The City Wire Business of the Month: Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority

Editor’s note: The City Wire highlights each month a business operating in the Fort Smith region. Business struggles, accomplishments, philanthropic support and many factors are considered when selecting a business to profile. Input from The City Wire readers also will be considered.

Although the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority (RITA) is not a business in the commonly accepted form, it captures The City Wire Business of the Month title for the potential it could have for many businesses in the Fort Smith region.

The effort to create a regional intermodal authority began again in earnest on Feb. 18, and resulted in a May 27 meeting in which key governmental and business leaders in Crawford and Sebastian counties agreed to push the effort. That effort was funded thanks in large part to Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, who successfully pushed legislation that provided $375,000 to get an intermodal authority on its feet.

The Western Arkansas Planning and Development District then took the lead in attempting to create a structure and facilities “that would enhance regional freight management and advance the competitiveness of the region’s business.” In other words, the group hopes to maximize the use of all forms of transportation — rail, barge, air, interstate — so as to reduce shipping costs and increase service options for regional business and industries.

Mat Pitsch, the former vice president-economic development at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and past faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, was hired in April to manage the process. On June 29, the intermodal task force agreed to an 11-page document that would be submitted to the governing boards in the two counties and in Fort Smith and Van Buren.

The Crawford County Quorum Court approved the document July 13. The Van Buren City Council approved the document July 20, and the Fort Smith Board of Directors and Sebastian County Quorum Court approved the document July 21. All four groups signed the document Aug. 6.

“The biggest thing about all of this is that it’s a regional solution, a regional approach to a problem that exists,” Pitsch said in a recent interview.

But just what does a freight management system do? Many things, according to Pitsch.

Pitsch outlined three broad areas in which RITA will help the regional manufacturing community.

• Process coordination
A freight management system could provide the research, procedures and consultation on how best to format the shipping of raw materials in and finished goods out. Or vice versa. Pitsch said good freight management is often more about being cost-effective than fast.

“So instead of always shipping containers or whatever so that it gets there in two days, you might instead be able to ship so that it gets there in a week. The savings from that (two days compared to a week) can be as much as 200%,” Pitsch explained.

• Facilities construction/management
RITA could build and/or manage intermodal facilities used to transfer cargo between various transport methods. This would be an advantage in funding and constructing such facilities where it greatly benefits many businesses, but no single business could afford to do it.

• Business recruitment
“One thing people overlook with this is that it (RITA) could bring in operations from other areas,” Pitsch explained. For example, he noted, instead of building a shipping or distribution area in Kansas City or Tulsa or Little Rock, a large corporation might now look at moving that operation to the Fort Smith/Van Buren area to be a part of this new intermodal authority.

“And those operations bring jobs and investments,” Pitsch said.

Among many other legal details, the document to be considered would create a 12-member board based on the following appointments:
The mayor of each city (Fort Smith and Van Buren) will appoint three members — one member must be a government or elected official, one member must represent a manufacturer or shipper, and one member must be a city resident.

The county judges of each county (Crawford and Sebastian counties) will appoint three members — one member must be a government or elected official, one member must represent a manufacturer or shipper, and one member must be a county resident.

The new 12-member board is scheduled to meet Sept. 16.