Share This Article
Mountain Home City Council members will consider an ordinance Thursday that would ban all smoking and vaping at the city’s new Community and Aquatic Center, a step city officials say is meant to keep the new facility friendly for families and children.
The proposal would cover the entire property, indoors and out. No one would be allowed to use tobacco or vape products anywhere on the grounds, from the lobby to the outdoor pool deck to the parking lots.
City officials do not want people vaping inside the building, and they do not want vaping around the pools outside. The center has quickly become a hub for young families, and the city wants to protect that atmosphere.
The ordinance would amend the city’s tobacco-free and vape-free rules, Ordinance No. 2020-39. Those rules were written before the center existed. The update is meant to spell out that the whole property is off limits to tobacco.
A violation would carry a fine of $25 to $100.
The timing follows one of the biggest public launches the city has seen. The center opened to the public over Memorial Day weekend after a ribbon cutting on May 22.
The city held member-only days on May 23 and 24, then opened to the public on May 25. Crews broke ground in December 2023 and spent about three years on the build.
It is the largest public works project in Mountain Home’s history. Voters approved the roughly $36 million build through a 2021 sales tax that passed by just 47 votes.
The project marks the city’s first new public pool in nearly four decades. The last public pool ribbon cutting came at Cooper Park in 1989. Two women who helped open that pool, Kay Wilson and Shirley Porter, returned to cut the ribbon at the new center.
Interest in the center has been strong from the start. The city hired about 82 people to staff it and fielded close to 1,000 job applications. The staff includes about 60 part-time lifeguards, along with front desk and custodial workers.
Early reviews from residents who have used the center have been positive. Families have filled the pools and the gym in the weeks since the opening.
The building offers indoor and outdoor swimming, splash pads, a gymnasium and an indoor track. It also holds convention space and city offices, and Mountain Home Public Schools’ swim teams use the pools for practice. All of that has made the center a gathering place for families, which is exactly what officials want to keep clear of tobacco.
The center would join a list of smoke-free spots the city already keeps. Those include the L.C. Sammons Youth Center, the public pool at Cooper Park, playground areas, concession stands and bleachers. Indoor city buildings and the congregated areas of Hickory Park are also covered.
Mayor Hillrey Adams, Parks Director Daniel Baxley and City Attorney Roger Morgan are listed as presenting the ordinance. Baxley was hired in part because he had managed a similar center elsewhere. Officials plan to ask the council to take up all three readings and a possible vote the same night, rather than spread them over three meetings.
The ordinance includes an emergency clause. That would let the new rules take effect as soon as the council passes them.
The ordinance describes the ban as a way to preserve the public health, safety and welfare of residents. It also points to state policy that protects the rights of nonsmokers and the city’s power to limit tobacco use on property it owns.
The council meets at 5 p.m. Thursday in the council chambers of the Municipal Building at 720 Hickory St.
