Board of Directors - Regular Meeting

We'll go ahead and begin. I'd like to welcome each and every one of you to this evening's meeting. It's Tuesday, August 4th at 6 p.m. right here at City Hall. We have a very short agenda, but items that are important to our community. We'll begin with an invocation by Pastor David Mitchell with Central Baptist Church, and I'll lead the pledge. All rise.

First of all, thank you for this opportunity to serve. Father, we come before your throne of grace, privilege we have as children of God. We thank you that we can come and find grace and mercy to help us in life's difficulties. Thank you, Father. We have the ability to hear and to listen and to respond in a kind and gentle way. Thankful that we still have a country we can have conversations without fighting and fussing. I pray, Father, that you bless this body of servants of this city. Help them as they look to lead and direct the activities and work that needs to be done here in the city. Thank you for their willingness to serve. Bless this night. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Please join me in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We'll now call this meeting to order. Please call the roll.

Director Erin Holliday. Here. Director Phyllis Beard.

Present.

Director Marsha Dobbs-Smith.

Here.

Director Dudley Webb.

Here.

Director Karen Garcia. Here. Director Steve Trustee. Here. Mayor Pat McCabe.

Here. At this time, we'll consider approval of the agenda. Are there any additions, deletions to the agenda, or items to be moved from consent agenda to new business? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. Director Garcia, seconded by Director Trustee. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Agenda is approved. We'll move on to consider approval of the minutes of the regularly held meeting on July 21, 2026. Are there any additions, deletions, or corrections to the minutes as presented? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Director Webb, seconded by Director Dobbs-Smith. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign.

Minutes are approved.

Minutes are approved. Recognition of guests.

Well, you're all our guests tonight. Board members, have any special guests you want to recognize?

Moving on, we'll ask the city manager for the city manager's report.

Bill? Thank you, Mayor, members of the board. I want to start off by acknowledging some of our new hires in the city. Faith Mueller in our Hot Springs Police Department as crime scene technician. Jesse Cremins and Alicia Ortiz in our intercity transit as drivers. Joseph Tollett in Street Division and Dalton Tritchell, our airport line attendant. We want to welcome them to the city of Hot Springs and wish them a long career here with us. The compost facility, as some of you may have heard, we had ran out of the compost materials. However, it is fully restored at this time. And they're assisting loading that pick back up. It's Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information on the compost program can be found under the utilities page on the city's website, hotspringsar.gov. A free civil legal clinic on August 21st at the Hot Springs Community Resource Center located at 109 Hobson from 10 to 2. The class is open to the public and will cover estate planning, record sealing, family law, and landlord-tenant matters. This class is presented by Legal Aid of Arkansas. So those interested, August 21st, 10 to 2 at the Community Resource Center at 109 Hobson. Very pleased to announce that Elks Lodge number 380 will recognize a local law enforcement officer of the year during a special ceremony this Wednesday, August 6th at 530. This year, the Hot Springs Police Department Officer First Class Omar Cervantes was selected as the Officer of the Year in recognition of his outstanding service and dedication to the community. The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which will be held at the Elks Lodge at 132 Abbott Place, Wednesday, this Wednesday at 5.30. From July 18th through the 26th, the Community Resource Center opened as a daily cooling shelter during extreme heat conditions. During this time frame, more than 870 individuals and families used the CRC for relief from the heat. While also receiving essential hygiene services and lunch, a special thanks go out to all of those individuals who donated their time, funds, and materials there to the CRC during this time. It definitely helped the CRC continue to help others, so we want to thank them for all they've done. Operation clean sweep number two want to share some of those results the neighborhood services division in partnership with the solid waste department Held its second and operation clean sweep for the year. It was from July 13th through the 31st The area was between Lakeshore Drive and East Santa Cruz From Casa Linda circle to Cortex Street and including the for Green Forest Heights subdivision Spruce Street Village South and Village Road and I could tell you I was over in that area quite a bit during that time and the amount of materials that were placed out at curbside was quite a bit. They delivered 366 informational packets. They issued 52 specific violation notices, reflecting about an 86% compliance rate. As solid waste department caps went through, they made 109 stops and collected right at 15 and a half tons of debris from the area residents. And again, that was at no charge during the clean sweep. Our Parks and Recreation Department as well as many of our neighborhood services have relocated now to 900 Whittington. Those that are needing anything from the parks, you want to sign up, baseball or softball or any of the sports rec, You can find them at 900 Whittington, a brand new facility for these individuals that are working out of there. I can tell you it turned out really nice. We'll be scheduling a tour for the board as well as the Whittington Valley Neighborhood Association is asked to have a tour as well. So we'll be working on that. We'll get that information out to the board as soon as possible. I also want to acknowledge that the David Watkins splash pad, the splash pad at the park, The concrete has been poured and is currently curing. Installation of the splash features is expected here in the next couple of weeks. Following a system testing, a ribbon cutting ceremony will also be announced once the project is complete. High Springs Police Department celebrated the graduation of new officers, Quentin Spear and Reese Martin, who graduated from Alita Training Academy. Officer Spear and Officer Martin were two of the 12 honored graduates for Basic Class 2026B. So I want to congratulate them on their honors.

Mayor, that concludes my report. Very good.

I do want to call up our finance director, Karen Scott, though, for her quarterly financial report.

I wanted to clarify the award ceremony begins at 630 for the outstanding law enforcement officer and that dinner is being served in the police officers will have a free dinner all of them that come out and Between 5 and 6 30 6 30. Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you for clarification Yes, but anybody can come if they want to have dinner for chicken fried chicken dinner for $12 Very good.

Thank you Miss Scott

Thank you, Mayor, members of the board. This is my report on the financial position of several funds as of June 30, 2026. And of course, these numbers are unaudited. The general fund had revenues over expenditures of $224,039. This time last year, that amount was $2.828 million. Some of the differences are, the vast majority of the differences are transfers out to police and fire. Police's expenditures are up on personnel as well as capital. They have gotten almost all of their capital already in, and this time last year we had only expended about $30,000 on capital, so that increases about $800,000. Also, the fire department expenditures were up for personnel. As you know, we have nine firefighters on the payroll. We didn't have it this time last year. And then supplies and capital, the remainder of the fire station has been all paid for, including furnishings. The restricted fund balance in the general fund is $4,904,471. And the unrestricted fund balance is $37,872,709. In the street fund, revenues were over expenditures $498,120. Last year, $500,543. So this is a very flat year-over-year comparison. The restricted fund balance is $1.76 million. And the unrestricted fund balance is $14,802,454. In the water fund, the revenues are over expenditures $284,930. Last year at this time, that was $1,072,321. That difference is $787,391. vastly due to increased expenditures for depreciation services and supplies. We had some additional expenses this year getting the new plant online. And also, the depreciation is increased because we put significant amount of capital on the books for the new water improvements. And so that depreciation is increased. The fund balance in the water fund is $86,550,380. In the wastewater fund, the revenues exceeded expenditures $1.463 million. Last year, that amount was a loss of $178,460, so the net increase over last year is 1.641 million. That is due to an increase in revenues of 1.8 million, 895,000 in wastewater regular consumption sales, but 700,000, you all may remember that we did make a transfer from the wastewater impact fee fund into the wastewater fund. So that significantly increased revenue for wastewater. And then they did have a slight increase in expenditures. And the fund balance in the wastewater fund is $64,429,550. And I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions of Ms. Scott? Hearing none, thank you.

Thank you.

At this time, we'll hear from individual directors on announcements of upcoming events. Directors have an upcoming event. Director Beard.

Thank you, Mayor. Let me make this big on it. OK, so we have a national night out block party. And this is a community awareness event, violence and substance misuse awareness event. And it is tonight, August 4, 2026. This is put on by Mr. Anthony Tidwell. And he asked me, was I going to be able to make it? And I said, you know, we meet at City Hall. Tuesday but I will make sure to come by after our meeting so the guest speakers are city officials that's us and hopefully you guys can come by afterwards and then there's also a concerned parent and Arkansas State Trooper community member sharing lived experience with violence and drug misuse and the JKH Foundation, supporting the deaf community, and the Hot Springs Police Department. And this is located on Silver. There's not an address on here, but it's Silver and Malarsh. That's a corner, which is a block over from Langston Elementary. And it starts at 7 o'clock.

