The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission voted Monday to ask the Hot Springs Board of Directors to call a special election for Sept. 10 on a bond issue to fund the Majestic Park Baseball Complex.
The commission will request the special election at the board's July 2 meeting.
If the ballot issue is approved by city voters, the ad commission would use a portion of the revenues from the existing 3-cent advertising and promotion tax, which is levied on prepared food and lodging within the city limits, to guarantee repayment of the bonds, which would be used to construct the new sports complex.
Majestic Park would be located at the site of the former Boys & Girls Club of Hot Springs, 109 W. Belding.
If approved by voters, the proposal would give the ad panel the authority to sell up to $8.5 million in bonds. The project is estimated at $7.5 million and will be serviced over 30 years, according to Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs.
"It's going to cost right at about $7.5 million net," Arrison told the commission. "We're asking for $8.5 million in bonds. They always put a cushion in there just to make sure you have enough. Some bond sales make you put a year's worth of payments up in advance."
The annual cost to service the bonds is about $410,000, which will come out of the commission's annual budget, Arrison said.
Majestic Park would consist of five fields for youth baseball ages 13 and younger, with one of the ball fields large enough to host high school and college level tournaments and seat 300 people.
"I think it's the right thing to do for the community," Arrison said. "We've outlined it will definitely benefit tourism. Right now we're getting zero percent of the youth sports market. We're not getting any money from it because we don't have the fields. Kimery is the only thing we've got going right now. These fields will be used year round with artificial turf -- that's why the number is so high."
The ad commission has been awarded grants of $500,000 and $50,000 from the Oaklawn Foundation and Ritter Communications, respectively. The grant received by the Oaklawn Foundation is to be used for site preparation. Ritter Communications will be paid out in $10,000 increments over the next five years.
"Any leftover money after site preparation we'll hold until the end of the project to see if we're short anywhere," Arrison said.
Arrison said holding a special election is important because "we don't want to miss another baseball season. It will take a year" to build.
"Why didn't we do it nine months ago with Mid-America Science Museum? Because we really didn't know what it would cost. We were still trying to get our numbers together."
Hot Springs voters authorized a $2 million bond issue for construction of an exhibition hall at Mid-America Science Museum by a two-to-one margin, 1,003-520, in a special election in September. There were 24,235 registered voters in Hot Springs eligible to vote on election day.
Arrison told the commission a volunteer committee is already set up to raise private funds and campaign for the bond issue.
"We will pay for the election," Arrison said. "We paid for the Mid-America Science Museum election. They will raise private funds for the campaign. All we'll pay is for the election.
"I think it's just going to be a win-win for our community. It's something that needs to be done."
Local on 06/25/2019