Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 11/15/22
The Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting held 11-15-22 in the absence of Director Rego and with Director Dawson attending remotely started with a vote to send delinquent property cleanup liens to the Sebastian County Tax Collector.
Rhonda Royal, a resident who is in charge of a family owned property, spoke about the clean up lien on her property. She had been going through a serious personal issue that caused the maintenance to fall behind. She said that according to the City the cleanups were supposed to be to deal with limbs and a couch and that she contacted sanitation as instructed to have the items picked up and after they were successfully removed she was still charged for a cleanup for some other limbs in another area at the back of the property. She expressed frustration at the “principle of the matter” as she “did exactly as I was asked to do” and at the Property Appeal Board meeting they reduced the cost “but it’s still not right”. Director Good attended the Property Appeal Board meeting where Royal’s matter was discussed and agreed that the situation was exactly as she described. Good criticized the Property Appeal Board’s “almost heartless” treatment of Royal and their lack of compassion for her personal problem. He said “we should drop this fee.” Director Martin chimed in in agreement.
Director Morton asked for confirmation that the city is able to collect about 50% of the delinquent clean up charges through collections and that the rest remain as liens on the properties so if they are ever sold the money will be collected then. City Clerk Gard confirmed that that is correct.
Director Settle noted seeing some of the same names on the delinquent list every year and asked if the city is sometimes more invested in clean up than the value of the property itself. Administrator Geffken mentioned that there are options of buying property or creating a land bank. Gard mentioned that there is forthcoming legislation at the state level concerning delinquent property liens. Neighborhood Services’s Shawn Gard said that the delinquents, especially the repeat ones, are mostly out-of-state property owners. He said that the City has increased the amount of cases that they are dealing with in District Court by 60-70% this year. He said that they are “seeing more progress through the District Court” and voiced his excitement for new City Prosecutor Rita Watkins giving the City “more teeth in District Court” soon.
The Board voted unanimously to approve the liens except for the complete removal of Royal’s charge.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of a change to the municipal code section pertaining to “care of premises” that would add tents and camping accessories to the list of things that are outlawed for outdoor storage including inoperable vehicles, furniture, tires, rubbish, etc. This change was proposed in response to the increased number of complaints about homeless people living in tents on vacant lots on both public land and private property without the consent of the owners. Under current codes, tents are not classified as habitable dwellings. Building Safety Director Jimmy Deer said that they could only ask people to not have tents up but with the new ordinance wording the City would now have a “bit more pull to help get them to take it down” including the ability to even take them to District Court if necessary. Director Martin called the change a “good move” and said it would have a “long term strategic effect on how we’re addressing the homeless population”.
The Board voted on entering a $1,827,533 contract for the engineering for Phase 5 of the water transmission line project that will run a 48 inch water line from Lake Fort Smith. This issue was tabled at the October 18 meeting to allow for further consideration and to make some changes to the plans originally proposed at that time. The new plan includes a change to the re-routing near Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) that will use the existing right-of-way to minimize the impact on Phoenix Metals and Chaffee Cottages and will include additional studies on that part of the project including its environmental impacts.
Fort Smith resident Jeff Holmes spoke asking the Board to remove task 4 that reroutes the line around ACHE and tasks 6-8 that are caused by task 4. He said he is “not really seeing why this needs to be rerouted”. He criticized the “roughly 5 million” in spending for the benefit of one property, ACHE.
Geffken said that the original planned path before the ACHE reroute did not have proper easements and in addition to harming ACHE would also harm other upcoming economic development projects that he was not yet at liberty to disclose. He said “we would have to spend a million more on eminent domain and legal fees” to not reroute in that area. He said that the City negotiated with ACHE and with home builder in that area Bennie Westphal and that though the reroute comes with an additional cost “this is the best course of action possible.”
Utilites Director McAvoy added that the previous plan using the Frontier easement was not appropriate because the Frontier easement is too narrow for the 48 inch transmission line. The Frontier easement will still be used in the new plan, but for a 24 inch high pressure line that will allow for the money-saving decommission of a pump station.
Director Morton asked for confirmation that the approval would not trigger Act 605 water rate study/increase requirements. McAvoy confirmed that it would not because it is only for the design phase at this time, not the construction, and will come in well below the 20% of revenue Act 605 threshold.
Director Settle supported the project calling it a “big step in the future of our city”.
The Board voted to approve the contract with all voting in favor except for Morton abstaining from voting because he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for ACHE.
The Board voted unanimously to approve the 5 year capital improvement plans for the Parks, Police, Fire, and Solid Waste departments and the Streets equipment and Sidewalks. These plans were presented and discussed at the October 11, 2022 study session meeting.
Director Morton criticized that the $5.5 million for the Creekmore bath house seemed too high and said “We have got to figure out a way for that to not cost five and a half million dollars”. Director Martin pointed out that the Board had requested that Parks expedite the bath house project but that he didn’t see a change in the plan proposed. Parks Director Reinert said that they are moving it along but that they are doing the evaluation phase right now, then will move in to design, then the procurement process, then demolition, then construction.
Director Morton asked about coordination with partners like the county and colleges for funding for trails. Director Reinert confirmed that there are partnerships. Director Settle asked if all of the trails to be built in 2023 are connected to a grant or funds from a partner. Reinert confirmed that all of them are attached to grants or partnership money. Geffken added that the city is finding additional partners for the Chaffed dog park and that those partnerships will potentially cause that park to cost only 1/3 of the half million dollars originally planned.
