Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Chamber reflects on year’s worth of accomplishments
Leaders recognize medical, military, education milestones at meeting
FORT SMITH — Area business leaders looked back at a year’s worth of accomplishments and how they’ll benefit the River Valley in the future at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce 2022 annual meeting Tuesday at the Fort Smith Convention Center.
Curtis Ralston, vice president of operations at Mercy Clinic Fort Smith and past chairman of the chamber’s board, said one accomplishment is the $162 million expansion of Mercy’s emergency department and intensive care unit.
Mercy broke ground on the project in February to expand the emergency room from 29 to 50 rooms and the intensive care unit from 38 to 64 beds, which will allow the hospital to care for an estimated 25,000 additional patients each year.
He said in addition to Mercy, Fort Smith is also home to Baptist Health-Fort Smith and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Community-Based Outpatient Clinic.
The Veterans Affairs clinic held a ribbon cutting for its new location in April at 5500 Phoenix Ave., which is about 15,000 square feet bigger than the 1500 Dodson Ave. clinic and is projected to serve roughly 10,000 veterans in the River Valley.
Ralston recognized area schools, including the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education and the Peak Innovation Center. He said the college welcomed its first occupational therapy class in January, renovated the Research Institute, Health and Wellness Center and created a Celebration Garden and Wellness Park.
The Peak Innovation Center is a collaboration between the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and Fort Smith School District. In March, it welcomed its first 280 student, who are from 22 school districts across Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Scott and Sebastian counties.
The center houses courses for automation and robotics, computer integrated machining, electronics technology and industrial maintenance, emergency medical responders, medical office assistants, network engineering and unmanned aerial systems. It’s the last of the School District’s Vision 2023 plan projects to be
completed, which were paid for through a 5.558-mill property tax increase voters approved in May 2018 that generated roughly $121 million before expiring.
Ralston also spoke of Ebbing Air National Guard Base, noting it’s one of the largest employers in the region with more than 1,000 service men and women, and provides an economic impact of more than $450 million per year.
“That hard work does not go unnoticed, even though they do it quietly,” Ralston said.
He said after years of work, Ebbing was chosen as the preferred location for the Foreign Military Sales Pilot Training Center program, with roughly 500 people gathering at the Convention Center for the Economic Impact Statement meeting in September to show support for the project.
He said the Air Force wants to have a pilot training center for Singapore and other countries participating in the Foreign Military Sales program. The proposal would accommodate up to 24 foreign Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II aircraft and move 12 General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons from the Singapore Air Force, currently at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Ariz.
John Simmons, founder and managing partner of The Roosevelt Group in Washington, D.C., and speaker for the chamber meeting said he’s spent over 30 years working on issues related to military installations in communities, noting the service members and their families bring jobs, skills and leadership to those communities. He said in turn, they benefit from partnerships with people, businesses and community organizations that live and work nearby, such as chambers of commerce.
The program allows the United States government to provide defense equipment and services to foreign countries, when doing so will more enhance the security of the United States and promote peace and stability across the globe, Simmons said.
Simmons said the final economic impact study is expected to be finalized in early spring of 2023, with a record of decision officially signed by the Air Force in late spring.
The chamber meeting’s theme of celebrating the future of Fort Smith appropriately captures the optimism and excitement of a community poised for huge amounts of growth and opportunity, he said.
“From where I sit, the future of Fort Smith is looking great,” he said. “This community has worked hard and earned the right to celebrate, so congratulations.”
Monica Brich may be reached by email at mbrich@nwaonline.com.