The City Advertising Tourist Promotion Commission (CATPC) met Thursday morning for the regular monthly meeting before going into their retreat-planning session to plan for 2026.
Explore Harrison Executive Director Matt Bell updated the commission on the delinquent restaurants' tax payments to the CATPC.
Bell has plans to update the notification process. At 90 days, the owners get a registered letter from the city attorney informing them of their delinquency, and their failure to comply could result in the revocation of their business license and termination of city-provided services. “They tend to get caught up when this letter is received, but many immediately become delinquent again. I will address this with our city attorney very soon to keep them compliant for more than one month,” Bell said.
The businesses that are on the automatically generated report for August are 6 Sisters, Beef-A-Roo, Buffalo BBQ, Central/Shipley Donuts, Domino’s, Fat Rolls Food Truck, Good Guys, Jameson’s Pizza, Joey D’s, Los Aztecas, Moxie Food Truck, T-s BBQ, The Oasis, and Townhouse Cafe.
Beef-A-Roo, Central/Shipley Donuts, Good Guys, Jameson’s Pizza, Joey D’s, and Los Atecas are also late on July taxes collected.
Bell was very pleased with hotel occupancy numbers for August. “We were up 13.57%. It’s good to see our hotels rebounding. September numbers already exceed what they collected in 2024, and October looks significant.”
Bell reminded the commission that the Days Inn closed as a motel in May, and there was a 26% drop. “The growth in Green Forest is helping our hotels. Tyson’s expansion and the Windmill project are booking extended stay rooms for their staff members. We are paying attention to construction and projects around our area and want to offer them extended stay rates to bring more companies our way.”