The Mountain Home City Council voted Thursday night to put $50,000 towards establishing a drive-thru holiday light display this winter. The money will be pulled from the city’s unallocated carryover reserves and will not have an impact on the 2021 budget.
The city will team up with Arkansas State University-Mountain Home for the project, which has also received $30,000 in support from the Mountain Home Advertising and Promotion Commission. A&P funds are generated from the collection of a 2% sales tax on all Mountain Home hotel and motel receipts.
Mayor Hillrey Adams said the project now has a bankroll of about $100,000 following the city’s contribution.
Adams said he envisioned the city’s light display attracting visitors from across the state. In addition to paying an admission to drive through the light display, visitors would likely take in a meal while in the area and possibly refill their gas tanks, adding more money to the local economy.
A similar holiday light display at Batesville, dubbed “White River Wonderland,” saw 60,000 cars paying $10 per carload drive through that display last December. That display returns every year and is fully self-sufficient, using the money generated from one year’s admissions to fund the following year’s display.
A proposal presented to the A&P Commission in May detailed a professional lighting company decorating the entire ASUMH campus for the event. Speaking to the City Council Thursday night, Adams said the plan was now to scale the project back to the drive in front of the Vada Sheid Community Development Center and the plaza in front of Roller Hall.
The smaller-scale display would be built by a combination of city workers, ASUMH employees and volunteers under the direction of a local electrician.
Adams says the display can still impress visitors with a do-it-yourself approach.
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The mayor talks about the kind of lights he wants to use in the display.
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Adams says purchasing that many lights this close to the holidays might be an issue.
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The Mountain Home display could theoretically open the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and remain up through the first week in January.
Sponsorships would be available for area businesses to sponsor sections of the display.
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