Batesville mayor releases ‘State of the City’ address

UPDATED: Scroll down to watch Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh’s 2023 State of the City address. The text of the address is below.

Batesville Mayor Rick Elumbaugh has released his 2023 State of the City, highlighting the city’s progress on a variety of fronts, including economic development, public safety, and infrastructure.

Read the text of the 2023 State of the City below.

2023 STATE OF THE CITY

Mayor Rick Elumbaugh

Greetings! Welcome to the 2023 State of the City presentation.

It’s always a great day to be in Batesville, Arkansas.

As a life-long resident of Batesville, I’m more excited than ever to call this city my home. I take great pride and am extremely honored to be serving the community that I grew up in.

I was once asked by a television reporter, “Why Batesville?” First and foremost, we have the most giving and caring citizens in the state of Arkansas. Next, living a one-and-a-half hour drive from Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport in Little Rock and a two hour drive to Memphis International Airport, make efficient traveling a luxury. Also, we are settled on the beautiful White River with quick travel to the Spring River, Greers Ferry Lake, Lake Norfork, and Bull Shoals. People continue to congregate  where there is an abundance of outdoor recreation and beautiful landscapes. Our healthcare facility, White River Health, is second to none. The Batesville School District, UACCB, and Lyon College continue to educate our future students of all ages and interests. Last, we continue to have the oldest, existing city with a thriving Main Street. In other words, my answer was, “Why NOT Batesville?”

Batesville’s economy continues to grow. In 2022, our sales tax increased from 2021 by approximately 8.0%. Currently, the city is up 6.26% over last year.  

At this time, I would like to reflect on some of our 2022 highlights and include some of our greatest challenges and lay out a future vision for our community.

Our #1 highlight that is enjoyed by all is our White River Wonderland Christmas Light Display. Yearly, we attract thousands of new and returning visitors and were nominated for the Arkansas Tourism attraction of the year. Batesville received third place out of 500 cities around the state participating. Added this year was the “12 Days of Christmas” display and the outstanding “Castle,” which was a crowd pleasing favorite. A tremendous thank you to our landscape/grounds supervisor Johnny Abbott and his hard-working staff for another successful holiday season.  Without our generous sponsors, this event would not have been possible. 

The city council honored the Batesville High School swim team for winning the Boys 5A State Championship in March of both 2022 and 2023. Since the opening of the Batesville Community Center, the swim team has won three state championships and placed two runner-ups.

Continued improvements at the Batesville Regional airport consisted of the installation of new LED runway lights which was funded by a 90/10 FAA grant. Our airport continues to serve as a tremendous economic impact for our corporate community and access for local pilots. Many thanks go to our airport terminal manager, Justin Thompson, for his leadership and assistance.

Maggie Tipton Smart was hired in April as the new Main Street Batesville director and has continued the successes and future of our historic Main Street. The city will continue to support the Main Street program and looks forward to continued success to all of the future business owners and future developers. Maggie and Main Street Batesville worked hard in hopes of receiving the Levitt Foundation Amp Grant. Potentially providing our community with $90,000 of FREE music entertainment. Later in the year it was announced that Batesville was indeed the winner and the concert series is already in the works for 2023.

In the month of May, the council heard from several concerned citizens regarding public safety and the need for speed control on Main, College and Boswell streets. After much discussion, the city council approved the purchase of LED speed limit signs and speed monitors that can be rotated around city streets in our community when necessary. These are due to arrive any day and will be quickly put to use in our community.  Last, a new online app has been purchased and is currently being used for citizens to report leaf pick-up, potholes in streets, limb pick up, etc. It is called Textmygov and continues to be a wonderful benefit to our citizens.

In July, the Grace family generously donated 12 acres of land to the city.  This land lies on both sides of Pioneer Drive, close to the Community Center. In the future, we plan to expand mountain bike trails and to utilize overflow parking at the community center events. We are extremely thankful for this family in supporting city projects. Also in July, White River Health broke ground on a new orthopedic clinic which was much needed.  We are so fortunate to have such great healthcare for all surrounding communities.

