Good evening and welcome to the Fort Smith City Board of Directors meeting on this November 18th, 2025.

Keep in mind these meetings are being recorded or shown live for the benefit of our residents who can't be with us in person.

Um at this time, I will do the invocation and I will ask uh I'll ask uh Director Kemp uh if you would do the invocation, and I'll ask Director Rego if you will leave us in the pledge.

Okay, thank you.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we humble ourselves tonight.

So grateful and thankful for the opportunity and the blessing you give us to live in this wonderful community, the freedoms you've given to us, and the many, many blessings.

I'm reminded of Jeremiah 29, Lord, where your word tells us to seek the peace and the prosperity of the city you have sent us to, for in its welfare we have our welfare.

Lord, that's what we endeavor to do tonight.

May we honor you and may your will be done in Fort Smith as it is in heaven in Christ's name.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very thank you very much.

Directors Rego here.

Good.

Here.

Kent.

Here.

George Kit Savis.

Christina Kit Savis.

Here.

Settle.

Here.

Martin.

Here.

Okay, thank you very much.

Just time I'll ask the board if there's any item of of uh business not already on the agenda for this meeting.

Okay.

Thank you, seeing none.

This time we'll ask for the approval of the November 4th, 2025 regular minutes.

Some of the and and if you would direct settle and the November 10th, 2025 special meeting.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

At this time, uh I would like to take this opportunity to introduce uh members of the mayor's youth council.

Would you all please stand up?

Those that are still here.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you very much.

Now you are welcome to stay as long as you like, but I know you probably have homework and other things to do.

But what's better than that?

I know it.

But they're made up of of students from all across the community, and we're so thrilled that that they're with us.

And uh and where's my head first?

Uh Madeline, please stand up.

Here's a young lady that brought the idea to my office, and she's responsible for organizing and doing a great job.

So thank you very much for the work you're doing.

Okay, thank you.

Uh at this time uh we have a special presentation from the Fallen Firefighters Memorial.

And this time we'll have a new fire chief, Daryl Clark.

Would you please come?

Sir Acting Administrator Dingman, Mayor McGill, and Board of Directors.

I'm honored to present our plans for the new Fort Smith Fallen Firefighters Memorial that will be located at Fire Station One at North Fifth and B Streets.

The members of the Fort Smith Fire Department created the Fort Smith Firefighters Foundation to purchase the last remaining old pumper that was scheduled to be sold by the FSFD.

The foundation is recognized by the RS as a 501 C3.

FSFD personnel then started donating to the foundation every pay period.

The foundation purchased the 1977 American LaFrance Pumper and modified and restored it to be used as a departmental funeral truck.

The foundation maintains this funeral truck for firefighter funerals and supports the operations of the Fort Smith Firefighters Pipe and Drum Corps.

The FSFD has now teamed up with the foundation to raise funds for our new project, the Fort Smith Fallen Fire Firefighters Memorial.

After over 45 years, after the line of duty death of Monty Howard in 1973, the FSFD lost Eric Morrison in 2019.

We currently have a very modest memorial to our fallen brothers located at Fire Station 1.

We added driver Eric Morrison to the memorial, but it was just not enough.

I looked at several other firefighter memorials over the next several years, and I started thinking of how we could come up with a memorial that is a fitting tribute for the Fort Smith firefighters that made the ultimate sacrifice.

After the line of duty death of fire chief Christensen in 2023, we were looking at adding him to our existing memorial.

I brought up my idea for a new memorial, and every everyone agreed it's time.

We started working on design concepts and measured interest of current and past members of our department.

Everybody we contacted loved the idea.

During our research, we found an artist that sculpts amazing statues and an added bonus, he is also a firefighter.

We talked to the artist and quickly realized that we wanted him to sculpt our statue.

We selected Austin Weichel to sculpt the statue for our memorial.

The statue will be a life-size recreation of one of our own firefighters that we took 360 degrees of pictures for the sculptor to use.

We were impressed with the level of details and little color accents that he incorporates in his bronze statues.

And there's a couple of examples on the slide.

This picture shows five firefighters that Austin Weichel sculpted for the Nevada State Firefighter Memorial.

The creases in the bunkers, the lugs in the soles of the boots, and the stitching in the helmet leather fronts are small details that add so much to the realism of the statue.

After selecting a sculptor, we looked at countless designs.

After we knew the general design we wanted to go with, I contacted Studio 6 who designed Gateway Park and Fire Station 11 in Fort Smith.

And the result is this is a rendering walking up from North B Street, Fire Station 1 would be in the background.

With the new design, we'll have an actual wall that will have a bronze plaque that displays each name individually.

Studio 6 did an amazing job and included several renderings, several angles from day and night.

And most of these pictures are on foam boards outside for everybody to see.

The landscaping and light fixtures may change a little when we do the final building design.

We have a captain at Station One who manicures the lawn that's immaculate there.

He has volunteered to do all the landscape design and installation for us to save some of the cost.

But all the renderings that they offered us gives us a really good idea of what the layout would look like.

The goal of the final design was to respect our fallen and provide friends and family a place to visit.

Our website to purchase engraved bricks is now live.

The website is at the top of this.

I'm sorry, after the names of the fallen that will go on the wall.

We've had eight fallen firefighters in our history.

Now for the slide, our website where citizens and firefighters alike can purchase bricks, and then your engraved brick will forever be part of the memorial.

We will have hard copy forms outside.

Some people don't like to go online and use PayPal.

Some of our retirees especially hated it.

So they come by and do a hard copy.

We have forms in the back, but the website is there and the website is on the paperwork if anybody wants to pick it up.

But it shows the prices that we have bricks from $150 to $2,500 for corporate.

And it all goes through our foundation, so it's tax deductible.

But I will stand for any questions anybody might have.

Okay.

Very nice, thank you.

Uh any comments from the board.

Okay.

If not, thank you very much.

Thank you.

At this time, we will go item number one.

The first item tonight is a public hearing and then a consideration of an ordinance certifying delinquent property cleanup liens to the Sebastian County tax collector.

Uh the city clerk will address this item.

Okay.

We will formally open to public hearing.

Uh are there any citizens' comments?

Would you like me to go ahead and do the briefing?

Yes.

Would you please?

Yes.

Okay.

The proposed ordinance is the board's annual action to certify delinquent property cleanup liens that were 90 days delinquent as of June 30th, June 30th of this year to the Sebastian County Tax Collector.

The liens are the result of the city's action to abate property cleanup violations or demolitions in each lien includes a 10% penalty.

This year's ordinance includes 326 liens totaling 175,230 and one cent, which is the highest amount since the current process began.

And I believe that was in 1997, actually.

It covers 152 properties owned by 143 property owners, including 58 property owners that have been included in past year's certifications.

In comparison, 198 liens totaling 135,817.37 cents were certified in 2024.

As required by the Fort Smith Municipal Code, the property owners appeal board conducted appeal hearings on Thursday, September the 4th, and Wednesday, September the 10th of this year.

Notice of the appeal hearings were certified by certified mail to the property owner of record and publication in the River Valley Democrat Gazette.

Only two property owners requested appeal consideration before the property owners appeal board, Miss Dora Lopez and Mr.

Charles Tidwell.

Neither were in attendance and there were no other individuals present.

The draft minutes of the appeal hearings were provided to you in your agenda board packet.

As required by law, notice of tonight's public hearing was provided to the property owners either by certified mail or publication in the River Valley Democrat Gazette, which was public which was required by law, has been published on four consecutive for four consecutive weeks.

Ms.

Dora Lopez and Mr.

Charles Tidwell have requested appeal consideration this evening.

Due to their request, staff recommends that the board permit director of neighborhood services Sean Guard to formally present information regarding the abatement actions.

The board may either consider the appeal or refer the matters back to the property owners appeal board.

