Good evening and welcome to the Fort Smith City Board of Directors meeting on this uh great February 3rd of 2026, particularly after the snow blizzard that we had.

Um again, thank all of you for being here and keep in mind these meetings are being televised live for the benefit of our residents who can't be with us in person.

Um at this time, I'm going to ask uh Director Re I'm gonna ask Director Rigo to lead the to lead the invocation, and then Director Good to lead us in the pledge.

If you wouldn't mind joining me in a word of prayer, Lord, we come before you humbly this evening uh and in a grateful spirit for the opportunity we have to serve you for the blessings that you shower upon our city and for the chance that we have to do our small part uh in the relay race of life to make this world better around us.

We pray humbly in the name of your son Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice are all again.

Thank you for being here.

This time we're gonna ask the clerk to please call the role.

Director's Rigo here.

Good.

Here Kim here, George Kasavis.

Christina Cassavis here, settled.

Martin.

Here.

Okay, thank you very much.

This time we will ask for approval of the January uh the January 20th, 2026 regular meeting.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor.

Okay, thank you.

Uh just uh a reminder, a motion, and a second to adopt each of the following items must be offered before director's comments are made.

Public comments on item must pertain to the presented item.

Uh before we go into the agenda, let me welcome a couple of friends from the Arkansas Municipal League.

Um, Mr.

Uh Jack Critcher and and John Wilkerson are here to make special presentations to our uh legislative team.

Gentlemen, you recognize.

Well, thank you very much.

Um thank you for having having me every time I come to Fort Smith.

I'm reminded my my grandma was in Lavaca, so I spent a lot of time with my cousins here in uh Fort Smith.

In fact, once got a whoop in one time for riding a uh zip line at Fiona Hills, so I know the area well.

But it's always good to be back to be back at Fort Smith.

And I I will say this for on behalf of Fort Smith, if I may, you are blessed with some really amazing legislators at the Arkansas Legislature, uh Arkansas legislature, and we're here to honor three of them.

One of them, unfortunately, couldn't be couldn't make it, and Jack has a message from her.

But I'll start with Representative uh Jay Richardson.

And Representative Richardson, as you know, where he's here, yes, he is, um, has done a remarkable job for for you and for the cities and towns of Arkansas.

And one bill in particular, he really went behind and stood behind and championed for for you and for other cities and towns of Arkansas and Neglected Properties bill, which I could go into a long discussion about how that was going to help the cities and towns of Arkansas.

We didn't ultimately get it to the finish line, unfortunately.

Um we're we're gonna take another stab at it in 2027.

But the work that he put in to understanding the issue, dissecting the issue, and doing what he could on that legislation for the city of Fort Smith primarily, and then of course, on behalf of a lot of other cities and towns of Arkansas, is worth mentioning.

Uh he has been a friend of ours for a long time, a friend of Fort Smith's for a long time.

He is someone you can go to and talk to and understand and talk through an issue, and he will listen and he will understand, and he'll do what he can to help uh when he can.

So um, on behalf of the Arkansas Municipal League, and I hope on behalf of the City of Fort Smith, I'd like to recognize uh the Honorable J.

Richardson in honor of him who's demonstrated exemplary service that benefited cities and and towns of Arkansas during the 95th General Assembly.

This is the distinguished legislator award for the municipal league.

Thank you, sir.

And also I might add uh Jay's work behind the scenes um with um some senators on on pushing forward uh help with our consent decree.

We thank you for that as well.

Absolutely good point.

Uh up next is Senator Justin Boyd, who uh sometimes I refer to as Mr.

Fort Smith because every time there is a bill that's at the legislature and we have a question about, we will go talk to him, and his first question, as Jack mentioned a second ago, is how does this impact Fort Smith?

And he has been a great friend to y'all, great friend to us for many, many years.

Again, as someone that who thinks through ideas that help your city and works with us on ideas that helps all cities and towns in Arkansas.

And again, it's someone who is a champion for his district and a champion for all the we like to say the good ideas to help cities and towns across Arkansas.

And he is a thoughtful person, a great senator, and again, you are very blessed to have this Senator Senator Justin Boyd.

And so again, on behalf of the Arkansas Municipal League and on behalf of the City of Fort Smith, if I may, I'd like to honor Senator Boyd for for him who's demonstrated exemplary service that benefited the cities and towns of Arkansas during the 95th General Assembly.

This is a distinguished legislator award from the municipal league.

Thank you, sir.

Of course.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And finally, and Mayor, thank you so much for allowing us to come up here.

Absolutely.

Uh Mayor McGill, when he was in the House six years ago, or a few years ago, four or six years.

He got one of these every time, and uh we uh really miss you down there, and thank you for your service down there.

And thank you for allowing us to come up here and do this.

Uh, this is your other one of your other uh legislators, Cindy Crawford.

We had her uh to come tonight and receive this.

She called me late this afternoon and she said, please let them know that I'm not feeling well today, but she said let them know how much how um economic development, how important it is to me, and how I want to continue to work with the city uh to help them continue to do all the good things they are, especially in the realm of economic development.

And would love to be here if I could, but anyway, she said please give them our regards.

So anyway, that's her behalf of Cinder Cross.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank y'all.

Again, on behalf of the city of Fort Smith, we we really appreciate you gentlemen taking time to drive all the way to Fort Smith uh to make these important presentations.

And sort of a side note, when I was in the legislature, I worked with uh uh at that time, Representative Justin Boyd, and uh it was a great uh honor to work with him as we got a lot of things done for the state and Fort Smith.

Again, congratulations to Justin and to Representative Richardson for your hard work and support of our city of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Okay.

At this time, we will go to the first item on the agenda.

Thank you, Mayor.

The first item tonight is an ordinance rezoning several properties and creating a planned zoning district near the intersection of 74th Street and Rogers Avenue.

Deputy City Administrator Maggie Rice will speak to this item.

Yes, on January 13th, the planning commission held a public hearing to consider the subject rezoning application.

The property containing a little over eight acres is located on the southwest corner of Rogers Avenue and South 74th Street, just south of Mercy Hospital.

The proposed rezoning to a planned zoning district allows for a mixed use development of retail service and entertainment uses as listed within the land use chart, while allowing an increase in height for a proposed hotel.

A neighborhood meeting was held on January 7th.

There were no neighboring property owners that attended that meeting.

At the planning commission meeting, Mr.

Bob Cooper was present to represent the item.

There were none present to speak in favor or opposition.

The planning commission voted nine in favor with zero opposed to recommend the zoning map be amended.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

This time we'll entertain any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk.

Uh we only have one, Miss Uh Kim Fodge.

Ms.

Faj, you're recognized.

Good evening.

Um, I just uh I'm in support of this project.

I don't have an issue with it.

I think it's fantastic.

I looked over the information in the agenda packet.

My only concern is the traffic along 74th Street and what the city is going to do to try to mitigate some of the issues that we're currently experiencing there.

And then once this development begins, it it you're like plain frogger trying to get in and out of these businesses and not getting hit by cars that are coming and going in all kinds of directions.

So that's my only concern about this.

Um and I'm Miss Maggie Rice uh spoke to me about it.

Um she said that there's some uh steps being taken with 70th Street, but I just wanted to bring my concerns to your attention and see if the city can't do anything about the issues on 74th Street.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any others?

Madam Clerk.

None indicated.

Okay, at this time we would entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance with suspension of the rules.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance.

An ordinance rezoning identified property and amending the zoning map in the system of properties located at 7308, 7310, 7316, and 7320 Rogers Avenue and 3106 and 3110 South 74th Street.

Thank you.

At this time, we'll entertain comments from the board.

Director Neil Martin, you recognize I think this is an awesome project.

I know ever since it started and started demolition and that of the buildings, it's uh really transformed that area, and so I'm excited to see the the next phase of this.

So very cool.

Okay.

Any other comments?

Madam Kirk, please call the roll.

Directors Rego.

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kim?

Yes.

George Gitzavis?

Yes.

Christina Kitsavis.

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

This time we'll entertain a motion to adopt the emergency clause.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Please call the roll.

Directors good.

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Gitzavis.

Yes.

Christina Kitsavis.

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

We'll go to item two.

Item two is an ordinance rezoning several properties and creating a planned zoning district in the 1500 block of North Greenwood Avenue and May Avenue.

Ms.

Rice.

Yes, sir.

On January 13th, the planning commission held a public hearing to consider the subject master land use plan amendment and rezoning applications.

The pro the property contains a little over one acre and the proposed master land use plan amendment to mixed use employment and zoning to a plan zoning district will allow for a PCD containing two character areas known as Character Area A and Character Area B.

Character Area A includes 1520, 1524, and 1530 North Greenwood Avenue and contains uses compatible with existing land uses along North Greenwood Avenue, including a bridle shop, gift shop, auto dealer, auto parts and accessory sales, and indoor tire sales.

Character Area B includes 1525 and 1531 May Avenue and permits specific more intensive auto automotive related uses, including auto detailing, auto body and paint shops, auto repair, and auto-glass muffler and seat cover shops.

A neighborhood meeting was held January 8th.

No neighboring property owners were in attendance.

At the planning commission meeting, Dana Rosa was present to represent these applications.

