CAVE SPRINGS — The city rarely used to make the news. People preferred it that way.
Cave Springs can promote itself as the second-fastest growing city in Northwest Arkansas, right behind Tontitown. More than 3,800 people called this city home last year, compared with a little more than 1,900 in 2010, according to the latest U.S. census figures.
Residents don’t mind that kind of attention. Ask them about a new subdivision or office space or Sonic Drive-In coming to town, and their faces light up.
Asking about the city government prompts a different sort of reaction.
A September squabble between Mayor Travis Lee and Recorder-Treasurer Kimberly Hutcheson has spiraled into a lawsuit accusing Lee and the City Council of not letting Hutcheson do her job. An audit led Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith to request an investigation from the Arkansas State Police. Barry Moehring, the county judge of Benton County, told the city to return $242,000 in property taxes to residents because of a filing error.
Lyn Lindley started working at the E-Z Mart about a half-mile south of City Hall last summer and has heard talk from customers about the city’s financial woes nearly every day since. About half the people express disdain for the mayor, City Council or government as a whole, she said. About a quarter give them the benefit of the doubt. The rest don’t seem to know or care much.
A group of gentlemen likes to sit at the plastic booths next to the window, sip coffee or soda and discuss the latest drama, Lindley said. The talk remains civil, although it’s hard to miss, she said. The group’s members don’t hide their feelings.
“There’ll be someone who might come over and join them, and they’ll have a different opinion, and they discuss it,” Lindley said. “It’s all been pretty calm. They might raise a voice a little bit or something.”
Heather Coughlin moved to Cave Springs three years ago from Scottsdale, Ariz., a city of more than 246,000 people. She had never lived in a small town before and said she still feels fairly new to Cave Springs’ internal politics.
“It doesn’t appear so far, at least from what’s been published from the audit, that there was criminal intent,” she said. “I don’t really think that. I think it’s just confusion over what’s appropriate — what’s the appropriate role of Cave Springs government, how should it be run, who’s responsible for what. It’s almost like there’s not a standard operating procedure.”
Coughlin said the city’s rapid growth hasn’t been accompanied by basic improvements such as new asphalt on streets or a fixed community building. For her, it raises the question: Where is the money going?
“It definitely doesn’t look good,” she said.
Residents will have the option to donate their refunded property taxes back to the city. Coughlin said she’d consider it if city officials clearly outline a path to accommodate growth and manage the budget responsibly. If they don’t do that to Coughlin’s satisfaction, then she would rather keep her money, she said.
“Some of it seems intuitive,” Coughlin said. “Anybody who has been within an organization knows you have a budget and you stick with your budget, particularly when you’re with a government institution.”
Tim Nelson, owner of Nelson’s Hardware on Main Street just south of City Hall, has lived his entire life in Cave Springs and remembers when it ran smoothly under Mayor Larry Smith. Nelson supported Lee when he was elected mayor in 2014. Now Nelson feels disappointed, saying the city is in a financial bind.
“It’s always easy to spend somebody else’s money,” he said. “And that’s what’s happened.”
Nelson wishes the city would get back on course. There are plenty of great things about Cave Springs, he said. The Illinois River Watershed Sanctuary sits right outside his shop, for example. Residents wish that was the sort of thing they’d hear about on the local news.
“They don’t want to read the paper every day and say, ‘Oh, there’s Cave Springs again,’” Nelson said. “It just breaks your heart.”