Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 8/1/23
The Fort Smith Board of Directors held 8-1-23 and led by Vice Mayor Rego in the absence of Mayor McGill began with unanimous votes (with very little discussion) to approve two zoning changes at Chaffee Crossing. First, the Board approved a zoning change for 53.98 undeveloped acres at 8603-9001 Chad Colley Boulevard, 9201-9599 Massard, and 9600-9700 Custer Boulevard to allow for the building of a multi-use development made up of single family homes, townhouses, multi-family residential, small office suites, and 2 detention ponds. Then they approved a zoning change for 12201 and 12211 Ward Avenue to allow for the existing buildings to be used as hotels or duplexes.
The Board will discussed an amendment to the recently approved rules on fowl that would allow for owners of 5 or more acres who would like to keep more than the maximum allowable 20 chickens to go through the Planning Commission public hearing process to obtain a conditional use permit to have more chickens.
Director Martin motioned to amend the proposed amendment further to allow for grandfathering in existing properties over 5 acres that already have more than 20 chickens so that they would not have to go through the conditional use permit process to keep doing what they are already doing. Planning Director Rice clarified that there are only 170 parcels of property in the city that are over 5 acres (only .005% of the land in the city). She said that she currently isn’t away of anyone with over 20 chickens on 5 acres. Director Martin said that he knows of 2 specifically. Director Morton asked how many chickens those two have currently. Director Martin answered that they probably have about 50. Director Settle questioned how the grandfathering would work and how the Planning Commission would know who is and isn’t grandfathered in. Director Morton suggested that people who want to be grandfathered (by a deadline of September 30th) could fill out a form or send a letter to the Planning Commission including information including how many chickens they have and anyone who doesn’t get grandfathered by submitting the form would still be able to/have to go through the conditional use process. Morton suggested that the ability to file the form and be grandfathered in could be advertised via utility bill inserts. Administrator Geffken metioned that utility bill inserts are costly at about $10,000. Rice suggested that instead, in additional to social media and govdelivery, Planning could send letters out directly to the property owners of the 170 parcels over 5 acres.
Director George Catsavis invited Fort Smith resident Russ Bragg who has worked in the chicken industry for 35 years with OK Foods to speak on the chicken issue. Bragg said that very large numbers of chickens fall under entirely different regulations, so what applies to large operations is very different than what would apply to back yard chicken owners and hobby farmers. He called the 20 chicken maximum “more than generous”. Regarding the recently passed rules and the proposed amendment regarding 5+ acre owners, Bragg said “I like what I’ve heard.” and said that the City is “on the right track using the Planning Commission.”
Director Good expressed opposition to the proposed changes to the ordinance saying with Fort Smith’s growth “I wanna focus on where we’re gonna be in the future”.
Director Christina Catsavis asked how many complaints about chickens on over 5 acres have been received. Rice answered that there has been one in the last 10 years.
Director Martin changed his motion for the amendment to include Morton’s suggestion. So the Board voted on the amendment to the originally proposed change that existing chicken owners in excess of 20 birds on 5+ acres could be grandfathered in if they filed a letter with the Planning Commission by a deadline requesting to be grandfathered and detailing how many chickens they currently have. The amendment passed with Directors Settle and Good voting against it and all others voting in favor. Then the Board voted on the measure as amended, to allow owners of 5+ acres to go through the Planning Commission procedure to obtain a conditional use permit to have more than 20 birds and that current 5+ acre owners with more than 20 birds currently can be grandfathered in if they file a letter with the Planning Commission by the deadline. The measure passed with Director Good voting against it and all others voting in favor.
At the request of the Property Owners Appeal Board, the Board voted unanimously to add a requirement for members of the Property Owners Appeal Board that they must own property in Fort Smith themselves. This new rule will not affect current members of the Property Owners Appeal Board, but will apply to any new appointees in the future.
The Board voted unanimously to accept a bid from All Service Electric for $579,452 for the purchase of replacement traffic signals and poles at the intersections of North 6th and North A and North 6th and North B. Director Martin asked Engineering Director Stan Snodgrass whether the price for the project is in line with other similar signal projects. Snodgrass responded that it is “typical”. Geffken said that it is “in line” and added that the signal at 46th and Phoenix installed 3 years ago cost $250,000 even then.
Director Morton inquired why the signals need replaced. Snodgrass answered that they are 34 years old and that they try to replace signals around every 20-30 years because of “fatigue issues” with the poles and issues with age in the wiring.
The Board voted unanimously to accept a bid from Wastequip Pacific for $126,426.52 for the purchase of 19 roll-off dumpsters.