For any other individual that may be present for compare for appeal consideration, the board may remove the associated lien from the proposed ordinance and refer the appeal to the property owners appeal board, which uh they will their next regularly scheduled on-call meeting is set for 11 o'clock on Monday, December the 8th.

If the property owners appeal board determines the lien or liens should be adjusted or remained due in full, an additional ordinance will be presented to the board at the December 16th regular meeting.

In the event of partial payment or payment in full is received for any lien included within the ordinance, the motion for approval should include a provision to allow for adjustment or removal of those liens from the ordinance prior to formal submission to the tax collector.

The tax collector has historically requested the ordinance not be submitted until January.

Therefore, any payment made to the city prior to December 31 will prevent assessment of that 10% penalty.

Upon approval, the ordinance will be submitted to the tax collector and the liens plus the 10% penalty will be added to the 2025 property tax statement, which will be due on October the 15th of 2026.

And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Uh Madam Clerk, are there any citizens' comments?

Yes, we have two, and first is Charles Tidwell.

Each individual will have two minutes.

Yes.

Because Mr.

Tidwell is the one who had RSVP'd to the property owners appeal board and was not in attendance.

This is the one that we would request that uh director neighborhood services Shankar go ahead and present the information if the board so desires.

Okay.

Director Guard, would you make your presentation?

Good evening, Mayor.

Uh administration and board of directors.

Uh with me this evening, I have direct uh inspector property management inspector Doug Mizell, he was the inspector who handled these properties.

I will try to keep this as brief as possible.

Uh in regards to Mr.

Tidwell's property uh located at 1515 North 34th Street.

Um this was a complaint that was received to our department from an individual uh who flagged down the inspector who had concerns about a dead tree, very large dead tree in uh front proximity of Mr.

Tidwell's property.

On August 5th, 2024, a code violation was observed of a dead tree.

It was documented and posted with a seven-day notice.

Uh all this information should be contained in the packet that uh the city clerk provided to you.

The office staff conducted a legal search, no mortgage was found.

On August 5th as well, a certified letter was mailed to the owner along with the first class clutter first class letter to was sent to the tenant, and is as as this is a rental property.

On August 12th, 2024, the certified letter receipt returned back to us, signed by the co-owner, his wife, Reba Tidwell.

Um August 19, 2024, a follow-up inspection was conducted with no notable progress.

A second notice was posted along with the warning ticket, so we left another notification on the property that the property still remained in violation.

On the 26th of August, a final inspection was conducted and the property remained non-compliant and it was documented via digital medium for assignment to a contractor for abatement action.

On uh on August 26th, it was assigned to a regular contractor at first, and it was determined to be such a large tree that we had to get actual a different contractor to come in.

On August 27th, it was reassigned to All American Tree Service, uh Rick Hayes, for abatement action, and uh about a month later on September 28th, the property was abated by the contractor and brought into compliance.

Since that time, uh August of this year, I had a meeting in my office with Mr.

Tidwell, and uh the process was gone over with him, photos were shared, and it was it was discussed that we had no contact for Mr.

Tidwell from this to time we initiated all this action notices and letters that went out, things that we had no contact from the owner.

He uh it was explained he he explained to me he was working on getting it taken care of, and I explained to him that we have no record of him of him contacting our office.

Uh the way neighborhood services operates when we leave notification, we mail notification out.

If an owner or uh property managed company will contact us, we automatically at that time will halt any type of abatement or enforcement action to work with that owner to give them time to try and resolve and bring the property into compliance.

There was no such contact from Mr.

Tidwell.

It was also covered with Mr.

Tidwell that we surely would have worked with him if he would have contacted us.

It was further uh further covered with Mr.

Tidwell should he get another notice from from in the future from neighborhood services not to ignore or disregard that notice to contact us immediately.

So if there is an issue that he needs more time or any uh citizen with Fort Smith that might need more time uh to contact us and we will work with them on a time frame, not to drag it out too long, but give them time to work on it.

Sometimes it's a financial hardship or sometimes it's a weather inclement weather situation we're dealing with.

People just need to uh communicate with us.

Uh the abatement cost for this, uh the contractor fee was $1,900 as this was a large tree.

Uh code enforcement fees were 9494 and finance fees are 5968 for a total of thousand two thousand fifty-four sixty-two.

And I'm gonna ask Josh if you wouldn't mind uh for 1515 North 34th Street.

Uh on your screen, you'll see a video of the trees.

Today is August 26, 2024.

I'll be assigning the contractor ECS 24 2924.

Address is 1515 north 34th.

Estimated time is eight hours.

This is for deadlands front, dead trees in the front.

This was based off of complaint.

This concludes this filming.

As you can see by that film, the sheer size of that tree was in uh sitting in right in front of 1515 North 34th Street, but it was also in close proximity to an adjoining property, and that was the concern of the complainant.

If a storm or something would come in, straight line winds or something, a large section would break off, it would go right through the roof of a small house like that.

So it became a safety concern for our department to get this addressed and resolved.

Um I would entertain any questions that you might have for me at this time or for Inspector Mizell who spoke with the complainant who wish who wished to remain anonymous.

I would entertain any questions that you might have for me at this time or for Inspector Myzel who spoke with the complainant who wished who wished to remain anonymous.

Thank you.

Is there any other citizens' comments on this item?

Uh yes, we have one more, and that is Kim Fodge.

Okay.

But first we have Mr.

Tidwell.

Okay, Mr.

Sealwell, you're recognized.

Thank you.

My name is Charles Tidwell on property at 1515 North 34th Street.

I originally uh requested to go before the board, the uh appeal this because uh I felt like there wasn't enough time to complete this job, and during the time just before the uh appointment to go before the board, there was an accident.

My sister's grandson had an automobile accident, and we had to attend his funeral, and I wasn't able to make that meeting.

Therefore, I thought I was coming tonight to request to hear the uh appeal December, but uh I'll try to explain my position to you.

As soon as I found out that the tree was dead, I immediately, probably before I got the uh notice, began looking for someone to take the tree down.

I have two tree people that do my work, Mr.

Brennerman and Juan's Tree Service.

I immediately contacted Mr.

Brennman, who was my probably the best tree man in the city, and he came out and he met me and my son, and we took him around and showed him the various trees that we needed to take it down.

We decided that, and he decided that this particular tree needed a bucket truck, therefore he didn't have a bucket truck, so he declined to uh do the job, although he has done jobs like that without a bucket truck.

Excuse me, sir, your time is up, but without objection, yeah, uh you may continue.

Go ahead.

You may continue.

Go ahead.

Okay.

This is going to be pretty extensive because there's a lot of things involved here.

Uh if you could make it as a do the best I can.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Brennerman tried to help me.

He said he knew a guy that probably could do the job.

We went over and looked for it.

He thought he knew where he lived.

We went, but we couldn't find it.

Then Mr.

Brennerman actually tried to contact another tree man, but he couldn't locate him.

But uh I immediately called the one's tree service, who I use and have used for 30 years.

But uh one of the problems that Mr.

Juan has is he doesn't return calls sometimes.

And I called two or three times, he didn't answer.

I waited another week and called him again.

And this went on for a month or so.

And I realized that, and this is not unusual for him to do that.

He he's slow at returning calls.

So I I didn't think there'd be a problem at first, but then I realized he wouldn't return my call, so I had to do something.

So I was driving home one day and I saw a bucket truck go by and I saw a number on it, and I called that number and asked him to go over and check the tree and see what he'd do it for.

And uh, and this is when I found out that the tree had already been removed.

I didn't know who had removed it, but uh it was gone.

And I didn't know, I thought maybe the city had had removed it because it was real close to the street, but they hadn't contacted me and made any notifications that they were going to take the tree.

Uh now that presents a problem to me because I wasn't notified that they were coming on my property without my permission to take a tree that had value because I heat my home every winter with firewood, and that tree was going to be cut up for firewood and it had value.

But they came and took it.

Neither did they notify me that they were coming on my property to take the tree so that I could be there to determine that it didn't do any damage to my property because the tree is right over the house.