There were none present to speak in favor or opposition.

The planning commission voted nine in favor with zero opposed to recommend the master land use plan map and zoning map be amended.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Are there any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

Uh we only have Mr.

Ricky Hill to answer questions.

Okay, thank you for being here, Mr.

Heel.

This time we entertain a motion to adopt the ordinance with suspension of the rules.

So move with suspension of the rules.

Second.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read the ordinance.

An ordinance amending the master land use plan map and rezoning identified property and amending the zoning map.

And this is for properties located at 1520, 1524, and 1530 North Greenwood Avenue in 1525 and 1531 May Avenue.

Okay, thank you very much.

Are there any board comments?

Okay, seeing none, please call the roll.

Directors Kemp.

Yes.

George Git Savis?

Yes.

Christina Kitsavis?

Yes.

Settled?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego.

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

This time we'll need a motion to adopt the emergency clause.

So move.

Second.

Thank you.

Please call the roll.

Directors George Gitzavis.

Christina Kitzavis.

Yes.

Settle.

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp.

Yes.

Motion passes seven in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you.

We'll go to item number three.

Items 3A and 3B both relate to the construction of the out of the way rehabilitation project funded by the climate pollution reduction grant.

Item 3A is a resolution authorizing a contract with Western Millright Commercial Construction for Conction of the Alleyway Rehabilitation Project and the amount of $2,612,654.

Item 3B is a resolution approving a contract with McClellan Consulting Engineers for Construction Administration Services on this project.

Thank you, City Administrator, Mayor, and Board.

At the December 16th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of directors, the board directed that this project be rebid due to the expiration of the initial 60-day bid window and the need for a change order.

Bids were reissued in January, and the closed bid opening was held on January 27th, resulting in six responsive bids.

The lowest responsive bid was submitted by Western Miller Services in the amount of $2,612.

I'm sorry, $612,654, with the updated engineering estimate at 3,966,819.

In addition, the um the construction administration and energy uh engineering services agreement was also updated uh for the rebid and also the extension on the construction contract.

Um and again, this is a CPRG funded program, 100% funded on both of these agreements, and I'll stand for any questions.

Fantastic.

And thanks for your work on securing these grants.

Uh Madam Cro, did anyone sign up to speak on these items?

Uh yes, we do have some.

Um Mr.

Annie, Andy Hannah is here to answer questions.

Okay.

Okay.

And then we'll have Andy Postrick.

Each will have two minutes.

Okay.

Uh hi, thanks everybody.

Um I use the alleyways, I love the alleyways.

Uh, something that you might not know about them.

If you go to the uh Fort Smith History Museum, there's an exhibit about the first time we paved Garrison Avenue, and they set it up as sort of this disaster because we used bricks and these bricks only lasted like 10 years.

Uh but those bricks were uh taken right out of what is now what we call the acne brickyard.

Uh and after it turned out paving garrison with bricks was uh deemed to be a failure.

We took those bricks and we paved the alleyways for the first time uh with those bricks.

And now if you go to some of these alleyways, it looks like they haven't been paved ever since.

They're in really bad shape.

Uh I saw some pushback about this over the weekend because of the organization funding this.

Um I just would like to keep in mind that this is uh this is paving streets.

Uh it's something that we should be doing anyway.

I'd love to live in a place where we don't have to use grants to take care of our infrastructure, but the state of the alleyways is proof that uh we're just not there yet.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Madam Clerk, were there any more comments on that?

Uh yes, we have Joe Elskin.

Joe, you're recognized.

Thank you.

I um I have a couple of things.

First of all, I kind of wonder whether you all wonder why I'm always here.

And uh I just wanted to take this moment to explain that.

Uh I feel like your compensation for this job is so little that you couldn't raise a family on it.

And so you are committed to your day job.

And because that's reasonable, I feel like citizens who are retired need to go out and do the things that would be the communication you all need.

And so I don't ever like to criticize because I recognize your work is not easy, and you are managing a lot of things.

Um pleasing citizens and paying bills, it just contradicting.

No, they can't work together.

So I'm here because I feel like I I mean I'm captive of George Katzavis' ward.

I'm familiar with it, walk it a lot, have family in it.

I work or volunteer in ward one and two.

I spend a lot of time there, and I feel like it would be my civic duty to come to board meetings and be the person that you can't be.

You can't be in those during your day.

You cannot be out there in the community.

So I just I wanted to let you know that I feel like it's my mission to make sure that I'm communicating, not criticizing communicating.

Also, I wish all of you could go and walk the streets on the side of the alleyways, because you would see uh why the people love them and want that to be taken care of.

And you also would maybe notice that there are empty lots, and in fill in those empty lots would be a financial gain for you all, and with the alleyways, improved investors could be maybe incentivized to to build in those empty lots.

And I'm out of time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

Was there anyone else, Madam Clark?

Uh yes, last we have Shane McKinney.

Hi guys.

So uh I have eight properties that are bordering the various alleys that are going to be addressed with this.

One of those alleys in particular was destroyed about two years ago with the sewer project, which needed to happen, and uh I'm glad that that occurred.

But their reason for not fixing it back and redoing the asphalt was because this alleyway project was imminent.

It was going to happen in just a few months, uh maybe three or four months.

Uh this city has a habit of having projects that are going to happen in two or three months that take years.

Um there's a patch of sidewalk that I had tore up by one of our local sewer uh workers, and they said it'll be about three to four weeks before they get the sidewalk repaired.

That was six months ago.

We're still waiting.

Um, over and over and over again.

So these alleyways are egress.

There's a person that lives next to one of these properties that he needs to have the abilities unlimited, come picking up in a wheelchair, take them to doctor's appointments, all of those things.

And this sewer project has left the alley so bumpy that the truck has problems, he has issues.

Uh it affects real people in a lot of ways that you don't necessarily think of.

We think of an alley as not being that important, but it is very important.

Um, and I think it's uh something that we need to address not just on this project, but can we talk about how to prevent our city's I'd say epidemic of incredible delays on infrastructure that should be relatively simple and the inconvenience it makes for our citizens?

Filling potholes, things like that, every city struggles with, but I feel like our city over and over again is making commitments that we can't keep and uh is making timelines that other cities could keep, and that it's not unreasonable three months from when a sewer is destroying an alley to expect well they can fix it.

That doesn't sound like an unreasonable period of time, but it's been almost two years now.

That's what I'd like to say.

Thank you.

So moved.

Second, thank you.

Any uh board comments?

Mayor, I have one director Josh, Director Rego and then Director Josh Gassavage.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, real quick, I just wanted to say to Josh, thank you uh for your work on this.

And uh unless my math is faulty in comparison to what was brought forward in December, uh, this combined uh item for our consideration tonight is about sixty-nine thousand dollars cheaper than what um we were considering back in December.

So uh thank you for the work on that and uh look forward to uh hopefully this project moving forward.

Appreciate your work.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, director savage.

Josh, when this work is complete, who who who I guess the city will maintain the alleys after that?

Yes, I mean there are alleys to maintain now, and this is in sorts an actual maintenance project from what Matt Meekers told me is that they are you know our easements are alleys and uh those are uh maintenance and when he citizen calls and puts in a uh word to public works that those something is wrong.

It's got blight, different things.

And so in source, this is kind of a maintenance project for these sections of alleyway.

So since this is a grant, is there any strings attached with the grant other than the construction part?

No, sir.

Nothing.

No, we just report on the project when it's complete.

Um that's pretty much it.

And these are all city-owned alleys.

Correct, sir.

We do have private alleys, correct?

In town.

I that would not be a question I could answer.

Yeah.

Do we, Maggie?

They function as private alleys, they're private alleys.

And then the homeowner would maintain those.

Yes, sir.

So the city is the city takes care of the alleys, in other words.

If there's a problem, uh the potholes, water leak, tree to retreat knock down.

I would I would say that for the driving service, then yes, the city maintains alleyways, but for vegetation and things like that, then that's when the proper adjacent property owners to maintain those areas.

So Josh, when they get finished, there should be much maintenance to do, should there?

After they're complete with their construction.

No, there it's kind of again, it'll be brand new pavement, and so it should be.

Okay, that's fine.

I'm good with that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Any of the board comments?

Director Good, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor.

Josh, I just want to go ahead and say thank you.

Um, not just for the work you did on the project, but the work you do in the community.

Um organizations on the north side of town that you work with very closely, uh, particularly Arkansas Climate League, Dr.

Rick Murphy and that whole group just loved you to death.

They appreciated the work, the time, the passion that you have in the area and the projects.

So thank you for what you do because it does make a difference in the community.

And just of course a side note on the alleyways, particularly on the north side.

You know, I I really appreciate the areas that were chosen.

Um, you know, not only will it provide a bit more safety with the lighting, uh, the paved uh alleyways for biking, walking.

There's that level of safety that people have when they see street lights on, and just to be able to walk out and and not have to wonder, you know, if there's somebody lurking around the corner in the dark, you know, means a lot to some of the citizens, particularly on the north side that have communicated that we need to support this.

So thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Director Camp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Joshua, once again, thank you for your work on this.

Um appreciate that.

