The Mountain Home City Council held its first meeting of 2025 Thursday night which included the swearing in of the council members. It was the first meeting for new councilman Phillip Frame who replaces Paige Evans on the council.Among the items the council dealt with was the purchase of new vehicles for the police department. Heather Loftis has the story.
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The vehicles for the police department will be three 2025 Ford Explorers purchased from Ultimate Ford in Mountain Home at a total cost of $136,500. The council voted to waive competitive bidding for the purchase due to the immediate availability of the vehicles and a lower price than was available through a bid from the state. The state bid was for hybrid vehicles while the bid from Ultimate was for gasoline-powered vehicles at a cost of $2,000 less per vehicle.
The council heard from Dani Pugsely representing the North Central Arkansas Economic Alliance with a proposal asking for funding for 2025. The city approved $40,000 in 2024 but actually paid $30,000 for 3/4 of the year after the alliance was established.
The alliance works to bring economic expansion and development to the Twin Lakes Area, especially in the areas of tourism, manufacturing and small business.
The council voted to appoint council members Bob Van Haaren and Susan Stockton to the A&P commission. They are currently serving on the commission.
The council was scheduled to approve committee assignments but they tabled that action until their next meeting. Council members will continue with their current assignments through January with Frame taking over Evans assignments.
The Mountain Home City Council approved a three percent cost of living adjustment raise for retired elected officials.
The council approved a number of city employees to be able to do business with the city. The list of business includes things such as teaching CPR classes, mowing, officiating youth sports leagues and doing carpentry work.
Also approved by the council was a resolution setting forth organization for city council meetings.
Click the following link to view the resolution: organizationformhccmeetings
Mayor Hillrey Adams told the council the Coulter Celebration of Lights at Arkansas State University was another big success. He says the preliminary numbers show 9,000 vehicles went through the event and $37,000 was donated, which was about the same as last year.
The council also voted to cancel their next meeting scheduled for Jan. 16th because most of the council will be out of town attending the Arkansas Municipal League meeting in Little Rock. Their next meeting will be held Feb. 6.
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