And I later got a call from the tenant that said, Mr.

Tiddwell, didn't you know that they'd done damage to your property?

I don't know.

I didn't know that.

She said, Well, it did.

So I will was there was damage to my property according to her, but I didn't know how or where.

So I sent my maintenance man over, and he found some damage on the side of the house.

But I uh wasn't sure whether they did it or what did it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um at this point.

Was there any other anyone else to speak on the item?

Thank you very much for your comments.

I think we've got the gist of it.

Yes, you have Kim Fodge.

Ms.

Fodge, you recognize.

Thank you, sir.

Um, I just wanted to speak on the memorandum that um Mr.

Dingman um provided in the agenda.

Um it's about the 2025 projected goals and updates for the neighborhood um services department.

Um I just do I do think that neighborhood services is an important department for our city.

Um they do help with the quality of life and ensure property values are maintained.

Um we have used them at Village Harbor Property Owners Association.

I've called them on behalf of that association several times, and they've always been very professional and helped me.

But um it's my understanding that they are short staffed when they're not able to get out and do inspections as uh quickly as they would like to.

Um so I would like to make sure with all the discussions of the budget cuts and everything, um, that we get an environmental inspector for this department to help uh minimize the blight and issues and so that they can um obtain their projected goals for the remaining 2025 and 2026.

Okay, thank you very much, Ms.

Fogs.

Thank you.

Okay.

If there are no further comments on this item, uh at this time we will form the close of public hearing, uh, entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance with suspension of the rule.

May I like a motion to approve said ordinance with suspension rules minus a property that was just discussed at uh 1515 North 34th and move that back to the property appeals board?

Okay.

Second is that correct, Sherry?

That it's a good motion.

Thank you.

Okay.

What?

With the provision preferably with the provision with uh uh to allow us to remove any liens that are paid in full or partial payments to adjustment before it's submitted to the county.

Okay, yes, with that provision also.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, um did I get a second on it?

I didn't know.

Okay, you got a second.

Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance.

An ordinance certifying to the Sebastian County tax collector delinquent property cleanup liens.

Okay, thank you.

Uh at this time we'll entertain any more comments from the board.

Mr.

Tidwell, your property will go back to the property appeals board so you can have your discussion in December.

Okay, okay.

You fine?

Okay.

Uh we're gonna give you an opportunity to get this corrected, okay?

And again, thank you for being here.

Uh if there are no further comments from the board, Madam Clerk, please call the room.

Directors Rigo, yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp.

Yes.

George Git Savas.

Yes.

Christina Kitzavis, yes.

Settled, yes.

Martin, yes.

Passes seven in favor, zero opposed.

Item two.

Item two is an ordinance requiring that all new capital projects or purchases with a value greater than 500,000 and not already included in an improved capital improvement plan be discussed at a board study session before the before being presented for approval.

Okay.

This item was suggested by Director Christina Kitsabas and staff will stand for questions on this item.

Okay, thank you, Madam Clerk.

Are there any citizens' comments?

Yes, we have two.

The first being Kim Fodge.

Good evening.

Um I just want to say that I am in favor of this ordinance.

Um, I think it's a great starting point.

However, I would like to see eventually, maybe at some time down the road that the number drop down to $250,000 instead of $500,000, especially in light of the deficits that the city is experiencing.

I think we need to be very mindful of the expenditures on the capital improvement projects.

Next is Crystal Cadelli.

Good evening.

So I'm sorry, I forgot my notebook and I can't read without my glasses, so bear with me.

Furthermore, I I would like to suggest one more, you know, evaluation would be the construction manager for the projects.

And I think that is something that we could save money on.

And I one question I do have to ask is on the construction managers that we hired, are they actually presenting sealed bids or are we just hiring someone we know?

How how is that working?

So there's no like sealed bids.

Not in terms of selecting the construction manager themselves.

Now when it comes to the projects that they are construction managing, then the individual parts of the of the project may be submitted by SEAL bids.

I would like to see that um reviewed or even possibly put into this ordinance that if we are going to use construction managers that we actually have a bidding process with the requirements.

Okay, thank you for the thank you.

Madam Clerk, uh Director Passav, which you recognize.

Thank you.

Um initially when I proposed this with the $500,000 threshold, that was kind of an arbitrary number as kind of a jumping off point for negotiations.

I did not have the numbers for uh 24 and 25 for what we approved that was unbudgeted.

And looking over the list between the two years, there's 14 items.

Um so I would like to amend the 500,000 threshold to 100,000.

And I don't know if the rest of the board has seen this, but I'd be happy to um pass it around.

There were several things um that came in under 250,000.

So I think it would, you know, with 14 projects split over two years.

I don't think it would be unreasonable to lower the threshold to 100,000 because I do think we have time to review these.

I would like to take a look at that.

So there were 14 uh projects.

Seven of them were below the $500,000 threshold.

Were these projects not mentioned to the board?

They were unbudgeted.

So that that's what this ordinance does.

It takes meaning the staff made the decisions on those items without board approval that we were asking.

No, it was it was brought to the board, but like for instance, the water slides, those were never brought to a study session.

They were immediately brought for a vote.

So what this does is it'll require it to go to a study session with a seven-day waiting or cooling off period before a vote can take place.

So this with the amendment, this says anything that's unbudgeted over 100,000 would qualify.

It's 500 is what I had proposed.

A quarter million, I think would be okay.

Right.

Would would someone uh entertain a motion to on this on this item?

Uh make unless Director Kidd.

You make the motion.

Cheers.

I'll make uh make a motion to move, make a motion.

I will second that.

To adopt the ordinance.

Yes, the ordinance.

Thank you.

As amended, as a yes.

It's not amended yet.

It's not make a motion to adopt the ordinance.

Okay.

With suspension of the suspension of the rules.

Thank you.

Would you please call the roll?

Just a moment.

Just a moment.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

We have a second.

We haven't we haven't amended anything yet.

We have anything.

We just have a little bit of a question.

Now for the discussion from the board.

No.

No, for discussion.

I mean, with all that being said, this was this was eight projects in 24, and then six projects in 25.

So I think even dropping the threshold down to a hundred thousand.

Um, you know, we still have the capacity.

This isn't going to overburden our workload.

Okay.

Do any of my fellow directors have a thought on the threshold?

Right.

In a discussion, we've got a motion of a second.

Let's read the ordinance, get it in, get us in line, and then we then we start having that discussion.

Okay.

Re read the ordinance so they can get it right.

An ordinance establishing requirements for board study session review of major capital projects prior to consideration for approval and for other purposes.

And I'd like to make a motion to reduce the threshold from $500,000 to $100,000.

I'll second that for discussion purposes.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So we need uh discussion.

We got a second.

Okay.

Now we'll have a discussion.

Yes.

You recognize that you recognize.

So to be clear, the items on this sheet with 14 items all have resolution or ordinance numbers beside them, so they all came before the board.

So you are just wanting a study session for every item for a CIP over $100,000?

This is not presented to us on a CIP plan.

So anything that's unbudgeted that we have not already reviewed in a study session.

So like the the Mazard property, the Cabanas property, that kind of felt like that came out of nowhere to me.

Um that would require us to, instead of it immediately being put on for a vote, it would give us an opportunity to review it and discuss it and then wait a week before we vote to move forward.

Thank you.

You know, initially when I proposed this, I didn't know exactly how many projects had come before us that were unbudgeted CIP projects.

Now that I see it's only 14 between two years, I'm comfortable with reducing that threshold.

Uh you know, because I didn't know, is it 100?

Is this gonna overburden our workload if it's but seeing that it's only 14 over two years, I think we can handle it.

Any further discussion, Director Rigo?

I said a clarifying question uh and it relates to section two, maybe the questions for Colby.

Uh the way it's written, um project uh has first been presented and discussed in at least one study session meeting.

Uh no vote on a major capital project shall occur within seven calendar days after the major capital project has been and then zoomed in too far, it goes on.