One thing that the board did get emailed about, and it's just something maybe us to be conscious or think about, uh, or maybe there's a way that the city can administration or wise could look into this, but there was positive comments about the lighting attached to this project and wondering you know, is there a way to look at other alleyways, especially the maybe on the corners of blocks if there's a lot of darkness in those sections?

What we can either do to look at if it's a light that needs to be repaired or maybe potentially a light added.

And I know that some residents are gonna maybe not prefer that to happen, so I don't know how we would go about doing that, and perhaps that's something that staff can look into and get back with us on.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other comments from the board?

Okay.

Seeing none, please call the roll.

Directors Christina Kit Savis, yes.

Settled, yes, Martin.

Yes.

Rego, yes.

Good, yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Git Savage.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Thank you very much.

Item number four.

Item four is a resolution approving an agreement with Main Street Fort Smith to provide downtown development services and provide for the operation of the Arkansas Main Street program in the city of Fort Smith.

This item was discussed at the January 20th regular meeting where the topic was then moved to the study session discussion on January 27th.

At the study session, Main Street Fort Smith Executive Director Amanda Hager and members of the Main Street Fort Smith Board reviewed the organization's past year of activities as well as planned activities for 2026.

Funding for this agreement is included in the city administration programs 2026 operating budget, but during the study session discussion, it was determined that funding for this agreement should come entirely from the general fund.

That can be done administratively through a budget transfer of operating funds.

As for the agreement itself, Ms.

Hager is here this evening to answer any further questions the board may have related to this agreement.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for being here, Amanda.

Well, there are any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk.

Yes, we do have several.

The first being uh Stephanie Nugent.

Ms.

Nugent, you're recognized.

Hello, my name is Stephanie Nugent.

I am a business owner downtown.

I own cyber spider marketing.

I am a property owner downtown.

I own the building.

Could you pull the mic down a little bit, please?

Sorry.

Thank you.

Um I'm a business owner downtown and a property owner downtown, and I'm also the director of the downtown business association.

As such, I work with Amanda a lot.

And I think that we should approve this because she is directly helping businesses downtown.

There she with her grant that she has that helps them pay to get the outsides of their businesses brought up to what we would want.

And with education projects that she has and with the she has a new incubator program that's going to really help fill some of the empty spots.

I think that is huge, not just for the people who get the grants, but for everybody because as each one gets improved, other people will see it and think it is better and do their part and be able to do stuff too.

And she does the Invest Fort Smith that is filled with information that can help businesses improve new new ideas.

I went to the last one.

There was a bunch of stuff about AI and all kinds of stuff like that.

And Levitt is wonderful.

I take my 84-year-old mother to every one of them.

Yes, she even went to the headbanger one.

And actually stayed for three songs.

So she just likes to try them all.

Anyway, and free concerts was one of the things that was on the survey of what the people of Fort Smith want more than anything.

This free live music or live music, not necessarily free.

Anyway, also she facilitates things behind the scenes.

Oh, I'm out of time.

Anyway, thank you, and I hope you say yes.

Thank you.

Next we have Jesse Burrows.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.

My name is Jesse Burroughs.

I've been a downtown Fort Smith business opener since 2018.

I'm a board member of Main Street Fort Smith and actively volunteer for the organization.

I'm speaking today from my direct experiences as someone who both benefits from and contributes to the downtown programming.

I regularly volunteer at Main Street Fort Smith's events and see firsthand how much coordination and effort goes into making them successful.

At the Levitt Concert Series, we have worked with many great organizations, one being Fort City Kids, and I'm myself am a single mother, and that we are able to bring family-friendly events to our downtown has been a wonderful.

Um, up until the last few months, my child was basically my shadow for eight years down here.

So being able to have something for him to be able to do, and that was family friendly was very helpful, and that was because of Main Street Fort Smith.

The events just don't happen out of nowhere, and they require planning, they require permits, they require partnerships, volunteers, and the events can't happen without those and the follow-through.

Main Street has provided that much needed structure and consistency that we've needed for that.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm a downtown Fort Smith business owner and have been for almost eight years.

I've seen the ups and downs both pre and post-COVID.

The impact of Main Street Fort Smith's work on the traffic visibility and overall downtown energy shows.

Having an organization like Main Street Fort Smith that understands both the big picture and logistics is invaluable to the downtown businesses and event organizations.

I myself do the Third Street Fair and have for five years now.

From the perspective of a downtown business owner and volunteer and board member that provides, I feel like they provide real value to downtown, and I hope that you would consider that from somebody that's here all the time.

Okay, thank you very much.

And Jesse, thank you for all the work you do in our city.

A lot of it goes unnoticed, but I do see it.

Thank you.

Next we have Milo Mazur.

Hello, I'm gonna read my statement because it's very overwhelming with y'all being up on the stage there.

Um, my name is Mylan Mazor.

I am a um a board member with the Downtown Business Association, and I am the director of the Clayton House, and I also live downtown.

Um, and I would just like to um express my strong support for our local Main Street program and the vital role it plays in the excess success of our downtown and community as a whole.

I see firsthand the impact Main Street has had on our local economy and quality of life because we are a designated Main Street community.

Our downtown businesses have access to grant opportunities that would not otherwise be available.

These resources directly support growth, preservation, and long-term sustainability.

Preservation is really important to me, being the director of the Clayton House and preserving our downtown buildings is is really very, very important.

In addition, Main Street is an outstanding partner to our local attractions.

Their collaboration with organizations like ours has helped create meaningful events such as the Fall Festival, the Coco Crawl, and other initiatives that the like the Levitt Music Series that brings residents, visitors, and businesses together in positive and memorable ways.

Main Street strengthens our sense of place, supports our entrepreneurs, and fosters the kind of vibrant connected community we all want to see thrive.

I am grateful for their impact in our community and encourage your continued support of this important program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Phil White.

Hey Jeff, I'm getting uh messages that the sound is off.

Yes, Josh, are you working with it?

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um so far, no support, so maybe I don't need to say anything.

I mean, no opposition, maybe I don't need to say anything.

Uh Central Business Improvement District, I'm a commissioner on that for about 18 years.

Started back in 1967.

And from 1967 to now, the Central Business Improvement District has had two paid employees, which the city paid.

Those two directors didn't last but about five years.

The CBID is made up of volunteers, just like you guys.

We don't have a paid downtown full-time uh employee to do.

So everything we do is in our extra time.

When this goes back to Talisha and it started 646, what a great job.

Beautiful murals downtown.

So many comments from people that come from out of town and visit our city and see those murals.

And that's the one big project that grabs my mind.

Downtown is the face of our whole community.

Every town has a Rogers Avenue and a Towson Avenue, but every downtown's different.

We've lost with tornadoes and fires, and it's such a full-time job.

Main Street, the reason I wanted to say something is because a lot of people think Main Street is a duplication of what the CBID does.

It is not.

Thank you, Phil.

Field is a godfather of downtown development.

When downtown was dead, Phil invested many, many dollars in bringing it alive, and we thank you for the role you played in redeveloping downtown, Phil.

Appreciate you.

Madam Craig, was anyone else?

Yes, we hit next we have Ken Lyon.

Hello again, back again.

Uh I was here two weeks ago.

I didn't comment on my hesitance about uh 646 historically because my prior experience with them was that there's actually not resources for people trying to develop here.

Uh I followed up after watching the Tuesday meeting uh with Amanda, very nice, very professional.

But what are the resources?

What are the actual opportunities?

As somebody actually trying to develop something, I went and asked, what is there for me?

The two grant programs consist of if you're already an owner, you get to be able to get refunded after for putting in lights, and then the art program is basically the same type of thing of it's just you get paid back if you put the money forward.

Who is supposed to be applying for these?

Where are artists?

Who besides a landowner actually is applying for this?

Additionally, I was trying to start the table of seven group that I've been talking to some of y'all about.

There's no help for that.

They're too busy for the next six months doing quote research.

Uh the incubator also will not be ready for another six months.

What are they actually?

What labor is happening?

What is actually happening for the public?

Because I genuinely cannot answer that because they don't do the actual grants.

They tell you it exists, and then you go do it.

They've been researching for a year, apparently, and they have two.

They're going to research for six more months.

Are we going to have three grants?

Will those be reimbursements at the end of the day?

This is an old school method that fundamentally is misaligned with the propel Fort Smith or the Propel Downtown Forward.

It is a copy paste from Main Street America, meant as a commercial thoroughfare life support system for a place where when you say Main Street, people know what Main Street you're talking about.

This is a city, it's not the right program for this city.

It is not going to drive Fort Smith or the downtown forward because it doesn't even know what it's trying to do.

I still don't know what Main Street we're talking about when we talk about supporting Main Street, but the misalignment is there's an impression from the public they're supposed to be promoting downtown.

And we're gonna spend three years not having downtown promoted, watching it stagnate, and it's not gonna go good for anybody.

I think we need to have take more time and find a realignment because it's not there right now.

So thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Next we have Eric Wideman.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Uh I just have was there any negotiations in this?

Did we ask for a lower price?

Is this price a set price?

Can they do it any cheaper?

Can anybody answer that, please?

There was no there was not any discussion on price as a continuation of the price that we've had before.

Anybody else?

I mean that that's correct.

That was the the price that we've had for three years.

All right, thank you.

And last we have Dan Williams.

