The City of Mountain Home will enter into negotiations to purchase 27.5 acres of land adjacent to McCabe Park.
McCabe Park is the city’s newest park and is located off of U.S. Highway 412 across from the new Harp’s Food Store. The park, which currently includes a pavilion, a hammock garden and three small lakes for leisure fishing, will eventually house the city’s planned multipurpose community and aquatic center once the facility is built in the coming years.
McCabe Park is currently about 42 acres in size and the city currently maintains about 250 acres of park space. If purchased, the additional acreage would grow the city’s park system by almost 10 percent.
Mountain Home Mayor Hillrey Adams says the property owner has expressed an interest in selling the property to the city. Adams says the owner gave the city a price that would work for both parties.
Adams says, “We’ll probably never have the chance to buy that much land adjacent to a city park again.”
Money exists in the city’s Parks Department budget to purchase the land, if an agreement can be worked out between the landowner and the city.
Adding the additional 27.5 acres to McCabe Park would allow for future expansion and development.
Additionally, Adams says its possible that the additional land might be more suitable than the current park’s land as the site of the community center. A more construction-ready site could save the city money by not having to be prepped as much.
Adams says a group of engineers are currently drilling samples on the 27.5 acres to see if that is a possibility.
If the sale is completed, the landowner would also make a donation back to the city as part of the agreement. That donation could be in the form of a cash gift or could be a reduction of the established asking price for the property. Adams says the final form of the donation would be up to the landowner.
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