Share This Article
Mountain Home City Council met for a regularly scheduled City Council meeting last Thursday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Thursday’s meeting was a relatively short one with only a few items being up for consideration.
To start, the council took up an ordinance to change a commercial property into a residential one. The property is located at U.S. Highway 62W and U.S. Highway 62/412 By-Pass in Mountain Home. The petition to change the property’s commercial status comes from Sycamore Properties LLC, which will be turning the property into a series of condo’s.
Rezoning the property is not expected to conflict with surrounding properties due to the multiple zoning classifications in the area. Diagrams show that the property is being established for a Sycamore Flats Subdivision.
The next item on the agenda for Thursday was the resolution amending the city’s adopted budget. The amended resolutions come after City Council made a comprehensive study and review of the budget to ensure that it is as accurate as possible. Members of the council remarked on how the city’s budget has risen over the years following new streams of tax revenues.
The city’s budget for this fiscal year is currently set at $49,288,538.90. The council also approved adjustments to some of the city’s donation accounts. The adjustment covers the new stipends going to several officers of the Mountain Home Police Department.
City Council also approved the creation of an account to cover a grant from Walmart. The grant, which will see a donation of $5,000, will go towards the creation of an after school tutoring program.
The second to last ordinance for the evening had City Council discussing the waiving of the city’s competitive bid process to purchase a large rock hammer from Gorillas Hammers for the Water Department. The rock hammer will cost $48,000, a significant saving from the original $70,000 hammer the city was looking at.
The last ordinance of the night will allow the city to conduct business with Bob Harris and Lyle Uchtman for CPR Training, Steve Nearn and his detail shop, Eric Setzer and Rocky Morrel for mowing services, Larry Caruso for clean water plant work, and Roger Morgan for his legal services.
The session ended with a state of the city address by Mayor Hillrey Adams.
Adams spoke about the service of city employees to the public and how grateful he is to be able to work with them. He also discussed the success of the city in raising funds for new projects, as well as opening the city’s first all inclusive playground.
Another topic that Adams addressed was the Coulter Celebrations of Lights. The mayor thanked the public for donating to the Christmas event. A big heartfelt thank you went out to ASU-Mountain Home’s Mollie Morgan, who has overseen the celebration since its inception.
Adams also tackled work done by the Street Department last year. A full break down of city’s work on its streets can be found here. For the city’s Water and Sewer Department, Adams spoke about how the purchase of sonar technology to check the city’s sewer lines has made life easier for city employees looking to clear and maintain the city’s pipes.
For the city’s fire department, Adams touched on the 300 plus calls that the department handled last year, as well as the addition of two new firefighters to the city’s fire crew. One of those new employees graduated with top scores during training.
Adams briefly spoke about the loss of Chief Williams last year.
For the Mountain Home Police Department, Adams spoke about adding school resources officers to the department’s line up, answering some 800 calls, and outfitting five new police vehicles. Adams then pivoted to talking about the addition of a new director to the Park’s Department and the upcoming baseball and soccer seasons.
Adams concluded his speech by discussing progress on the city’s new fire house.
All documents for this Thursday’s meeting can be found below.