Good evening, board.

I'd uh like to say, I think it's been about two years ago, I heard Amanda at South Side, and she was sharing ideas and things like that.

And uh then I got to hear it at the study session.

I'd like to say I really appreciate our time with the study sessions and being able to hear those uh because you know, since then I have seen some things be accomplished.

Uh and really, well, that was one of the best presentations I've heard in the last couple of years that was given here for the city at the study session.

Um I do believe that uh after I heard that um, you know, I was really thinking about how can this work because she mentioned about anchor uh kind of this new thing that she was looking at, she had heard about the incubator uh process, and and I just so happened to be in a store the next day, and I heard the owner of the business talking, and they were talking about maybe potentially starting an off-site, something like what you had talked about, and I was able to share with them uh about it, and I gave them your contact number.

And so I don't know what came from that, but I just want to continue to encourage as the board as we have these study sessions.

Uh one of the things I didn't know about region bank and and how they had invested that money and how there's gonna be a hundred employees down there.

I mean, that's that is really good news.

And and that was one of the things that I was able to tell that business owner about uh that was happening because they sell discounted uh office supplies and things like that.

And so, you know, I think there is something to it, and I would like to see it continue uh just to see if there's a possibility to get more businesses down there, as I am a uh homeowner uh downtown also.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, any other comments?

That's all.

Okay, thank you.

Just time we'll entertain a motion to adopt the resolution.

So moved, second.

Thank you.

Any comments from the board?

Director Rigo, you recognize.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I just want to say uh as someone who regularly shops, dines, socializes downtown with friends and family, uh, I adamantly believe that downtown would be worse off without the hard work of a fully funded Main Street Fort Smith organization, uh Amanda and her team, and the board partners uh that help her get the work done.

So thank you for the hard work that you do, and I'm looking forward to supporting this tonight.

Thank you.

Director Settler, you recognize uh Jeff, you talked about administration where this is going to come out of is that something we need to put as part of the motion, or can you just move it to the non-departmental general fund areas?

It's that's at your discretion, but uh it can just be moved administratively.

That's where it should go is should go out of the non-departmental uh general fund.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

And uh Director Good.

Mayor, I have a question.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just uh a couple of comments.

Um, you know, and having some discussions about you know uh supporting this, that and the other thing.

You know, I just wanted to point out uh and we've said it before, you know, this is not one of those um either-or projects.

You know, we have to continue and we will continue to invest in ourselves, whether it's the downtown or the north side, the riverfront, South Sebastian, um, Chaffee Crossing.

You know, we are the city as a whole.

We're not a bunch of pieces, we are the city of Fort Smith, and we have to continue to invest in ourselves.

And downtown just happens to be one of the major gateways to us presenting ourselves to not just people that come here and work here every day, but visitors as well.

Okay, thank you, Director George Gustavs.

Oh, you go ahead, brother.

Amanda.

Is she here?

Yes, yeah.

Amanda, let me ask you a question.

Sure.

How long has this been?

How long have you all been in existence?

The organization was founded in 2015, um, and we have been a main street program since 2020.

Okay, Steve Clark started this, correct?

He did start it.

He was one of the founding organizers of the organization and one of the first board members, and he filed our 501c3 articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State.

So if you were to look at the Secretary of State's information for our business, you would see his name under um organizer, and because his name is on our articles of incorporation, which just shares our business history.

Well, if I remember uh originally it was 120,000 years what the city was giving you all.

I'm not sure to be honest with you.

I'm so sorry.

Um, when the contract was signed in 2023, I don't know the exact amount.

I wasn't here then.

Well um that that was the first agreement that we had to do.

No, it well it was 12,500 per month.

That particular year it started in February, went through the remainder of that year and then renewed for two additional years.

And how much a month is it now, Joe?

12,500.

Let me let me ask you a question.

What what you know when somebody invests money, they want to see a return on their investment to taxpayers.

What what tell me how we are benefiting financially from your organization?

Sure, as I shared in the study session, um, and as uh on our annual report, which is on our website, which is Main Street FS.org.

So if any citizen would like to look at our annual report, it's there.

Um, you'll see that not only the projects that we're creating that happen downtown, like the LevidAmp Fort Smith Music Series, um, Coco Crawl, Invest Fort Smith, um, and other organ other events like that, we're bringing foot traffic into downtown.

So it's hard to quantify exactly how much those people are spending when they come downtown for our events, but you can imagine a vast majority of them are popping in somewhere to maybe have a drink or dinner or do a little shopping.

Um all of the artists that we bring in for Levitt, um, every headliner that we bring in is pretty much regional, national act, and so we they stay in our hotels.

Um they we give them a food stipend as part of their contract.

They go out into our restaurants in downtown and eat.

We always give them a nice list and of course give them the downtown guide that we produce for free for the businesses.

We pay for that.

Um so that's in all of our tourism spaces that people can visit.

Uh so across the state, we have 13 visitor centers when you're driving into the state of Arkansas.

So our um downtown guide that Main Street put together and we pay for it to be printed.

It's in all of those.

Um it's also in all of our um several of the hotels, all the historic sites downtown, so it's accessible to our visitors and of course the visit, the new visitors.

So if a business is wanting to locate downtown, do you all offer any help?

So with with with the compliance from the city rules, regulations or C B ID or Yeah.

So something that we really want to start.

Right.

We're our hope is that you know, I already have a lot of times when people are thinking about build you know, wanting to come downtown, they'll call me and say, hey, is there a space available?

This is kind of what my business is, this is what I'm looking to do.

Um, and it allows us to be kind of that liaison for them.

Like who do they need to get into contact with?

Can we help them get to the right person to move forward?

Yeah.

Have you have with all the millionaires downtown?

Have none of them step forward with funding.

Do you get grants or I mean uh any donations?

I do get some donations.

Most of the donations that we get are specific to the programming we do.

They're not just like sustaining donors for the organization.

The fundraising that we do is highly focused on the programming that we provide.

So for instance, the Levant Ant Fort Smith Music Series, that's a grant that we get, but it has to be matched dollar for dollar locally.

So I'm going after those um grant matches.

And then for the other program, when we do like Invest Fort Smith and Coco Crawl, I get donations to pay for that so that way everything that we do is free for the community.

Yeah.

Well, I'm gonna go ahead and I'll vote for this this time, but I I'm just hoping maybe you can look for other revenue sources other than the city down the road.

Yeah, well, I have something.

You know, we've had some financial issues.

Sure.

Other than $8 million for a slide, but yeah.

I understand that you have to be fiscally responsible and mindful of the taxpayers' money.

I totally understand that.

And we as an organization, I agree.

We we need to make sure that we have a diverse funding source.

But I do think it is critical that the our municipality has a true partnership with Main Street Fort Smith and an investment in downtown Fort Smith and in many ways.

This is a majority property owner downtown.

The majority property owner?

Would you say um I not I can name a few there um I will say you call my name?

Yes, about money.

Yeah.

CBI they just voted at our last meeting.

Thank you.

That's great.

Yeah, 26.

26,000.

If you want to up it, that's my yes.

There uh they we have a contract of service now with the CBID um to help what it actually allowed us to hire a second employee, which we've never been able to do before, um, which is great because those incentives that you were talking about, ways that we can help businesses, that's gonna allow us to focus more on that and really get our incubator off the ground.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right, thank you.

So you're welcome.

Okay, thank you.

No problem.

Director Kemp.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, and uh thank you to thank you, Amanda and your board that's here tonight.

Uh, thank you for your presentation, the patience to walk through all that with the study session, deep diving into all the questions that the board had.

I think these things are very important for placemaking.

When you talk about sociologically, third places need to be promoted, developed, defended, uh places where people in the community can gather to meet each other uh to to develop new friendships or to foster deeper friendships.

And then ultimately I love the idea of the economic side of what you're doing with the businesses, and I am hopeful that more grants can come around and uh as the economy spins up and grants which seem to be kind of frozen in the landscape are more thawed and pursued, and then ultimately I love the networking that I hear instead of silo making.

I know you've talked to me about your partnerships with the downtown business associations, which we're talking about CBID, and congratulations on your extra dollars that were just committed tonight.

So but uh there's positive things, and and I appreciate the work that you're doing, and I'm proud to support it.

Okay, thank you.

Any other comments from the board?

Uh that organization is an energy driver and uh very much a motivator for all downtown businesses and encourages people to come downtown and see the one for we have.

Uh Director Neil Martin, you recognize Amanda and and everybody here.

I thank y'all for being here.

Uh, you know, I think I think everybody on this dais understands the need for downtown to be great, the downtown to be the hub.

Um I appreciate the information that you shared at the study session.

I think that's important that we hear on it on a regular basis.

Um I appreciate that.

The information is good.

I think we want to see growth downtown.

I think that's ultimately what we're all what we're all for.

So um we got to keep pushing forward.

So that's all I got.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, if there are no further comments, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Director Settle.

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Rego.

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kemp.

Yes.

George Gitzavis.

Yes.

Christina Kitzavis.

Abstain.

Okay.

Motion passes uh six in favor, zero opposed, and one abstention.

Okay, thank you very much.

Madam Crock, go to item five.

If I might.