August brought on the need to purchase our second grapple truck to assist in additional limb and class four trash pick-up throughout the city.  The council voted to purchase this truck, funded by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, and it should be arriving soon. This addition will be a much-needed asset for our workforce. 

ARPA funds also made the purchase of the city’s first salt brine system and a new horizontal grinder possible. The salt brine system has been installed and already proven beneficial with snow and ice removal on our streets. The grinder will mulch limbs and logs up to 18 inches in diameter and is much needed additional tools for our street department. 

Public safety is always of the utmost importance. The city council voted to sell the current police department building to Bad Boy and purchase the 8,000 square foot building on the corner of St. Louis and Oak Street, in addition to the two joining properties on Oak Street. This building is formerly known as the AP&L building and the original First Community Bank building. This property was being leased by the Network of Community Options. This will certainly give the police department a more central location. The building is being remodeled by local contractor, M & A Jones. Chief Alan Cockrill, Assistant Chief John Scarbrough, and all our officers are looking forward to this new location. Last, after a couple of local bomb threats led our officers to secure an explosive detection canine form the Little Rock area, Chief Alan Cockrill reached out to our community, and we purchased Batesville’s first bomb canine. Many thanks to our local Walmart and other local supporters for the funds given to make this possible.

In September, the council agreed to purchase the food lot on Central Street and are currently making improvements to the location. Future plans will be a total remodel when funding becomes available. Many thanks to Daisy Hall, a local Lyon graduate, for the newly painted mural, and to our partnership with Main Street Batesville for purchasing the new picnic tables.

In October, the council voted to allow part paid/part time firemen to live outside the incorporated city limits within a five-mile radius. Full time employed firemen were voted to reside within the boundaries of Independence County.

Other highlights in 2022 include the purchase of Riverside Gardens property on St. Louis Street and the Conoco Station on Meyers Street. Both properties will help the city secure the ownership of connecting property to Riverside Park, and allow for future improvements to the city on the entry from the south.

Parks and Recreation Highlights for 2022      

Community Center Usage

• 139,369 check-ins by members representing 6,171 different users
• 27,171 daily fee users
• Total of 166,540 uses of the Community Center for daily activities (not including swim team and high school volleyball practices).
• Average daily usage is approximately 600 people per day

Major Events Hosted

• 14 banquets
• SIx basketball tournaments, averaging 85 teams per tournament with the largest being 157 teams
• Three volleyball tournaments and one team camp, averaging 50 teams per tournament
• 12 other events including expos and training meetings

Other Rentals (including meeting rooms and birthday parties)

• 314 meeting room rentals for trainings, parties, reunions, weddings, etc. 
• 437 Pool Parties including indoor and outdoor

New Construction

• Splash pad on Westside funded with Parks and Tourism Outdoor Recreation Grant
• Trail and Boardwalk connecting Baja and Eagle Mountain funded by City, ARDot Recreation Trails Grant Program, and a donation from the Eagle Mountain Property Owners’ Association
• New playground equipment in Kennedy Park

Programs

Swimming

• 55 swim team members
• Summer League Beginning Swim program 30 participants
• 540 participants in swim lessons
• “Every Child a Swimmer”
• Water Aerobics classes averaging 40 to 50 participants per day
• Youth / Adult Triathlon Program has 10 participants during season

Adult Sports

• Two Adult Softball Leagues (Spring and Fall) with a total of 16 teams
• Two Adult Basketball (Winter and Summer) with a total of 23 teams
• Two Adult Volleyball (Fall and Spring) with a total of 11 teams
• Glow in the Dark Golf Tournament with 24 teams participating
• Ice Skating Rink had roughly 2,800 users

Youth Sports 

• Two seasons for Youth Baseball/Softball (Spring and Fall) with 206    participants total
• Spring T-Ball with 170 participants
• Winter Youth Basketball with 72 participants
• Youth Soccer (Spring and Fall) with 564 total participants

