Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Study Session Meeting 10/12/21

The Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting held 1—12-21 was mostly focused on the presentations from several department heads of their 5 or 10 year Capital Improvement Plans. Director Dawson was absent and Director Catsavis attended only about the first hour of the meeting. Due to the length of the meeting the Utility and Solid Waste department presentations that were on the agenda were instead rescheduled for another study session at a later date.

The top expense for 2022 discussed in the Fire portion was the replacement of Ladder Truck #1. It is needing replaced after a shorter than average life span because it’s been a heavily utilized busy truck resulting in heavy wear. A couple of projects for further in the future were discussed. One was a 2023 plan for a new joint Police and Fire training center. Director Catsavis mentioned interest in this facility including an indoor firing range to replace the use of the range that we’re currently renting from the County. Police Chief Baker took note of that and said it will be considered for inclusion. In the 2024 plans a new fire station is mentioned. Fire Chief Christensen explained that Station #12 is not currently necessary, but the future need for another station, probably behind Casey’s on Hwy. 71, to serve the extreme south side of town is definitely predicted. Christensen also mentioned the potential to someday replace Stations #2 and #3 with a new combined station near MLK Park to provide the same coverage, manpower, and equipment with less operating cost.

The most discussed aspects of Engineering Department Director Stan Snodgrass’s presentation pertained to drainage projects. Maybranch drainage was a big part of the night’s meeting overall. The question was raised by Director Rego whether the planned $350,000 for a study related to Maybranch drainage was the best use of funds. Director Rego even asked in terms of actually making things better for the citizens if “we might be better off spending that $350,000 on sand bags” for the residents instead of the study. There was a lot of similar focus from several members of the Board on responding to citizen concerns about flooding and drainage and how to best solve their problems. Mayor McGill asked “When can we expect something to happen?”. Administrator Geffken pointed out that a lot of the answer to that would depend on Army Corps of Engineers and State funding. Snodgrass mentioned that the very soonest he could forsee real help for residents, even with an influx of federal funds, would be 1 1/2 - 2 years. The project that really needs done would cost an estimated 100 million dollars, so even with federal funds, the strategy he feels might be best would actually be to use federal funds to buy out the approximately 20 properties most effected. At a public meeting held recently to discuss the possibility of buy outs, the property owners’ response was mixed.

The Board brought up some other possible solutions. Director Good asked about additional pumps and also questioned the feasibility of putting a half-block size retention pond on a city owned property. Snodgrass acknowledged that while that would technically help, the scale of the problem is too big to really be dealt with effectively and affordably that way. That would mean buying MANY houses to build retention basins. Director Settle mentioned the idea of possibly turning an entire road into a huge open channel storm drain (as Director Morton clarified, a bit like the Los Angeles River). Snodgrass mentioned that the solution proposed by the Corp of Engineers, while not a repurposed former street, is an open channel design not entirely dissimilar to that idea. But he expressed that that solution might also be comparably extremely expensive, like it could run in the $65-100 million range,too.

Director Martin questioned some of the choices for street overlays and expressed a preference for more focusing on busy major thoroughfares and less on residential neighborhood streets.

Administrator Geffken shared that after the contributions from the State, when the planned Towson Avenue improvements are completed (including the utility work), it will cost the city a grand total of $11 million and result in Towson being a city road instead of a state one and having proper curbs, sidewalks, and proper drainage.

Parks Director Rheinert presented on parks. Maybranch Trail was the 2022 project that received the most enthusiasm from the board. Administrator Geffken clarified that the Mobility Coordinator job position that had previously been discussed had not panned out and that that would actually be shifting to go through another entity not the city afterall. Also, the canopy trail project that had been discussed recently was not included in the Capital Improvement Plans because it will not be going through parks afterall and is not up for consideration anymore unless there is new funding (possibly through renewal of the tax for parks set to sunset in October 2022) . Mayor McGill expressed how important he feels parks are in keeping Fort Smith competitive for growth and attracting and retaining employees and investment in jobs. “Amenities, Amenities, Amenities!” he said.

Streets and Traffic Control Director Matt Meeker and Billy Butler presented on streets and traffic Capital Improvement Plans. It was pointed out that through careful spending, accruals, and a strong income from the gasoline sales tax, that their department has a very healthy budget with room for a bit of a “wishlist”. One of the planned items mentioned is a transportation management center to receive real time traffic data and software to facilitate quick response to changing traffic patterns and update signal timing patterns.

Director Morton suggested they keep adding sidewalks all the way up Rogers Avenue in mind as a potential future project.

There is a plan for 2022 to purchase 2 new leaf vaccum trailers. In addition to solving troubles like clogged drains and leaf filled ditches and roadways, this will enable the city to offer a new service. Residents can just throw their leaves out into the streets and have them sucked up by the city.

A new milling machine will allow the city to perform more difficult road repairs and to save money by making repairs that will extend the life of streets before they need an overlay.