So it would be uh a two-week period at the soonest before something would be if this ordinance were to go into effect before something was permitted to be voted on, unless it fits under the emergency exception of the ordinance, correct?

Yes.

Within seven calendar days, if your study session is on a Tuesday and your next board meeting is seven days later, uh I I think that would qualify and be okay because you're not you're not holding it within seven days, you're at seven days.

So I mean, if you want to change that language, you could amend it to say you know, a lot less than seven days, but I think it's fine having a study session on one Tuesday, and the following Tuesday you could have your regular voting meeting.

Thank you.

And that was my intention.

If we need to modify the language, I'm I'm fine with that.

That was my intention.

My intention was to prevent a study session and then a special meeting being called.

Thank you.

But you Director Kittsavis may so you're if something were to be reviewed at a study session the following Tuesday, your intention was we could theoretically vote on it.

You're just you did not want like a Tuesday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday.

That okay.

Any other comments or questions from the board?

Mayor.

Yes, direct you can't.

So and this is just non-CIP, any CIP item, right?

So it's the non CIP, correct?

Or or a budgeted item.

Budget budgeted or or CIP.

We've we've talked about those in the study session.

I think that's the original.

It's it's in the study session.

We've talked about it, so that wouldn't be one that would come back to us.

But if it's something that we have not talked about before, it's not on the CIP plan or not a budgeted item, it comes to the board for study session.

Thank you for the clarification.

Okay, any other questions.

Okay.

So we're we're voting on the amendment.

Direct settler, you recognize it so this doesn't include emergencies.

Correct.

There's a provision for emergencies that allow for public health and safety.

And then we've defined emergency um we've defined emergency um in section one B.

Emergency means a condition posing an immediate threat to public health, safety, or public or property requiring urgent action as determined by the city administrator, and approved by two-thirds vote of the board of directors.

So you know, if we've got a water main that breaks, certainly that can be addressed.

That doesn't need to come before the board before that's fixed.

Does it have to be approved by two-thirds of the well we can remove that?

Okay.

What is it?

Well, it and approved by two-thirds voted the board of directors if it's an emergency.

Yeah, that is the same.

If if it's if it's an emergency and it's it still has to be approved by two-thirds of the board.

We'd have to reconvene.

We'd have to convene in a in a study session.

Or we'd have to convene to meet to approve it in order to be able to move forward.

In an emergency, we should have uh be nimble enough to fix that that water break almost immediately.

So I'm we'll propose uh do we need a vote on the first amendment?

I can propose a second amendment to remove the two-thirds vote of the board of directors.

Okay.

Madam Cro, would you read what we're getting ready to vote on?

The amendment.

The amendment.

Right.

Okay.

Directors Rego.

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savis.

Yes.

Christina Kit Savis, yes.

Settle?

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Passes seven in favor, zero opposed.

Okay.

Thank you.

I make a motion.

I'll do I'll make a motion to amend uh section one uh subsection B and remove uh after and approved by and reproved by the board two-thirds by the vote of the board of directors.

Second.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, you ready?

Okay.

Madam Croy, please call the roll.

Directors good.

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savis.

Christina Kit Savis.

Yes.

Settle?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego.

Yes.

Passes seven in favor, zero opposed.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

This time we will go to the motion to this time we will get a entertained a motion to approve as amended.

So we already have a motion.

We just need a roll call vote for the emergency clause.

Or for the, I'm sorry.

For the ordinance.

Okay.

Clear as mud.

Okay.

Call the roll.

Directors Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savas?

Yes.

Christina Kit Savis.

Yes.

Settle?

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Passes seven in favor, zero opposed.

Okay.

Very good.

Now we can go to item number three.

Do we have emergency clause?

Motion to approve.

One more.

You want emergency clause.

Let's put an emergency clause on it.

Motion to prove emergency clause.

Okay, indeed a second.

Second.

Okay.

Madam Crock, please call a roll on the emergency clause.

Directors George Ket Savas.

Yes.

Christina Kitsavis.

Yes.

Settle.

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp.

Yes.

Motion passes seven in favor, zero opposed.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Just I will go to item three.

Item three is an ordinance amending the city code regarding business license fees.

As discussed at yesterday's budget session, staff proposes to increase the business license fee for businesses that do not have a physical brick and mortar presence in the city of Fort Smith to $500 per year and eliminate the provision that the first year's business license is free of charge.

Deputy Administrator Maggie Rice will address this item further.

Okay.

Sure.

In 2024, staff issued 328 business licenses to entities who listed their primary address as locations as outside the corporate limits of the City of Fort Smith.

Of the 328, 261 paid a renewal fee of 100 dollars, and the remaining 67 were first-time registrants and received a business license without paying a fee.

This generated $26,100 in revenue.

The proposed ordinance increases the business license fee for both a first-time registrant and/or a renewal without a physical brick or more mortar presence in Fort Smith to $500.

It also eliminates the first year waiver.

Based on 2024 activity, the proposed increase would generate an additional $130,900 in business license fee revenue.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Madam Clerk, are there any citizens' comments on this item?

Yes.

We have Joe Elskin.

Hi.

Um I was just wondering if there is another benefit beyond uh a little over a hundred thousand dollars that you will get from this every year.

Because I I know you have a hard job in trying to get people to come in.

I know I want people to businesses to come into downtown.

CBID wants them to come into downtown.

Um years ago I overheard and can converse with the business person who said that Fort Smith is is not business friendly.

Now disclosure, I know nothing about running a business, so I don't understand.

Um I I would like to understand, excuse me.

I'd like to understand what the benefit of this is because it seems to me that you're not going to get people to come in if they feel like they they aren't being welcomed and they have to pay $500 and small businesses can grow to big businesses.

And it seems like the $100,000 would be um a lot less if businesses aren't coming in.

So I just need to know why this this hundred thousand plus matters enough to do that to sm to businesses.

Um it's hard to grow a city.

Um I know it's not easy, and there's no easy, obvious route for you all.

But um anyway, thank you for listening.

Okay.

Thank you.

Were there any other comments?

No.

Okay.

Entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance with suspension of the rule.

Uh so move with suspension of the rules.

Second.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, I think uh Deputy Ministry Rice had some comments.

Okay.

If you would like for me to respond to Ms.

Elskin, I'd be happy to.

Would you please sure absolutely?

So this is only for businesses that are outside that do not have a physical brick or mortar presence in Fort Smith.

And they do, they come in and they physically are doing business in Fort Smith.

Just to give you some numbers.

A lot of them are out of state businesses.

Approximately 131 are out of state, and a lot of them are contractor-based and they come in and they work on projects in Fort Smith, and when they get a building permit, we do an audit and we require them to also get a business license.

This is also relative to when we have major hail storms.

We get a lot of out-of-state, out-of-city roofing contractors that come in, and it's very helpful when they are registered and we know that they're here.

Uh, and because we can keep them accountable for not only permits, but if there are issues, uh if property owners sometimes unfortunately have issues with those contractors, we can ensure that we have the proper contact information for them.

They're also receiving the benefits of our infrastructure, they're not paying property taxes, and so that's the the thought process by the increased fee.

No, if they have a physical brick and mortar presence, there's no change to those license fees.

Yes, ma'am.

If I might add, I think it also trying to incentivize folks to build a brick and mortar presence within the city of Fort Smith if they intend to do business here.

And those folks that are outside the state or outside of the city, they are competing with businesses that are building brick and mortar businesses here.

So I think the the homegrown businesses deserve somewhat of an advantage.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Rice, for the in-depth explanation of this decision.

This time we need a motion to pass a motion to adopt the honors with suspension of the rule and we did receive a second.

Madam Clerk, please read your ordinance.

An ordinance amending Chapter 13, Article 3, Section 1362, and Section 1369 of the Fort Smith Municipal Code regarding business license fees.

Thank you, Anick, for the comments from the board.