Very good. Other announcements? Director Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to remind everybody that next week, on Tuesday the 11th, we will be celebrating a 150-year anniversary of the City of Hot Springs, and there will be a 150th birthday gala presented by Oaklawn at the Hot Springs Convention Center, and all proceeds will go to the Historical Society. And guests that are there will receive a special commemorative coin for the 150th anniversary. So there'll be entertainment, a nice dinner, and celebrity speakers. So if you don't have your tickets, you can still make a reservation at the website hotspringsar.gov. And I also wanted to mention that the following week, on Monday, August the 17th, there'll be a reception out at Oak Lawn for Dr. McDowell, the new executive director of ASMSA. So they'll be dropped by between 5 and 6.30, and he'll be making some remarks at 5.30. So it's a good opportunity for us to meet with him.

Very good. Thank you. Director Webb. Thank you, Mayor. I want to share with everyone that this weekend, beginning Friday, August the 7th at 7.30 p.m. through Sunday, August the 9th at 3 p.m., this will be Hot Springs Baseball Weekend. this weekend at the hot springs convention center there will be six baseball legends including three Hall of Famers will be here in hot springs celebrating the spa city's history as the birthplace of Major League Baseball spring training this year's lineup of Hall of Fame members include Fred McGriff anybody know what team he was on was it the Padres I thought it was Atlanta Braves.

I thought it was the Orioles.

You have to go see him to find out for sure.

You've got to go see him to find out for sure. I know 100% it was with the Atlanta Braves, maybe the Padres too. He might have had, you know, some seasons with multiple teams. He very well could have. So, you've got to be here to meet Fred McGriff and find out what team he used to play for. But he's one of the Hall of Famers. Jack Morris is another Hall of Famer. They'll be joined by Dale Murphy. He was an Atlanta Brave. Yeah. Bill Spaceman Lee, Dave Stewart, and Al. Thank you. McGriff and Morris will be first timers at the annual celebration, and this includes talks by baseball legends, interactions with fans, a huge baseball card show, and other activities. So if you're thinking about making this event, more information can be found at hotsprings.org. Again, that's Hot Springs Baseball Weekend this Friday. August the 7th, starting at 7.30, all the way through Sunday, August the 9th, ending at 3 p.m.

There you go.

Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. You're pretty young. You probably don't know Jack Morris.

No, sir. Fred McGree, if I remember.

He was a pitcher, and he probably played for a number of teams, but he was playing for Minnesota Twins, and they might have made the World Series, and he was in a dogfight-type game. He was pitching, and his pitch count was getting higher and higher and higher, and they really wanted to take him out, and he said, no way, I ain't coming out. And I think they went into extra innings, and he won the game. So it was just an outstanding effort on his part. I believe it was the winning game of the World Series, but I could be wrong. But it was just remarkable. But anyways, all the players are truly great, and it's a great weekend. And that whole weekend has just grown up with the amount of – ancillary activities, the card shop, the memorabilia stuff, it's just really taken off. So it's been a great event for Hot Springs. During the time of the year, we're a little slow. Any other? Oh, Director Erin Holliday, jump on in.

Thank you. Well, I can't really jump in on that conversation. I apologize. But a little bit of a pivot. Every August, it's always exciting to celebrate the anniversary of Gallery Walk. This year is actually the 37th year. of consecutive gallery walk. We have not been disputed in saying it is the longest running consecutive gallery walk in the United States. And so, yeah, we're excited to celebrate 37 years. Also grateful for the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance for organizing live music in most of the galleries. So as you go around this weekend, On Friday night, there will also be musicians in addition to all of the artwork and refreshments. It's a great opportunity to meet artists and meet other people. And if you don't know anything about art, that's okay. There's something for everybody. You can just go and appreciate. And it's a free event. It's every first Friday, but it's this Friday the 7th from 5 to 9 in the galleries all the way from Whittington to... building now. We actually have a gallery over on buildings. So yeah. So please, hopefully we'll see you out this weekend.

Very nice. Thank you. Anybody else? Hearing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. These are of a routine nature. They do not merit individual discussion. So at this time, I want to entertain a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented. Director Garcia, seconded by

Second. Second.

Director, Trustee, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. And Senate agenda is adopted. Two action items under new business. The first will be ordinance O-26-29. I'll entertain a motion and a second to suspend the rules and read by title. So moved. Director, Trustee, seconded by Director Webb. I have a motion and a second. All in favor of suspending the rules and read by title, signify by saying aye. Aye.

I hold same sign council please read by title ordinance o dash twenty six dash twenty nine an ordinance establishing free parking on levels three a and three b of the exchange street parking plaza amending hot springs code section ten dash seven dash two as amended and hot springs code section thirteen dash four dash two point three and for other purposes that concludes reading mayor if you would entertain a motion to adopt motion to adopt summer director dob smith seconded by director webb

And Deputy State Manager Lance Spicer will provide us the staff report.

Good evening, everyone. As stated in the title, this particular item comes to the board requesting a little bit of a revised parking program for the Exchange Street parking garage. Kind of the big overview, the parking garage itself is the entirety of the facility is a paid parking zone. It's a secondary zone, so it's $2 per hour, and the enforcement hours are from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Really, what the request is to do is to take the top two levels, which for those of you that are familiar with the parking garage, or maybe not, the garage has six different levels. And it's got about 253, 255 spaces across those six different levels. And what we're talking about is transitioning the top two levels, which are open from above, to free parking. unmetered, unregulated free parking. The spaces, approximately that's about 80 spaces in total that we're making that request. And really what brought this request forward was the city manager, myself, the police chief oftentimes is in attendance. We meet with the downtown parking group ad hoc committee that the city manager was tasked with forming. And really, one of the things that they kept bringing up was some of the areas that are free parking. One, it's not enough free parking for the employees, or sometimes there's a great distance from it. So that kind of led to some conversations with looking at the actual occupancy reports for the parking garage. So in your packet, there was some of the various occupancy reports for May, June, and July. And really what you're seeing there is you're talking about probably 50 to 60% on the high end for your occupancy. So there's quite a bit of space within that parking garage that's not being utilized to its fullest ability. And really what our intent and the city manager's intent and the committee's intent was, was to offer that unused space to patrons of downtown, be it business employees, residents, or just general patrons of downtown. Since it wasn't being used but the in also additionally in your packet what we were looking at doing Was providing you some the statistics of the overall parking program the revenues which it's raised year-to-date so far, which is up considerably from 2025 so I think year-to-date the gross revenues are about five hundred and forty thousand whereas in 2025 in its entirety we were we earned about six hundred thousand and But then the parking garage last year, kind of rewind the tape, 2025 there were no cost permits for employees and your downtown residents. Those permits were good in any secondary zone. So basically you couldn't park on Central Avenue. So the surface lots, most surface lots, the Exchange Street parking garage was really a location that was utilized by mainly employees, probably to some degree some of the residents as well. So the figures from last year show approximately 13% of the revenue of 2025 was derived from the parking garage, whereas for this year, year to date, it's about 66.5%. So we've earned about $90,000 out of the parking garage across the entire parking system. So I think we've got about 500, 550 spaces. The parking garage accounts for almost half of that as far as number of spaces. But all told, the ordinance before you does make a couple technical corrections as well. Not only does it request the free parking on the top two decks, it does set the opening and closing for the bottom floor, the restrooms, and it also does set some limits on how long a car can park there. 24 hours is the maximum parking fee. paid, unpaid, 24 hours within that facility. So it really kind of cleans up, makes some of those technical corrections to our ordinance and our facility. But all told, the meat of this is to request to have those top two levels as free parking And it is on a first-come, first-served basis. So as those 80 spaces do fill up and you have to park on, say, 2A, 2B, the same parking regulations are in place as they are now. $2 per hour, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. enforcement. and you can pay by using one of the two kiosks that are in the downstairs lobby. You can use text to pay, or you can use the mobile app, and we'll have another mobile payment option coming very soon. So I think with that, I'll entertain any questions, but that's the basis of our request. Very good. Director Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to clarify and ensure I understand correctly that downtown residents will be able to park on the upper two levels free if this passes.

That's correct.

If they come in at, I mean, how is that going to be monitored? What if they're there over 24 hours? If they come in at 8 and they don't leave until 9 the next morning?

I don't think the enforcement officers are going to necessarily be there with a stopwatch, you know, waiting on those individuals. I think, you know, for the most part, the parking garage, it does clear out pretty well, really, from about 10, 30, 11 o'clock. Most of the patrons have already left. So if you If you look at those occupancy reports, you'll kind of see that that occupancy dwindles down to almost nothing. So I don't think that's really going to be a problem, but obviously we will observe and deal with it if we need to. But at this point, it doesn't appear to be a problem.

Okay, because I wouldn't want the residents to be pinwashed.

Certainly I think the the goal with regards to 24 hours is to prevent an individual from using our parking garage as a storage facility. Yeah, we had an individual who had I believe up to 3 vehicles stored side by side. The city officials contacted him had relocated them. Any further questions of Mister Spicer or director with.

