Hot Springs voters will decide Sunday alcohol sales question Nov. 3

Hot Springs voters will decide this November whether grocery stores, convenience stores and liquor stores can sell alcohol on Sundays, after the Board of Directors voted unanimously Tuesday night to place the question on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.

The election wasn’t the board’s idea — it was forced by citizen petition. Under Arkansas law, cities can only allow Sunday off-premise alcohol sales through a voter-approved referendum, and a petition filed with the city clerk on Aug. 5 cleared the required threshold of 1,953 signatures — 15% of the 13,020 Hot Springs voters who cast ballots for governor in the last general election. City Clerk Harmony Morrissey ultimately certified 1,957 signatures to the Garland County Clerk’s office and the county election commission.

City Attorney Brian Albright told directors the vote was “purely ministerial” — the board had no legal choice but to call the election once the petition qualified. That point mattered to District 4 Director Dudley Webb III, who questioned why the item was before the board at all, saying it could look “like a measure to have us show favorability for this particular ballot initiative when, in my opinion, we should remain neutral and allow the people to vote their mind without any input from the city.” Albright assured him the board was doing the petitioners no favors, and that refusing to call the election would open the city to a mandamus lawsuit. “Your vote to put it on the ballot is certainly not a vote in favor of the measure,” Albright said. “If you’re against the measure, then you vote no at the polls.”

Director Karen Garcia compared the board’s role to the attorney general certifying statewide ballot measures — a procedural step, not an endorsement. Only Hot Springs city residents will vote on the question, though as a “belt and suspenders” precaution, the ordinance also asks the Garland County Quorum Court to call the election, mirroring the process other Arkansas cities followed. Webb also asked who pays to put the measure on the ballot; the answer is the city’s general fund, with staff estimating a general-election share typically runs a few thousand dollars, split among the entities on the ballot.

The lone speaker from the public was Tyler Draper, chairperson of Keep Our Dollars in Hot Springs, the ballot question committee behind the petition. Draper said the committee is registered with the state Ethics Commission and has reported roughly $35,000 in donations from Walmart along with support from across the city.

“We already have Sunday alcohol sales in the city — you just have to go drive, drink there, and then try to get back home,” Draper said, referring to on-premise sales at bars and restaurants, which Hot Springs already allows on Sundays. He argued the change would help a tourism town where visitors from Texas and Tennessee “get blindsided at the store on Sundays because their states already do this,” and said the group deliberately targeted the general election rather than the primary to maximize turnout. “Let’s put it to the people, and they’ll decide.”

If voters approve the measure, Sunday off-premise sales would be allowed between 10 a.m. and midnight at businesses already holding a valid alcohol license, and the board would then amend city code to match. If voters reject it, Sunday carry-out sales remain prohibited. The Garland County Election Commission must certify the ballot language by Aug. 24.

Hot Springs would join a growing list of Arkansas cities that have made the change at the ballot box — Fayetteville voters approved Sunday sales with 82% support in November 2024, and Rogers, Bentonville and Springdale have all passed similar referenda. Albright said he knows of no Arkansas city where the question made the ballot and failed. Draper said if the city measure succeeds, a countywide attempt could follow.

The roll call was 6-0 — Garcia, Trusty, Beard, Dobbs-Smith, Webb and Mayor Pat McCabe all voting aye, with District 1 Director Erin Holliday absent. “The ordinance is adopted, and the item will be put forward to the voters,” McCabe said.

Police drone program takes a step forward — over one ‘no’ vote

The board voted 5-1 to authorize the Hot Springs Police Department to file for and accept a $200,000 federal microgrant to launch what would be Central Arkansas’s first “Drone as a First Responder” program. Director Phyllis Beard cast the lone no vote, without comment. District 1 Director Erin Holliday was absent.

Police Chief Chris Chapmond told directors the grant — from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services FY26 Microgrants Program — is fully funded with zero match from the city, and would fundamentally change how the department uses drones. HSPD has flown drones since 2022, but Chapmond described the current program as reactive: units assigned to SWAT, CID and patrol that go up only after officers are already on scene.

“Imagine a helicopter on standby at the PD, fully wound up, ready to go — a 911 call goes in and that helicopter responds immediately,” Chapmond said. “That’s what this drone program is.”