Okay.

Seeing none, please call the roll.

Directors Kemp.

Yes.

George Kat Savis.

Christina Kit Savis.

Yes.

Settle?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Passes seven in favor, zero opposed.

Item number four.

Item four is an ordinance amending the city code regarding charges for solid waste services.

This ordinance updates the language in the city code related to service charges and amends the landfill disposal gate rate and the commercial industrial service charges to rates that cover the cost for providing services and are more in line with the market value.

The language does not include annual adjustment.

I'm sorry, the language does include annual adjustment according to the U.S.

Department of Labor's consumer private price index for garbage services.

Pacats, any such adjustment at no more than 5 percent.

The ordinance does not change or amend the residential solid waste charges.

This item was also addressed at yesterday's budget session, and the $3.75 million in additional revenues that this is intended to generate will benefit both the Solid Waste Fund and the General Fund.

Director of Solid Waste Services, Dwayne McDonald will speak further to this item if there are any questions.

And either either Duane and myself will attempt to answer those questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Dwayne, you recognize for any comments.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening, Mayor.

Uh directors, administration.

Um staff is proposing to revise the uh determination of charges portion of the municipal code to update the service rates.

Uh the necessity for doing so was made evident in a report and study session that was presented to the board uh last September by uh Sloan Vasquez McCaffee.

The report demonstrated that the rates which were last changed in 2020 are currently inadequate to cover the increasing cost of providing solid waste services, which have been driven by a greater than 25 percent increase in the consumer price index over that time, as well as increased level of service and uh increased non-departmental requirements.

The SVM report showed that the city's average cost of providing landfill services uh is currently $47.10 per ton of trash disposed.

And uh for residential service, it's uh $23.49 per month for uh our current level of service with weekly pickup of trash recycling and yard waste.

It's also about uh six dollars and fifty-five cents a cubic yard for commercial service.

Uh the SVM report also uh suggested number of ancillary services that could be added to boost revenue or reduce cost for the department, which we've included in our recommendation.

Um the Solid Waste uh Services Department funds all of our operations from these service revenues as well as uh sinking fund savings for future uh future capital uh equipment needs, landfill construction and closure needs, um, and also related city policy administration management and neighborhood services functions.

Uh for residential service.

I'll cut right to the chase here.

Um staff is proposing no change to the 1589 uh monthly residential service rate that has been in effect since uh January of 2022.

Um that service uh currently is costing, as I already mentioned, uh a little over 23.

Uh just for trash, it's $17.42 at this point.

Um the 1589 residential rate is the lowest among 17 cities surveyed in Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.

Um we're proposing no change to that.

We also propose no change to existing residential uh bulky pickup, dial a truck service, brush collection service, or the replacement of uh worn-out or or damaged carts.

We would like to add a uh dial a truck uh option for a three-yard uh debris bag service in which the bag would be provided and picked up at the customer's convenience for a flat charge similar to what some private uh solid waste companies offer in other markets.

Return service for a missed pickup due to error on the part of the collection crew uh will continue to be made at no charge, of course.

We do propose adding an optional $15 uh return service charge for uh to come back and empty carts that were not set out or were not uh available at the uh scheduled time.

Um without such an option, return service is sometimes assumed to be free, but it's actually very costly for the department to uh send a truck and crew to pick up one location at a time.

So we'd like to have a mechanism for saying yes to that request and also covering part of the cost of doing so.

For Lanceville service, um staff is proposing to increase the landfill gate rate for trash disposal from the current $36 per ton, which has been in effect since 2020 to $50 per ton plus acclappable fees and uh sales tax with a half ton minimum.

We propose increasing the asbestos disposal to $120 per ton from 100 waste requiring any sort of special handling to $60 per ton, pull off service to $50, and uh non-residential compost purchase to $40 per cubic yard to help cover our costs for providing those services.

The residential rate uh for purchasing compost at the landfill would remain unchanged at $10 per cubic yard plus sales tax.

The current uh retail pricing for similar compost is about $70 per cubic yard, so that's going to remain a good deal.

Um we're proposing no change to the Fort Smith uh resident discount at the landfill for disposal of up to two cubic yards of waste, which is about one level pickup truckload for $10 uh plus applicable fees and sales tax.

Um we would like to uh change uh the allowance for that.

Currently, it's only allowed on the first Saturday of each month, uh, and we would like to open that up so that that discount applies every day of the month.

Uh that will be more convenient for residents, and uh it will actually help out landfill uh traffic flow as well by spreading out the traffic.

And I don't anticipate any financial impact in doing that.

For commercial and industrial service, uh staff proposes a container size and pickup service rate increases, uh commensurate with the SVM recommendations, which will continue to allow the department to offer competitive commercial and industrial services to the city and surrounding communities while improving our revenue a modest amount.

We also provide uh propose adding uh ancillary services and associated charges uh for extra or return services, uh customer container modifications, compactor installations, and container cleaning, which have previously not been offered or sometimes performed at no charge.

And uh again, having that in the ordinance gives us a way to say yes to our customers and also make sure that we're uh covering the cost for doing so.

Um and the last uh item is uh a CPI adjustment for landfill disposal and commercial industrial service rates.

We're proposing an annual adjustment equal to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for trash collection services for the most recent 12 months to ensure that the rates continue to sustainably generate enough revenue to cover the department's obligations.

The adjustments would be uh calculated in November.

Uh they would take effect on January 1st of each year starting in 2027 and would be published on the city website one month in advance so that customers can see what they're going to be and they can plan for it.

The language provides that the adjustment would either be the CPI adjustment or 5%, whichever is less.

So we're capping that increase at 5%.

And it allows periodic and frequent uh large increases, as we're discussing this evening with smaller predictable annual increases that our customers can budget for.

The CPI adjustment would not apply to residential service rates.

It would just be the landfill rate and uh and the uh commercial service.

Um altogether, this would increase the uh uh revenue coming into the Solid Waste Services Department by approximately $3.75 million.

Uh it's understood that a portion of that revenue is going to be used to supplement appropriate general fund operations.

Um a red line version of the ordinance language is also attached in your package for your review and and comparison.

And I look forward to addressing any comments or questions that you may have.

Okay, thank you very much.

Are there any citizens' comments?

Yes, we have two, the first being Rocky Walker.

Okay.

Um you guys know me, and uh I'm here as as a citizen, but I'm here as a home builder, and I'm here representing Greater Fort Smith Association of Home Builders.

Uh we just found out about this.

Um the tonnage going from $36 to $50 is a 40% increase.

40%.

Now I know you guys like the quote that we're bringing it in line with other communities.

Unless you're like to stay underneath other communities, then you quote, well, we're so much cheaper than other communities.

Look, you're going up 20 to 25 percent on everything else here on commercial stuff.

Now I know you're not going up on the citizens, even though you're losing money on the citizens too, but I know why you're not going up on it because you don't want a sewer deal.

And I understand that.

But what you're gonna do is you're gonna raise the price of a 2,000 square foot house by 2,000.

Okay.

A dumpster, a 30-yard open top dumpster is gonna go from about a little less than $2,000 to about $2,750.

And I use two and a half on average for a $2,000 square foot house.

So you're going up $2,000.

Every $1,000 you raise the price of a house, you knock eight people out of the ability to buy a house in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

So you can just knock 16 people out of buying a house in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

I got news for you.

The housing economy in Fort Smith, Arkansas sucks.

Okay.

And it's sucked for a year.

All right.

And we're doing our best to try to survive, we're doing our best to try to develop, we're doing our best to try to make it for the F 35.

That's we got four.

If everything we're raising up is 20 to 25 percent, why can't we go up on a tonnage 20 to 25 percent instead of going up 40 percent?

And I know I'm kind of batting at the wind, but I do appreciate you listening to me.

And uh it's good to see y'all as always.

Okay, thanks, Rocky.

Yes, next we have Kim Fodge.

Sorry, I'm making up for lost time.