Thank you mayor of the this is. In ordinance that pertains to exchange street parking garage but looking at the whole picture and the intentions of downtown paid parking in general. What what did we determine was the total cost of a parking garage to be built

parking garage itself I don't know we have any firm figures because I don't know we we were still debating on the number of spaces but we were expecting somewhere between fourteen and twenty million dollars that's all right yeah I mean depending on the number of spaces three hundred spaces for instance they're going to run you know if we build a a facility like we have today with that kind of a facade you're probably looking somewhere around that I don't know seventy thousand dollars a spot a pretty plain parking deck. I think the latest numbers we've seen on that's about 40,000 a spot. So depending on what it is, it could be 12 to 15 million. We certainly aren't generating the revenue that we thought we would when we initially started this a few years ago. However, it has increased. We decreased from 1,100 paid spots to 500. And if this passes tonight, it'll take us down to about 420. But we're bringing in more revenue than we were when we had the 1,100. So what does that do it may not be enough to fund a parking deck on its own but it would put us in a pretty good position to have some type of a public private partnership should that present itself and it will also allow us to look at more surface lots that are already available that we could purchase to add into the parking inventory. So that that's kind of where we're at today You know, we're close. I mean, we've seen in some other communities that were trying to build a deck and using their parking funds, they've had to come back and kind of back those up with some other funding mechanism, like their franchise fees, those kind of things. They may not ever have to use them, but to get the bond to pass and pass the ratio that they needed, they've had to obligate some of those as well. But we are bringing in more we don't have a lot of data because it's only been really the beginning of this year that we started seeing the kind of revenue so I think is it as as we continue and get more information get more tracking we could see us in a position to be able to work with a private partner basically in in trying to to build a deck or as I mentioned purchase additional surface lots

going off of those numbers what what is it that we would need to hit say per year to build or to retain to be either build that parking garage or to be in a position to acquire any kind of bond for parking garage I think as it stands right now and these numbers came out recently in the first I think seven months of this year total revenue from downtown pay Parkins right at about five hundred forty thousand dollars that sound right it's just very close okay and then out of that five hundred forty thousand dollars about ninety thousand came out of the exchange Street parking lot first seven months So I mean, that is roughly 13,000 per month from Exchange Street or thereabouts. I think it's 12,850, something like that. So if we were to do any kind of maneuvering at the Exchange Street lot, we could expect to see a drop of somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 by eliminating that top floor. That's kind of hard to say, but if we were to keep on that pace with it even full occupied, the last five months of the year would generate about $65,000. So if we take away 80 of those spots, you can expect to see 65 to drop, I would say, anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000. I don't think you'd see any drop at all. No, because it's not fully occupied now. Well, that brings me to the other point, is it hasn't been fully occupied. And I think one of the main reasons, and nobody's going to argue with giving up additional spaces for free at the top level. That isn't the argument at all. But I think what we do want to configure is if the goal is to build a parking garage, then is $925,000 a year what where does that get us in reaching that goal because that is the approximate amount at this current rate based on where we are after seven months that we would hit with the revenue that's coming in from paid parking and we're not going to clear if we receive nine hundred twenty five thousand we're not going to clear that much how much of that nine hundred twenty five do we clear

I think our annual expenses when you add in the parking deck, the two employees, I mean really you're talking and the various fees that come with the paid parking system. I think you're talking about $455,000 in expenses with depreciation. Now, I think you and I go back and forth on depreciation. Not true. Cash thing. But at the end of the day, the parking system is covering its costs. I think this most recent revenue report, monthly, I think it was for May, I think it showed the parking fund had about $131,000 in balance of $131,000. So I think after we get a little bit more history, we're able to determine how these revenues are tracking. We may be able to paint a little bit better picture, but at this point we're kind of new in the revised rate structure that the board adopted in February of this year, so we're still kind of feeling our way through it all.

we've had some discussions with Bob Wright but have not asked him to run any particular scenarios for us at this time as we get a little more of that data I think we can plug those over or send those over to Bob and let him start running some scenarios on what that might look like you know for me I was always looking at a trying to have a payout in about fifteen years a lot of these bonds they stretch out twenty five and thirty but You know, those are things we just haven't gotten to that point of being able to run those scenarios and being able to bring something back to the board because we weren't hitting the revenues we needed to really even get there until we made these changes. And we've got about seven months of that history. Actually, not quite seven when we implement that in March.

Oh, actually, I think the board adopted them in February.

And started seeing it in March. So we've only got about six months worth of real data to look at.

Now, it wasn't in our packet for this, because this pertained to Exchange Street. But off the top of your head, Lance, can you share with us what per month just Central Avenue receives in parking revenue?

central avenue is the vast majority of of the paid parking anymore I mean if you're talking about like monthly like a percentage I mean it's probably going to be in excess of sixty percent of our total revenue is derived of those hundred and four hundred fifty spaces so what where does that land the sixty percent of the five hundred forty thousand

at about seven months is coming to us from Central Avenue.

Yeah, because if you think about it, you've got Hill Wheatley Plaza, the parking there, you've got Fountain Street, you've got Central Avenue, and then you've got Exchange Street parking garage. So really you've got those four areas with Central having the $4 per hour rate. So really from a revenue perspective, Central Avenue's rate is higher, but its utilization is also much higher.

okay thank you bill of the if the board were to look look to float a bond to to build a new structure and you were to ask to to pledge the revenues off of the parking program which includes what you have now it would also include what was generated off of the new debt correct and so on the interim you would use those franchise fees that you're talking about in order to have adequate funding to pledge but ultimately there would be revenue derived from the new facility that's correct that we haven't considered good point any additional questions director holiday

Thank you. The first question I hope you can answer, I was looking at the revenue breakdown for 25 and 26. And this has less to do with the item, but just a little bit of me understanding the report. But I can't figure out the convenience fee, because it's very different from 25 to 26. It seems like that rate is significantly less. So can you remind me what the convenience fee is and how we would have ended up with these numbers?

Initially, the convenience fee was borne by the city as opposed to being passed on to the end user in 2025. We made an adjustment in 2026 where the convenience fee is truly a convenience fee paid by the end user. So that fee, it was actually only assigned to us on, if I'm not mistaken, it was the mobile app. But then the kiosk, the mobile app was assigned to us, the kiosk, the end user paid that convenience fee. So it was sort of uneven as opposed to if it's going to be a convenience fee for one, it needs to be a convenience fee for both ways that you would pay.

Well, it kind of takes me a little backwards from the way I was understanding it. Because in 2025, it was so much higher. based on the revenues. And so is it, I just couldn't figure out, it's like a per use, it's not based on the amount of money spent. Correct. So it's just like a transaction fee. But there still just seemed to be significantly lower. So I was just trying to figure out, I just wanted to understand what that was. Because the revenue is so much lower in 26, so if we're passing it all along to the end user, one would think it would be much higher

and one of the things to and there's another report I didn't include there's a lot of reports the per transaction fee in twenty twenty six is is higher than in twenty twenty five one because the rates went up but additionally the the per transaction fee if you look at it people are staying longer however you want to look at it you're paying for more more time

OK, I'm just curious, because it's still, even with those explanations, I would have expected the convenience fee in 26 to be higher than it was in 25.

Karen you want to address the board if I might the convenience fees are not in revenues at all they are a true expense and the total revenues over expenditures through June 30th for the parking fund is one hundred and thirty one thousand nine hundred forty seven dollars the fees last year for the entire year were a hundred and thirty four thousand and And this year through six months is $110,000. I don't have the breakout exactly of that, but the fees, the only fees that we're really paying now, we still have to pay the AMG fees. Mm-hmm. which is very flexible, very dependent on what type of card somebody uses. But I'll be happy to get you those numbers if you'd like.

Yeah, I was just curious, because I understood everything else that was in there, but the convenience fee didn't really land where I thought it would land for what I thought it was. And so that's fine. It was more clarification for myself. And then the other question, which would be either for Lance or for Bill, has to do with I know we have the 24-hour limit on the deck, which makes perfect sense. However, does it not close for entry at 10? 8, 10?

10 o'clock.

Okay. I was thinking so.

You can leave. You just can't come in.

Right. Well, I was just thinking in some of the conversations we've had with residents, and I know that Director Garcia clarified that residents would be able to stay at that point, but we've had someone come up a few times whose work schedule is such that they would likely not be there by 10 o'clock. So I didn't want to... do this and share what may have been good news, which may be perhaps not as good of news for that particular individual. But hopefully, I think this does help overall, particularly with staff, for sure. So thank you.

It is a little bit of good news, because currently it's 10 hours.

yet no I'm just saying for that that particular individual I'm just because their schedule is different but in general yes I think it's very good parking limit right now is 10 hours. With the moment it's 10 hours man. I didn't realize we're expanding that as well thank you.

