The regular meeting of the Hope Advertising and Tourist Promotion Commission. Members present (L-R) were Summer Powell, Parks Director and Secretary; Milko Smith; Steve Montgomery; Sharon Caldwell, Chair; Don Still, Mayor; Trevor Coffee and Charlton Luker.

Hope may be buying a synthetic ice-skating rink, which could be set up later this year for those wishing to let out their inner Nathan Chen.

Tuesday night, the regular meeting of the Hope Advertising and Tourist Promotion Commission took place at the Fair Park Community Center.  On the slate was talk about a chance to buy the rink, as well as discussion of overdue payments, purchases of new Christmas décor and, in the future, banners for downtown. The commission also approved a plan to start improving the lighting of a soccer field.

First approving the January meeting minutes, the commission discussed notifying five businesses of their being behind on paying the tourism tax. For the next item, having voted to purchase a Christmas Arch for $13,950 during a special zoom meeting last month, the commission was shown a picture of the arch from OutdoorDecor.com.

In the next item, Parks Director Summer Powell made the case that the city needed to order about 70 banners for downtown to commemorate the seasons. Right now the city only has banners for the Shop Hope campaign and Christmas. The banners would cost about $8,000 per set. The board took no action and Powell said she would come to the next regular meeting with more specific ideas of what the banners could say.

During talk about the next item, Powell requested the commission’s approval to contact City Engineer Jeremy Stone to draw up specs for changing the field’s lights from metal halide to LED at a projected $251,000 cost. “We’re about in the dark here,” she said, noting that over the past six months about 30 lights had gone off. The commission approved Powell’s proposal.

Finally, Powell described the opportunity for the city to purchase a used synthetic ice rink. Whereas new rinks of this sort cost $65,000 the city has a chance to buy one for $15,000 with an option to buy skates for an additional $5,000.  Discussion concerned the possibility of sharing ownership with the University of Arkansas-Hope Texarkana, which would want to use the rink on campus the first two weeks of December, what skaters might be charged and on whom liability would rest for mishaps.

The commission tabled the question of purchasing the rink to acquire more information.  This afternoon, a special meeting was called concerning the rink purchase, which would take place Thursday meeting by Zoom.

Commissioner Charlton Luker raised a question about the difficulties arising from city events being scheduled at the same time, citing the Mud Nationals taking place in the same weekend as the Hope Livestock Show. He said that when such events conflict, hotel rooms become scarce for participants and attendees.

The last item under discussion concerned possible placement of scrolling signs around the city to announce major events. No action was taken but the idea was thoroughly discussed as helping reduce the chances of conflicting events and increasing attendance.