CAPC launches website dedicated to Auditorium

Convincing promoters that The Auditorium is an ideal place for a concert or event is now a whole lot easier for the staff of the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission.

The recent addition of a website devoted solely to The Aud, esaud.org, fills a longtime need, CAPC director Mike Maloney told commissioners during their monthly meeting Wednesday, March 25.

“We’ve been using this as a tool with promoters, and when I talk to a promoter now, all I’ve got to do is say, ‘Look at our website and see what our place looks like,’ ” Maloney told commissioners.

Spearheaded by the behind-the-scenes work of Katelyn Jerrell, the CAPC’s marketing and communications coordinator, both the main website, visiteurekasprings.com and esaud.org have recently been updated with various tools to continue to help promote the city and offer more resources to collectors, Maloney said.

The Aud’s new site offers a list of upcoming and past events, links to purchase tickets and an extensive photo gallery showing historic shows that have happened in the venue.

“There’s just an amazing amount of photography from The Auditorium,” Maloney said of the website. “… Now, we’re starting to load stuff about every other day just because of the amount of activity that we have.”

FINANCIAL REPORT

CAPC collections were higher in February than budgeted, finance director Ty Reed told commissioners.

“We have $1,470,000 in the bank as of February 28,” Reed said.

The commission collected $94,000 in February, approximately $5,000 more than budgeted, commissioners were told.

“Year-to-date actual is $218,000 with a total income of $199,000,” Reed said. “Total income for February was $116,000 with a budget of $110,000.”

The year-to-date total income was $245,000 with a budget of $225,000, Reed added. 

Expenses were also lower than budgeted.

“For February, expenses were $180,000 with a budget of $196,000,” he said. “Year-to-date expenses are at $460,000 with a budget of $505,000. That leaves us at a net loss of $64,000  with a budget of a net loss of $85,000. Year-to-date net loss was $214,000 with a budget of net loss $279,000.”

One of the CAPC’s largest expenses of the year, its payment to Madden Media, was paid in January, commissioners were told.

In January — which was reported to include recent delinquent collections that have now been received — the CAPC earned $39,000 in lodging. That number is higher than the $35,000 brought in during January in 2025 and the $37,000 collected in 2024, Reed said.

For food and beverage collections in January, the CAPC collected $46,000, which was approximately the same amount as during the same month in 2025, but higher than the $39,000 during January 2024, commissioners were told.

Efforts — including some that have led to legal filings — have been somewhat successful in recent weeks in collecting past-due taxes from a list of undisclosed businesses, Reed explained.

“There are some past dues for January and I’m expecting that number to get to about $50,000 at some point when we get those collected,” he said.

Commissioners were encouraged by the CAPC’s efforts to do what’s necessary to hold past-due businesses accountable, they said.

“I applaud the commission for wanting to be aggressive with these things,” Maloney said. “It’s not an easy decision to make these calls [to delinquent businesses]. I get on the telephone and I call people and ask what the problem is, and at some point you just have to go ahead and make the case through the court system to do this. It’s a hard part of tourism, actually. Part of your job is to promote, but not necessarily to be the bad guys.

“We have to do that in the interest of the city. So, we do.”

KUDOS TO QUORUM COURT SPEAKERS

Maloney thanked those who spoke during the March 17 meeting of the Carroll County Quorum Court, urging the reopening of the county clerk’s office in the Western District Courthouse.

“I want to thank all the people in our community that went to the Carroll County Quorum Court meeting … in Berryville to show their support for our industry, the wedding industry,” Maloney said. “I think it was very effective, and I want to really call out two people in particular that work for the city that made such great statements.

“One is Jerry King, who is our HR director for the city, and the other Michael Akins, our finance director for the city, who shared not the emotional or passionate side but really the reality of what is expected of a situation like this in closing an office and actually doing something that may not be correct. And I don’t know how many people were there,  standing room only, and I think Eureka Springs was heard, and I think that it shows when the public comes, the public has an opportunity to voice their opinions and give their suggestions and so forth. That was an important day for Eureka Springs, and we’re very happy with the outcome.”