Voters pass taxes for parks projects

Building aquatic center among plans

MOUNTAIN HOME — The city will be getting a new $28 million community/ aquatic center after voters there narrowly approved two sales-tax measures Tuesday.

“This is better than winning an election myself when I was running because this is such a good deal for the community,” said Mayor Hillrey Adams.

Canda Reese, the Baxter County clerk, said the issue and unofficial vote totals were:

A 0.5% sales tax that would raise about $38.6 million for park improvements, including construction of the community/aquatic center:

For ................................ 807 Against ........................ 760

A .25% sales tax that would permanently fund maintenance and operations of the city’s parks.

For ................................ 835 Against ........................ 737

Adams said bond underwriters and attorneys have a lot of work to do over the next month to get city bonds issued for the projects.

He said work on the community center will probably start in nine to 12 months and be completed two years later.

Improvements to Mountain Home’s parks and playgrounds will begin this fall, Adams said.

City leaders had a general idea of the community/ aquatic center they wanted, but now work will begin on the specifics.

“We’ve gotten the OK to proceed with the project, so now we start finishing out the details,” Adams said. “Normally when you’re at this point in the game you’re presenting a conceptual idea.”

Adams said city leaders had been modeling their community/aquatic center after one in Batesville, but he has been traveling around Arkansas, and made a trip to St. Louis, to look at similar centers.

Adams said the plan is to construct a facility that will have about 30,000 square feet of community center space, 35,000 square feet of gym space and a 33,000-squarefoot indoor aquatic center with a 10-lane swimming pool and a therapy pool. An outdoor aquatic center would account for another 35,000 square feet.

Adams said the 0.25% tax would provide between $1.2 million and $1.3 million a year, based on current tax collections.

He said collection of the 0.5% tax would end when the bonds are paid off in about 17 years.

Mountain Home, population 12,448, is the county seat of Baxter County in north Arkansas.

“We’ve gotten the OK to proceed with the project, so now we start finishing out the details. Normally when you’re at this point in the game you’re presenting a conceptual idea.”

— Hillrey Adams, Mountain Home mayor