When it comes to sharing his good news about the city, Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry didn’t mind his annual state of the city address coming a little later than usual.
Because of an illness that left Berry hospitalized for several weeks, the address to the public — which usually takes place in January or February — was finally delivered to open the city council’s regular meeting Monday, April 13.
“I really want to thank you all because this gives me a time to reflect … on what we’ve accomplished over the past year,” Berry said.
Berry thanked all city workers and the council for doing their part to help 2025 be successful.
“I really want to thank the public and our city workers and city council, because (without them) we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anywhere near what we have done this year,” Berry said.
“That’s what really makes this place special.”
Berry said 2025 was an overall “pretty good year.”
CITY FINANCES
Berry opened his list of topics by addressing city finances, which he said have improved.
“… That’s one of the important pieces we can judge on, how our city has done and how we’re going to do in the future,” the mayor said.
The city’s largest revenue source, sales tax, has increased by 6.42 percent since 2022, according to Berry.
“Which is nice growth,” he said. “It shows that our economy’s been healthy and doing well.
“We came through 2025 with a pretty strong financial increase in our collections by almost $100,000, which is a nice increase.”
Berry said the city has used 2022 as a baseline and reported that the city saw tax growth of 1.7 percent in 2023, 4 percent in 2024 and then 1.3 percent in 2025.
“We have several months that you can see the spikes in February, which is, you know that’s kind of when our season starts,” Berry said. “But then we also have May, September and October that generate a lot of the increase over the 2024 and the 2025 year.”
City department budgets have also fared well, the mayor said.
“The largest department results within the city are the fire, police, water and sewer and transit, and just looking at these four departments we can see that the police expense was 3 percent under budget, the fire expenses were 2 percent under budget, water and sewers were 14 percent under budget and transit expense was 19 percent under budget,” Berry said.
DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS
Berry shared updates from the various city services.
The police department had 19,786 calls in 2025, including 16,203 calls for service, 109 warrants served and an average response time of 1 minute, 3 seconds, the mayor reported.
Other highlights for ESPD during 2025 included expanding the department’s internet network to assist with investigating crimes against children, the establishment of a K-9 program and expanded capabilities through the addition of drone operations and updated SWAT technology, Berry said.
“They’ve strengthened the impaired driving enforcement through certification of an additional blood alcohol concentration supervisor, and implemented improved operational plans and measures for parades and large-scale events,” he said.
The fire department and EMS responded to 187 fire and rescue calls during 2025, an increase of 5.7 percent over 2024, Berry said.
“Their EMS volume, however, was down by 8 percent from 2024 with 1,628 calls,” he added.
The addition of a thermal drone and securing more than $40,000 in grants were other accomplishments during 2025.
Public works highlights included finalizing funding for repairs to Black Bass Dam and the addition of staff to help ease workloads, the council was told.
The transit department provided more than 128,000 rides covering nearly 177,000 miles in 2025, Berry said.
“The transit department received over $629,000 in federal funding from the Federal Transit Association, and the ride-share program continues to grow with over 5,000 rides given,” Berry said. “And Eureka now has its first electric tram that you may have seen ride around town.”
COMMISSIONS
Berry also discussed the various city commissions and projects accomplished during 2025.
The city advertising and promotion commission saw revenues increase 6 percent to $2,139,000 in 2025, the mayor reported.
“Food and beverage and liquor category represented 55 percent of the total collection, while the lodging represented the other 45 percent,” he said.
CAPC staff created and supervised nearly 100 events during 2025, Berry said, “providing advertising, public relations and assistance to another 150 events.”
The city’s Passport Parking program showed that vehicles from all 49 drivable states visited the city in 2025, Berry said.
“Obviously, Hawaii is one of the states that we haven’t had cars from, but we’ve had them from Alaska to Maine to New York, and a lot of California cars,” the mayor said.
The city’s park and recreation commission reported 25 goals met during the year, Berry said.
‘Of course, one of the biggest [accomplishments] if you’ve paid any attention when you’ve been downtown, is the monumental year for Basin Park, and this has been thanks in large part to the Banks Family Foundation,” Berry said. “They went in and completely redid the park, something that we’ve been looking forward to for many years.”
Along with the Banks foundation, work at the park included collaborative efforts of the CAPC, Eureka Springs Preservation Society, Eureka Springs Arts Council, the local DAR chapter, Main Street Eureka “and numerous other groups,” the mayor said.
Another big project was the renovations to the baseball field at Lake Leatherwood City Park, a project almost completely funded by private donations collected by members of the Eureka Springs High School baseball program, which once against plays home games at the facility.
The city’s historic district commission had ordinances passed regarding fencing and metal building guidelines, along with new rules regarding minimum lot size for single-family homes in the city’s R-1 designation, Berry said. “The HDC looked at over 257 design reviews [in 2025],” Berry said. “They had 186 applications that were reviewed by the staff and given administrative approval. The HDC updated and reprinted informational brochures for distribution to property owners and residents and they got a $4,000 certified local government grant to secure funds and to have an in-state conference training for the city staff and members of the historic district commission.”
Building and code enforcement officer Paul Sutherland issued more than 244 building permits in 2025, a 33 percent increase over 2024, Berry said.
“We had seven major commercial construction projects that were completed, 23 residential builds and remodel projects, and five projects that were initiated to include comprehensive sidewalk assessment and inventory of properties that need extensive repairs,” he said.
A tumultuous year for the city hospital commission calmed in the latter months, the mayor said, and included the July hiring of new CEO Tiffany Means.
“We had a lot of problems with it at the very beginning and we went through it with the city council and the hospital commission and I think we finally got to the point in February where the state confirmed that the hospital was in total compliance with the CMS regulations for the REH, which is Rural Emergency Hospital designation,” Berry said. “And that cleared the way to beginning an executive search and the new CEO, Tiffany Means, who was hired in July.”
Other positive things happened with the hospital in 2025, the mayor added.
“The Arkansas Department of Health recognized Eureka Springs Hospital with an award for quickly getting stroke patients to CT scans during the period of fall of 2024 through June of 2025.” he said. “Now, other hospital highlights include the major infrastructure upgrades of all technology and new HVAC, and tree cutting and clearing for life flight safety and FAA regulations. We have a new stemi lab and infusion suites that are transforming the old surgery area. We had the celebration of natural rural health care day with events in an open house. And then we also had the application that was submitted for the rural health transformation program which was submitted to Governor [Sarah] Sanders. We have new service lines that are being researched and are in development as well as an expansion of tele-health services with UAMS Institute for Digital Health Innovation. And then, of course, we had the new interim CFO, Doug Hoban, who was hired in December.”
ROUNDABOUT UPDATE
Berry’s address included an update on the long-awaited roundabout project set to transform the intersection of highways 62 and 23.
“ARDOT has released a 100 percent set of plans and we’re waiting now for ARDOT to purchase the new right-of-way, and once their purchases are complete, engineering will begin the process of acquiring easements and completing the water and sewer relocation design for the Arkansas Department of Health and ADEQ approval,” Berry said. “Once approved, this project to relocate our utilities will be put out for bid.”
Berry added that while funding for repairs to Black Bass Dam has been secured, the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission is awaiting completion of an environmental review before releasing the funds.
“This is something that’s been going on for 15 to 20 years, so I’m excited to see the end of this coming to fruition,” he said.
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