Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers

MEETING NOTES

BAXTER COUNTY FRIENDS OF THE TAXPAYERS

SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2007

BCFT Director Frank Kaye called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm at Redeemer Lutheran Church.  Guests were invited to identify themselves and sign the guest register.

Frank began by thanking Chuck Barnes for his help with the float and Red-White-&-Blue Parade preparations.  Chuck’s son-in-law provided the truck and trailer, and his granddaughters (plus a friend of theirs) rode on the float and helped pass out candy along the parade route.  Thanks also to everyone who helped decorate the float, and rode it in the rain!

Treasurer’s Report:  Treasurer Ken Blade gave the following report:  beginning balance was $974.36; deposits of $15 (dues), withdrawals of $111.50 ($7.50 room rental, $4 for copies [parade handouts], $100 Chamber of Commerce dues), leaving a balance of $877.86.

Old Business:

School Bond:  Frank reported that anywhere between 4 and 40 out of 52 committee members actually attended the meetings regarding the upcoming school construction bond issue (but never all 52).  He said that he and a few others did their best to trim costs; at the last meeting they managed to pull out $1.5-$2 million worth of projects, but with the increase in number of classrooms needed at the 3^rd-4^th-5^th grade school, it still added up to about the original $40 million.  There will be only one bond issue – the suggestion had been made at an earlier meeting to suggest that they do one building at a time, or break it up into other logical “chunks” – according to the superintendent, it has to be all or nothing.

Frank said that he has put together an alternate plan, and will present it to the superintendent on Monday.  Only one person in attendance was against the funding of schools, saying that he feels it is wrong to throw money at schools to fix their problems.  A recent poll on KTLO Radio showed that only about 25% of the respondents were in favor of the school bond issue.  According to what has been presented on the radio and in the newspaper, most who are opposed to it object to the amount of money being spent on sports and other extra-curricular activities, not the need for more classroom space.

Frank’s alternate plan has 3 categories:  education (large projects that need voter support); sports & miscellaneous; and in-district (small projects that can be paid for with in-district funds).

1)      Education:  $29.726 million – covered by a 3.75 mill property tax increase (which will generate approximately $29.986 million).  This includes all the actual “school” (i.e., classroom-related) construction laid out in the district’s plan;

2)      Sports & Misc.:  $10 million – this would be generated by the refinancing of existing bonds in the fall of 2008; it would likely get used for the multi-use facility at the high school and other extra projects;

3)      In-district:  Small projects that really shouldn’t be included in a 30-year bond, but could be funded with money left over from other projects, “excesses” that remain after bonds are paid out of tax revenue, and possibly proceeds from the sale of the 62 East Community Center property.

The group expressed overall agreement that Frank should go to the superintendent with this plan.

Pool:  Frank reported that the indoor pool committee has agreed to try to raise money for the new facility through donations, fundraisers and other non-tax methods.  He is working on a resolution that will have to be passed by the city council before any fundraising can take place.  No official “milestones” have been handed down from the mayor yet, but it looks like the first one will probably be July 2008.  General consensus of folks in the circles we travel in seems to be that if the mayor tries to get a sales tax passed next fall to fund this facility, it will fail at the polls.

One member said that he was dead set against the pool because it’s being built for the high school swim team.  Frank explained that that is just one of a long list of factors, and that this pool will be built for all.  The wish list includes a zero-entry area (gradually gets deeper, like a beach), which will probably be connected to and part of a warmer exercise/therapy pool.  A separate competition pool will service swim meets and lap swimmers – the committee is looking at the whole gamut of ages.

Another member asked whether the regular pool would be available for use during swim meets.  Frank said that the concept plan has the competition pool in a separate area from the exercise/zero-entry pool, and activities in the two areas should not impact each other.

