Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers

Dan: With us is Mayor Ed House. Were you here 20 years ago?

Mayor House: No, Gail and I came here about 12 years ago.

D: And it was a smaller town then, wasn't it?

M: Apparently about 8 or 9 thousand, I think.

Bobbie: What did you do before you were "Mayor Ed"? The name is so familiar ...

M: Well, I was on the City Council for 6 years, and prior to that I was with probation and parole department of AR here in Mountain Home, and I retired from law enforcement. Moved here because we wanted to be here to - you know - get positioned to retire and just loved the area.

D: You didn't expect to go to work, did you?

M: Well, for a little bit, but, you know, I retired in '99 and here I am back working full time, so ... but I enjoy it very much. Love this town and this area.

D: Let's talk about the city. How is the city doing?

M: We're doing great. It's growing, it has grown, since I've known Mountain Home. Since back in the 60's and I had a place up to Lake of the Ozarks, I've watched it grow. But I came back here about '88 and it was just a tremendous growth. And Gail and I said, Oh, boy, we'd like to live here. So eventually we got that worked around, and sold out and came up here and got jobs and retired in '99. Back working, but this town just - it's a very manageable growth. It's a slow but constant growth. Seems kinda hectic here lately 'cause of Home Depot and the Wal-Mart expansion and everything that's coming in out there. All good businesses, good people, good growth, more tax money, we could do more and offer the people more. So we're real happy with all the new businesses out there. And actually, we issued 100 new licenses last year. And those licenses were spread out all over town, so it wasn't just that northeast quadrant.

D: We know commercial business is growing. What about residential building?

M: If you looked at the map, we're just about built out, as far as residential areas ...

D: Really?

B: So will they incorporate more area?

M: That's kind of a nasty word, because you gotta annex and people ...

B: They don't like that, do they?

M: No. But strangely enough, every month we annex little properties here and there, on the edge of town ...

B: And people don't realize that.

M: They want to come into the city for the city services. So we do those all year long. But the businesses outdistance new residents (residences?) 2 to 1. So most of the growth here is business.

B: Wow - that's amazing!

M: I've got some stats on that -

D: Let's hear about that.

M: In building inspection, new structures that were built was up to 194 from the year before, which was 171 new buildings. And the total building cost last year for those buildings was $29 million. We, as I said, issued 100 new business licenses and the clerk issued 978 occupations [occupation licenses] so roughly we've got 1000 businesses here. And 25 liquor licenses and 679 garage sale permits. So a lot of constant growth here. And of course, we've got a lot of nice new companies out there - Home Depot, and Chili's, and Goody's, and all those ...

B: Just added in the past year.

M: Yeah. And we've got more coming - there's a lot of things in the mill.

B: Are there some you can tell us about? Or not yet?

M: I'd have to kill you if I told you! [laughter] Companies come in and they talk to you, but until they walk in with the plans and buy the permit and the bulldozers show up, it's not a done deal.

B: Well, actually Baxter Healthcare was probably the first one of those large companies that came to Mountain Home ...

M: Oh, yeah -

B: ... and from there it's pretty much ...

M: And I believe that was back in the 70's. And they've been a real good company here, although they've downsized from something like 5000 down to 1100. They're still a good company - a lot of good people work out there.

D: What about the municipal side of it? You've got the police and your street departments ... are you adding more employees or are you having to do more work in that respect?

B: I would say any time they annex they would probably have to start looking at ...

M: Yeah, as your town grows and you spread out, then you're going to need more fire personnel and more police.

B: That was the question I almost asked a while ago, when you were talking about annexing, is the benefits to being annexed to the city would be that they have city utilities ...

M: Particularly water and sewer ...

B: That there will be a ... and the fire ratings, which lowers their insurance on their homeowners' plans.

M: A little better ... I say "better" - there's probably a few more police officers that will go by your house than if you're out in the county. The county police out there have to patrol many, many miles, square miles, out there, than city police. We've got 12 square miles ...

B: Well, the houses are farther apart.

M: ... and around 30 officers, so it's a little better security. I live in town because my wife and I want to be close to the hospital, to all the services. Generally older people want to live in town for that reason.

D: We appreciate you coming by. Is there anything that' s interesting or that you want to let the viewers know about that's coming down the pike that they should be thinking about? Hopefully, not more taxes, but ...

M: No. You know, we've got 175 employees, and of course water department, police, fire - and they just do a heck of a job every day. Our work's laid out - we lay it out each year and try to look ahead. We've got a fantastic group that do all the city services and we're just happy with what they do. They keep very busy and I've got 6 good directors, very competent, so everything [works? Can't make out the word]. My job's fairly (or very) easy.

B: Well, I'm hearing people are moving from West Coast to Central United States, and we're right in the middle.

M: A lot of people here from California - it's kind of crazy ...

B: Well, they've discovered they can sell their home out there ...

M: Exactly.

B: ... for 3 times what they can buy one here.

M: That's why we've got so many banks here. They're bringing a lot of money here.

B: That's right.

M: But recently we're having a lot of people from Florida. I guess they're just kind of tired of that down there. And we're glad to have them!

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for a transcription of the entire interview