Director trustee thank you mayor.

That's a convenience fees are there a percentage of the transaction.

These are flat these are I think if I'm not mistaken thirty five cents per transaction

Whether it's $2 or $16 or $40.

Correct. But additionally, I don't want to get too far in the weeds, then you also have that merchant processing fee.

That's a percentage. Yes. All right.

So that may be the total fee.

May be.

Director Dobbs. Oh, you still have a question? Follow up.

You paused. Lance, are there any additional improvements that we'll need to make? at the parking there is the lighting sufficient since we're going to have people there up to 24 hours

I will say public works they've done a really great job with the facility they did some work there on the stairwells the lighting and we're also set to do some pressure washing cleaning of it and the restroom facilities I think they're cleaned every morning so I really from a lighting perspective Denny I think the lighting is pretty sufficient I haven't been over there in the evening I drove through here today but it was still daylight

we are working with energy though to to upgrade the lighting all the way through exchange Street itself okay it's still pretty down I think you mentioned that last week that we were working on that yet this is not really going to benefit residents since you can only park there twenty four hours right I mean that because it's resident came in after can they can't get in there but they come in at nine they could park there overnight correct and

the entire next day presuming I have I mean I'm they may have to leave to go to work or whatever the the case may be but yeah if depending on their work schedule if you if you get home and it's midnight but you know there will be the chain across the entrance they won't go to enter the parking garage at that time are there going to be additional

changes or revisions to this draft of parking that this ad hoc group is going to bring back to us it could you know one of the things is presenting you know three a and three B and in others we may come back with some other recommendations but you know we're trying to move through it slowly so right so we don't get to a point have to pull something back is this board is well aware often when we start these kind of things and this has been a great example where we start is never where we end up and we've we've we've learned a lot through this process I tell people I understand now why the last five never got implemented because it's a very difficult thing to do in a in a downtown area where you don't have grid parking behind it you know it's all linear but uh they're we've had great i can tell you we've had great participation um they're they're engaged they're having conversations we're we're talking to some of the larger hotels that have lots of their own and how some of that can be implemented for their staff and and different things but

it's it's been very very good of conversations and and I do think more will come out of that before it's over okay last last question for you and still pay parking overhead signage you said dedicated son into a designated free parking

the photo that we had in our packet was of the existing correct going to put something on that sign that says for parking it would be now actually once you get to those three and three be there currently are you know pay by kiosk there's other paid parking signs will remove those input like some signage to the to the effect complimentary free parking on this level

But if a visitor is in town, they won't know that there's free parking on 3A. You'll have to go all the way up. Well they wouldn't know it. Correct.

Yeah, the vast majority of people I drive, Bill and I drive through the deck pretty often. They're always on the bottom two levels. So if an individual is unaware of it, they'd have to go all the way to the top to find that.

One of the surprising things, and speaking just visitors we have a couple of private lots that you go by to get to our parking deck and I'll go by and those will be on you know three quarters of a full at a rate that may be four times what our parking deck is but you know visitors are used to paying to park and they're looking for the first parking lot they're coming to most of them are usually pretty similar when you when you go somewhere you know this lot six dollars is from six dollars or whatever it may be Ours just happens to be much lower, and it's anecdotal, but our staff that works down there in the parking division and the enforcement, they've said, they've talked to visitors that are there parking, and they're amazed that it's so low. I think what we saw on the parking deck and some of the behavior that we've seen in parking in the parking deck, I think that tells us that it was probably a lot of employees that parked there at one time. What we see now, just based on the limit or the amount of minutes that they stay, it ranges anywhere from about three to four hours. So that's probably going to be a visitor. I think one of the reports we looked at, Lance, it was like 87 minutes, somewhere in there. So we can track how long a car comes and stays and leaves. So it kind of tells us you know, it's probably a visitor that stayed for two hours, probably not somebody that's going in to work a shift, but I think it kind of alludes to the previous behavior with probably about half of it was taken up by those that are working downtown.

Okay. Director Dov Smith.

thank you I have a comment a question and a request the comment is I think maybe I know what the issue was on the why the fees were higher last year we had a tiered system it was so much for the first hour, so much for the second hour, so much for the next hour, and that incurred a fee each time. That would have incurred a transaction fee every time. The percentage would have remained close to the same, but every time someone, that's like a new transaction each time. So you paid 35 cents three times if you stayed there over the three rates. Now we have one rate. So I think that might be the answer on that. The question is, when we started all this there was a negative number in the um parking fund what was that refresh my memory I think we pay I mean I think the general fund subsidized it uh parking by was it is that Karen I want to say that around six hundred thousand a year if I remember um prior to implementing parking So it was going so we were losing money on the parking deck. Oh, absolutely.

But again, that takes in that depreciation. We have a very large number on the existing deck in a depreciation amount. It's not a cash transaction or a cash impact, but it is an impact to the overall fund. So we booked that as a loss.

set and then the last time is a request would like to request that we settle on something and keep it for a year how about a year and once we iron out these last details and how we're going to be able to ask for to float a bond if we keep changing our our source of revenue we say as this much this week next week it's this and I mean I think are there always going to be a few people who are negatively impacted yes are there always going to be people who will complain yes but by and large I think we need to pick one of these plans and stick with it and and stop changing I understand this first go around was absolutely a learning curve big high learning curve curve but that that would be my request so

I can appreciate that thanks same here director Webb did you have a comment question yeah thank you mayor just a couple of questions to give you Lance so when all the downtown paid parking began there were some initial overhead cost overhead slash maintenance calls correct I think we were pointing that out earlier. We even said that if we were to profit in revenue from downtown paid parking at $925 per year, you were saying that that might be at a cost of about $450,000, right? It's pretty close. So when we started and then we, based on what that rate was when we started downtown paid parking, versus what the overhead and maintenance cost is now after reducing the number of spots was there any decrease in overhead and maintenance costs when the spots of paid parking were lowered

I think from that perspective, we have two employees that are assigned to the parking fund. One deals with the kiosks and things of that nature. The other deals on the enforcement. But now as far as the parking, parking garage itself has a tremendous amount of expenses tied into it. that I don't remember it off the top of my head, but as far as from the revenue and expenses, our expenses really haven't increased that much. Some of the new expenses have been basically you have data for the kiosks, you got to have for the mobile app, there's fees associated with that. Those are some of the newer fees, and that worked out to about $3,000 a month.

Okay. So, I mean, in your opinion, if we were to say have 10,000 paid parking spots versus 100 paid parking spots, would there be any difference in overhead or maintenance costs between the two? Or would the overhead and maintenance be the same regardless of how many spaces there are?

Some of the, I don't mean to be coy, but some of the fees that are associated, I was talking about the $3,000, it really doesn't matter how many parking spaces you have. It's a per kiosk per, it's not like a per transaction type of thing. So 10,000 would be a lot, but when we had the 1,100 spaces, the fees were all the same. They were the same. And now that we've transitioned to the 500, those incremental kiosk data transaction fees, those have all stayed the same. Really, the only thing that we've increased is we've added a specific enforcement officer that's paid out of the parking fund.

So does it cost us any less money to run for your spaces.

Yeah, but if you went up to 10,000

exponentially there would be an increase in cost but not what you're looking at for 500 you get the spaces were to be lowered with that also mean that a few of the kiosk could be released and with that being less expense for the city. Whenever it does the number of kiosk affect how much overhead and maintenance cost there is as well.

It does. And whenever we remove that Washtenaw Avenue zone, those seven or eight kiosks, the fees associated with them, those went away. So really what we're trying to do is determine do we need to reallocate some of those to areas that don't have kiosks. But at this point, we haven't really done that one because we have less spaces. So we didn't want to clutter up the sidewalk with kiosks. And if you look at the usage, For the most part, you're seeing when we say credit, credit is somebody swiping at credit cards. That's somebody using that kiosk. And mobile means you're using your phone or you're doing text to pay. So you're seeing a lot more people use the kiosk, which is somewhat surprising to me um early on we saw a different uh way that people use the mobile app as opposed to the kiosk but it I think it kind of ebbs and flows so we're sort of not trying to to just too much with the kiosk out we have right so with that just with that being mean that and based on the map I think you provided to me going into town hall I counted twenty one kiosk and use does that number sound right That's correct. I think previously we had closer to 30.

So if we reduce the number of kiosks, that essentially could reduce the number of overheads slash maintenance costs, correct? Correct. That's all I had for now. Director Garcia.

