The Holiday Island City Council meeting on April 16 commenced with a look into current finances. The city’s finances total $839,990.62 and sales tax from March was $17,477.38, although this is not as good as last year at the same time, Mayor Dan Kees noted.
He added that building permits bring in about 80 percent of revenues. Kees that utilities for the city council building is an astronomical amount, and council member Ken Mills was so shocked that he asked that the electric company do an audit to see where the power is being wasted.
Kees replied that work is being done to make energy expenditures on the building better. Another major expenditure for the city was a pickup truck bought for use for code enforcement, being done by Rusty Rusterholz. The city also spent $1800 on new signs and $1200 on a new laptop. Total expenses for March were $48,700.
Cleaning things up
Council member Lynn Dumas said the Planning Commission has sold 11 permits for short-term rentals and expects to sell more. A map showing where short-term rental properties are, for the sake of code enforcement, is available on the documents page of the Planning Commission. He reminded people that May 14 at noon is the deadline to buy their short-term rental permits. There will be a public hearing on the issue on July 1.
Rusty Rusterholz said that so far the city has only prosecuted two violations, and he has been working to resolve the rest. A complaint about a large amount of trash on Bandy Drive was not an issue as it was all picked up. Several dead vehicles that had been left on a cul-de-sac were removed. 6 Lido Lane, which according to Kees has been a disaster for around 20 years, has had several notifications about the trash and code infringements sent to the new owners with no response.
Rusterholz intends to talk to the court and see how to proceed since the owners don’t seem to be collecting their mail and refuse to open their door to him. 8029 Hillside has been issued a citation and summons, with Rusterholz intending to speak with the owner on May 10 at the courthouse. Rusterholz then explained that he was also dealing with 22 properties, some abandoned, to get them condemned if there are no answers from the current registered owners. He wants to talk with people before taking those steps and is trying to deal with the worst ones first. Kees urged him to make sure the properties are not in foreclosure, as condemning properties is a lengthy process.
Being connected
Council member Linda Graves spoke about the work being done to qualify for President Biden’s Internet plan for rural communities. One thing that has to be known to qualify is how many community anchor institutions such as police, fire, healthcare, and public safety are in the city. This includes knowing the emergency shelter locations for the city.
If this program goes through, Graves believes it would create a fiber broadband mesh that could encompass the town and even Beaver. She told the council that this would help the community getting Internet coverage, and that because of the hard work of Holiday Island, Eureka Springs, and Berryville, the government is looking favorably on Carroll County.
Kees pointed out that although this is exciting, big internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Cox are not supportive of the program and an area needs to qualify for grants to get one of those ISPs to install infrastructure for those who can’t provide market price internet fees. There is a danger that none of the big companies will bid to do the work and the project won’t happen. Graves said that the ISPs would have a challenge period of 30 days to examine the service levels in the area.
Ordinance discourse
The council then did readings for several ordinances: Animal Control Ord. 2024-003 was read in title only for the second time and passed, the third reading will take place next month. Council member Barb Kuhn asked to have a workshop on the trash ordinance as Holiday Island is also having issues with the Carroll County Solid Waste changes that have been made about bags and tags.
The change has resulted in an independent trash collector losing his business and he is currently suing the city. Kees said they could hold a workshop to discuss the issue, although not until after the lawsuit was resolved, and the matter couldn’t legally be discussed further.
Kees did say that it wouldn’t hurt to educate the public and review the contract which is up for renewal as this is its third year. However, he wanted the council members and public to understand that Carroll County Solid Waste Authority was set up by a county judge because there was no agreement in the past on who would pick up trash, that there is no requirement to use the CCSWA, but that they don’t profit from the fees as they are not a private company and the fees cover things such as fuel and disposal.
Council had the first reading of Ord. 2024-004 regarding a three percent tax on gross receipts of hotel, motel, and accommodations for advertising and promotion for the city with an emergency clause. Kees said the city attorney had been making changes to the ordinance up to that morning. It passed the first reading with unanimous votes. The ordinance establishing an Advertising and Promotion Commission for the City of Holiday Island, with an emergency clause, was read and passed ith unanimously.
Council member Wesley Stille said that a $70,000 CD in the bank needs renewal so they could take advantage of a five percent interest rate for renewing it early, and council did. He then presented that the software for the business license accounting module needed modifying, and modifying the existing software could save the council money. Council agreed to discuss it at the next meeting. There was also a recommendation to get a gas credit card for the sole use of the code enforcement vehicle.
Peggy Lodewyks shared that the Chamber of Commerce Open House was a success with 62 attendees. She added that the visitor center had already had 148 volunteer hours giving tourists information.
Finally, during council members comments, Dumas said that the bridge to Table Rock Lake needs a sign warning people to slow down, perhaps ] a flashing bridge sign. ]