Agenda Highlights 1/9/24
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting scheduled for 1-9-24, the Board will discuss making payments to 4 owners and 1 tenant of properties on Edinburgh Drive that had damages to personal property when the houses were flooded in the July 14, 2023 storm. 3 of the 5 properties involved have already been bought by the City through the flood buyout program.
City Attorney Canfield says that the City is currently not liable for damages to the properties because the damages were not a result of negligence and that current policy does have not a provision to allow for the payments. But for the Board’s consideration, Canfield has submitted an amended version to the Limited Torts Claim Policy that would allow for the City to take liability and make payments. The policy currently allows the City to take liability and make payments for damages due to water line breaks, sanitary sewer backups, manhole damages to vehicles, and fallen trees in City rights of way that are caused by negligence by the City. The change to the policy to be discussed at the meeting would add wording to include damages caused by flash flooding caused by delay of drainage improvements by the City.
Insurance Consultant Merry agrees with Canfield that the City is not liable for damages and they were not a result of negligence. Merry also will be providing the Board with information regarding flood insurance. He says that all property owners can choose to buy flood insurance (it is typically a separate insurance policy from their regular homeowners policy).
The Board will discuss the fee required to be paid by people whose building is within 300 feet of a sewer line without having to cross someone else’s property that opt to have a septic system instead of connecting to the sewer. Currently, there are 119 customers who pay that Sewer Availability Fee. The fee is 75% of the rate the property would have paid had they been connected to the sewer and all the previous payments a property owner has already been made can be applied to the City fees for connecting to the sewer system if/when they do connect to it (and any fees already paid to the City by the property owner that are more than the total fees for connecting into the sewer will be repaid to the property owner). State Law requires buildings within 300 ft of a sewer line without crossing someone else’s property to be connected to that sewer, but the City offers paying the Sewer Availability Fee as an alternative to immediate compliance with that law. When a septic system fails, the building will then be required to hook up to the sewer. The Board will discuss discontinuing the fee and requiring everyone within 300 ft of the sewer line without having to cross someone else’s property to connect to the sewer line by the end of 2024.
The Board will discuss parking issues on Fairway Hamlet Court. A resident of the neighborhood has requested No Parking signs to be installed there. Since March 2021, the Police Department has received 30 complaints about illegal parking there, all from one resident. All of those complaints were investigated and 5 of them were found to have merit and those 5 were all resolved using existing parking laws. There have been 3 accidents involving parked vehicles being hit there since 2005. The Police Department has canvassed the neighborhood and spoke with residents twice and reports that the overwhelming majority reported no issue with parking and did not want the signs to be installed. The Police report no safety issues there and that the traffic can move freely. They do not recommend the signs be installed.
The Streets Department does not see a safety concern there and does not recommend installing the signs. The Fire Department says that fire apparatus is not hindered by the parking situation there. The Solid Waste Department says that the slowing of garbage collection there due to parked vehicles is no different than any other residential street.
