By Andrea Bruner, White River Now
With the closure of one longtime hotel and another not paying taxes owed to the city, overall lodging tax collections are down.
That was part of the report at Tuesday night’s Batesville City Council meeting from Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Crystal Johnson, who said the city is currently in a “hotel crisis” as there are not enough rooms to meet demand.
The city has an Advertising and Promotions tax (A&P) enacted on lodging hotels/motels, Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.) only, although other cities do have A&P taxes on restaurants as well.
In 2017, the first year the tax went into effect, Batesville collected approximately $127,000 from the A&P tax; the following year that was up to $147,000. A&P revenues for subsequent years are as follows: 2019, $152,000; 2020, $112,000; 2021, $188,000; 2022, $213,000; 2023, $224,000; and 2024, $182,000 (year to date).
But since The Dels purchased the old Ramada Inn and has turned it into multi-family housing (apartment), it is not required to pay the A&P.
Furthermore, the Super 8 has new owners who have not paid their taxes since May 11, although Johnson said she is working with City Attorney Tim Meitzen and Alderman Robb Roberts to absolve that.
She also said the city’s A&P Commission is investing in a group that will look at recruitment strategy.
The commission does have two members who are rotating off: Cathy Drew and Haley Stephens. Drew has served an eight-year term and is one of the original commissioners who helped get the program off the ground, and Stephens has served a four-year term and is currently secretary of the commission.
Johnson said when the A&P’s advertising began, for every $1 spent in ads they saw a return of approximately $40; now, however, that return is $106.22 per $1 spent.
“We have new tools to track ad placement so we can track where an ad is seen and follow that person to see if they ever make it to Batesville,” she told the council.
While data is three weeks delayed, she said they did have info on traffic counts at White River Wonderland to show that 2024’s opening weekend is up about 7 percent.
Another new tool is the Experience Builder app, which Johnson said is a “long-term opportunity” designed to capitalize on how residents and visitors explore everything the area has to offer, with information about restaurants, things to do and places to shop as well as exclusive promotions, discounts and rewards.
More information about the Experience Builder app can be found on the chamber’s website, https://batesvillearea.com/visit/batesville-insiders-pass/.
Johnson highlighted three economic development projects that will be prioritized in 2025, along with the chamber’s normal work.
Johnson said they were hoping the housing situation would work itself out organically, but that doesn’t seem to be happening, and the community is short 1,000 rental units and short 1,000 homes.
One is Work/Wired, a strategy designed to “provide access to a living wage for our community members,” according to Johnson. She said increasing the “living wage” also increases citizens’ spending, building a healthier economy and thus making our community more attractive to retailers and industries (not to mention people) looking to locate in Batesville.
But in reality, Batesville already has a housing crisis. Johnson said they were hoping the housing situation would work itself out organically, but that doesn’t seem to be happening, and the community is short 1,000 rental units and short 1,000 homes.
A housing needs assessment was recently conducted by Bowen National Research and shows a few highlights:
- Five-year renter household growth is projected to occur among those earning $50,000+, while owner household growth is projected among those earning $100,000.
- Over 7,500 individuals from surrounding areas commute into Independence County for employment, accounting for 44.5 percent of the people employed in the county. Approximately 43.6 percent of those earn between $15,000 and $40,000 annually. Twenty percent of those commute further than 50 miles to their job, but 45 percent of those said they would buy or rent here if housing were available, Johnson said.
- With nearly 3,000 new jobs added since 2014, Independence County’s unemployment rate of 3.2 percent (as of July 2024) is below the state and U.S. rates. This positive job growth will add to the demand for housing, creating additional residential development opportunities.
- The county’s fair market rent is $818 and the median list price of a home is $225,000 – which means many of the area’s occupations do not have sufficient wages to enable the workforce to rent or buy housing in Independence County. For instance, the cashiers’ median income here is $26,150, putting affordability at $654 to rent and $87,167 to buy, according to the study. Receptionists’ median income is $29,830, putting affordability at $746 and $99,433 to buy. For heavy/tractor-trailer drivers, the median income is $48,240, putting affordability at $1,206 to rent and $160,800 to buy.
- Nearly 3,500 Independence County households live in cost-burdened (paying over 30 percent of income toward housing) or severe cost-burdened (paying 50 percent) housing.
- The study also shows 427 housing units are overcrowded and another 304 have incomplete plumbing or kitchens.
- A total of 24 multi-family rental projects with 675 units were surveyed and half of the properties are maintaining a wait list. The extremely high occupancy rates and presence of wait lists are evidence of pent-up demand.
There were two items on the city council agenda related to housing, although separate from Johnson’s report.
Greg Ade/The Heights LLC asked the council to rezone a 1.7-acre tract of land near White Drive from Community Commercial (C-1) to General-Family Residential (R-2).
Code Enforcement Officer Chad McClure said Ade plans to split the lot on Polk Bayou Loop for development of medium density residential units, and city regulations do not allow split zoning.
