The Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Development’s meeting June 8 covered the status of grant funding to improve broadband in Eureka Springs, efforts to promote outdoor tourism, and what to do about the lack of affordable housing.
Alderman Bill Ott related the story of recently meeting a young woman who had come to Eureka Springs looking for work. She had a college degree and was trained in massage therapy, but had no car and was unable to find affordable short-term housing until landing a job.
Task Force member Kent Turner said that it is no longer possible to house people temporarily in local hotels at reasonable costs. Long gone are the days when hotel rooms could be had for $40 a night in Eureka Springs. Turner said it is now more like $100 a night.
Terra Lewis, community development coordinator for the Chamber of Commerce, said it is a vicious cycle: Jobs are available, people are willing to work, but they can’t find an affordable place to live.
Turner gave an update on his work to create for a 501(c)(3) organization, which the city is supportive of, that could provide incentives for development of affordable housing. Turner said a similar nonprofit in Bentonville has been doing this for 35 years. He said the bylaws for the Eureka Springs organization are complete and the next step will be to apply for non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service, which he estimated could be done in 30 to 60 days.
Sandy Martin, chair of the Task Force, said the timing may be good to attract investors who can get tax incentives for building low-income housing. “People may be looking for other areas to invest in because the stock market is down,” she said.
As in previous meetings, there was discussion of turning some of the city’s hotels into long-term housing. But one of the major barriers to that is requirements for retrofitting to provide fire suppression sprinkler systems. Mayor Butch Berry said that can cost $200,000 or more, depending on the size of the hotel.
Rick Armellini brought up the possibility of manufactured housing, including the prospect of purchasing used FEMA trailers for housing. Armellini said FEMA uses trailers for housing people after disasters, and then those later become available for sale. Any type of housing would require water and sewer services, which would be additional cost factors in areas outside the city limits where more land is available for development, but city services aren’t available.
In other discussions, Martin reported that she and Berry met with Katherine Andrews, director of the newly created Arkansas Office of Outdoor Recreation, an arm of Arkansas Parks, Heritage and Tourism. Martin said Andrews is very interested in Eureka Springs and Carroll County.
“We fit beautifully within her goals of economic development and conservation,” Martin said. “We are bringing her back in late summer to talk about what we are doing to promote bringing more people and businesses here for outdoor recreation.”
Berry said that he has met with the Runway Group, which is interested in more diversified development in Eureka Springs. A division of the Runway Group has been in town shooting video and still photography.
“Things are jelling now,” Martin said. “Out of all that, something good has to happen.”
Martin also discussed meeting with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Northwest Arkansas Council about developing government incentive programs that are a better fit for Eureka Springs and other similar areas of the state that are unlikely to attract large industries. Martin said more support is needed for innovative, entrepreneurial programs.
One of those programs which was discussed earlier is creating a culinary school. Martin said the concept has been tweaked to consider creation of a school that would help people bring food products to the marketplace.
Better wide bandwidth data transmission on the table
Berry said there has been $500 million has been allocated for improving broadband in Arkansas and an applicant has applied for funding to provide better broadband in Eureka Springs. The Carroll County Quorum Court has endorsed the proposal. Turner recommended that the city continue to keep the issue in the forefront of the county by meeting with the new county judge after the election.
Spiraling prices burden everybody
The group also discussed the confluence of increased costs for housing at the same time there are much higher costs for gasoline, groceries, pet food, construction items and other supplies. Turner, who is on the board of directors at Flint Street Fellowship Food Pantry, said they fed 260 families in the past month, and the food pantry is no longer receiving as much free food from the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, requiring Flint Street to spend about $1,200-$1,500 a month just to purchase meat for local food-insecure families.