By Rick Harvey
RHarvey@cherryroad.com
The Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission is a step closer to finally being at full capacity.
At its regular meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 28, the CAPC approved the addition of Chris Jones to one of the two vacancies on the commission.
Jones, who lives in Berryville but has owned the Carriage House lodging property in Eureka Springs for the past 28 years, was unanimously approved by commissioners and will be on the agenda for the approval of the city council at its next meeting, Monday, Jan. 9.
Seats 2 and 3 on the commission, formerly held by James DeVito and Patrick Burnett, are vacant and three applicants were discussed at Wednesday’s meeting.
Commissioner Autumn Slane first nominated Heather Reed, who has had an application for the CAPC on file since Jan. 19. Reed, who lives in Holiday Island and owns Green Tree Lodge and RV Park, Osage Cottage and Pedals and Pints Cottage, was at Wednesday’s meeting and said she is still interested in serving on the CAPC.
“She is a strong pillar in the community and has made successful strides in her business,” Slane said. “She works with her husband doing accounting, bookkeeping, so she has a strong knowledge in budgets. She’s up for making progressive changes … as far as getting our budgets a little more in line across the board.”
Slane and commissioner Terry McClung both voted in favor of Reed, with commissioners Chris Clifton and Mark Hicks voting against. “Does not pass,” chair Jeff Carter said without voicing his vote.
Commissioners then discussed MariaChantel Cougar, whose application for the CAPC is dated Nov. 19.
Carter explained that the city has been trying to get a ruling on whether Cougar qualifies to be considered. Cougar, who has a military background, has lived in Eureka Springs for the past three years and is the payroll manager for the Crescent and Basin Park hotels, according to her application and resume.
“This week we actually sent this over to the mayor’s office for clarification,” Carter said. “Is this position she holds at the Crescent, would it qualify her to be on this commission? We have not gotten a ruling. As a matter of fact, the city attorney kicked it to the Municipal League and the Municipal League has kicked it now all the way to the Attorney General of the state of Arkansas.”
Carter suggested tabling a vote on Cougar until more information is received.
That led to the motion, second and discussion of Jones, whose application — also dated Nov. 19 — doesn’t include a resume and simply says “to help Eureka Springs,” on the question of “how the city would benefit from having you serve in this position?”
“Her and her husband own the Carriage House up by the Crescent,” Carter said. “I actually met with Chris, she’s very nice. The way I understand it she is semi-retiring … and has more time to volunteer.”
Clifton indicated he also has visited with Jones.
“She seems interested in volunteering and she’s worked with the chamber before,” Clifton said.
“And what are her qualifications?” Slane asked. “Just the Carriage House?”
Clifton responded: “Yeah, I think the Carriage House and her interaction with working with the chamber.”
Slane replied, “I’m just so confused why you’re going to say yes to Chris here and not to Heather. And you don’t have to answer that, but…”
After a brief pause, Clifton answered with a slight chuckle: “I was confused why you voted no for me.”
“Everybody gets a vote and it’s their vote,” Carter responded.
Jones was approved 4-0.
The commission also voted for Clifton to be the new CAPC liaison and work closely with Paradise marketing and advertising agency.
“He will report back to us at all of our meetings exactly what’s going on,” Carter said.

NO VOTE ON BUDGET
Despite an hour-long workshop held before the regular meeting with the 2023 budget as the main topic, no action was taken at Wednesday’s meeting.
McClung asked to have the vote on the new budget added to the agenda saying that the CAPC could go ahead, as it’s done in the past, and vote on next year’s budget.
Carter, however, said it was determined last year that city ordinance dictates that the 2023 budget can’t be approved until January.
“You can do it, trust me,” McClung said of voting on the budget.
“We questioned that last year and clearly the city ordinance says first of the year,” Carter responded.
McClung said he’s been a part of the CAPC in the past that approved the new year’s budget before the end of the year, and by doing so, it helps whatever ad agency planning needs to be done.
“That’s why it was always done ahead of time,” McClung said. “We used to have it all ready to go in October.”
“I’m just saying that the city ordinance says it’s supposed to be done the first of the year,” Carter said.
McClung responded: “If that’s what it says we never did follow it before, and city didn’t follow it either because they used to approve the budgets before the first of the year.”
Other discussions during the workshop concerning the budget were taking a proposed $11,000 that’s in the 2023 budget to go toward Eureka Springs being a leg of The Great Race event and reallocating that money for fireworks and Christmas holiday items.
“I love the idea but that’s a lot of money for two hours of people in town,” Carter said of The Great Race event.
Instead, $7,500 of that money will go to the parks and recreation department to be used for fireworks and $3,500 of the money will go to “Home for the Holidays” events.
The commission also discussed trimming the folk festival budget from $40,000 to $30,000 and putting that extra $10,000 toward Christmas-related items as well.
The budget for “Home for the Holidays,” and related items will now be $23,500, if approved.
Slane proposed budgeting 10 percent of CAPC money to go to the parks department for “holiday decorating and infrastructure repair,” but Carter said he needed to check to see if the CAPC can do that legally.

BANDSHELL HELP FAILS
A motion to set aside $250,000 in CAPC reserves earmarked to assist in the repair of the bandshell at Basin Park received three yes votes and two no votes, but didn’t get the required fourth affirmative vote when Carter voted no.
“It looks as though the CAPC is going to have an excess of revenue this year, pretty extensive,” McClung said. “And I’d like to make a motion that we place $250,000 in reserve for the bandshell at Basin Park repairs. Put it in a CD or something like that, earmark it for that.
“And as such time as parks is ready to present what they’re going to do …”
Clifton said he wasn’t opposed to the idea but wanted to see a plan from parks on what exactly they were wanting to do before approving such a decision.
“If the CAPC doesn’t like what they see [from parks] they can always say no,” McClung said. “It’s not an absolute gift, it’s just set aside for that purpose when the time comes.”
Carter said he agreed with Clifton that he wanted to see a plan and also felt the CAPC needed to make sure they could spend money on such a project.
McClung compared the bandshell, and its use for musical concerts, to the The Auditorium and its importance to the CAPC and tourism.
“We just need to make sure we’re not breaking any rules before we set [money] aside,” Carter said.
McClung, Slane and Hicks voted in favor of the motion. Carter and Clifton voted against.

STRONG OCTOBER
The CAPC had a strong October of tax collections, according to finance director Scott Bardin.
The November financial report of October taxes showed that the CAPC collected $258,140, which was $28,140 more than budgeted. Of that, $122,157 was from food and beverage and $135,983 was from lodging. Both categories were budgeted for $115,000.
The total collections were $29,080 more than what was collected during the same time in 2021.
As of Nov. 30, the CAPC had a cash balance of $1,841,960.83 and an unrestricted balance of $1,785,266.40.
“We had $107,447 earmarked or restricted for renovations [of The Aud] and out of that amount, there is still $56,000 remaining that could be used,” Bardin said. “But one question going into 2023… should that amount carry forward or not?”
Bardin said 2022 collections through November were at $1,907,460 and the budget was $1,636,000.
“That’s an increase of $271,460 and that’s 17 percent collections exceeding budget,” he said.
“Overall, all categories and all comparisons increased.”