In a more general discussion about the landfill sparked by the talk of dumpsters, Solid Waste Director Riley spoke about the amount of the waste going to the landfill “increasing significantly” recently. She also mentioned that the landfill has been approached by third party waste carriers from Washington and Benton counties that may be soon seeking to use the Fort Smith landfill because the landfill in Washington County is going to run out of room in about 5 years and therefore is seeking to limit their intake. If the landfill here were to receive that Washington county garbage, the intake at our landfill would “jump significantly”. Director Settle praised Fort Smith having a good landfill and water supply and said “Let’s don’t waste those resources so other cities can grow.” Director Good expressed his agreement with Director Settle. He also asked if we are charging residents for roll-offs and when the last time was that rates for third party garbage haulers were looked at. Riley clarified that residents do pay to rent the roll-offs and Geffken clarified that the third party rates were discussed in 2019. Director Good said that even with third party haulers charge appropriately “We have to preserve what we have” and “plan for ourselves”. Director Morton said that he does “agree generally” that the city must “preserve our assets for ourselves.”. He suggested considering additional revenue from the third party haulers and thinking about putting aside money from that to close cells and build new cells as well as to pay the workers at the landfill more. Geffken said that the landfill currently is estimated to have about 100 years worth of capacity and called that capacity “not something to squander” and called the landfill “a major jewel”. He suggested that out-of-county haulers could be charged a higher non-Sebastian county rate.
Director George Catsavis asked if the City collects the trash from the Air Base and the Airport and the medical college. Riley answered that they do.
The Board voted unanimously without discussion to purchase 2 replacement one ton GMC Sierra crew cab long bed pickup trucks for the Fire Department from Harry Robinson GMC for a total of $133,268.
The Board voted unanimously without discussion to purchase cybersecurity equipment from Heartland Business Systems for a total of $249,677.51 with $114,506,63 to be paid this year and the remainder to be paid next year.
The Board voted unanimously without discussion to accept the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant for the Police Department. The total grant amount will be $79,203 with $23,760.90 to be awarded to the Fort Smith Police Department and the remainder to be awarded to Sebastian County.
During the Officials Forum section of the meeting Director Morton asked to receive an update soon on the planned Old Greenwood dog park. He expressed a desire to move forward quickly with that project. He mentioned that with the recent rains the land that is planned to be used for the Chaffee dogpark project flooded badly. Geffken agreed that the flooding was bad and said that a different location needs to be found for that second planned new dog park.
Director Morton also reminded the audience of the county sales tax renewal at the same rate to be voted on by the public on August 8th. Director Christina Catsavis added that early voting on that election is already being held at the courthouse. If the tax is renewed, the County intends to allocate their portion of the revenues with 54.5% going to the Sebastian County detention center, 11% to the capital projects, 9% to the juvenile detention center, 9% to the Sheriff’s Department, 7% to county employee healthcare and worker’s compensation, 5% to rural volunteer fire departments, 2% to county EMS, 1% to senior citizen centers, 1% to county parks, and .5% to the Scott-Sebastian County public library. If the tax is renewed, the City of Fort Smith intends to continue to allocate their portion of the revenues with 76% going to public safety, 14% to other city services including general administration and operations, 6% to the public library, 2.5% to parks, and 1.5% to senior citizen services.
Director George Catsavis requested a time table on the request for the FCRA to donate the Deer Trails Golf Course to the City. He said that development of properties to the north and south adjacent to the course is being held up waiting on the decision that would assure that it will remain a golf course. Geffken said that at this point it is up to the FCRA but that it appears most of the FCRA board members are in favor of making the donation. Director George Catsavis asked about whether the City would be required to pay FCRA’s Daniel Mann’s 2% commission on the value of the land donated and Catsavis and the rest of the Board expressed a desire to not pay on the donation. There was a concurrence that there would be no money owed or paid on the donation as it would be a donation rather than a sale.
Director Christina Catsavis mentioned that Fort Smith missed out on hosting a recent US Marshals convention, even though there was interest from the Marshals in coming here because of the new Marshals Museum, because of the high cost of airfare at our airport. Director Christina Catsavis expressed her desire to prioritize getting more flights for our airport. She mentioned trying to attract some of the lower cost airlines that have direct flights to popular destinations. Geffken said that work is being done on the issue and the at the focus is mainly on expanding services from American Airlines and possibly attracting a budget carrier along the lines of Breeze or Allegiant. He said that “Delta is probably not coming back any time soon.” Director Morton mentioned that XNA often has lower fares and direct flights and suggested that until we get our problem solved here that we might make sure that potential conventions know about XNA. Geffken called XNA a bit of a “chicken and the egg” problem, that with XNA’s proximity and lower fares and direct flights many Fort Smith residents use XNA instead of Fort Smith Regional Airport and that lower utilization contributes to less flights offered and higher fares for the Fort Smith airport.