Um I understand why the request for the rate increase.

Um, but it just seems like we're being nickel and dimed to death.

I'm I am a Secretary Treasurer for a nonprofit association, a homeowners association.

We have a commercial dumpster.

This is gonna impact us.

We're already being impacted because of the high water and sewer rates.

Now we've got to deal with a high sanitation rates.

It's increase.

We're limited on the amount of money that we can um generate each year due to our bylaws and covenants, and now we're having to deal with another rate increase.

And I'm just trying to understand um, first of all, I don't understand some of the language and the rate increases and what it means.

And if someone wants to talk to me later on and try to explain this and make it clear so I can understand it, I would appreciate it.

But we have a two-cubic yard dumpster, but it shows in this um ordinance that um you're being charged $25.85 for the first 180 or 160 gallons, and then so on and so on.

So I just wish you guys would I wish the board and I hope others would take it into consideration and just be mindful how these rates impacting small businesses.

Um I can't imagine what restaurants and other small businesses are having to deal with because they've got more garbage than we do, but thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, were there any other comments?

That's all.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh just time we entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance with suspension of the rule.

So thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read your ordinance.

Ordinance to amend Section 25278 of the Fort Smith Municipal Code regarding charges for solid waste services.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any comment from the board?

Director Neil Martin.

So Duane, uh, real quick.

So we we've had some discussions about this, and I'm I'm more interested in the in the landfill rate because I think when maybe I'll talk to Jeff, I can't remember exactly.

But we have companies like waste management and cards that do waste disposal for cities outside of Fort Smith.

That's correct.

That's correct.

So they go around, they collect trash for Greenwood.

Is that Greenwood a city?

That that they do uh that they collect trash for the case.

I believe so.

So you got Greenwood, you got other entities.

And they go and they take that to our landfill, and then they dump it at our landfill for a for a cost that is cheaper for us to operate the landfill.

Is that correct?

The $36 uh uh a ton according to the information here, we're charging them $36 a ton, whereas it costs us to open sales, close sales, manage the landfill $47.

Is that true?

Yes, sir.

Okay, so so Greenwood is incentivized to use our landfill and not pay the costs associated with what I pay.

So it they're technically getting a better deal.

Okay?

That is that is that is that a true statement?

I believe so.

Okay, and that applies to eight surrounding counties in Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.

Can you name those?

Off top I put you on the spot.

Any anyway.

Most of them.

Anyone know?

Crawford, Crawford County?

Crawford, Scott, LaFleur, uh all the way up to Washington.

They're all sending their trash here.

They're all sending their trash here and dropping it in our landfills.

Many of those communities are and we don't get all of it.

We we uh we control the trash inside the city, and all of it is supposed to be going to the landfill, to our landfill.

Yeah.

Outside of the city, that trash they have options about that waste going to other disposal facilities.

But uh in most cases, we're the closest.

Okay.

And uh and we have been, you know, by a pretty wide margin, the cheapest.

Okay.

Because we're we're basically giving giving service away in in the way the way this works.

So yeah.

Um do we, you know, uh when we talked about water and sewer rates, we we did see an instance where you know we raised water rates and usage drops for a couple of years.

Do you anticipate um the same scenario here where if we if we were to raise this to $50 for a ton that somebody would go somewhere else?

Or do you does this put us out of line with these other options that they have?

The the regional average is fifty-three dollars and some change.

Okay.

So we're still slightly below that.

Okay.

Uh and that possibility was taken into account really in in choosing the $50 uh tipping fee.

Okay.

Uh I think we probably will lose uh some business.

Um it's kind of hard to predict how much, but but the the uh the intent here was to remain competitive with the other regional options and not lose um the majority of our business that's that's really paying the cost of keeping the landfill open.

Right.

I I do I do not I think similar with the business license discussion just a little bit ago.

I think we've got some scenarios where in we're incentivizing people not to be here, not to live in the city of Fort Smith.

And um, you know, we talked about with the water rates yesterday when we were talking about you know, 42 percent of our water is sold to uh company or cities outside of Fort Smith.

If they weren't if they didn't exist, if we weren't selling them water, we wouldn't have any water issues at all.

So, you know, I don't think we need to be incentivizing other communities outside of here.

The the question I have is related to what uh Ms.

Vodge said.

Um and the container, I had a I had something different in my mind related to the container that we're uh uh planning on on raising the rate.

What is that container actually look like?

I was thinking it was one of the big long ones with no top on it, but if uh can you kind of describe what that container is so I make sure I'm I'm squared away?

Well, uh uh when we're talking about commercial, we're talking about uh what most people refer to as dumpsters, and it's gonna be a smaller box with a plastic lid on top with the casters underneath.

It's usually used for construction and demolition and you know, large it's the much larger box and that's that's picked up by a special truck.

Are we raising uh both?

We're raising both.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Um I just wanted to square away some of that stuff and let my fellow board members talk up to Director Josh Gosavage and then Director Rico.

Go ahead, you know.

I just had a quick question.

Thank you, Drew Kitzavis.

Um in this discussion about losing customers or theoretically losing customers, w where would they even go?

Is there one in there's one in Tonty Town, there's one in the small one in Sallasaw?

There is.

Is that okay?

I got to imagine that when you look at some of these adjustments that we're contemplating, if you're running a external commercial business, you know, the the transit costs alone on a regular basis getting to and from either of those locations to locations that are much closer to Fort Smith, your delta uh would be eaten up by those transportation costs to go well out of your way to either of those locations, I would imagine.

It it very well could be.

And the and and there's a significant cost to that.

Uh Salaw is much closer, and depending on where the waste is being collected.

Um it might uh uh you know, I've looked at this, it may only be another 15 or 20 minutes versus coming to the Fort Smith landfill.

And if that waste is being picked up outside of the city limits, it very well could go to sell-asaw.

It's a much smaller landfill.

Um the level of customer service there is somewhat different than ours.

It's not going to be quite as easy in in and out, but uh for smaller customers, that could be an option.

Tiny town is quite a bit uh further away, and the gate rate there is over $73.

So that might that might be uh at some point, if if if our price were high enough, that might start to look attractive to larger customers who could get a special deal there.

Um, but for the smaller customers, Tiny Town's not really uh com competitive with us.

Thanks.

And then I think uh any landfills to the east are further distant than those.

Okay, uh Director Josh Savage and then director Rocky, yeah.

I need to talk to you.

Yes, sir.

Come on up.

You when were you notified of this?

Yesterday.

How were you notified?

Uh another home builder member.

This kind of just hit you all real quick, didn't it?

Yeah, I did.

Do you think there's any room for compromise between unsanitation if you all were sit down and discuss this?

Well, I mean, you know, I like I said, I ask, you know, y'all are gonna if you went up 20 to 25 percent, that's still a huge jump, but it's not 40 percent.

Yeah.

And you know, I I'm obviously voicing my opinion here, and like I said, which I appreciate you allowing me to do, you know, my concern is for affordability of housing.

Yeah, you know, and houses are already unaffordable, and we're trying to work on that, but we're just seem to be every time we turn around making it worse.

Uh I've already got a $17 a yard concrete increase for January 1st.

I've got appliance up for January 1st.

I've got faucets going up 10% January 1st.

And so, you know, and you know, and I am hooked to the marketplace.

I'm live without an ed.

Okay, I'm hooked to the market.

I have comp I have competition, you know, I could charge whatever, but I'm not gonna get any business.

I have to be competitive with my charging uh in order to stay in business.

And so you know, we eat what we can eat.

You know, we don't pass along, you know, we eat everything we can eat to try to help the customer.

We do honestly.

But then it becomes a point to where you can't eat anymore, and you know, eating trash is no fun anyway.

So on a on a job site, you have one dumpster or uh uh 30-yard dumpster out there.

I have a 30-yard dumpster that I keep dedicated to a neighborhood, and I'll use multiple jobs and it gets emptied all the time.