The question was asked about needing to hire more employees and lifeguards, and the cost associated with that.  Frank said that yes, that was likely, but depending upon how the facility is designed, we could do like some others do, and issue key-cards for members, so that they can use the pool before and after regular open hours; they would have to sign a waiver of liability to swim without lifeguards present.  He also suggested looking for lifeguards that are not the traditional high school students (i.e., senior volunteers and others).

Suzan announced that the pool committee now has a website with more information:  (www.geocities.com/mtnhomepool).  A link to the pool committee’s site will be placed on the BCFT website ASAP (bcfriendsofthetaxpayers.org).

New Business:

Ozark Regional Airport:  Our first guest speaker was Marty Stripek, a former TWA hangar line mechanic, who now works for a carrier out of St. Louis.  He gave a detailed and informative talk on what it takes to get a new airline started, and why it has been so difficult for one to get set up in Mountain Home.

Rodney Volunteer Fire Protection District:  The next speaker was a former volunteer firefighter from the Rodney Volunteer Fire Protection District.  A group of their members contacted BCFT recently and asked for help with several issues.  Among other things, they have asked board members for information about the district’s financial status and were told it’s none of their business; they were also denied access to meeting minutes and other district records.

A BCFT member suggested that they make a Freedom of Information request.  Frank agreed that was a good idea, but suggested that the Rodney VFPD members join BCFT and form a committee to pursue the idea.  Several people commented that it would be a good idea to try to help them, because a lot of people think we only address Mountain Home issues.  A motion was made and seconded, to try to help the Rodney VFPD resolve the conflict with their board; the motion passed.

Several more minutes of discussion included the district’s high ISO rating (9) and the lack of interest on the board’s part to get it lowered, as well as suggestions about what the group’s next step(s) should be.

Announcements:  Frank announced that the Baxter County Library’s quarterly book sale would end today at 6:00 pm.  BCFT (the original group) was responsible for the first library bond defeat (in 2003); the “new” BCFT (reborn in response to the A&P Tax in 2005) was part of the library’s strategic planning group that year, and is still participating in strategic planning activities for the library in 2007.  At least two members of the library’s administration team have praised us for insisting that they look at alternatives to property taxes to fund their new location.

Open Discussion:

Jim mentioned an article in this morning’s Baxter Bulletin about a new emergency messaging system that has been proposed for Baxter County.  For $3 per family member, the county will notify people by phone if an emergency situation arises.

He also announced that he and Frank were meeting with the school superintendent about the bond issue on Monday.  Points were then made that the district must be encouraged to live within the constraints of the millage increase; that the November bond issue would be for capital expenditures only (not operations & maintenance); that the bond will be for approximately $29 million, not $40 million (the balance of $11 million will come from refinancing existing bonds next year); that people need to write letters to the editor; that proper maintenance of the school buildings over the years would have reduced the need for new facilities now.

A visitor mentioned another article in today’s paper that cited arsenic being found in the landfill north of town, and asked whether chicken parts were being dumped there.  Frank said that the landfill accepts garbage from 6 counties and it’s possible that poultry processing plant waste from other counties could be included.  He also said that there are processes available that can be used to convert garbage to diesel fuel (thermal depolymerization and catalytic depolymerization) and numerous other ways to reduce the amount and types of trash buried in landfills.

He also talked about “brownfields” grants that he has learned are available from the Environmental Protection Agency, to clean up old landfills and other industrial sites (gas stations, dump sites, etc.).  He is on a mailing list for that info now, and will forward anything he gets to Bob Cohee of Citizens for Clean Water, whose group has been actively monitoring the landfill situation for years.  BCFT has promised in the past to support their efforts; they have highly qualified people in their group and at the moment we defer to them in this matter.

Meeting was adjourned at 3:15 pm.  Next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, July 28, 2007, at 1:00 pm at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Hwy 5 North.  Special guest is scheduled to be Dr. Charles Scriber, Mountain Home School superintendent.

Suzan Kaye, Secretary
Sunday, July 22, 2007