Agenda Highlights 3/26/24

At the Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting to be held 3-26-24, the Board will vote on whether to approve the new needs requests portion of the 2024 budget including City employee raises and adding an additional 2% to City employee retirement contributions (bringing the total contribution to 7% of the employee’s salary). The new pay rates would include a 25% increase in pay for the low grade positions. The reason that is being suggested is to help fill chronic vacancies in the Utility, Streets, Solid Waste, and Parks departments. The total cost of all of these new needs budget items would be $6,078,279.

The Board will vote on whether to purchase the former site of Crain Kia at 8200 Highway 71 South for a total of $2.85 million. The location would serve as a second police precinct, police cadet training facility, and centralized city vehicle maintenance facility. The property at 4500 Burrough Road that was recently purchased with the intention of using it for a second police precinct would instead become home to a consolidated 911 call center.

The Board will vote on whether to contract with Make My Move for $224, 175 for a remote worker recruitment program.

The Board will vote on a measure to use federal grant money from the opioid lawsuit settlement to fund hiring of 2 additional officers for the Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Unit and 2 additional peer counselors for the unit.

The Board will vote on a change that would allow for the required taxi cab inspections to be performed by any licensed auto mechanic in Fort Smith. Currently, the requirement is that the inspection be performed by a mechanic on the City’s official list of approved mechanics, but there has been so little interest in performing the inspections that there is currently only one approved mechanic performing the inspections (and there have been accusations that that one has not been performing them thoroughly).

The Board will vote on setting a guaranteed maximum price of $6,052,752.98 for a new bath house and diving well enclosure at the Creekmore Park swimming pool.

The Board will vote on a contract with Crawford Construction Company for $5,083,072.50 for realignment and capacity improvements to 1,300 ft of sewer main that will remedy a sewer overflow problem. The realignment would include moving the pipe from underneath the Boy Scout building and ball field, installing 7 manholes, and eliminating 3 manholes on the ball field. Crawford Construction was the only bidder for this project.

The Board will vote on approval of the property and building at 1801 South 74th that has been home to Bost reverting back to City ownership. The property adjacent to Carol Ann Cross Park was previously owned by the City but in 1966 it was deeded to Bost with the requirement that it would revert back to City ownership if it were to ever cease to be used for a facility for the “training and education of limited persons”. Bost plans to stop using the facility in July 2024.

The Board will vote on a 5 year lease renewal to Sebastian Retired Citizens Association for the Fort Smith Senior Activity Center at 2700 Cavanaugh.

The Board will vote on a contract with Royal Ridge Construction for $1,834,263 for drainage improvements on Hardscrabble way, Dallas Street, and Glen Flora Way.

The Board will vote on contracts for design and engineering services for 7 streets projects totaling 12.9 miles of street overlays and a stormwater drainage project for the 188th and the airport. The total amount for the design and engineering for all 8 of the projects would be $1,382,697.

The Board will vote on a contract with Crawford Construction Company for $399,743 for Creekmore Park for the replacement of the interior sidewalks and mitigation of pooling stormwater.

The Board will vote on a contract with Steve Beam Construction for $1,264.762.10 (with $750,000 of that cost to be paid through grants instead of through City funds) for Phase 1A of the Maybranch Greenway. Phase 1A includes .7 miles of 10 ft wide concrete trail from North 7th to North P traveling to MLK Park and terminating at North Greenwood Avenue. It will include a high intensity activated crosswalk signal at the crossing of North P and Midland and a flashing beacon signal at the crossing of North P and North 13th. Those two signals amount to $290,000 of the cost of the project.

The Board will vote on a contract with Crawford Construction Company for $257,797 for a 54 ft tunnel for the miniature train at Creekmore park. The tunnel will also serve as storage for the train cars when the train is not in operation.

The Board will vote on the purchase of 4 used unmarked vehicles (a Buick Encore, Nissan Altima, and 2 Ford Escapes) for the Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Department from Randall Ford for a total of $85,000.

The Board will vote on the purchase of 3 marked Dodge Charger police cars from Superior Auto Siloam Springs. The combined price of the cars themselves would be $110,505 and there would be an additional cost of $108,792.83 for the upfitting and equipment for the cars bringing the grand total of the purchase to $219,297.83.