The Board voted unanimously to approve the Transit Asset Management 5 year plan also presented and discussed at the October 11 meeting detailing the condition of all of the Transit assets including vehicles and buildings and plans for their eventual replacement. This Transit Asset Management 5 year plan must be submitted to the federal government annually in order to qualify for federal funding.
The Board voted unanimously to enter a contract with Riggs Caterpillar for $91,334.89 for repairs on a Caterpillar D8T bulldozer for the landfill.
The Board voted unanimously to enter $3,659,334.50 contract with Vortex Lining Systems for installation of cured in place pipe lining for Carnall outfall storm sewer line repairs. Engineering Director Snodgrass said the repairs to the 100 year old line that is causing sink holes are “significantly cheaper” than replacing it by “10-12 times more magnitude” and said cured in place pipe is a “common means of doing this”.
In the Officials Forum section of the meeting, Director Catsavis asked the Board to consider doing away with the quarterly Ward Meetings. Citing low attendance he said “I don’t know if this is actually worth it.” Director Martin said he would “like to do something different with it”. He said the current format is “not really going to where the people are”.
Director Martin brought up the complaints he’s received from citizens angry about damages to their landscaping and homes caused by independent contractors hired by AT&T to install fiber internet. He said of the fiber internet itself “this is progress”, but expressed concern about the property damages and desire to find a recourse for the affected property owners. Director Morton added that the fiber project started in Fianna Hills and that at first when there were issues like the tunnels dug by AT&T buckling the road that AT&T was good about fixing the issues but said “lately they’ve gotten very resistant”. He mentioned one homeowner he’d heard from that the contractor ran the fiber in her sewer pipes in a way that caused $11,000 in damages to her house that have still not been addressed by AT&T or the contractor.
Geffken suggested they invite the state level External Legislative Affairs person to attend a study session on the matter. Director Morton said that he’d already spoken to him and that he just sent the complaint to Little Rock and “washed his hands of it”. Director Settle suggested that the Board contact the State Legislators and urge them to give cities control over internet franchises rather than having those franchises be a state level matter. Director Martin agreed that might be a good idea for the future but that there needed to be an action to help immediately. Director Catsavis asked if there was no way to stop them since their franchise gives them use of the easements. City Attorney Canfield said the City can exercise control in the manner in which they do their work and that those who are affected can have recourse from the contractors but said “somebody needs to get innovative on how to get the attention of these people”. A representative from AT&T involved in hiring the independent contractors will be invited to a future study session on the matter.
In the Executive Session, Directors Martin and Morton and Ed Ralston were all re-appointed to the Audit Advisory Committee and Evan Fleming and David Edwards were re-appointed to the Building Board of Adjustments and Appeals.
In a special study session immediately following the regular business meeting, the Board discussed the 5 year capital improvement plans for Streets Drainage and Bridges. This issue was discussed at the October 11 meeting and was scheduled to be discussed again following changes in response to that discussion. The changes from the original plan include pushing back the planned Kelley Highway to Riverfront Drive extension to not begin until 2025, increased funding for the flooded residence buyout program and for Maybranch drainage projects, and increasing the percentage of revenues allocated for to street overlays to 50% of the estimated expected revenues. Street overlay projects that were added to the plan include Phoenix from Towson to Jenny Lind, Old Greenwood from Cliff Drive to Phoenix, and Albert Pike from Kelley Highway to Virginia Avenue. The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority has been contacted about cost sharing on the resurfacing of Veterans Avenue. Fort Smith Public Schools has been contacted about cost sharing on the drainage project near the Peak Innovation Center. The plan will be up for a vote at the 12-1-22 meeting.
The water and wastewater ten year capital improvement plans were discussed. Utilities Director McAvoy expressed that the plans were made “to be realistic with funds we have” for the year. He said “there are no wants” in the plan “everything in here is a need”. He mentioned that the water tank maintenance project that has been on every capital improvement plan since 2017 is yet again pushed back to 2026 in response to lack of funds. McAvoy said that the Lee Creek transmission line project for next year is in the process of rebidding because the initial bid was too high but the project cost will be reimbursed 100%. He said that there is a grant for the Frog Bayou system that will extend the life of the water supply by not allowing the lake to fill with sediment. American Rescue Plan funds are being applied for for $2 million, leaving the City only responsible for $5 million of the project to remove the galvanized pipes that are causing the most leaks.
Director Morton expressed his view that there needs to be a water rate increase. He suggested a system of gradual increases and leaving the lower tiers alone and focusing on raising the price on the upper tiers. He said we “need to be responsible looking at water rates”. Director Martin said he sees a “wide gap between what we need to do and what we’re spending”. Director McAvoy suggested that a rate study could be conducted. So long as the City does not submit the results of the rate study to the ANRC, just uses them for their own purposes, it will not trigger the mandatory rate increases required by Act 605. A rate study will have to be submitted by 2026, but the Board can have one done for their own use without consequence at any time prior to that. Director Settle said that he expects a “lot of push back” on Act 605 by legislators at their upcoming session. Director Morton suggested that a rate study could be done by March and that by then it would be known what the legislature was going to do about Act 605.
The Water and Wastewater capital improvement plans will be up for a vote at the 12-1-22 meeting.