And like I said, about a 2,000 square foot house to complete it from start to finish is about two and a half of those dumpsters.

Now we do a very good job, in my opinion, and we and we try to do it better every day of maximizing so we do not put is any more in the dumpster than we have to.

I don't put brick, I don't put concrete in the dumpster, it goes under the driveway.

Um, lumber, we we use everything down to little bare nubbins as much as we possibly can.

So but you still end up with quite a bit of waste, unfortunately.

So it's a cost.

And like I said, people are struggling to afford new housing.

You know, we're trying to make it more attractive.

So when I heard this, I was compelled by my members to come here and at least voice our concern over it, and that's that's what I'm you know, that's what I'm doing.

You know, yes, if we could get a break on the uh on the increase, that would be awesome.

But you know, but I don't look for it, but I but I would appreciate it.

We would appreciate that.

And I just met Mr.

McDonald, he seems like a very uh competent, capable uh individual, and I I appreciate him very much, and I appreciate him and Maggie's candor with me earlier before the meeting.

Um, you know, yes, we will look for other alternatives to deal with our trash, but I don't know of any legally, you know.

Yeah, burn permits, burn permits, right?

I mean, there's always LaFlora County.

I didn't say that.

So, Mr.

O'Donnell, would you be willing to sit down and talk to these builders and see?

I mean it's we appreciate.

I mean we appreciate it.

Well, that's I'm gonna have studying on this just for that very reason.

I think there should have been more notice for you all to to mount some kind of defense.

Well, we appreciate that, sir.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Kemp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thing that I feel, and I can appreciate Mr.

Walker's comments, and then I did have a question for you, Dwayne.

Um I can appreciate the comments and um and I appreciate your politeness and posting your opinion and speaking for the people that of the home builder association.

Uh the hard part is from the budget hearing, we had really hard discussions about making a balanced budget to the to the abilities of even having to consider now adjusting you know, first responders and other positions in other departments that are going to be uh things that to where we talk about balancing a budget.

So that's the tension that we're feeling is that we have to generate some revenue to it.

Um the way my question would be since these are if there's a potential that there are businesses, right, that we already know are registered with us.

If they're a brick and mortar home builder with and registered with the city of Fort Smith, and since it is something tied to the housing market, is there any sort of idea that we can I mean we'd have we would know those are is there any ability to offer them an adjustment to not go straight to the 40 percent increase.

I think that's an option if the board desires it.

Um within the ordinance itself, it says that we have some ability to negotiate uh rates.

The the rates that are listed in the ordinance are maximums.

We can't go above those.

Um but we do have some ability to negotiate you know, it for competitive purposes to negotiate and maintain that business.

I mean, I'm sensitive to the housing market idea.

I was just thinking 25 percent might be easier for them to swallow than 40 percent, but also I'm sensitive to balancing a budget, figuring out what we can do here to do right by us, and I mean to to Director Rigo's point, where would these people go if it were not us?

Um and I think you know, we've we're finding a way to be equitable in this and doing what we can.

Um, you know, I just I have a question about being sensitive to the idea of a housing market as well, though.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you very much, sir.

Uh Mr.

Dingman, you recognize yeah, just just to that point.

I think that you know, as as Director Martin mentioned earlier, you know, we have have a determination of what our cost of providing services at the landfill is, and that's 47 dollars a ton.

And as Mr.

McDonald pointed out earlier, that the revenues that we are uh realizing from the landfill operation essentially is subsidizing a loss on the residential site.

So I mean our our in order to keep the residential rate static as to where it is, you know, that that landfill rate is is covering a loss in that operation as well.

And so I think that those are important items to to recognize.

And I and I I realize I certainly have heard Mr.

Walker's comments, and uh you know I've expected them to some degree.

Um because it could it it is a very real cost.

I understand that, but also living in Fort Smith once you buy that house has to remain sustainable as well, and you know, the the landfill operations and the residential service needs to sustain as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Director Kim.

Just to uh Rocky, do you mind coming up and answering a question quick?

Yes, sir.

At any given time, how many homes are being built in Fort Smith?

Well, it varies because it just depends on the way the market is.

Uh, you know, right now uh it's probably well, I know for a fact we're in the worst market we have been since 08.

Yeah, and I don't get to vote on that.

But yeah, and and but but it's so so we're down right now on inventory because you know, at least I have planned down.

I only have one house in inventory for sale right now.

But I have last summer, 24 during the election, we could see that this was coming, so I kind of wove back on production and pulled the throttle back on it, chased more customs than I did specs.

And so I would love to start some more.

I'm probably gonna go ahead and start another spec.

I've got several customs to start but probably in Fort Smith right now, um, there's probably eighty, sixty to eighty houses on the market new.

There should be more than that.

But um there they've been on the market for a while.

You know, most of them have been because the market is tepid.

You know, and it's if there's lots of factors.

There's the uncertainty, there's the rates, you know.

We have been building and developing in anticipation of the F 35 program, and so we're waiting, you know, for that to come into more fruition.

So hopefully that will pick up the slack.

You know, and I know there's lots of good things going on in Fort Smith, and we're all pulling for Fort Smith.

That's why we're all here.

And like I said, I'm not here to complain.

It's just we got to stand up for every dollar that we can because they're just hard to earn.

A dollar is hard to earn, and you guys know that, and I know you're trying to budget here, but a holler a dollar is hard to come by.

And we got a risk, and we got to work really hard to get that dollar, so we try to hang on to them as much as we can.

Not to be greedy, but to be responsible to our families, to our community.

You know, I can't give to those that need it if I don't get.

And so uh but but so the market is slow right now.

It's starting to pick up.

I know the first two weeks in uh uh uh November nationally were the best no first two weeks of November we've had in three years, national sales-wise.

So we always I'm an optimist, I always look for good news in anything, and so we've kind of glommed on to that.

There's some you know, some interesting opportunities or or products coming potentially in the market to help people buy houses for better or worse, but they're interesting.

Um, you know, so thank you very much for the question.

You're welcome.

Hello there, Director Neil Mock.

Do I have a quick question?

Duane, quick question for you.

Um the scenario I talked about with these outside entities coming in and dumping their trash here.

What what is the versus uh uh Mr.

Walker and and what he does?

What's the is there any way that you can give me a percentage of where the that that cost would be bore most?

Does that make so so like like is our cards gonna feel it at 80 percent and then folks like Rocky at about 20 percent?

Or can you can you can you give me that figure?

I don't know if I have a great answer for that question.

Um, but cards currently is our largest customer.

So most uh more of the total revenue is going to come from them than any other entity that's coming in.

Um do you know how much what percentage of revenue they are at the landfill?

Sixty percent uh thirty percent?

Uh no, sir, it's not quite that much, but I'm I'm thinking it's uh at this point it's probably about a third.

I haven't looked at that in a little while.

Okay.

Uh waste management and uh MSG roll off for second and third.

Okay.

And then the one one thing that I've got is kind of uh unrelated to this, but uh what are the hours that are well our our landfill did it used to be open until four o'clock on Saturdays?

It did.

And did that get cut back?

Yes, sir.

Um last spring we cut it back to 1130 for the public and and noon for the large haulers.

Okay.

I I got a picture that there was quite a bit of there's a huge line there on Saturday.

Is that normal on Saturday?

Not lately.

Okay.

You you you you experienced what I what I got a picture of.

I saw it.

Um usually you know, sometimes it depends on the weather.

If we've had rain recently and then we have some sunny weather, sometimes we see more people coming into the landfill.

I'm not uh this was not first Saturday, so I don't have a good explanation of why it was busier than usual, but it was busier than we've seen in several months.

And so for four for getting back to specifically the ordinance for this um for the for the change that we're making here, you're gonna allow residential every day.

Like or you're gonna you're gonna allow Fort Smith residents to drop off of the landfill every day, whereas now they can just do it on Saturday.

For $10, right?

That's right.

