The City of Ozark plans to reallocate $1 million of sales tax money annually, to fund a new public safety facility for the city’s police department.
The Ozark Board of Aldermen decided the resolution this week. It will redirect funds from the ¼ cent Capital Improvement Sales tax, to pay for the debt necessary to finance the new building, which has an estimated cost of $17 million and a potential loan term of 30 years.
In a written explanation to the Board, City Administrator Eric Johnson described the current 6,000 square foot police department building as “woefully inadequate.” He says a new properly sized facility would be between 25 and 35 thousand square feet.
Johnson said the tax currently generates $1.2 million annually.
During discussion of the proposal Alderman Jean Ann Hutchinson said it was obvious the city needs a new public safety facility but questioned the use of these funds which had previously been used to match capital improvement grants and pay for a variety of capital projects across the city, including trails and road and sidewalk improvements. She suggested this could lead to differed maintenance and shared a personal story.
“Just this week," Hutchinson said, “I was on my front porch. There was an eight- or nine-year-old girl, and she was in a new wheelchair, and she was coming down the sidewalk. When she got to the sidewalk in front of my house, I’m not saying mine is worse than anyone else’s, I’m not, but it’s buckled and she was afraid to go on it and she rolled out into the street to go around it because she could not get down the sidewalk.”
Aldermen Chris Aiken agreed a new building is necessary but was also unsure about the use of these funds.
Aiken explained “I look at whether there’s anything resembling a public mandate for this, what amounts to a really significant reallocation of our limited resources.”
He cited city surveys and a successful 2017 transportation sales tax levy, which he said indicates the public wants more money spent on infrastructure.
Ozark voters voted down a proposed public safety tax in 2022, which would have funded a new police headquarters.
The reallocation passed 4-2. Aiken and Hutchinson were the lone nay votes.