Uh item five tonight is a resolution authorizing a contract with Forbus Mazar's LLP for the purpose of conducting an agreed-upon procedures audit of Parrot Island Water Park Operations.

Director of Internal Audit, Amanda Strange will address this item with the board.

Hello, everybody.

Thank you.

Um we've discussed these procedures a few different times most recently at last week's study session.

You know, we're focused on gathering feedback, listening to concerns, and coming up with these procedures to focus on uh testing transactions that happen, timeliness of payments and reporting, and financial analytics and recalculation of management's compensation.

Uh, we provided these procedures to Forvest Mazars, um, and they've had some tweaks to the wording to get them in line with uh professional standards, make sure that they're very clear.

Um the estimated cost is ranging between 30,000 and 40,000, and this will be paid from the water parks operating account.

Um attached here is the contract with Forvis.

Uh the detailed procedures are attached to that, so it's submitted here tonight for your approval.

Um, I'd like to answer any questions that I can.

Okay, thank you, Amanda.

Are there any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

Yes, uh, we do have two.

First being Kim Fodge.

Uh thank you.

Um I'm excited that we're doing a review of the books to see what's going on at Parrot Island.

However, I think we need to include 2023 and 2024 in that audit because of some concerns with some of the APP AP payables, accounts payable lists that showed that Clarity Pools wasn't paid for 2023 and 2024 invoices, um, in which totaled over 138,000.

They were also owed an additional 38,000 for 2025, and then Burton Pools wasn't paid for 2024 services.

Their 2024 balance sheet showed that their ratio was 0.9, which shows they weren't able to pay their obligations without either liquidating their assets or securing a loan.

Um there's also an accounts payable list that was owed that they had a list of over $369,000 that hadn't been paid in 2025.

The 24 profit and loss report showed a loss of 298,000 dollars, and the December 2024 attendance of 18,000 18,000 people is questionable.

And uh their explanation as is also questionable is why it was posted under December instead of the months that the um attendance actually occurred.

If the city can pay millions of dollars for water slides, they can pay a few thousand dollars more to include 2024 and 2023 in the audit.

Um at the bare minimum, I think 2024 should be included.

I think there also needs to be an annual accounting of receipts and expenditures to ensure that standard accounting practices are being followed.

And I think there needs to be a monthly report provided by the management firm to the city that includes financial reports, attendance, and any maintenance concerns.

Thank you.

Next we have Dan Williams.

She said everything I wanted to say.

No, uh I would just say I'm in agreement with doing more years.

However, if they start the audit and they find some things, then maybe that's when that kicks in.

I don't know if the board can look at it that way.

If you're finding some discrepancies to where you start the audit, then some y'all could vote something in to where it could kick in the other years as the process.

Thank you.

Anyone else, Madam Correct?

No, that's it.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Uh entertain a motion to adopt the resolution.

So moved.

Second.

Second.

Any board comments?

Mayor, I do.

Director Cassett.

Um what was your name again?

Amanda.

Amanda.

You work for the city, right?

Yes.

This forbus they do our external audit, correct?

That is correct.

Do you see any inkling of a conflict of interest?

No, there is a requirement for independence for from the city of the CPA.

So Forbes Mazars is independent of the city.

There's also an independence requirement to perform these agreed upon procedures.

So that has that has to be assessed by that external CPA before taking on this contract.

So that has been addressed.

There is not a conflict of interest.

So you don't think that'd be subject to outside influence?

No.

For many buddy.

Well, let me ask you if you remember the animal habit audit when we had that.

Only as a citizen, I was not involved in that.

Okay, we had our auditor to do an audit on it, and she found a several discrepancies.

And some on the board didn't didn't agree with that.

And I mean total hell broke loose.

And you all know about all this.

In fact, it got to the point where she, I mean, she she resigned.

That's how bad the politics was in this.

I'm just one of my just want to know that that we're gonna get uh an accurate assessment without any outside influence.

I do believe that Forbes Mazars is a great CPA firm.

I think that they're gonna give us the actual true answers and not be influenced by any outside parties.

Could I make a motion?

Sure can.

Mayor, I want to make a motion to include 2024 in the audit.

So it's already in there in contract.

If 2025 turns up some discrepancies, then we could go back to 2024.

If there's some clear violations here.

I mean any way you want, I don't care.

Amen.

I could address some of that.

There are certain procedures, um, especially when we talk about those accounts payable procedures.

We've written these so that they will include that 2024 owed items that happen in 2025 as well as um what is being paid in 2026 to see what should have been recorded in 2025.

So we call those cutoff procedures.

So those are included in these procedures currently for both 1231-24, 1231-25.

Um there's also some expenditures where we're looking at fluctuations between 2024 and 2025.

But to your question there, too.

I mean, this is a starting point.

This is a more cost effective.

Let's get in there.

Let's look at some of these items and see if there are any errors, discrepancies, concerns, and there is absolutely every chance to go back and look at 2024, 2023, depending on what comes up in the middle.

You know, the fact that all these vendors had been paid is just is just you know raises alarm bells with me.

Where is the where's the money?

I mean, I mean uh it's well, okay.

So y'all want to do 2025?

And then let's if if something comes up, then we can go to 2024.

Um I mean I'm I'm I'm good with with if something turns up, yeah.

Um expanding on it.

Yeah.

Let's let's see what comes out of the the 250s.

Okay.

I uh you know I I I kind of wonder I I think we've got carryovers and carry forwards coming to the board.

Yeah.

I think it's in our next study session.

I wonder if some of those items aren't carry forwards or carry uh or carryovers.

It may be, may not be, but I think what you're talking about might uh we might see that there.

It's similar to that.

It's it's you know, the way that they're supposed to account for that is record the expense, record your accounts payable.

That it's it's so it's a difference in timing of payments.

So I'm George, I'm I'm good with see where we're at.

That's a yeah, that's fine.

Okay.

I sort of see what you would hear do.

Okay, one more question.

If the auditor can't obtain the information they requested, then what happens?

So there will be a report that four of S Mazars gives at the end of their procedures that shows any errors, any discrepancies, findings that they have in those procedures, and if they are not able to perform those procedures because they were not able to obtain the correct documentation, that will also be listed in that report.

Okay, thank you.

Director settle.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I'm for the audit.

I've done many audits, government audits, ISO audits, health and safety audits, I've done audits.

Audits are designed to help look for nonconformities, opportunities for improvements.

That's what we're looking for here.

But I do want to give some background of ARM.

ARM has been a our group that's been with us for 10 years.

They they were brought in at the very beginning to help us out here.

ARM takes safety as the number one priority.

Safety of the park guests, safety of their workers as their number one priority.

So whatever understand that.

We did that because the taxpayers voted in the tax to help fund that.

The county and city told them whatever you do, keep the food cost down as low as you can, making a profit, but don't go gouge the people.

And so we purposely did that because we figured the citizens deserve a lower cost for food.

There's also discussion about money and handling.

I got some some citizens whose kids work out there called me.

Parents of kids work out there call me.

The frontline people that handle the money day in and day out are kid our high school and college kids.

High schoolers that go to our communities, college kids that go to our communities, who work their year in and year out.

They're in charge of ticket sales concession stands, and so are they perfect?

No.

No difference when I worked at Walmart and hand handle had to handle cash and made mistakes.

It happens.

Arm has asked us to get rid of cash.

We said no because we wanted every citizen the opportunity they may not have a credit card to go out there and enjoy the park.

So those are decisions that we have had and made over the years.

We do get a monthly financial report.

It comes to the board.

We get it by email.

It goes to administration, it was Carl or Jeff, and then that distributes to the board when it happens.

So we do get a financial how many people are there, the dollar amounts they're done, ticket sales, everything broken down from food to ticket to gift shop.

It's all done.

But I do want to have that uh to to you, Amanda.

The last thing to the board is I think it's uh if we're gonna do a third party for Parrot Island, we should do all third parties.

We should probably have a discussion.

I'm gonna make a motion at my turn at the end, have a discussion about that study session to do all third parties audits, not just one, everybody.

Because I think that is the true fair way of seeing what's really going on.

Third party meaning who?

All third parties, convention center group is one of third party.

If it if it's animals, it's animals.

All third parties, we should talk about how do we do audits going forward.

Audit commitment center, that'd be great.

Well, I'm gonna bring that up at the end of my turn.

When it's my turn, I'll bring up for a motion in a second for study session.

So but I I do want you to understand there are things that have done over the years because we did we're dealing with high school and college kids, and they're the ones doing that, and we purposely kept food costs down.

Food costs have risen, and we they have been told us over the years, hey, we want to raise price and said no, we don't.

So what they do is get very uh uh inventive with combo meals and things like that happen.

So when you get all the facts, I think you'll find out what's truly going on.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor Director Kemp.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um and Amanda, thank you for clarifying.

I mean, my understanding was that we do have a way to look at the uh account payables from the year back and then going, I think it's very important thinking about what's carrying into 26 and so, or even into the next yeah, fiscal year from what didn't get paid in 25.

Um I I do think that's important.

Uh the other thing I want to say, sorry, Mayor, you caught me off guard.

I was looking at something when you told me this.

Um will we in this audit say administration the previous administrator directed them to pay bills late.

Would we know that?