The DFR drone would be stationed at the police department and tied directly to the dispatch center’s computer-aided dispatch system. When a 911 call comes in, the caller’s GPS coordinates can be sent to the drone automatically — sometimes before officers are even dispatched by radio. Flying at 45 to 47 mph with a roughly seven-mile range, the drone can reach anywhere in the city from the station, and Chapmond said drones in similar programs arrive in a minute to a minute and a half — well ahead of the department’s roughly three-minute average response time. Live high-definition video streams back to dispatchers, the department’s new Real-Time Crime Center and responding officers.

“If there’s a guy hiding behind a car with a shotgun, we’re able to see that with a drone before those officers step out of those units,” Chapmond said. He also cited search and rescue, crowd management at events like the St. Patrick’s Day parade, thermal imaging for fires, and storm damage assessment ahead of road-clearing crews as potential uses.

Anticipating surveillance concerns, Chapmond spent part of his presentation on what the program is not. Deployments would be incident-driven only — “it’s not just up there randomly turning corners in the sky looking down to see what’s going on” — with no facial recognition or biometric tracking, purging of non-criminal footage, and a public webpage tracking the number and type of deployments, plus monthly reporting.

Citing data from Chula Vista, California, and other cities running DFR programs since around 2017, Chapmond said departments have seen an average 20% reduction in calls requiring an officer response, because the drone’s video lets dispatchers cancel unneeded units — or slow a response down when, for example, a reported disturbance turns out to be a mental health crisis with no weapon involved.

Directors’ questions were largely practical. Director Karen Garcia asked whether the drone could deploy when the department’s crime analysts — one full-time, one part-time, primarily day shift — aren’t working; Chapmond said dispatchers “own the drone” around the clock and can hand control to an FAA-licensed pilot on each shift. Director Dudley Webb III pressed for data showing safety benefits for officers, victims and suspects, and Director Steve Trusty asked whether launches are automatic; Chapmond said the technology allows it, “but more than likely we’re going to be pushing that button.”

Chapmond added that U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton and U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman have all written letters of support for the grant application. If the program proves itself, he said, the department would eventually seek a second drone stationed in the southwest part of the city. No members of the public signed up to speak on the item.

No watering restrictions here — and the city says its new plant is why

While cities across Arkansas impose even/odd watering days or outright moratoriums on lawn watering and car washing amid the ongoing heat, Hot Springs has no conservation measures in place, voluntary or mandatory — and City Manager Bill Burrough told the board the city’s new water treatment plant is the reason.

“As of July 31st, had we not had this new plant, we would have been back where we were in 2012, where we would see tanks falling quicker than we can fill them up,” Burrough said. “The only thing different today than 2012 is we have a lot more users on the system… You just can’t depend on weather on whether you can provide water on a peak day to your customers.” He credited current and prior boards for “having the wherewithal to build this new plant — and it is paying off.”

The heat has kept the Community Resource Center busy too. The cooling shelter at 109 Hobson Ave., normally open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, is now opening on weekends when temperatures top 100 — 63 people used it on a recent Saturday and 48 more on Aug. 16, with access to showers, laundry and lunch. It will be open again this weekend, Aug. 22-23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Burrough’s report also covered, in quick succession: a citywide burn ban now in effect, rescinding all previously issued burn permits until conditions improve (“we’re going to have to have quite a bit of rain”); two new fire apparatus — a $2.3 million ladder truck now housed at Central Station on Broadway and an $800,000 pumper for the Park Avenue station, both previously on the city’s unfunded capital projects list; a free Junior Grizzlies basketball clinic for ages 6-14, hosted by Parks and Recreation with the Memphis Grizzlies and National Park College, Sunday, Sept. 6, 10-11 a.m. at the college; the sixth annual Kicking the Stigma kickball tournament — law enforcement and first responders vs. recovery teams — Saturday, Aug. 29, starting at 9 a.m. at Majestic Park, 105 W. Belding; and a roughly 1,300-square-foot, four-lane outdoor batting cage facility in the works at Kimery Park, first come, first served, which the city hopes to have built by year’s end.

The board’s next regular meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 1 in the Board Chambers at City Hall.