Prior to last Wednesday’s City Advertising and Promotions meeting, commissioners talked about the budget for an hour. Executive Director Mike Maloney said they are projecting tax collections in 2017 of $1.45 million, and emphasized it is especially important this year they continue to bring more people to Eureka Springs. Finance Director Rick Bright said collections this year are $80,000 over expectations, and this total does not include anticipated excellent October collections.
Commissioner Susan Harman proposed they set aside $60,000 in next year’s budget for promoting new events. She suggested getting word out to promoters that the CAPC is looking for new events. Commissioner Charles Ragsdell responded that their mission is to market events, not produce them, but commissioner Dusty Duling countered, “But nothing is going on. People ask and there’s nothing.”
“But what event should we throw money at?” commissioner Damon Henke asked, which prompted an exchange on which events deserve more support and which times of the year need an event. Maloney stated the CAPC has been “severely chastised” because nothing was going on in July, but “we’ve never been approached by anyone to do anything.”
Harman again asserted they should communicate with the community better, and that the CAPC can support well-conceived community events. “We’ve got blanks to fill in,” she said, adding they should not forget events during the week. “If we can’t come up with ideas, then we need to find someone to come up with ideas,” she remarked. She again urged setting aside as much as $60,000 for support for new events in town or acts in the Auditorium, and Duling noted most of the recent acts at the Auditorium have been what he termed over-the-hill acts. “Let’s try something new,” he pleaded.