Will we find that out through these procedures?

I'm not certain that you would always get that response from ARM.

I know that in the agreement with ARM, it says that payments are to be paid by the management company ARM.

Um and so it's not the was not the responsibility of this city administrator for the timing of those payments.

So uh I don't know that we would uncover anything of any kind of a directive.

We're not aimed at doing that at this point.

Um, but it it could be something that gets uncovered.

Thank you.

And I would just say, in the spirit of conversation that we're having, you know, I'm all for annual looks into things that were third parties, things that are touching things.

As long as we understand that I don't want to create a culture in the city of Fort Smith that we have audits as a weaponizing term.

I think it's important to catch the processes that are there.

And so, you know, I you know, we talk about going and auditing OGV and you know, other entities, I don't even know what's all included in that list of third parties that we have for the city of Fort Smith.

Um I want to make sure that we look like a partner that we'll will third parties will want to work with, but at the same time I'm also for it.

I think we should come up with fair agreed upon procedures to look into things as long as our opportunity is finding ways.

One of the things we talked about when we brought you in uh to our to our city team and staff was that if we can find ways to save dollars and justify the cost and expenses of audits.

And so if we can find ways to grain that greater ROI, um I think that's the lead positive of why you would audit.

Uh but I definitely want to just make those comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Director Rigo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, two questions.

First one as for Ms.

Strange, uh about how long, assuming this passes tonight, uh about how long is this supposed to take?

So from a timing perspective, uh, we'll start meeting with the the parties involved to try and get the information collected that are needed to do these procedures.

Um from when they're actually gonna do the procedures.

I think right now they'll start in April or earlier if they get uh enough information that they can do some procedures earlier than that.

But the way these are written, a certain time period needs to occur to do some of these procedures, and so through the end of March, that three-month period is uh crucial for some of these procedures.

Thank you.

And then the question uh I had for Jeff.

So we're operating or ARM is operating through the end of March uh at present, correct?

That's correct.

And there are five or six other ones that uh people that put in uh companies that put in um bids, if you will, uh proposals uh to for park management uh moving beyond the end of March, correct?

There are a total of five, including ARM.

Okay, so at some point in March, we will adjudicate uh whether or not to continue uh with the current operator or pick one of the new ones.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Mayor, thank you.

Uh uh Director Christina Gostavis was next in the queue, and then you'll follow her.

Well, I want to I want to address the idea that the prices at the concession stand are low because I've got the price list here that was provided to me by administration, and these prices are more than reasonable to make a decent profit.

Hamburger, $825, hot dog four dollars, uh fountain drink three dollars.

I mean, the cost of the syrup with the ice, I mean that shouldn't cost you more than maybe five, ten cents with a cup if you can't make money on a Pepsi, you're doing something wrong.

Some of these pizzas are twenty-two dollars.

Barbecue chicken are up eight dollars.

I mean, this is what George's is charging at the restaurant, and they have to pay overhead, they have to pay insurance, they have to pay utilities, they have to pay uh for the building.

So I don't I don't think that the concession stand is something we should just gloss over.

I think when uh I've been in the concession business before, we always hired young people, and we turned a profit just fine.

So I'm not putting this on on our high school kids.

Uh maybe they're collecting the money just fine, and it's being misappropriated after, but all I can say is I want to look closely at that because these prices are not cheap.

Thank you, Director Josh Cassav.

Is that hamburger include French fries?

No, I don't I don't see fries on here.

Uh I don't see fries on here anywhere.

There's no Kevin, those are the things that I've got to do.

So that's a hamburger.

That's not even a cheeseburger, that's a hamburger, eight eight twenty-five, no fries.

Director George was are you finished directly?

Yeah, okay, when that's Director George says, I'm sorry, Mayor.

You recognize those are premium prices.

When you compare it to other water parks, that's really low.

When you compare to other amusement parks, really low.

I mean, if you if you want to if you'd like to go compare, I'd be happy to take you a couple more.

We're not comparing to their water parks.

We're comparing to the money we spent versus the money we took in versus the money we made.

That's what we're comparing.

What size fountain drink?

It does it doesn't list the ounces on here, but I mean it's a matter of pennies.

It's a matter of pennies with the the cost of the syrup.

I'm done.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other comments from the board?

Okay.

Thank thank you very much.

Um Madam Crook, would you please call the role?

Procedurally if I could.

Yes.

Uh Director George Kitsavis made a motion to include 2024 and then Director Martin.

I'll withdraw that, Sherry.

Withdrew.

Yeah.

I think Director Martin's correct.

It will just uh wait and see.

Okay.

Now we'll move forward to the main motion.

So Directors Martin.

Yes.

Rego?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Kim?

Yes.

George gets asked.

Yes.

Christina gets Avis.

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Item six.

Item six.

Thought you're going to make a motion at the end of the meeting.

Oh, okay.

Item six is a resolution approving execution of a software as a services agreement with IGM U.S.

Holdings for the gravity software product the city uses for financial reporting and budget compilation.

This item was first introduced at the January 20th meeting, and the board asked CFO Andy Richards to further negotiate this item with the vendor.

Mr.

Richards will speak to the results of that discussion and answer further questions from the board.

Andy.

So the original proposal included a price escalation of 5%.

It was a three-year agreement.

And based on the board's discussion, that was too high, and there was requested to go back and ask IGM technologies to reconsider their pricing options and the offer that they came back was they were willing to do a 3% uh price increase, but would like a five-year agreement to lock in those prices.

So that's what the that's what the offer is that we brought to you tonight.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Are there any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

None indicating.

Okay.

Um entertain a motion to adopt the resolution.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Uh this time we'll go to Citizens' Comments.

Director Christina Cassavage, did you want to make a comment?

Um Andy, did you have to do any more than just make a phone call on this?

No.

Just said a just made a phone call and I figured we're going to save about $15,000 over the life of the contract.

So I think I think that's pretty good for a phone call.

So I appreciate you doing that.

And I know this was something I wanted pulled out, and you know, every $15,000 adds up.

So I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other board director Neil Martin?

Do you feel like we're going to be sticking with the software?

I mean, do you year four and five?

Are you going to be wanting to go to something different, or do you do we feel like we're we're in a good place with gravity?

I think we are at a good place.

It's gravity.

Uh staff is you know, it you know, it it it takes a little effort to you know learn these software packages when we do this.

So we're pretty well integrated with them now and still making uh headway on it.

Uh you think a longer term deal is okay.

I think it's just a matter of locking in the price, really.

I mean the termination clauses are there.

We can if if I need to uh go to another solution in the next two or three years, I don't think there's anything stopping us from doing that.

I think this is just this is the price arrangement that we're agreeing to for the next five years.

So maybe that's good for us as well for them that we have a five-year deal instead of a a three-year.

So we we count on a three percent increase for the next five.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, you know the comments.

Director George Cassav.

Well, do you tell me your thoughts on the December sales tax report?

Well, my thoughts.

What do you see in it?

Yeah.

Um I mean, I I see stability and consistency.

Uh if you looked at the, you know, I've been paying a lot close attention to the gross receipts.

I don't know if you notice the new reports that we added uh to the package, shows the different industries that we collect sales tax from.

Uh retail sales is by far the largest category, obviously, where we're gonna get sales tax.

Uh hotel accommodations and food services is the next one.

So I look at those pretty close.

Um retail has lagged a little bit, but not by much, been pretty consistent with 24 and 23, and you know, those are the uh 23 was the big growth year for us, 22.

Um so it's staying there, and what we're actually seeing the commendation of food services is we I continue to see growth uh the year over year comparisons there.

Not uh not big growth, but stable growth.

So to me that's uh that's that's uh you know it's good for us.

Thank you.

Any other comments from the board?

Madam Clerk, call the role directors regot?

Yes, good, yes, Kim?

Yes, George Kitzapp?

Yes, Christina Kit Savis?

Yes, settled, yes, Martin.

Yes, it's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Okay, number seven.

Item seven is a resolution accepting a project as complete and authorizing final payment to patriot utilities for the construction contract related to consent decree SSA remedial measures project number 23-19-C4.

Director of Engineering Todd Metge will speak to this item and answer questions from the board.

Okay, good evening.

Thank you for having me.

This is the final payment for project 2319-C4, and it is for approximately $26,000.

This is a one million dollar project that is complete from Patriot Utilities.

Two weeks ago, you approved a change order for Patriot Utilities.

This was the one involving patriot rail and no relation between the two companies.

But I'm here to ask answer any questions you might have regarding this final payment.

Thank you very much.

Any citizens' comments, Madam Clerk?

None indicating.

Motion to adopt a resolution.

Some of second.

Thank you.

Comments from the board.

Okay.

Seeing none, please call the roll.

Director's good.

Yes.

Kim?

Yes.

George Kit Savis?

Yes.

Christina Kitzavis?

Yes.

Settled.

Yes.

Martin.

Yes.

Rico.

Yes.

It's approved.

Seven in favor and zero opposed.

Okay.

We'll go to the consent agenda.

There are seven items on tonight's consent agenda, including a resolution authorizing amendment to an engineering services agreement for design of 2025 street overlay project number 2503-F resolution accepting completion and authorizing final pay for construction of Bay Branch Outfall Culvert Remediation.

