Director notes

 

Editor’s note: Following is a guest commentary from Fort Smith City Director Philip Merry Jr. It was originally posted to his Facebook page, and he requested it also run on The City Wire.

To the citizens of Fort Smith:

These are the viewpoints of myself. I am not speaking for the other city of Fort Smith board members.

I am for the convention center. I am for funding it in a way that will assure that present level of services do not get lowered or removed as some or many in such a measure will get hurt by the cutbacks that are inevitable.

Fiscal discipline (within budget thinking and planning) is indeed a priority, I can assure you. I am abiding by the representative democracy type of government that we have in place in Fort Smith as put in place by Fort Smith citizens in 1967. In 1967, Fort Smith did not install a "direct democracy" form of government. It installed a "representative democracy" form of government.

I am for the people and I serve at the pleasure of the people. I am for an efficient government and I know that $28,000 and more in cost for each election posted would be costly and inefficient if we go to referendum each time a sensitive or hard issue comes before the board. Remember, each person or persons will always believe that their issue is the most important.

I love Fort Smith and chose to locate here in 1976. I am trying all that I possibly can to do my part to help make it a better place for those who will like in it after I am gone. I am for the new generation set of leaders to take hold, now. I am asking that they/you step forward and help take Fort Smith forward to the next level. Protect the Convention Center; protect the tourism opportunities that will abound in our city and downtown should it be protected and promoted.

Realize that the A&P (Fort Smith Advertising & Promotion Commission) will do a great job in putting marketplace/client needs satisfaction driven effort and results in play at the Fort Smith Convention Center if only given the funding and the support and encouragement that they need and deserve. They are going to take over what the city had run in the past.

The A&P is excited and focused to grow and enhance the FSCC and tourism in our area! They need our hope, support and ideas because as they succeed so does The River Valley and Fort Smith!

I remain steadfast and firm that we should stay the course. Recently the board has indicated that it should pursue a different way to proceed. I stand by my votes but certainly I support the will of the board. Let it be known that I will do whatever I can to support education on, and promotion of, the 1% prepared food tax in the referendum election should it evolve. If there were another viable way to fund The FSCC when the board voted for the 1% prepared food tax it would have been pursued instead. The ad hoc committee last year who spent weeks and countless hours did incredible work and their report , available to those who seek access to it, clearly reveals why we need this prepared food tax and the A&P running it.

Fort Smith recently announced Golden Living employee jobs growth of nearly 200. Mitsubishi chose, and is building in, Fort Smith as we speak with hundreds of new jobs to emerge! Sykes Corporation has landed in Fort Smith. Oxane Materials has landed in Van Buren. Mars Pet Food has landed at Fort Chaffee. Baldor and it’s new European partners are staying in and promoting Fort Smith in their plan for the future. The Boreham Library at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith just had a ground breaking for expansion and better services for it’s students. Sparks just celebrated the embarkment of an expanded critical care facility, St. Edward recently celebrated the Ronald McDonalds Family Room within it’s facility on the 4th floor. The Air Show is coming in October. A wonderful real estate and valuable services investment is ground breaking at 5th and Garrison next week.

The Fort Smith U.S. Marshals initiative continues to raise funds in a special effort that will soon go statewide and ultimately, nationwide (where U.S. Congressional support has been obtained). And so much more is happening involving RITA ( the intermodal waterway ), Fort Chaffee Redevelopment, I-49 interstate, rail transportation improvement plans and more.

Your Chamber of Commerce and your City ARE at work and working hard for you. Fort Smith cannot sit still. It must remain on the move.

Of key interest are the Regional Chamber alliance(s) that are evolving either side of the state line in several cities where economic development is concerned. I submit to you that Fort Smith is at a key juncture in it’s present and future path. But let there be no mistake, the celebrations just referenced above clearly demonstrate Fort Smith is being lead well in to the future and the Fort Smith area and River Valley Region is, indeed, on the move. For this I am most thankful.

To those who attend the board meetings in the future, please note the special signs situated to forever remind our board of the priority goals for the City of Fort Smith. They are there to remind us to keep our eye on the ball for Fort Smith in these key areas. They are there to share with the public where our focus must lie for the good of our city’s future. You’ll be seeing them weekly and often.

I thank you for reading this. I swear to all in our area that I love this area, I am working my heart out for this area, I study long and hard before I vote and I always vote in the direction that I feel serves the very best interest of the 86,000 citizens I represent.

Sometime the wishes of the people don’t exactly line up with "best interests.” I am doing my best to appease both but overall best interest is the ultimate goal on any of the present and future issues that arise.

Please step up Fort Smith. Citizens of all ages please consider serving on the areas boards and commissions that help guide the path and direction of our city. Speak out and be heard and offer up ideas and comments that will help our/your city. You will enjoy it and you will have helped make Fort Smith a better place for those who will live in it now and after your are gone. Help add to Fort Smith’s legacy.

I remain thankful for and enjoy so much, the calls/contacts or messages that the citizens bring forth. I will always listen. A very kind citizen of a different point of view and I had a Coke and a visit yesterday. We both learned a lot. We learned we may very well be on the same side in multiple areas, after all. We certainly agreed upon two sides to an issue being a wonderful part of The USA and it’s fiber.

Respectfully,

Philip H. Merry, Jr.