Thank you. I have a couple of things I wanted to follow up on. You mentioned the private lots and some of them are right next to city lots. And there seems to be a perception that the city is towing cars from some of the public.

and I'm not aware of the city ever towing in cars so would you clear that that sure the public sure so we do have lots their own by private individuals are private entities they are not associated with the city of hot springs to my knowledge we have not told any vehicle throughout our whole parking program there are some vehicles were getting word that that some vehicles are being towed some specifically in in a lot but you know when you drive into that lot there are signs that say part mobile pay here and in to be honest with you most of the visitors I think are the war are paying but a lot of our locals have gotten accustomed to no one really enforcing that lot. And today, or in the past couple of weeks, maybe the last month, they've started enforcing that. So it's a hard lesson to learn. But I can tell you that I spoke with the county judge about it today just because he's had previous tenure in the record business, and he has a lot of relationships still there. And I can tell you that he has addressed that with some of those. So I think we'll see that getting a little bit better. But I would encourage anyone that's parking in a paid parking lot to pay. Otherwise, they are subject to to towing. But I appreciate you bringing that up because it is important because as we roll out our park mobile, and we worked on that this morning, it signs are looking good. We're about ready to implement a lot of these lots use that same company Park mobile but as you as you're down and we only have two zones and it's easy to put that in there and it'll take you to our our rates but if you get into one of these lots you know just have to be cognizant of you know that's not a city lot right and the second thing with a will that ad hoc committee as they go forward have any input from the residents that live downtown

Because I think we had a speaker that said none of the residents are part of the committee.

That's correct. And there are, I think, what, five, six people that live downtown. One of those does have a current permit. We can reach out to that person if they're awake during the time that we meet and see if they want to come and visit with us.

Thank you.

additional questions director trustee thank you mayor that's how many waivers that we granted for special activities I mean it says in here that unless otherwise designated it's a day in the six p.m. but that can be waived with your 40's

yeah I don't city manager I don't know if he's done any my knowledge the only time we may have saw you seen that when there was something like a bridge street live or they it's in the entertainment district we do have some longer term paid with somebody comes in and they're going to be doing some work at one of the individual locations and they need to block off a couple of spots you know there's there's an avenue for that they'll come in and buy those pay the fees that that the board is set for those okay but I don't recall waving any any fees any parking fees okay unless or a J you know unless you're part of that entertainment district. A good to get another good example could be. Well we have the the chili cook off for the

it's going to be a community event like that where we've got a certain area of the entertainment district that is shut down for that period and then there's there's no parking well and in that case I thought that will go thanks for the reminder someone could theoretically go park on level three a Sunday night and be there all day Monday and we have the chili cook off on Monday nights usually do the lighting of the Christmas trees and all that. They wouldn't have to move and we wouldn't move that car now I mean.

You know realistically. Our officers at work downtown they get to know the people of the downtown area they certainly are communicating they're knowing them and even our patrol officers are going to go up and patrol the deck I know that the chief has started that rotation, making sure they're going up and looking. You can tell if a car is set there for three weeks or for three days or five days or whatever. You know, we're not going to, you know, 25th hour tow somebody. It's going to be something. And then, I mean, we're going to be able to contact whoever that owner of that vehicle is and say, hey, your car's been here a week.

But we're not going to clear it on Monday of the chili cook-off, to use your example. No. They went up there at 8 a.m. that morning. Forget about going up there on Sunday.

And when we usually have those events, we keep the parking deck open, both entrance and exit, but some of those spots on exchange. the pride event was the last one that I can think of that was on exchange.

And they closed that area.

So there's a few spots that will be taken up on something like that. But that's really the only time I've seen any type of a waiving of a parking fee or a parking area.

And we haven't done anything for gallery walk. I know you brought that up early on.

We changed the time.

I think opening open air up to free parking is a excellent transition or move on our on the city's part I communicate with bill

It almost seems like weekly, if not a couple times a week. I get downtown about 6.45 every morning. We have a lot of activity going on downtown with construction right now. Bathhouse Row, we've got three buildings that have scaffolding around them or will be all around them here by the end of the week. There's maybe 20, 25 people working on those buildings. It seems like about half of the vehicles end up on on exchange street or the little city lot adjacent to grateful head and then the other half or so or end up on reserve street or opera street and and then those who are working on grateful head you know it might be fewer vehicles but they always seem to have a trailer And they take up what would be one spot, they take up two or three or two and a half spots. And so the end result's gonna be really, really good, but it's very painful. I got on Exchange Street within the last two weeks and I text Bill and I said, Bill, there's three spots available on Exchange Street. and a little city lot by grateful head I'm taking one so there's two left six forty five a.m. and now we do have some short term rentals that are on exchange Street and those those are those individuals most likely are some of the vehicles I was seeing but there's no mistaking of a big work truck and verses a sedan without a state license plate. So there are some challenges there. So opening up the top two levels will certainly be an excellent relief valve for the downtown employees who are downtown before the tourists get downtown. So they'll be there. Now, maybe if there's an afternoon shift that comes in at 1 o'clock or 2 p.m., and they work until 8 o'clock in the evening, you know, maybe not so. But as Bill indicated, you know, he's watching the count on the parking garage, and I'm watching it as well. And there's always, it seems like there's always. I mean, it used to be that on the holiday weekend, you'd go up there, drive all the way up, Get to the top, turn around, come all the way down. It wasn't easy and it took a while yeah, and you know for the business that I have I'd lease Spots for Sufficient spots for for for my overnight guests plus a couple extra and Not trying to throw my wife under the bus, but but she won't generally park in in the spot in the valet lot she'll go to the parking garage and pay the fee and and she'll buy her set number of hours that she needs And we talk about a convenience fee. This is a different thing. It's convenience. It's right there. And then I talk to a number of people on the street. And they're trying to work the kiosk. And I'll say, well, it's free after 6. And it's like 6.01 or something. They can't seem to get it to take. And oh, my goodness. Or I'll talk to them. And it says, this is $4 an hour for four hours. If you go around the corner here, it's $2 an hour unlimited. Oh well we'll probably do that tomorrow we're we're we're going to stay right here and get this taken care of so you know so from that standpoint is maybe some others said maybe bill indicated you know there is an expectation that they will pay and they're happy to they're okay to pay So I think we're progressing in the right area and right direction with the additional open air parking for the top two floors there at the parking garage. I think that will meet many of the needs of the downtown employees. So any further questions? Okay thank you we do have one individual signed up to speak on this I don't know Mister Tyler Draper please come forward and restate your name address and district please.

Good evening, board. Tyler Draper, District 5. I worked downtown for six years. That's how I got through college. And so a lot of my friends still work at the duck company. I worked for Don Roberts. And a lot of them still text me and complain about not having free parking at the parking garage, because that's where we always parked. So I think this is a great idea, great compromise. The upper floors, like Bill was saying, they really haven't been being used in general. A lot of the people that park downtown, we know all the police officers. I think Sam Spencer, he may have retired, but we knew Sam for years. And he took care of everybody, made sure your car was safe and watched over things. So I think that would be just good to have those two floors there. And the mayor had brought up in the past that keeping Central Avenue for paid parking is This still keeps the paid parking on Central, which is kind of like the VIP for tourists who want to go somewhere quick. The last thing that I kind of had a question about was when the parking garage does fill up and you get to the very top, Steve mentioned that it's really hard to turn around. So one of my neighbors, he works at a bathhouse downtown. He asked me with this, will there still be like an indicator for people to know if the parking garage is full? That way you don't drive all the way up and then have a hard time turning around. So it looks like, yeah. So I would support this and I hope that the board passes it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Draper? Hearing none, thank you. That completes those who have signed up under this topic. Any discussion amongst the board?

