs.

“We’ve been fortunate to have increasing tax receipts even with challenging economic times and I think he helps prepare us if the economy gets more challenging,” Clifton wrote. “Scott is a big picture guy with a focus on what makes Eureka unique and has a very strong finance acumen and I think that will help us navigate our promotion efforts as effectively as possible moving forward.”

Clifton mentioned unity during his chairman’s comments at the beginning of the meeting.

“I’ve just noticed there is becoming more and more unity … unity in the town and in marketing and stuff and it’s exciting,” he said. “I’m really, really happy that everyone is pulling together and we’re working together. Just exciting times and I look forward to more of the same.”

BEST MONTH IN DECADE The CAPC collected $158,110 in March, the most tourism tax collected in a month in the city in at least 10 years, according to Bardin.

“I went back and looked at the past 10 years of records and March 2023 was the largest sales tax remittance for the city of Eureka Springs,” Bardin told commissioners.

Bardin reported the collections for the month were up 58 percent from the $100,000 that was projected. Of that, $80,843 came from food and beverage (47 percent more than budgeted) and $77,267 from lodging (71 percent more than budgeted).

The CAPC had $1,955,659.14 in the bank as of March 31, Bardin said.

Since Jan. 1, the CAPC has collected $405,487.

“It’s really encouraging to see strong growth in March,” Clifton said. “I know we were real nervous with this year, and probably still are, with the recessionary type things that keep getting tossed around, but it’s very encouraging.”

Collections in March were 60 percent higher than the same period in 2022, Bardin reported.

Michael Kosowicz, a representative with Paradise Advertising and Marketing, joined the meeting by Zoom and told commissioners that he felt a “renewed focus on social media,” both paid and organic, was a factor in the successful collections for March.

“The collections from March were exceptional,” Kosowicz said. “The renewed focus … is producing results. It’s promotion of the concerts at The Aud, getting people to understand there’s events to go to.”

Kosowicz mentioned social media efforts, both by local staff and by Paradise, included information on the recent Amy Grant concert, live music at Basin Spring Park and St. Patrick’s Day events.

“Paradise and the CAPC developed a strong and very productive partnership over the last few months and proof is in the results so far,” according to a report presented by Kosowicz to commissioners.

In Paradise’s regular update, Kosowicz reported that 64 percent of “observed visitors” in March stayed overnight and 80 percent came to Eureka Springs from out of state. The Springfield market was the top for visitors and had the highest percentage of overnight stays, he said, with Kansas City a close second.

Day-trip visitors to the city made up 63 percent of the visits in March, a 75 percent increase from the same period in 2022, Kosowicz told commissioners.

“The average visitor spend in March increased from $107 to $129 when compared to March 2022,” he said.

APPROVAL TO HELP PARKS After hearing from Sam Dudley, the new Eureka Springs Parks Director, the CAPC unanimously approved spending up to $17,000 to fund the third and final step of an engineering study aimed at determining what steps need to be taken to repair and restore Basin Spring Park.

An engineering study done in 2011 reported that “the overall limestone rock structure will need major repair within the next 10 to 20 years to maintain the character and integrity of the park, the springs, the channels and the fountain,” Dudley said. “So, the whole park. And we’re almost 12 years later.”

In recent months the parks department signed a $48,000 contract for the engineering study, Dudley said, with approximately $16,000 for the final phase of the study remaining. Core samples from underneath the park have already been drilled as part of the first two phases of the study.

“It’s just such an integral part of Eureka, and as the parks department, we are responsible for the upkeep,” Dudley said regarding Basin Spring Park. “However, there are things happening at Basin Park that are beyond our scope financially, just professionally in terms of engineering and architecture and things like that.”

Once the final step of the study is complete, parks will be presented with a cost estimate to totally repair all aspects of the park.

“It’s daunting and scary and it’s just a big amount of money,” Dudley said. “Just imagine, obviously the cost of doing nothing is greater than the cost of doing something. It’s still expensive, regardless.”

Avanzino said the CAPC is certainly able to help fund the project with the many commission events that go on regularly in the park.

“It’s certainly within our purview to allocate funds,” Avanzino said.

The CAPC also approved a funding request of $3,000 to fund a city sponsorship and decals for Eureka Springs to be a stop as part of the Great Race.