Without a city clerk or two of its members, the Eureka Springs City Council moved quickly through a light agenda on Monday, Nov. 10.

A handful of items were tabled, but the council did begin initial discussions in what could lead to a 1 percent sales tax aimed at letting tourists help in paying for water infrastructure needs.

A possible sales tax proposal would have to go before voters — likely in the 2026 November General Election — and, if passed, would likely alleviate the need for future water rate hikes and the need for the current Infrastructure and Improvement fee on monthly bills.

A committee put together by Mayor Butch Berry to discuss potential options to help fund water projects has been meeting and recently decided that a 1 percent sales tax was the best option, according to city finance director Michael Akins.

“We met last week and discussed kind of what our options were, and what the water committee has come up with is that going forward probably the only and best resolution for raising revenue for the water department is through a sales tax,” Akins said. “The water committee is recommending a 1 percent sales tax, and so we’re making that recommendation to the city council. Then you can discuss it from there and put it on your agendas to be talked about how we go about that.”

A 1 percent sales tax would cover a bond of about $16.5 million, Akins said.

“Of which, the water department would get about $16.3 million,” he said. “It would be an annual debt service of about $1.3 million a year. That tax is expected to bring in somewhere around $1.6, 1.7 million a year is what we’d get annually.”

That amount would cover the debt with a little bit left over, the finance director said.

“That would still go against the bond because it would be a dedicated sales tax that would only be specifically for the water department,” Akins said. “It would be specifically to pay off this debt.”

Once the debt is paid off, the sales tax would go away, Akins said, and Berry added that if the tax passed, it would also do away with the I&I fee on monthly bills.

While getting the sales tax on the ballot for a special election or for the primary election in March is possible, council members agreed that it should be aimed for next November’s general election to give city officials enough time to fully educate the community.

“Really, the time frame to try and do the early election is really not feasible because we won’t have the plan fleshed out as far as how we want to be able to tell the community everything that we can prior to the vote,” council member Terry McClung said.

Council member Harry Meyer agreed.

“I know a lot of residents don’t like special elections, because we have to pay for it,” Meyer said.

Education is important, Berry said, noting that it’s vital to get the word out that a sales tax would allow tourists to help fund the city’s infrastructure needs — not just residents with rate increases and extra fees.

“We really want to be, as noted, not only transparent, but we want to educate the public,” Berry said. “We’ve gone through this sales tax at one time, and there was a lot of misconception over the sales tax, and that’s ultimately why we ended up with the I&I, even though we said at that time the I&I fund is going to hit the residents as opposed to the visitors. The sales tax, as we all know, the majority of us eat out, and I’m just speaking for myself, but maybe, and I am going to say on the average, eat out 25 percent of the time, which is probably a lot. The average [resident] probably only eats out 10 percent of the time. So, that tax is only going to hit them 10 percent at a time.

“And most of us, again, most of us don’t stay in motels or hotels. We do pay our sales tax, but again, it’s a minor amount compared to what the visitors come in and spend. So it’s a visitor- oriented tax as opposed to the resident-oriented tax and we need to be able to make that clear to our locals and the residents because they’re the ones who are going to be voting on this. We want to make sure that we educate them to all the positive aspects of it.”

NO CLERK

After Berry told the council that city clerk treasurer Ida Meyer would not be at the meeting, McClung asked if they should have a discussion on the issue.

“Do we need to have a discussion about the city clerk?” McClung asked.

Berry responded: “Oh, we can. I don’t know what we can talk about, but we can talk about it.”

Harry Meyer, Ida’s dad, chimed in, saying, “the city clerk is ill. She’s been ill.”

“OK, I think if she’s ill, she said she was sick today, so she’s not going to be here,” Berry said.

Harry Meyer responded: “She’s been sick for a while, and she’s been quiet about it, but she said she was going to discuss it with me soon …” McClung asked if someone needed to help with some of the clerk’s daily duties in Ida Meyer’s absence.

“She’s way behind on things, and so she either needs some help or something,” McClung said. “So, we need to figure something out to get caught up to speed.”

Berry said Ida Meyer needed to have input on that topic.

“Well, I agree,” Mc-Clung said.

“That’s the reason, at this point in time, I think we need to hold off until we get her to participate,” the mayor said.

The topic was tabled until the next meeting.

In addition to Ida Meyer’s absence, council members Susane Gruning and David Avanzino also missed the meeting.

PUBLIC WORKS UPDATE In the regular public works update, the council was told that the city recently painted the hospital parking lot and is in the process of filling potholes around the city.

The spillway at Black Bass Lake was also cleaned out, removing trees and debris from recent storms.

In addition, sidewalk work is being done on South Main Street in front of the historical museum to help with drainage, and Christmas lights are being installed around downtown.

FENCE, METAL BUILDING ORDINANCES The council approved the second and third readings of an ordinance establishing fence regulations in the city for non-historic district properties.

The ordinance establishes fence regulations, providing for permitting material and design requirements, including setback and visibility standards.

McClung asked Berry if there had been any calls from residents on the issue. When the mayor said he has not gotten any feedback on the issue, a motion was made to approve the final two readings.

The council then approved the third and final reading of a metal building ordinance for commercial properties.

The ordinance updates zoning permissions, facade requirements and material standards.

NYE ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT The council also unanimously approved a resolution for a temporary entertainment district downtown for the annual New Year’s Eve festivities.

As is required, the district was OK’d by the police chief, fire chief and public works.

MEETING DATES UNCHANGED

At least for now, the final three council meetings of the year remain as scheduled.

In some years, the council chooses to have single meetings in November and December because of the holidays, but council members said that because of issues that need to be addressed, the regularly scheduled second meeting this month, set for Monday, Nov. 24, will take place.

The council will then meet on Monday, Dec. 8, and will decide at a later date whether the final meeting of the year, set for Monday, Dec. 22, will happen.

SURPLUS VEHICLES

The council authorized the parks department to place some surplus vehicles up for auction.

“This is for a dump truck that’s in pretty bad shape, another truck that has a utility bed on it .. and the last one is a box truck …,” Akins told council members.