Director Webb. Thank you, Mayor. A couple of points that I want to make first, and then I might have a question in here for B. You'll be ready for it. And then I've got a request at the end of it, so this is going somewhere, if you will. it was it was mentioned earlier violence that Central Avenue Avenue alone produces the greatest amount of percentage in revenue for downtown paid parking at rough estimates say about sixty percent looking at what we've grossed in revenue for paid parking in the first seven months at $540,000 60% of that is $324,000 if we were to keep that same ratio and apply it to finish out the year 2026 at 60% just for central loan that means that it could revenue two hundred thirty one thousand dollars pop up two hundred thirty one thousand five hundred dollars giving it a total just central loan in twelve months of about five hundred fifty five thousand dollars it was pointed out earlier to that as the number of spaces decrease and the number of kiosk decrease the amount of cost by the city for overhead and maintenance also decreases but even if we were to keep that rate of about four hundred fifty thousand dollars per year and overhead maintenance that it takes to run paid parking and we subtract that from just what central itself would make in 12 months time just having central run alone on those numbers would give the city a revenue of just a little over a hundred five thousand dollars in 12 months just central that number is likely to be a lot higher okay when you factor in that overhead and maintenance is going to drop if kiosk were to drop telling you that this to also add something to that I want to take us back to February of this year in this room at that podium somebody stood as a representative for the board of downtown Association of hot springs and a member of that board was reading to us their findings and couple of the points that he was making in that document of every word that he shared with us that even in which presented to all of us in an email and also given to us as a paper copy to a couple of things that came up out of the downtown merchants group was that they reported up to forty percent decline in sales since paid parking went into effect Now, I'm not too naive to admit that since that time, we've done a few changes to downtown paid parking, which probably mitigated some of the loss of revenue. That number is likely to be less than 40%, but I think it's fair to say that there's still probably some drop in sales in downtown since paid parking has went in, even with the changes. There was also some talk about employees taking a huge hit, even having to pay at the secondary price, which is $2 an hour. that was that presentation and since that time too I've spoken with a number of those downtown business owners and visited with many of residents that live not just in my district but in other districts as well and the feedback that I've gotten which outweighs the other side of this coin is that altogether downtown paid parking hurts local businesses Hurts our employees downtown and hurts our locals and prevents a lot of our locals from wanting to do any shopping downtown. It's for those reasons and based on the numbers that I've gotten back here this evening that I want to make a motion to amend this ordinance. And B, this is where I might look to you for guidance of whether or not I can amend this ordinance as in the words that I'm about to share with you or we've got to bring a whole other item back to the board. But essentially, I want to amend this ordinance so that only Central has any paid parking and all other spots are free. I want us to do the opposite of hurt local business. I want us to provide our local businesses with added support to increase sales. And I think to do that, we've got to relax a lot more of these paid parking spots in order to see that our local businesses thrive and in order to see that our local residences start increasing the amount of visits that they do downtown. Can I make that amendment? As I've said, I want to amend this so that only Central Avenue is paid parking. All other paid spaces should be free.

Okay, and so when you say Central, you're talking about downtown priority parking? Downtown priority parking remains as is. All secondary is wiped off. $4 an hour with a four-hour max. Everything else is free. Yes. Yes, you can make that motion.

OK, I'll make that motion.

Can I ask for some clarification as I'm writing? Hill Wheatley parking abuts Central, but it's a little off. Are you including Hill Wheatley?

He's talking about on street.

No, just on street.

And that would include Fountain as well. we're not down your about this if this just includes the primary spaces are to remain all secondary or to be free so so if we look at the look at the map that's attached red remains everything else is gone here this is correct second your motion second discussion director holiday

Thank you. I do just want to let everybody know, while I don't dispute the guests' math that they had for their business, as most of you know, the organization that I work for has a second location downtown. Not only is it downtown, it's on the second floor of downtown. And our 2026 revenue is up over 12.5% from 2025. And we sell art. I mean, it's a tough sale, but our revenues are up 12.5% on a second floor where there is Fairly limited parking. Hill Wheatley Plaza is across the street. We're at 620 Central. But we don't have any on-street parking right there at all. So anyway, so before anyone makes a decision based on a comment in February, we actually don't have sales data from end to end. And so if that's what we're using to compel this argument, I would strongly encourage either voting it down or not voting on it tonight until that sales data is actually provided. Because I do all of our books, and we're up over 12 and 1 half percent already for this year.

I would like to echo that I have my wife and I have a business on bath house row we have absolutely zero parking on site we pay for we lease a section of a parking lot that we have ballet cars to and from I have not had any impact on on our sales or occupancy or that would be a contributed well we just haven't had it and so nothing tributes a. You know the the entity that had had a reduction in 40% of their sales actually relocated you know you know several 100 feet away from their existing location and whenever you do that there is a time spent to get your your awareness back up that entity right now is probably going to be in the in the thick of things in a good way with DeLuca's you know blowing and going scoop ice cream Hertz Donuts and then the Hampton Inn is gonna be right across the street from them so they're gonna There there's no reason for that to to if if there it was a decline There's no reason that I would see that declining Echoing see great things for that entity you know bills has worked hard with the downtown merchants the stakeholders and they're working through a plan we have a good option here good viable plan of opening up this the first and second or excuse me the the top to open air levels of the parking garage top levels of the parking garage that are open air and I think we need to keep proceeding in an incremental fashion to to tweak it. I think the fact that a kiosk, you can limit a kiosk, that's fairly modest in any savings. So if we're truly wanting to drive the ability to create more parking, we need to have the revenue stream. I've had guests come and dine with me and say, Pat, we need more parking. They made no comment about the cost of parking. They just wanted more parking. And so they want the availability of additional parking. So I think we ought to stay the course. I would vote against the motion. If we wanted to study it, we have an upcoming goal setting and board retreat. a budget meeting so you know we can certainly address it there may we get some additional information on on what it would take to build a parking garage but as bill said there's plenty plenty of opportunity to for us to use funds to enhance surface parking And so we want to look at that as an option. So I would say that we stay the current course, approve this ordinance as originally submitted, but I will be voting down the amendment. I will vote against it, Director Webb.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm glad to hear that two members of our board's businesses have positive revenue. That's good to hear. I will remind everybody that two is not most. I'm going to read to everybody exactly what came out of that letter. What was the date of the letter? Well, I shared with everybody earlier, Mayor, this is from the February board meeting. Six months ago. reading you verbatim what it said since the initiation of the paid parking system in February of last year most downtown business owners have reported a decline in sales with some experiencing reductions of up to 40% compared to prior years while multiple economic factors may influence or the consumer behavior, the consistent feedback from business owners and customers points to parking cost, complexity, and time limitations as major deterrents. So I stand by my amendment. And I would ask other board members to vote for it. And let's just have paid parking on Central Avenue. All other areas should be free to everybody. Let's benefit our employees, our residents that live downtown, and our locals that love shopping downtown. Thank you.

Director Holiday?

Thank you. Again, I don't disagree with the statement, the sentiment of that individual. But that's part of why we changed it then. And we opened up, I'm not going to remember the number, but a significant portion of our parking to be unregulated. And so I feel like a better way to answer that would be to hear what the revenues are now. Because we did make a significant change on the heels of that request. And so if ultimately it's still a true statement and they're saying that most businesses are seeing up to 40% in a decrease year over year, then absolutely we can continue to have that conversation as we should. However, that information is anecdotal from six months ago in advance of a previous large change. We have the parking group that Bill and Lance have been working with, and I think it's fair to take this sentiment back, whether we survey businesses or if there's a way we can do it with sales tax reports, but I don't think it's unwise to go ahead and get some real-time data to see if if what you're asking is necessary. But I don't think we have enough information at the moment to say that it's necessary based on a sentiment from February, like I said, in advance of an adjustment that we made. Because the adjustment we made may have corrected it for those businesses. I mean, I can only speak to my business. I can't speak to anyone else's.

The bill I just wanted to clarify some numbers for the board. You know when we look at the 2026 monthly revenues January we had 30,885 dollars February was 34,500 we made the changes. And a lot of that was probably from some of the things that the director Webb just mentioned in that letter but we made the changes In March, we had 102, almost 103,000. April was 80,000, 85,000 in May, almost 104,000 in June. And then when you can't really look at the first seven months because they were skewed, but when you look from the point of when we were when we made the change from March to July, we averaged $94,600 a month, which brings us on an annualized number at 1.135, so 1.1 million, a little over 1.1 million. There are some expenses that are gonna come out of that, but we're still going to be somewhere in that four or five, hundred thousand dollar range to the to the plus and then you take in consideration what we were paying previously in in the expenses that we weren't recouping of about six hundred thousand a year so I mean this is trending in the right way one of the things that I also want to make the board aware of when when if you're looking at information coming from February we had a horrendous winter it was one of the worst winners that we have ever been through since my tenure at the city for 25 years we had 10 days that the city was shut down I mean we It was a horrendous winter that's going to impact a lot of those sales numbers. You know, in speaking to some of those downtown, some have expressed that they're down a little bit. I don't. That could be part of the economy. It could be part of the parking. There's a lot of things that go in to the mix of a downtown business. Then I talked to another prominent business owner down there that he states his business was really, really good. So, I mean, I think you're going to hear both sides of that coin as you go down that street. And a lot of it may depend on what type of business they have. But I can tell you that we are still having businesses move in there. And if they're doing their due diligence, they're probably not going to be wanting to build a hotel, open an ice cream shop, do all these other things in an area that's trending downwards. but want to set that out there just so we have the actual numbers will annualize at about one point one million based on the five months since the change. Director Webb and then director Garcia.