Project 21-06-E resolution authorizing grant application to the boring company seeking a grant to facilitate a portion of the Lake Fort Smith water transmission line project.

A resolution authorizing purchase of a residential side loader for solid waste services per the replacement program.

A resolution authorizing purchase of two residential rear load trucks for solid waste services per the replacement program.

A resolution authorizing purchase of one commercial front load truck for solid waste services for the replacement program and a resolution authorizing purchase of five staff vehicles for the Fort Smith Fire Department as outlined in the fire department's approved capital improvement plan for 2026.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Question on B.

B.

B and uh G, Mayor.

B and G.

I'll make a comment on B and C.

B and C make a comment.

And I think we have citizens sign to also, Mayor.

Okay.

We'll go to citizens' comments at this time.

We'll just note that on item 8B, we have Barry McCormick to answer questions only.

And then for 8 C, we have Andy Postrick.

Andy, you recognize two minutes.

Hi, thank you everybody.

Uh, and thank you to the city staff who come here every Tuesday and stay late and spend time away from their family.

Um I heard some pushback for this project, so I just wanted to come here and let you guys know that I personally support it.

Um that pushback came because of the the company uh who's uh doing the grant, but we just have to remember that this is about maintaining infrastructure, which is incredibly important for this town.

Uh I'd like to live in a world where we don't need grant money to pay for our infrastructure maintenance, but um as you know, the city has gone over its maximum daily water usage routinely over the past few years.

So um I I do think that this would be a good thing.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Andy.

Okay, um item B.

Yeah, so I I don't know who can answer this, but I went back a f a couple meetings where we talked about this particular project.

How much did we get in FEMA grant dollars for this?

Last I saw was December 29th of 23, and it was um 5.6 million.

Do we know what that was?

Can anybody give me that information or maybe come come back and give me that information?

Todd, do you have it?

I know you're you're new and you're hearing awful lot.

And you're getting asked a lot of questions.

So uh I appreciate your answers.

And we're we're talking about things that happened before you got here, but do you happen to know that um that amount was re the amount that was reimbursed by FEMA?

I do not know this was for the 2019 event.

That's what I do know, but I do not know how much I've been repeating.

If somebody could get to find out though.

If somebody could get that for me, I'd appreciate it.

There are there are different amounts, and I'm not sure how much of that applies to this particular project.

But there was you know you know, nearly uh nearly 10.3 million dollars that we received from uh FEMA reimbursement for many of the pump station repair projects that happened along.

Stan specifically mentioned there that he mentioned 4.6 in 22, and he mentioned uh 5.6 and 23.

I just want to make sure that we get clarification.

We don't need it right now.

But I think the interesting thing about this project is it was originally bid in 22 for 14 million dollars.

And um we we as a board or uh I don't know if it's the board or the city said no that's this isn't good.

We we don't want that price.

It was a single bidder, 14 million dollars.

And so we we chose to go the route that we did.

Um, and I can't remember the the the um the engineering uh uh thing that we did here, but it looks like it ended up at twelve point four million dollars total.

Is that where we're at?

Yes, and I'd like to have Ben Marks to uh answer.

Yeah, what is it?

Mr.

McCormick is here as well.

What did we call it?

There's a there's a term uh construction manager at risk.

Yes, yeah, C-Mar.

So we use that and and what was 14 million, we finished at 12.4.

Barry, you got some Mr.

Requirement.

Do you have some information?

When we originally designed the project, we put it out for bid, we got a single bidder.

Single bidder.

$14 million, a little more than $14 million, more than what was budgeted initially for that.

In discussions with Stan, and uh and Stan's not here, obviously I can't speak for him, but I think what was approached or what was presented to the board was a hesitancy to recommend award of a project with a single bid.

Right.

We came back and recommended this construction manager at risk or construction manager, general contractor, it depends on how you do it.

That method of project delivery had been used on the pump station work that we did for the utility department after the flood.

So we were aware of that.

Stan and the engineering department had never used it.

The board approved doing that.

We selected or the board selected Van Horn Construction to be the general contractor for that.

They went through basically and in with us uh kind of in concert, went through and kind of did some value engineering, changed some ways to do things because they were the contractor for that.

They ended up rebidding all the work, and then in the course of that project, we found some additional damage that occurred in the flood pump station that's built into the levee.

Now we're rebuilding the the box culvert that takes May Branch into that and out to the river.

Uh we found some damage that it and it just the the pump station was built in the 40s, right?

Right after the 40s floods, and so there was a change order to Van Horn's contract, this uh $692,000.

Right.

So we've got their original contract, it was original contract for VE.

There was an amendment one to relocate a transformer to get it out of the way, and then amendment two was the overall project.

Okay.

In the course of that project, we added this 692.

In the end of it, they ended up pay estimate-wise being paid or the proposals to be paid less than the original.

So there is a there is a savings there.

Right.

Is it is it a million and a half, or is it is my math wrong on that?

It's like one point six.

Yeah, which which is good, which is very good.

From the original bid of 14 to what they ended up with.

With two change orders.

With with well, with an amendment plus a change order.

Okay, yeah.

I think that that's good.

About 1.6 million dollars, not uh not awarding that original bid.

Right.

Very good.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Mayor, I want to make a quick comment and just tell tell the team.

Great job with the pictures, Maggie Jeff, Todd, great job with the pictures.

It tells a story.

I've been on along here so long that I remember when that failed the first time and we temporary fixed, and this is the this fix looks great.

So that's the pictures we need out in the public to see it, because it doesn't when you put a person in that trench, it really shows how big that thing truly is.

So thank you very much, team.

Anything on the two items that we pull B and C.

If not, we'll go to item.

I just want to make a comment on C.

Go right ahead.

I I that's a very great inventive way to try to get us boring underneath the river.

I think trying to come up with a inventor way to put a grant out there to see if it's an opportunity.

You know, maybe we're the only one that has uh a water line, and maybe that gives us a competitive advantage, but I think that's a very unique way of trying to help the team out and save some money.

So thank you, Todd and the team.

Thank you very much.

I think if they tell the story of what's happening over here, it would go a long way of influencing those that have those dollars uh to consider Fort Smith with that military installation with the bridge crossing with the Interstate 49.

Uh I think we've got a great story to tell, and we appreciate your work on that.

Uh item G.

Yeah.

Um purchase of five staff vehicles for the fire department.

Yes, sir.

Define staff.

Who who's what's whose staff?

Uh that's the administrative staff of the fire department.

Um, of course, they replaced the the uh Chiefs vehicles and the assistant chiefs and such, and they they will rotate the immediately replaced ones down, and then we'll get rid of some uh additional ones.

Uh Chief Clark is here to speak to this specifically which ones are being replaced.

No, no, that's not necessary.

I just want to when you said staff, I uh I didn't know.

That was pretty broad.

Okay, right.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, George.

Okay.

If there is no other items this time, uh we would entertain a motion to adopt a consent decree agenda.

So move consent agenda.

Second.

Okay.

Uh if there are no further questions from the board, Madam Clerk, call the roll.

Directors Kemp.

Yes.

George Kitsavis.

Yes.

Christina Kassavis, yes.

Settled?

Yes.

Martin?

Yes.

Brigos?

Yes.

Good.

Yes.

Even in favor and zero opposed.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Just now we will go to the official forum.

Um, had a great visit with uh Lieutenant General uh Cunningham, who happens to be the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations of Headquarters, United States Air Force, uh, brought a team of Fort Smith to recognize our RPA unit.

That's the remote uh uh piloted aircraft.

Uh they were recognized as the top unit in the United States, and they brought them a beautiful trophy to recognize their efforts, and also we had a chance to go to the change of command at the 188th.

We now have uh uh Colonel uh Esparza who's going to be leading that unit.

So uh a good week for uh our military operations.

Again, we tend to forget about that remote control unit, but they are tops in the in the nation, and again, they were awarded a beautiful trophy.

Uh also uh present was the uh chairman, the uh CEO of the company that makes the aircraft.

Uh with that uh we'll start with Director Neil Martin.

Not much, Mayor.

I know that there was some discussion about sales tax data and and and things like that when the AML guys were here.

Um I think we all got an email from Mr.

Postric earlier this week about maybe sales tax data, and I've asked all of our representatives if we can get more granular sales tax data.

I know that we get it by category, which is you know retail is good, and uh, you know, how much people are going out to eat is good.

But um if we could get more granular data, and I know this has probably been on the AML's radar for a long time, and it just DFA doesn't necessarily want to hand that that information out, but um just tried to ask them if there is some more granular data we can get from a sales tax perspective.

So just FYI for the board.

Okay, thank you much, Director Settle.

Sure, uh Nell answer you there.

Yes, the AML and every city would like to have more granular data.

The pushback is from DNF A, also the pushback is from those businesses that do not want to know how you can back and how much their sales are, so that's the pushback.

So the category was a uh compromise.

Uh you know, if got three or more.

I think there's a push to try to do something more on a granular level down at the at uh at Little Rock in the DNF office.

Uh but that's the problem is uh the businesses and the chambers didn't want citizens to back cities to back up and say how much is going on theirs.

I am gonna make two motions tonight uh for two study sessions.

One is what I already talked about.

