Agenda Highlights 8/15/23
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting scheduled for 8-15-23, the Board will vote on whether to contract with Mammoth Sports Construction for the creation of a master plan for a baseball stadium complex to be built on Riverfront Drive. The total cost of the master plan will be $150,000, but the owner of the property Bennie Westphal, will be paying half of the cost and the City will pay the remaining half for a total final cost to the City of $75,000.
The Board will vote on whether or not to buy out 5 residential properties that have repeatedly flooded but the cost to the City to purchase them would be less than the cost to fix the drainage issue that would prevent the flooding. 820 Hillside Drive will cost $227,000, 824 Hillside Drive will cost $184,000, 1317 Gary will cost $253,000, 1321 Gary will cost $187,000, and 1323 Gary will cost $145,000 for a total cost of $996,000.
The Board will vote on contracting with Hawkins Weir Engineering for $194,580 for the engineering of the Reach 1 phase of the Maybranch drainage improvement project.
The Board will vote on whether or not to enter negotiations with private property owners on 2 parcels of land near the airport that may be desired for economic development or for airport expansion related to the Foreign Military Sales program coming to the Ebbing Air National Guard Base. The vote at the 8-15-23 meeting will be only on whether to enter into negotiations with the property owners, any purchase would have to come back to the Board for a vote at a later date.
The Board will vote on a contract with Mickle Griffin for $189,016 for engineering for a roundabout at the intersection of Free Ferry and Albert Pike. The roundabout was suggested by the recent traffic safety study as a way to reduce accidents at that location that has been the site of a high rate of accidents.
The Board will vote on whether to accept a bid from Township Builders for $2,594,347 for replacing 1500 ft of existing earthen drainage channel with a U-shaped concrete channel running between Briarcliff to Grinnell near the Harvest Time Church.
The Board will vote on whether to purchase 21 automated license plate reader cameras from Flock Safety. The readers would be placed at locations determined by crime data and can read license plates and gather identifying descriptions of vehicles but will not capture images of people. Some uses the Police Department mentioned for the system would be to identify vehicles involved in crimes and missing persons and Amber Alert cases. Several other cities in Arkansas including Van Buren, Barling, Greenwood, and Little Rock already use the same system. The system would cost $69,650 for the first year and then $65,500 for each year after that. State asset forfeiture funds would be used for the initial $69,650 for the first year to install the cameras and initiate the program, but the City would be responsible for the $65,500 per year in future years.
The Board will vote on the purchase of 5 Dodge Chargers and 4 Tahoe SUVs for the Police Department. The entire purchase of all 9 vehicles and the police equipment upgrades would be a total of $565,632.57.