On the first Saturday, and part of the reason for that is that we noticed that we are busier on that first Saturday of the month generally, and you know, that's kind of an issue for the landfill as well as the residents, and we uh I I don't think the amount of business coming in will change.

We might as well open that up and make it more convenient for them.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Director Regal and Director Settle.

Uh I don't have a question anymore, Mayor.

Thank you.

Okay, Director Settler.

I just want to also clear up the $10.

It's $10.

Any citizen of Fort Smith can come with the truck pickup truck.

Dump off the landfill for $10 any day going forward after this passes.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Up to up to about two cubic yards, which is a pickup load.

Okay, well, is this take sorry just take effect in January, January 1st if it passes?

That's that's correct.

All right, thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Madam Kirk, please call the roll.

Director George Kit Savis.

Abstain.

Christina Kit Savis.

You know, I don't feel like I have sufficient information to make a determination at this time, so I'm gonna abstain.

Settle.

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Kemp.

Yes.

Passes four in favor, zero opposed.

Oh, I'm sorry, five in favor, zero opposed, and two abstentions.

Thank you.

At this time.

Item number five is a request from administration that item number five be withdrawn.

Mr.

Dingman, would you like to make any comments?

No, just that.

That would need item five to be withdrawn from for consideration from this evening's agenda.

Okay.

Thank you.

We'll go to item number six.

Item six is a resolution authorizing acquisition of sewer utility easement for a consent decree project.

Uh City Engineer Jimmy Johnson will speak or answer any questions from the board.

The city's been necessitated for the consent decree compliance to uh be able to reconstruct a sewer line.

Uh the city personnel initially did a uh property value report, and that report come back for a value of six thousand three hundred and eighteen dollars.

The property owner made a counter offer of nine thousand dollars, and he supported his offer with a uh an appraisal and the the appraisal cost him two thousand five hundred dollars.

So his counter offer was uh eleven thousand five hundred dollars.

Uh considered consideration was given to the project scheduling and costs of imminent domain proceedings, which would likely exceed the counter offer.

Uh staff therefore makes a recommendation to approve the counter offer of eleven thousand five hundred dollars.

I'll stand for any questions.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any further questions for him?

Okay.

Are there any citizens' comments?

None indicated.

Motion to adopt the resolution.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Are there any comments from the board?

Please call the roll, Madam Clerk.

Director Settle?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savis?

Yes.

Christina Kitsavis.

Yes.

Motion passes six in favor, zero opposed.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

At this time we will go to the consent agenda.

There are seven items listed on tonight's consent agenda.

Staff request removal of item 7A for separate consideration.

The remaining items 7B through 7G are as follows.

A resolution adopting amendment to the agreement with Baker Tilly for water sewer risk assessment services.

The resolution declaring project complete and authorizing final payment to Dale Crampton Company for roof repair on city buildings damaged by hail.

A resolution authorizing acceptance of utility easements for the Highway 45 relocation project.

A resolution authorizing change order number four regarding the highway 255 18-inch waterline relocation project.

A resolution accepting the project as complete and authorizing final pay on the highway 255 18-inch waterline relocation project.

And a resolution authorizing a third-party solid waste services contract.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Madam Clerk, are there any comments on any of these items?

Yes, we have Kim Fodge for item 7B.

Okay, thank you.

Any others?

No.

Okay, thank you.

This time we will entertain a motion to adopt all items on the consent agenda with the exception of item A, which will we'll have a separate vote.

So move.

Second.

Thank you.

Any further comments from the board?

Seeing none, please call the roll.

Directors Martin.

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savis.

Christina Kit Savis.

Yes.

Settle.

Yes.

It's approved seven in favor, zero opposed.

This time, Madam Crog, please uh on item A.

Mr.

Dingman, you recognize.

Thank you, Mayor.

Item 7A is a resolution approving and authorizing execution of a real estate contract for the sale of surplus city property at 7700 Texas Road.

And this item is revised from what is in your agenda packet.

The city received competing offers to purchase this property and an offer subsequent to the one presented in the packet is more advantageous to the city.

Deputy Administrator Rice will speak further to this item.

Yes, thank you.

The city did receive an offer over asking of $50,001.

Um the closing date.

And staff reviewed the offers and discussed them with Colby and we decided that the $400 offer, the the lower offer was actually the better offer.

Okay.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Are there any comments on that item?

Okay.

Thank you.

Any comments from the board?

Mayor.

Yes.

So this is the property right across from Calvin Hall School District.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

So when we brought this to the board, I asked a very important question.

Do we contact the school and see if the school would like to have this property?

Did we do that?

No.

I did not make contact.

But I'm a no because to me the school system needs parking over there.

And so if we haven't contacted the school to see if they at least wanted it, I'll be a no.

If the board wants to place somebody develop on it, that's fine.

But to me, I contact them to buy it.

Contact to see if they George, it's our school system.

There's parking, there's kids, there's there's traffic needs.

Go buy the schools and there's traffic.

Even if they might be closing that school.

I don't know if that's happening or not.

Yeah, I don't know either.

I know it's on the list.

But I I I thought we contacted them, but that's that's where I'm at.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve item 7A.

So second.

Okay.

Madam Clerk.

Yes.

Yes, director can.

This is a property on our list that we talked about selling, correct?

Yes, sir.

Are we getting the word out to the community and how are we doing that?

These properties are listed with Gain and Cooper commercial properties on the MLS.

There is a large sign on this property for sale.

We received multiple offers on this property.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Okay.

There are no further questions.

Please call the roll.

Director Rego?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savis?

Yes.

Christina Kit Savis.

Yes.

Settle?

I'm a no.

Martin.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Six in favor, one opposed.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

At this time we'll go to go to the official form.

If you have not have not picked up your copy of the Fortress Public Schools and Report, please do so.

We missed the toy toss tonight.

We did.

I wanted to go to.

Yeah, I did too.

I did two.

Um nothing for me, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

Director Settle.

Oh, sir.

Okay.

Director Savis.

Nothing for me, thank you.

Director Josh Gossavis.

Um Director Kemp.

I'd like to thank my lovely wife, Sarah Kemp, as we will be celebrating 20 years of marriage tomorrow.

And uh I thank you.

I'd like to thank her for putting up for me, uh, putting up with me and uh tolerating all my shaman.

God love her.

God love her.

She's not she's at home.

Yeah, we're going on a trip tomorrow.

She's packing us up.

She is uh she's a she's a champ.

She is a strong woman, strong woman.

That's right.

Thank you, Mary.

Director Good.

Um I thank staff for all the staff that were there at yesterday's budget hearing meetings.

It was not quite a longest day as I expected, but um they were there, ready, prepared, uh to answer questions, uh give information.

So I just wanted to thank our staff for being there.

Thank you, Director Good, for making that point again.

Uh great work on behalf of our staff.

Great staff.

Director Rego.

Nothing, sir.

Okay, Mayor, I forgot something.

Um I just want what I'm getting a lot of complaints again on the mosquitoes brain.

Do you all have any thoughts?

Do you want to look at it again?

Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

No, you're all right.

Yep, second.

So how do we do this then?

Sounds like you made a motion, George.

Yeah, you made a motion.

I made a motion.

Okay.

Second.

Well, sure, I'd like I'd love to discuss that again at a study session.

Okay.

No, we're going to adjourn.

If there's no further business come before the board and a motion to adjourn.

Let's go on uh this time the board will go into executive session and make appointments to advisory committee.

And the building building board of adjustments.

Okay.

Very much at this time we're gonna reconvene and the following have been appointed uh to the Building Board of Adjustments and Appeal.

Um Michelle uh Dudrow has been appointed to the audit advisory committee, uh Miss Christina Cassavis uh and Director Neil Martin.

And uh Director Good is currently serving on that audit committee.

Okay, thank you.

Uh if there's nothing else to come before the board, motion to adjourn.

All in favor, ayes.

No no's motion to adjourn.

Thanks.