I'd like to have a study session to discuss the potential auditing of all third parties for the city of Fort Smith.

Of all why?

All third parties that do business with the city of Fort Smith.

How many would that be?

Would you include Animal Haven in that?

Uh all.

All is all that would be Fort Smith Museum of History, S SRCA.

Well, that's um, I mean they get money from us, I guess.

That's kind of like all okay.

I'm I'm second.

Okay, thank you.

The other one is I like to have a study session to go through our financial policies.

Uh I remember back in the day, Director Lit Law, uh, Director Lorenz and myself kind of helped with Director Good and the team back then and George craft the financial policy.

So I'd like to go through our financial policies, uh, kind of go through it.

I think there's some uh reasons why we do certain things.

Uh there's some caps on it when you get certain above certain numbers, there that kicks in spending, when you get below it kicks in other things.

So I like to go through a review of the financial policies at the same time go through the last 15 years of the fund balances for all four funds, look at both percentages and the uh dollar amounts in those funds to kind of see how we're growing and not growing.

I think you're gonna be surprised when you look at 2020 2010 to today, how much our growth has happened both in dollars and percentage.

So I'd like to have a future study session on that.

Can I get a second?

I'll I'll say that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you, Director Christina Savage.

Nothing for me, thank you.

Director George Gosavage.

Yeah, Mayor, um, Sherry or Colby.

Can a lien be placed on a property for nonpayment of utilities?

Can the city place a lien on a piece of property that for nonpayment of utilities?

I'm not aware of that process.

I'd want to look at the code.

I mean, because that's you know, the typical process is the cleanup lien code enforcement process.

That's how you get cleanup liens.

Uh, Sherry, do you have any anything to some language in the code that you can't?

I don't know that we do that, but I believe there are is it to like delinquent for X amount of days?

I mean, I I don't know the specific verbiage of it, but I believe there is a lot of things.

We can look, George, and and get you an opinion on it.

You know the reason I'm asking Colby, uh a lot of these homes that are getting their water shed off have kids there, little kids, and they have no water.

I saw a teacher at Dollar Tree a while back buying 15, 20 bottles of shampoo, toothpaste, toothpaste.

What well that they wash their hair at school.

They brush their teeth at school because the water's been turned off.

What do you have any ideas what we can do to stop this?

You get some kind of leniency or something or payment.

We do have project concern.

Yeah, I know, but every kim, there's 800 shutoffs a month in this town.

Just imagine your kid getting up and more and turn on the water, brush trade.

There's no water.

Well I'm I'm I'm I'm perplexed about this.

But that's horrible for a kid to have to go through that.

Can we not figure out something?

I'd like to see those numbers.

Like what?

I'd like to see those numbers, number of shutouts.

Let's take a look at that.

It's been in the hundreds every month.

Has it?

Yeah.

What do you what do you see?

I've checked on it for years.

800 some months, 600, some months, 700, some months.

Every month.

I'd I'd let's see we can take a look at it and then look at the profile of those that are being shut off.

Yeah, well, I'd like to maybe because that's just that that's just that's heartbreaking.

Okay.

I and and I understand and appreciate you thought.

You know, I mean all right, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Director Kemp.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh Mayor, sorry, Mayor Goles.

Looked at looked over at Director Rigo and then I said there.

Sorry, thank you, Mayor.

Uh I want to just give an update uh to to this board uh on things of progress with the city administrator's national search.

Um we were all things were moving towards um uh consensus to to a search firm and that search firm did agree to do the work and then when we got to connecting with HR and then the process um did choose to back away uh um on their own choice, mainly due to the the fact that they uh prefer to work more in confidentiality and when they realized the more of the public facing work that was going to be done, said that uh that they did not feel like they would be the best firm to go forward with and helping us.

They did offer up uh a couple companies to look into, and then that led me back to human resources again.

Uh our director uh Eric and uh went back and reviewed with the ones that he recommended.

Um we have received and I hope to have a few others for the board to look at by the next regular meeting on February 17th.

But uh Colin Basinger and associates did issue something back, so we'll be able to turn that to administration for the packet.

Uh I would say though, uh, it is worth in transparency knowing that that is the search firm that did recruit Carl Gefkin.

So if you were pleased with how they did it, if that's what you you know, if you can recall the experience for those of you on the board working with them, um that would be something to consider.

We'll have their information, and then I'm in communications with the DSG COIA, who was recommended by the company, uh, which was Spencer Stewart referred them to me.

A company named Isaacson Miller has been referred to me by Spencer Stewart.

Um and then Spencer Stewart itself uh showed us that they're more of a mainstream, very expensive option.

That's why they were referring us some things when they shared their rates with me.

I agreed with them based on the the metric of a hundred and thirty thousand dollar retainer and a third of the salary that the first year recruited.

So we're doing some due diligence, and I guess in that, is there in the spirit, do you want me to pursue SGR?

And I know that that ties itself to sensitivities last year, but I think if they were given better direction about how we want to do the process, SGR is a big Texas firm that does recruitment in our area.

And so I just want to is there any feedback from this board?

Well what would be I'm not interested.

Okay.

Well they're feedback.

I have no idea.

I haven't even talked to SGR.

Okay.

Okay, so I'll bring back uh to the to the packet on the February 17th, the calling basin or associates uh information, and then hopefully have a few other firms that can bring up information as well so that we can make a decision.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I feel very strongly against SGR.

Does anyone else?

I do.

But I also want to be amendable to the board.

Thank you.

Uh Director Good.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Um, just uh an announcement.

Uh UA Fort Smith men's and women's basketball teams play a huge MIA conference uh games this Thursday and Saturday.

Games are at 5 30 and 7 30 uh Thursday evening and one and three Saturday afternoon.

Just want to encourage my fellow board members uh and the community to attend and support our teams.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Director Rigo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I'd like to uh make a motion uh that added to one of our study sessions in March is a conversation around possible restoration of spay and neuter vouchers uh moving forward in 2026.

We brought that up last week.

It's get it's getting outed.

Oh, perfect.

Thank you all very much.

I think it should be on next week, correct, Jeff?

It's on a study session, I think.

That's currently slated for I think February 24th.

Yeah, perfect.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

It was outside last week.

My understanding was that it would be coming next week.

Oh, wonderful.

Because I requested it last week, so wouldn't it go on the next study session?

And uh then also, Jeff, sorry.

No, I mean the request for is it was for it to be placed on an upcoming study session, it was placed on February 24th.

Can we replace it on next week's uh we we can the uh February 10th study session is quite lengthy and there's seven items on it already?

Well, I mean we've we've had this program before.

I I don't know that we need a big discussion on it.

I think it's either let's get a consensus if we want to move forward or not.

We can certainly place it on the 10th.

Sooner the better.

It's fine with me.

Okay.

I think it'd be a short discussion.

Should be.

Okay.

Um then I just did one other thing real quick.

Uh I know uh this happened, I believe, a couple months ago, but wanted to once again thank the um uh congregational care ministry at first United Methodist Church, uh, Miss Patty Payne uh for the prayer cards uh for us up here.

Uh prayer is very important and very much appreciated, and we're grateful to that care ministry for uh including us in your prayers.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

This time we'll go to uh uh deputy administrator, and if you would in your comments, could you uh give the latest update on the consent decree proposal?

Sure.

Uh I was in contact with our attorney, Mr.

Calameda, uh late last week, Friday, I believe.

Uh he has been in contact with Mr.

Long at the Department of Justice.

And uh learned from Mr.

Long that the uh red line draft, the final version of that uh of the modification document has been completed by his office and escalated uh to his superiors at the Department of Justice, and also shared with the uh uh Department of Environmental Quality at the State of Arkansas, who and also the AG's office for to uh to get the state's feedback and approval, and then once once he gets that, and also from his superiors at the Department of Justice, they anticipate being able to forward that modification document to us for the board to uh review and consider when we get that, then Mr.

Calamita will um walk through that with us and what each each of the modification points mean to us, and uh we'll have that discussion as to the board's approval of that once once the board is comfortable and makes its approval, then uh that uh we'll go back to the Department of Justice for for completion, and then at that point we could be able to lodge it together with the uh with the federal court and that let it go through that process.

I mean, even if all those things happen relatively quickly, my understanding that it's still uh probably June or July-ish before the whole process is complete, including the 30-day comment period after it's lodged with the court.

Colby's gonna correct me if I say anything wrong.

Uh but I mean so that that is imminent.

I do expect that we might receive that within the next couple of weeks.

I don't know, I mean however long that process takes for the state and the DOJ to give its final blessing to it.

So Jeff, let me ask you, what leads you to believe it's imminent?

Because when I was going back and I was re-watching the videos about the water slide discussion 16, 18 months ago, we were talking about these modifications.

So what leads you to believe it's imminent now?

Because we've been on this for two years.

We've been on it for quite some time, and I think that would have happened probably last fall if the six-week, six or eight-week government shutdown hadn't happened.

So uh now that I mean that it's I believe it's imminent because the attorney at the Department of Justice told our attorney that.

So have you seen documentation of that?

I have not.

Okay, thank you.

Jeff, you recognize I have nothing further.

Okay, thank you very much.

If there's nothing further, we'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, thank you all, and have a great evening.