I was just going to ask a question because I don't have that information with me but we have had a decrease in our sales tax revenues that since the months following February and how much

is that from retail in restaurants a lot of that was due to the rebates that we've been subject subjected to so far through this year we're we're over three hundred thousand rebates of the sales tax that comes off the top so when we get that that amount it's less those but Karen I think we actually only had one month that we were less I think this past month was the first month we had a negative or a a slide at any of the sales tax When you look at the previous months, we were either above, we had that first opening month, though, that was bad, I think. I don't have that in front of me. But I can tell you that moving through that, we're still ahead of the sales tax that we had this time last year. were not below, though last month was. The previous month, we showed a negative, but when you go back and you look at that huge difference in the rebate from 25 to 26 for that month, sales tax itself was up we just had a significant rebate that hit us and rebates are hard to understand because yeah you know it they can they have up to a year to claim so that that purchase that we rebated or these purchases that we rebated may have been something that happened in may of last year we that we don't get that if they won't give us that information that it showed that the collections that we received was for g

that was reported in july right i mean you pay it in july for what was uh collected in june at the stores the collections are may they pay to the to dfa in june we get it in july

and pay a two month lag so there are these collections haven't been received by the city yet correct and he is one month behind we are tuned to because you said June was a high revenue month for the parking fees yeah so that's why I was you know wanted to see what that was and how yeah so we don't have those numbers okay thank you

Director Webb. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So Bill, those numbers you were reading, was that citywide or just downtown?

That's citywide. That's the revenue itself from all areas.

It doesn't just mean just downtown. It's all over the city of Hot Springs, correct? Bless you.

Well, we only have parking in the downtown area. We don't have it anywhere else.

Oh, those numbers were from paid parking?

Yes.

OK. You know, again, we're not on track to build a parking garage. That goal, as well as we tried to hit that goal wherever that goal may have come from, which I still don't know, isn't going to happen it isn't a reality so without that goal in mind why are we still trying to just hit everybody on these fees for parking downtown why are we trying to punish people for wanting to come downtown and shop I'm not done yet.

Nobody's being punished.

Having somebody pay $4 to park, which I won't argue that Central needs to be regulated. But all these other streets, even that are the $2 an hour, it doesn't have to be $2 an hour. If the goal for building a parking garage isn't a reality to be met why should we have so many paid parking places if the goal for us is to incur enough revenue to get into a public private partnership central alone can do that its revenue at sixty percent at at minimum a hundred five thousand dollars per year is enough to get us into a position to do some type of public private partnership to buy a lot But the parking garage isn't going to happen. You shake your heads at me all you want to. And I'm just telling you, we're not on track to do right now what maybe this goal was for us a year and a half or two years ago. So if that's the case, we should scrap some of these things and give the local residents a break. And I think the break that we should give is to eliminate all of the paid parking except for downtown.

Second.

Director Dobsmith you have a comment.

Well I had a question. When director Webb was just talking about the hardship when we we've always we had met meters on fountain street how much did we charge an hour for those. one of their twenty five cents an hour they very they were like twenty five cents or I wonder but no you didn't get four hours when I pulled up in front of your office it was like I was shocked it was like I had to dig for quarters it seemed like it was twenty five cents for ten minutes or something now that was on Malvern so we had meters on Malvern if you go with twenty five cents for a half an hour that's still adult you know that that still is is fifty cents an hour but we were charging on fountain street we were charging on mountain street we were charging in the bridge street lot and I don't remember what the rate was there but I know we were charging there and one of the people that said their business was down and was in that area where they now have a great big free parking lot we were charging in here we had meters up in there so if we have a history of charging for parking I don't know where we're gonna go with a parking deck, but I would like to see us pick a plan and let's just stay there. And meters on reserve. Yes, we had meters on reserve. We had meters all over the place and they charged. And it was more than 25 cents an hour. It used to be. But the last time I pulled up to go into the utilities office, I didn't have enough change. And that was one of the things with going back to the meters. Who carries around $5 worth of change in their car? Anybody. So that is something to think about, that we have a history of charging on a lot of the streets and a lot of the parking decks and the parking areas, and the parking deck was always supposed to be paid. It was paid from the beginning. We just ran into software issues and making the gate work. And the other thing is, if my business was down 60% or 40% or even 10%, I'd fill up that audience out there. I know there's a lot of keyboard warriors on Facebook and all over, but when I actually start talking to them, and I have spoken with a lot of the downtown merchants, and the vast majority of them, would they like free parking everywhere in front of their business? Yeah, they would. But have they said that their business is 20% and 30% and 40% down? No, they have not.

I would think they'd be here if it was director trustee thank you mayor um I think this amendment is uh ill advised at this time um if we and and I don't agree that the parking lot is not going to happen I think if we can establish a revenue stream which takes a period of time a year two or three any bond underwriter will tell you that if we can establish that revenue stream we could possibly do it on our own based on the numbers you just mentioned and what our expenses were that Lance went over before that would give us that would float a pretty nice bond issue but if not find that private partner and between the two of us we can get something done if we pass this amendment and attach it to this not only is it going to hamper it's probably going to eliminate our ability to ever know if we can establish that revenue stream to build that parking deck on the other end of town so I certainly am opposed to this.

I think someone had mentioned a minute ago that we're having the goal session, and I think based on everything that we've talked about, you know, if Bob Wright could give some very hypotheticals, if we did have 1.1 million, what would that look like? Like, is it anywhere near? what we would need. I agree. We're not bringing in the money that we thought we were going to bring in in the beginning when we first had the conversation, where we thought we would be by now. I don't disagree with that at all, but it doesn't mean that there couldn't still be an end goal. And the biggest issue is, before we started this, the general fund was subsidizing by almost half a million dollars a year. And so ultimately, that is back in our general fund, depending on what what the numbers could come back at, what we would need. There's a lot of options. We have a fund balance if we needed to secure land and then use the bond for the construction. I feel like those of you in the room who are more from a financial background than I am could come up with many more scenarios. We have dragged people through hell and back with parking, including ourselves. And I think we owe it to everybody who has had the growing pains to see it through. So we can ultimately get more parking. That was the number one issue in the survey. It's the number one issue anecdotally. When I talk to people, when the mayors talk to people, I'm sure when anyone else, there's not enough parking when we have busy weekends. We need more. And even if the lots we've talked about, the surface lots that may be available, they're not going to put a huge dent in it. So if we want downtown to grow, We need to be able to fit more people in it. And right now, we kind of can't fit that many more people in it. So yeah, I feel like we've talked about this quite a bit, and perhaps enough to know where we stand. But I'm not ready to make that amendment. I'm not saying it's not out there in the future. But I definitely need more information, and I'd want information from bond counsel, and I'd want Current sales numbers if we can get them from downtown businesses We can ask doesn't mean they're gonna give it to us but we can ask any further discussion Please call the roll

we directly say what we're part of the just on the amendment is on the amendment is just on the director webb's have been to have paid parking on Central Avenue only think yeah I'm sorry important to repeat what were the the amendment but you understand

This is an amendment to only have paid parking on Central Avenue as depicted on the map in red page 30 of your packet.

OK. So a yes vote changes everything that was in our board packet. A no vote puts us back to the original ordinance that we were addressing earlier this evening. That's correct. So please call the roll.

Director Holladay? No. Beard?

Aye.

Dobbs-Smith? No. Webb?

Aye.

Garcia? Aye. Trustee?

No.

Mayor McCabe?

No, the amendment fails. Please call the roll on the original ordinance, please.

Director Beard?

Aye.

Dobbs-Smith? Aye. Webb?

Aye.

Garcia? Aye. Trustee? Aye. Holladay? Aye. Mayor McCabe?

Aye. The ordinance is adopted. Our last action item of the evening is to consider ordinance 0-26-30. I'll entertain a motion to suspend the rules and read by title.

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second to suspend the rules and read by title. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Council, please read by title.

Ordinance O-26-30, an ordinance waiving competitive bidding and approving emergency repair and stabilization of a sinkhole on Broadway Street, a pre-shot concrete ink, and approving a budget adjustment. That concludes your reading, Mayor. If you would entertain and wish to second to adopt.

motion to adopt so move director webb seconded by director dob smith and deputy city manager danny mcfady will provide the staff report thank you mayor members of the board recent rains and subsequent investigation of a staff from a sinkhole that has appeared on broadway street has revealed a breach in the hot springs creek tunnel walls the tunnel walls have developed voids where the tunnel walls meet the natural stone creek bottom and is pulling soil from behind the tunnel while resulting in the street collapsing. ProShot Concrete of Florence, Alabama executed tunnel repairs for the City of Hot Springs in 2014 under a half a million dollar federal grant. The work was executed as scheduled and within budget and CHF staff was well pleased with the work performed by ProShot at that time. ProShot Concrete has recently inspected the tunnel breach and has submitted a proposal for their repairs. The amount of product needed due to the size of the voyage cannot be determined at this time. Therefore, ProShot has given us a quantity price and proposal. This proposal will be linked in your packet. The city manager has stated emergency exists and to expedite and make needed repairs, has directed staff to make immediate plans and procurement to address the tunnel wall breaches. In order to save costs and time through a bidding process, staff is asking for, after the fact, waiving of competitive bidding to expedite the tunnel repairs and allow the reopening of Broadway Street. Therefore, staff recommends the board of directors approve of the proposal from Pro Staff Concrete of Florence, Alabama in the amount of $100,000. Staff also requests a budget transfer in the amount of $100,000 from the stormwater balance into the stormwater drainage and fund balance into the stormwater drainage improvement account 5809.

