Agenda Highlights 2/1/22
The Fort Smith Board of Directors agenda for the meeting scheduled for 2-1-22 has 3 zoning issues. While the first issue concerning the Next Step Homeless Services appeal of the Planning Commission denial of their request for a zoning change that would allow for building a homeless facility including 30 tiny-house style transitional housing units at 1400 South U is still officially on the agenda and could be voted on, it is most extremely likely that instead it will actually be immediately tabled and rescheduled for a vote at the 2-15-22 meeting. At the 1-25-22 study session the Board took an unofficial poll that indicated they would be tabling the issue at the 2-1-22 meeting and putting the issue off until the 2-15-22 meeting instead to allow for more time to consider some of the responses from the study session and most especially to consider the change in plans that in response to public concerns Next Step has decided to not open the day shelter that was included in the original plan and instead focus on just the transitional housing aspect.
The second zoning issue is a vote on whether to rezone 823 North 9th Street from commercial to residential to allow for the sale of an existing single family home structure on the property.
The third zoning issue is vote on a zoning change for 2425 Zero Street that would allow for Wal-Mart as part of their remodel of the store at that location to install an automatic dispenser tower for pick-up order merchandise.
The Board will vote whether to approve hiring a Crime and Intelligence Analyst at a cost of $75,000 dollars. Previously the duties of this position were handled by an embedded analyst included in the service package of Lexis-Nexis but Lexis-Nexis is no longer offering the embedded analyst service so the Police Department would like to hire an in-house one.
The Board will vote whether to approve using Govdeals.com to auction surplus city property online ranging from small items like furniture and office equipment to large higher ticket items like vehicles and heavy equipment.
The Board will vote whether to approve a bid for purchasing gasoline and diesel fuel from Frost Oil Company.
Because mistakes were made in uploading the bids for potential vendors for sand, concrete, aggregates,and asphalt products that resulted in the wrong vendors being selected and approved at the 12-14-21 Board meeting, the Board will vote again to accept bids from the correct providers based on the correct bid information. The bids recommended for acceptance are from APAC-Central, Mid-Continent Concrete, and River Valley Quarries.
