Fort Smith hires new clerk, approves street plan

Hiring a new city clerk and approving the 2011 work as part of the city’s 5-year street and drainage plan were highlights of the Tuesday (Oct. 5) meeting of the Fort Smith board of directors.

City Clerk Cindy Remler, 56, is retiring effective Dec. 1 after more than 35 years with the city. Assistant City Clerk Sherri Gard was the most likely choice to replace Remler.

Following an executive session that lasted about 45 minutes, the board reconvened to vote on hiring a new city clerk. The likely choice was confirmed with a 6-0 vote approving Gard to begin as city clerk on Dec. 1. City Director Don Hutchings made the motion to hire Gard at a beginning annual salary of $64,000, and City Director Kevin Settle seconded.

The vote to hire Gard was met with a rare thing at a city board meeting: applause.

The city clerk is responsible to keep track of contractual obligations, meeting procedures, municipal elections, maintain city ordinances and other important city functions.

Also approved was the first year of a $116 million five-year capital improvement program for streets, bridges and drainage, with a little more than $36 million for neighborhood road overlay and reconstruction.

In 2011, the plans calls for 11.8 miles of overlays, with the longest section on 23rd Street between Sixth Street and Spradling Ave.

The 2011 plan also calls for moving forward on drainage projects designed to alleviate the persistent storm-related flooding in several areas of downtown and north Fort Smith. The $850,000 for the Town Branch-Carnall drainage will be added to the $559,000 spent in 2010 to clean about 1500 feet of storm sewer drains and relocate a sanitary sewer line.

More than 80% of money for projects in the five-year plan comes from the 1% street tax, with the rest coming from state and federal grants, building permit assessment fees and matches from private developers. (Link here for more details on the 5-year plan.)
www.thecitywire.com/?q=node/12000

As he has done for the past five years, City Director Bill Maddox objected to the street tax money being used to repair a washout on the Arkansas River levee. The street tax fund is to be used for streets, bridges and drainage, Maddox reminded. David Harris, a frequent speaker at the board meetings, rose to remind directors that drainage is “water going downhill, and flooding is water going uphill.” He also said the street tax funds are inappropriate for the levee repair.

However, Stan Snodgrass, director of engineering for the city, said the levee repair is justified because a flood would result in significant damage to adjacent roads and drainage. City Attorney Jerry Canfield advised that “a court will give a great deal of deference to the board of directors” in approving the funds for levee repair.

City Director Andre Good was more concerned about the pace of sidewalk construction. Snodgrass said the city has about 229 miles of sidewalks with about 80 miles requiring some level of attention. Those 80 miles are estimated to cost about $8 million, but the city receives about $200,000 a year from building permit assessments to pay for sidewalk construction. The numbers, according to Snodgrass, add up to the 80 miles taking about 38 years to fix.

The 5-year plan was approved 6-0, with Maddox voting for it despite his objection to the levee work.