Departments’ improvement plans get look
Fort Smith’s directors talk about 5- to 10-year projects
FORT SMITH —City directors are looking to see what capital improvements departments plan for the next five to 10 years, as well as how to pay for them.
The directors held a study session Tuesday to discuss the engineering, parks, police, fire and streets departments and their capital improvement needs. They agreed to discuss the utilities department at a later time because of the sewer consent decree and nonconsent decree work needed in the next 10 years.
POLICE
The Police Department expects to have additional money in the next five years, as voters recently reallocated a 0.75% sales tax to be split between the department and sewer consent decree work.
Police Chief Danny Baker said the plan for the money is a nearly 24% salary increase across the department, with the exception of the chief position, and adding five officer positions per year starting in 2028. He said the goal is to hire and retain officers, as the rate will match the new Arkansas State Police salary scale of $50,000 a year for an entry level officer position.
Based on the rate and increased salary level, the current entry level officer salary is roughly $38,065.
Baker said the raises are expected to cost $2.3 million annually.
Baker said other significant expenses that may be wholly or partially paid for by the sales tax include the addition of software and/or nonsworn personnel to help review body camera footage, purchasing a ShotSpotter or similar product to locate gunshots in the city and reduce violent crime, increasing use of video surveillance and technology in high crime areas and maintenance for the main police headquarters at 100 S. 10th St. He said he’s also anticipated an annual lease for a new precinct on the east side of the city to cost $300,000 per year, starting in 2024.
“I’m planning not to implement any of the big ticket items, the raises that I talked about, until the beginning of 2024. I’d like to see us collect that sales tax for one year,
actually see what it comes in at,” Baker clarified.
Baker said the department is expecting sales tax collection around $3.5 million initially, then increasing in subsequent years.
FIRE
The Fire Department has benefited from a 0.25% sales tax split with the Parks Department for the past 10 years. Because of that, Fire Chief Phil Christensen said his plan for the department in the next five years isn’t much different.
Christensen said the department collects an average of $3.35 million, roughly $2.7 million of which is used for Station No. 11 personnel and operations. He said remaining money is used to replace vehicles.
The department’s apparatus replacement program includes buying a new pumper in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2027, which is estimated to cost $662,000 in the first year and increase roughly 3% annually. The department plans to buy a new ladder in 2026, which is expected to cost $1.2 million.
The five-year plan also includes $750,000 for a maintenance and $10.8 million for a combined Fire and Police department training center. Current emergency vehicle technicians are located at Station No 5, working on vehicles outside in averse weather because modern vehicles outgrew the apparatus bay.
The combined training facility would be at the current Fire Training Facility at 5901 Commerce Road, and current fire classroom training is held at Station No. 1 or Station No. 11.
“With a training center classroom located on premises of our training facility, academic to practical handson training would be streamlined, resulting in better consistency of training evaluations,” the plan says.
Christensen said this plan should help the department maintain its Insurance Service Office class one certification in the public protection classification program, which Fort Smith has held since 2016.
The ISO evaluates fire prevention programs, emergency communications and dispatch, which affects homeowners’ insurance and business insurance in a city. Class one is the highest certification a community can receive.
PARKS
The Parks Department has also benefited from the 0.25% sales tax for the past decade.
Projects in its five-year plan include walking trail improvements, pool and bath house improvements, a basketball court, tennis court resurfacing and building an inclusive playground and amenities at Creekmore Park; building dog parks at Chaffee Crossing and Old Greenwood Road; outdoor restroom improvements at Woodlawn Park, Kelley Park ballfields, Tilles Park and Spradling Park; expanding Parrot Island Water Park; general improvements to Carol Ann Cross Park, Martin Luther King Jr. Park and Tilles Park; and creating Maybranch Trail to connect Riverfront Drive to Creekmore Park.
The estimated cost for these projects is $3.168 million in 2022, $9.291 million in 2023, $3.957 million in 2024, $3.405 million in 2025, $3.155 million in 2026 and $3.055 million in 2027.
Parks Director Doug Reinert said the department expects to generate roughly $3.5 million per year from the sales tax collection.
At-large Director Kevin Settle asked if the Maybranch Trail is necessary right now and whether it can be spread out so the department could use that money on playgrounds instead.
“Creekmore pool is going to be busier and busier as we get more people in the city, and if we want to have quality tournaments and quality swim meets, we need to do something with the bath house and with the pools. I’d rather do that and delay a trail, because there’s tons of trails in the city,” Settle said.
Reinert said the trail is part of a $750,000 grant from the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership through the National Parks service to build phase one. He said phase one will go from Riverfront Drive to Martin Luther King Jr. Park, with phase two connecting to Creekmore Park and phase three connecting to the Kelley ball fields.
City Administrator Carl Geffken said the board has an opportunity to approve allocating sales tax collection from October through December to help pay for the Creekmore Pool project, as well as discuss what improvements they want to see done there.
ENGINEERING
Proposed five-year capital improvements for the Engineering Department include improving 10.7 miles of roads; improving drainage in neighborhoods; modifying traffic and the truck routes downtown; improving signals at the Free Ferry Road and Albert Pike Avenue, Massard Road and Dallas Street, and Rogers Avenue and 10th Street intersections; extending Kelley Highway to Riverfront Drive; upgrading drainage, replacing curb and guttering, pavement improvements and sidewalk installation on Towson Avenue from Garrison Avenue to Zero Street; reconstructing Geren Road to a three-lane intersection between Arkansas 45 and 58th Street; widening Arkansas 45 between Arkansas 255 and U.S. 71; evaluating and mitigating flooding at May Branch; extending Leigh Avenue from Cliff Drive toward Southside High School; realigning Airport Boulevard to provide better access for the Arkansas Air Guard; and widening Massard Road to I-49.
The estimated cost for these projects is about $45 million in 2023, $31 million in 2024, $44 million in 2025, $31 million in 2026 and $27 million in 2027.
At-large Director Neal Martin questioned whether the board is prioritizing enough money toward improving streets, or if it should shift money to heavy traffic areas.
“That’s my theory, start heavy, and then work out to these other ones,” Martin said. “I think we would see a lot less issues, we would hear about a lot less issues. We’re still going to have potholes here and there and people complaining, but when I’m driving 30 to 45 mph, it’s much more jarring and damaging than when I’m driving 20 mph through a neighborhood.”
Stan Snodgrass, the city’s Engineering Department director, said the Street Department tries to spend within 40-50% of anticipated sales tax revenue to improving streets.
Ward 3 Director Lavon Morton said Chaffee Crossing should be asked to help pay for a portion of the projects in that area. He also suggested the Kelley Highway extension be delayed until more improvements are made on Riverfront Drive.
“There’s opportunity for some growth and development on Riverfront Drive and we see that,” Morton said. “I think that that’s the point in time when we should do that. But we haven’t seen it much.
We’ve seen some construction. The Marshall’s Museum is not finished. The Community School of the Arts is not finished. The RV park is under construction. Any one of those individually does not justify this.”