Golf

• 3,036 rounds of golf played by members
• Roughly another 3,500 rounds played by non-members

Economic development continues to be an extremely critical tool for advancing any community wishing to thrive and maintain a vibrant economy. The city has continued our partnership with the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce in moving our community to the forefront. CEO Crystal Johnson continues to take the lead working closely with all of our local industries to help guide and assist them with expansion. Several local industries have expansion plans currently in place and that will have a huge impact on our city. In December, Lifeplus International broke ground on a $24 million expansion. In addition, July brought on the groundbreaking of the Independent Stave Company for construction of a $30 million project. Crystal’s team continues to work diligently not only with existing industry, but they also put much time and effort into recruiting new industry to the area. They are currently launching a housing study to address our increasing housing shortage. The chamber team ensures that we work closely with local education facilities at all levels to ensure we have a quality workforce in the present and future.  

The city is also fortunate to have the White River Planning and Development team as partners in our economic development and grant writing. Director Jan Smith and member Mitzi Hargan do an outstanding job.  

Infrastructure is a key component to any city regardless of size if the intention is to grow their community. The city addressed the wastewater problem in 2009 and went online in 2015 with a state of the art wastewater plant. It has proven to be an award winning project for the city, and we have had many other cities from the state visit the site, with individuals as far away as Ireland, to see the innovative plant. In last year’s State of the City address, I shared the needs of constructing a new water plant. In my 16 years as mayor, we have placed many “band aids” to the plant in avoidance to major costly repairs. The city has engaged the Olsson Engineering firm, formerly McGoodwin Williams and Yates, to design the plant. This is the same firm used for the wastewater plant. After a vetting process, the city has also hired the Tolm Construction Company to be the team to build the new plant. Damon Johnson, city engineer, and Ben Hunter, water plant supervisor, have visited plants in Clarksville, Smyrna and Harpeth Valley, Tennessee and several locations in Arkansas to best decide what new technology is available. The Arkansas Department of Health is also engaged in the process to assure all EPA regulations and requirements will be met. An extensive, detailed water rate study is nearing completion at this time. Both Olsson and Tolm representatives will work to keep the city informed as progress continues with this challenging infrastructure need. 

As always, I have to commend each council member for always taking their valued time to be a public servant for this city. Over the years I have witnessed several other cities throughout the state struggle to maintain a cohesive and productive council. I can assure you that during my tenure, I have never had a council member that was not willing to work for the betterment of the city of Batesville. Thank you, council members. Also, thanks to all of the committees and commissioners that serve throughout the year. You are appreciated. And, to our dedicated employees, you keep the city running on a daily basis. I have been extremely blessed with hard working and devoted employees to work alongside. Good employees are the backbone of any successful industry. The city of Batesville employees are not just good, they are GREAT.

I would like to give special thanks to several employees that recently retired from the city. These include: Darrell Liles, 17 years; Red Davis, 39 years; Fire Chief Brent Gleghorn, 36 years; Bill Johnson, 24 years; Interim Fire Chief Ronnie Painter, 30 years; Robert Davis, 33 years; and Marty Thompson, 46 years.  These seven employees had a total of 225 years of experience. Unfortunately, our beloved friend and co-worker, Marty Thompson, lost his life to cancer in October. Marty is greatly missed by his City of Batesville family.   

The future of Batesville looks promising, but it’s never time to become complacent and be content with the status quo. Many cities and counties lost population during the last census count. I have always made the statement, “If we’re not building and improving our city, then someone is.” By working together, we can continue to improve and invest in all of our citizens’ quality of life, continue improving our education system, and infrastructure. In the knowledge based economy of the 21st century, economic development is about attracting and retaining well-educated workers.

I would like to close with a quote from Benjamin Franklin, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” I hope those words are used to describe the city of Batesville for many years to come. God Bless our country, our state, our county and our city.