Any questions of Mister Denny director Garcia and in that where this works being done in its claims for the central is well it says it's close, but there's no detour sign there in on my way to meeting to not cut vehicles are coming in the line going out in this this happened to me but coming down here before just and they keep coming in and you know I have to back up, and they're coming in. They just see that lane's closed, so they come over into the wrong lane.

I'm not quite sure how to fix that, Director.

I mean, can we put detour to go? They got to go. They can't go on Broadway there. They got to go on Malvern.

We could try that in the morning, yes, ma'am.

Because somebody's going to get hit.

I've seen it twice. Me too.

We can do a detour with some arrows and maybe that'll help raise awareness.

Or do not enter signs on that side. Because it's not safe. They're turning.

They started work tonight, so hopefully.

They were working there.

Yes, ma'am.

When they were coming in.

We'll try. I'll get with the traffic department tomorrow and we'll get something put up.

Thank you.

Director, Trustee.

Thank you, Mayor. Jenny said that they can't determine the amount of product needed right now. They've been down there. They've inspected. Are there photos? Do they have an estimate of what it's going to be, not to exceed $100,000?

Director, what they're seeing is where this section of tunnel is concrete wall and roof. It's an arched concrete structure. And it ties into the natural stone bottom of the creek. Over the years the stone has eroded a little and the concrete has eroded and it's leaving like a gap a couple inches tall and six to eight inches wide in multiple places. There's also some locations where there's old abandoned 15, 16, 18 inch pipe that sticks into the tunnel walls that you can look into it. The pipe's collapsed on itself. So when the creek gets up, it puts water back into those voids. And the pipe, you can guesstimate, like the sinkhole that's on Broadway, that's what basically caused that one was water backing into that pipe was pulling soil back out as the water action of the creek rose and fell. The product issue is the little parts behind the wall. We don't know how big a void or how long it's been sucking dirt from behind the wall. So until they start pumping product and start filling that void, it's kind of a guessing game.

So you can't get behind that motion to inspect? Okay. All right. I don't care a thing about going down there. But will someone take pictures? Will there be photos of this?

Yes, we have some photos of what they've done. You can't see the bad thing about you can't see behind it, but you can see what's causing it on the front side. And then you'll be able to see what we've patched as we went.

what about those parts that have collapsed on themselves we're going to plug the we're going to plug in yesterday that's thank you part of their scope is to plug it now director trustee you don't know if they have to climb down there I think you're tall enough and director Webb is strong enough that he can just hold you by your ankle he didn't lower you down oh other questions for Danny. Thank you thank you to everybody sign up as any discussion amongst directors.

Hearing none, we'll call the roll.

Director Dobbs-Smith? Aye. Webb?

Aye.

Garcia? Aye. Trustee? Aye. Holladay? Aye. Beard? Aye. Mayor McCabe?

Aye. The ordinance is adopted. This concludes the action items for this evening. We'll move on to the Board of Directors' items for discussion. Any items for discussion? Director Webb?

thank you mayor I just want to take a short period of time to address a couple of spotlights that I've been noticing and I'm sure many of you have not just those of us up here serving on the board but those in the audience maybe those at home the parks and trails department the parties here in our city Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the ribbon cutting of Stokes Creek Greenway, the portion that's close to Kimmery Road and it comes out at Richard. Now also the splash pad is being created at David Watkins Memorial Park. The general maintenance of the greenway, the big greenway, is beautiful. And I tell you this from firsthand knowledge, because my kids and I love to hop on a bike and tootle around and got to get out on the greenway. ride and it was a fantastic sight I shared on one of those occasions I think I shared a picture or two with you bill that day but I was just impressed with our parks and trails department being able to take care of a lot of the weeds that are close to the trail and really beautify like creeks and areas that I could remember years back being overgrown or what looked like overgrown. So it looks like in the last at least short recent history that that beautification process is being enhanced a great deal at all of the parks. Even the playground equipment, you know, at Kimrey, at Energy, at Family, they're in any day that goes by that somebody isn't there playing on that equipment. And it's all for free and it's open to everybody. And I haven't yet witnessed somebody go down that slide without smiling. Anybody that goes down that smile. So if you haven't smiled, And in a day or two, run over there to Energy Park, run over there to Camry, just hop on a slide and take off. By the time you get to the bottom, you will smile. So the renovations, and now it's my understanding that there is some community interest and maybe committee interest to look at some enhancements and renovations over at Kenneth Adair Memorial Park downtown.

Just come up on the screen.

Sure did. I have an interest to see what those might look like and how that might be able to work. But I mention all this just to really give not just kudos to Parks and Trails, but all of our city staff. And I want to give tribute to you, Bill, for being supportive of seeing that beautification in our city. That's one of the best spotlights for Hot Springs are those parks and trails. And it's nice to say that we've got the best parks in not just the state of Arkansas, but maybe across the country. And for one city to operate as many that we do, the size of the city that we are that's pretty spectacular the last point I want to make I know city staff has had some input on this and there's probably many of us sit in this room tonight who have written letters made a call talk to people and so forth over the past several years is finally to see some progress being made on Central Avenue that's going to be a blessing for our city too so I want to give thanks to all of our city staff that were helpful in that decision making process to finally have attention being given to central to be repaid. Supposed to start this month and then be completed by late November. So that's going to be a blessing for us. And I'll end with that. Thank you.

Any other comments or items for discussion? Director Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to remind everyone that I believe our local schools start back to school next week, so please watch the school zones. Slow down and watch for the kids that are out catching the school buses in the mornings and getting off the buses in the afternoons. Slow down.

I think hot spring school district go went back today yeah I got a director trustees one thing bill I just want to say congratulations and thanks to you three of us were out at the ribbon cutting for Windows USA last Wednesday what an impressive facility yes they had nothing but great things to say about all the things that the city had done to help them And all their employees had on blue shirts, and I bet there were 350 blue shirts out in the parking lot for the picture. It was just a great, great ceremony. And thanks for keeping that company here. And it talked about not just the manufacturing, but the headquarters is staying right here in Hot Springs, too. So, again, thank you very much for all you did. Thank you.

I think all of the city board members, myself included, received a little email sometime today with an article from Travel and Leisure. Our little community, Hot Springs, Arkansas, was the number one in the up and coming destination. We beat out, what was the second one here? I want to say Palm Springs or something. What was the second one? We know each and every day we live in a great community, and it's taken the rest of the world just a little bit of time to find us, but we get to play each and every day. Work hard, play hard. Now, one other thing I want to comment on, and it's really not a city item, but my wife lost her wallet yesterday. or left her wallet in the buggy coming out of Walmart and she had grocery shopping and got to the parking garage and couldn't pay. So she turned right around and when she couldn't find her wallet, went right back to Walmart and they didn't have it turned in apparently yet or whatever and she was really upset so last night we were canceling credit cards and trying to figure out how to get a new driver's license and what information you need to have for the real ID and all that. So she took a chance and called out to Walmart today and they had it. And the item that she cheered up about, it wasn't anything with credit cards, had nothing to do with money, But it just tells you what's important in people's lives was a small picture of our daughter in her senior cheerleading outfit. braces and all. And that's one thing she cherishes the most and carries with her. And of all the other things, we can replace all that. But she didn't know how she was going to replace that little picture that always brings joy to her. So to the individual who returned that wallet, thank you. We don't really carry any money with us. So you weren't going to get any money from us. But maybe you could have run a, I mean, I'd give you money for the wallet if you came forward. But we didn't. We don't carry a buck on us. It's all cashless, it seems like today. But thank you so much for returning that wallet to Walmart and making my wife smile again. So thank you.

All of these people found the wallet, and they're going to come to you and say, it was me, it was me, it was me.

Director, anybody else have a comment? Hearing none?

Hearing none, I move to adjourn. Second.

We've got a motion to adjourn. Second?

He seconded it.