City claims Barling owes money for water

FORT SMITH — The city claims its neighbor Barling owes more than $1 million for water it agreed to buy even though it never used it. Fort Smith directors decided Tuesday to continue negotiating with Barling officials over the water debt but to initiate legal action if an agreement with Barling couldn’t be reached. “I don’t believe this needs to be worked out in the courtroom,” Barling At-Large Director Bill Young told Fort Smith directors during their meeting Tuesday night. He and Fort Smith directors said they believed a solution could be worked out by a March 1 deadline. Fort Smith Director Kevin Settle said all users of Fort Smith water must pay their fair share for water. He reminded directors Fort Smith is going to pay $180 million over the next 10 years on its water system to upgrade water lines and treatment plant to bring quality water to users in the region. Fort Smith supplies water to more than 100,000 users in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. “Everybody should pay their fair share,” he said. He also said he remembered the public backlash against him and other directors in 2012 when the city lost more than $250,000 it failed to charge Van Buren for water purchased from Fort Smith. “I’m not going to live through that again,” Settle

said. Barling received word last year it owed the city $1.146 million as part of a 2002 agreement adjusting the municipal boundaries of the two cities at Chaffee Crossing. Fort Smith City Administrator Carl Geffken said Tuesday in August 2017 he found a section he was reviewing in the 2002 agreement that obligated Barling to buy a minimum amount of water from the city each day, 587,200 gallons, even if it didn’t used it all. Barling City Administrator Mike Tanner said in the four years he’s been in office, Fort Smith has only billed Barling for actual water use. “Fort Smith has never billed Barling for minimum over actual month-to-month” [water use]. “It’s billed actual usage,” he said. He said Barling still hasn’t received a bill from Fort Smith for the $1.146 million Fort Smith claims Barling owes. The city had enough money to pay the charge but it would “put a dent in the water fund.” He said Fort Smith’s minimum water use charge is for the past five years. It couldn’t go back any further because of the statute of limitation. It was unclear how much negotiating had gone on since Geffken discovered the minimum daily use requirement last year. Geffken said there was a “long gap” in discussions between 2017 and 2018. He told directors Tuesday he, City Attorney Jerry Canfield and Utilities Director Jerry Walters drew up a proposed contract to resolve the debt presented to Barling officials in August. Geffken said the proposed contract would charge Barling $2.40 per hundred cubic feet of water instead of the current charge of $1.80 per hundred cubic feet. The additional charge, Geffken said, would gradually recoup the $1.146 million Fort Smith claims Barling owes. Young told Fort Smith directors Tuesday he believed it was impossible for Barling to meet the minimum amount of water requirement in the 2002 agreement. He said in settling the boundaries between Fort Smith and Barling at Chaffee Crossing, Barling lost many water customers to Fort Smith. Chaffee Crossing is about 7,000 acres of former Fort Chaffee military land that was turned back to civilian use. The land was divided up among Fort Smith, Barling and Sebastian County.