Coming with a similar request to rezone property from C-1 to R-2 was Timothy Praught, who has undertaken the old Independence Inn/Powell motel campus (below).
McClure said there are plans to reopen the restaurant and develop the units into multi-family housing.
A third ordinance on the agenda was requested by Grace Hawkins/The Board on 3rd.
The restaurant, located at 156 S. Third St. (below) behind the old Skinner’s Jewelry building, now Edward Jones, was granted a private club permit to serve alcohol. The establishment will now take its application to the Arkansas Alcohol Beverage Control Division.
In all three cases, the council waived second and third readings of the ordinances, which were then adopted Tuesday night.
In other business Tuesday night:
* The council adopted two resolutions regarding the office of city clerk/treasurer, one declaring a vacancy and the other filling that vacancy.
Denise Johnston is currently serving year 2 of a four-year elected term that will expire on Dec. 31, 2026 but has announced plans to retire as of Jan. 11, 2025. Johnston began her role in January 1991.
The council appointed Jessica Davis to complete the unexpired term.
Davis previously served as the city clerk at Arkadelphia (population 10,255) before she and her family moved to Batesville.
* Police Chief John Scarbrough presented his monthly report, stating November calls were 1,961, which is over October’s 1,830. November had 52 accidents, down from October’s 64, and there were 32 arrests and 62 incident reports, up from the previous month’s 18 arrests and 48 incidents.
Scarbrough said all of the computer systems had been installed in the police vehicles, but there is one program that is experiencing technical issues. The rest are all working well, he said.
He said there were issues where the eCite system was not communicating with the courts, and that has been fixed. Now, officers are able to complete accident and incident reports in their vehicles and issue citations.
The Batesville Police Department applied for but did not receive the Arkansas Public Safety Grant, but Scarbrough said they will continue to apply for it and other grants.
Roberts asked that moving forward in 2025, Scarbrough would report on speeding warnings and speeding tickets, and Scarbrough said he would.
Scarbrough also proposed four expenditures, including Cellebrite, a digital investigative platform, at $20,955.63; PowerDMS, a database software, at $16,775; Virtual Academy (training for officers), $1,575; and license plate readers, $7,500.
The council approved the $46,805 with funding to come from the city’s alcohol tax.
* Public Works Engineer Damon Johnson reported on multiple projects ongoing in the city. He mentioned there is a 19-acre industrial site that does not have water and sewer yet, and the city has offered to provide those utilities as an incentive to companies that might be interested in developing.
He said the project went out for bid and Steep Creek, LLC had presented a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) of just over $2.1 million. Steep Creek is a subcontractor of the TOLM Group, Inc., which is overseeing the water plant project.
“I recommend we accept this,” Johnson told the council. “The bid came in within $100,000 of the engineers’ assessment and we feel comfortable with the bid. … With that development, it’s been hot or cold on that site, and we need to ahead of the game” before a developer comes.
Mayor Rick Elumbaugh agreed, saying the city is trying to be proactive. “And if this company does not pull the trigger on it, we will be ready for the next one.”
The project does include two highway bores (tunnels drilled underground) for sewer as well as a water line below Lawrence Street that needs to be connected under a railroad, which will have to be bored as well.
The council accepted Steep Creek’s bid.
Johnson said other projects continue to move forward, including the relocation of a sewer line just down from the dog park in order to prepare for a bigger excavation project that is set to start in early January.
* The council voted to waive competitive bidding for construction of a splash pad at Riverside Park by ACS Playground Adventures, at a cost of $159,977. The resolution passed by the council states that ACS can uniquely provide the proper design specifications, pricing and timeframe for construction, thus deeming competitive bidding to not be feasible or practical.
* Following an executive session, the council reappointed David Thompson, Ron Autry and Mayfan Thomas to three-year terms on the city historic district commission.
* The 2025 budget was also adopted by ordinance, with the second and third readings waived. The annual salaries of elected officials is as follows: mayor, $97,754.80; city clerk/treasurer, $87,250.00; city attorney, $42,436.00; and city council members, $3,600.00.
* Elumbaugh recognized Alderman Chris Poole for 14 years of service to the city council with a plaque and a key to the city, the latter of which is presented to aldermen who have served more than 10 years. Poole is moving outside the city limits.
Above: Mayor Rick Elumbaugh (right) recognizes outgoing Alderman Chris Poole at Tuesday’s Batesville City Council meeting. Image: Andrea Bruner for White River Now
* During council comments at the end of the meeting, Alderman Scott Fredricks said he and his fellow ward representative, Landon Reeves, had received an email from someone asking if the city had an ordinance forbidding the tethering of dogs in vehicles. The email writer had apparently witnessed a truck in motion with a dog tethered in the bed.
City Attorney Tim Meitzen said this might fall under animal cruelty, and Elumbaugh said they will check into it.
* A reception will be held at the Batesville Community Center from 4-6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20 to honor Nick Baxter, who is retiring as Batesville Utility office manager at the end of the year.
There were no comments from citizens.
Alderman Paige Hubbard was absent.
All images: White River Now
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