Citizens provide input at ‘Community Open House’

Members of the public were invited to a "Community Open House" event at the Pavilion near Riverfront Park Tuesday afternoon (April 30).

At the event, Fort Smith citizens were able to speak to Steering Committee members, consultants, planners as well as other city leaders about the direction they want the committee to take the city in coming years and decades.

Previously, the committee met on Monday (April 29) to get an introduction to the process that will take 18 months and cost taxpayers nearly $340,000 in consulting fees.

At that meeting, each member of the committee was asked what they hoped would be the end result of the 18 month process.

At Tuesday’s open house, The City Wire asked the same question of the public, eliciting the following answers from Fort Smith residents:

• Richard Morris: "I think first of all, you have to scale back government here 'cause it's based upon big manufacturing, which no longer exists, so they need to re-adjust their thinking in terms of plans for the future.

"Secondly, on the riverfront, plenty of potential. I think that it's a prime site to change the whole infrastructure, tear the railroad yards out, bring in federal money to clean it up. It's a toxic site. Clean it up. And I envision seeing condominiums and town houses, mixed use commercial geared to retirees who have medical needs and Sparks is right on the other side of the central improvement district from here. I think it could mesh well. Finally, whoever owns the land has their own self-interest ahead of uses of the community. And the leadership of the community is not wanting to exercise imminent domain and give a fair market value for the best interest of the community."

• Steve Tedder: "I've lived here 62 years and all I've ever heard is develop the river and it hadn't been developed like I thought it should have been developed. They need to develop the river, you know restaurants, whatever, but develop the river and keep developing downtown 'cause when I was young, downtown was so vibrant and you know, it was dead for years. Hopefully it's coming back. But the riverfront and downtown."

• Jim Peoples: "I've been here longer than he has and I've watched Jim grow up. And yeah, we need to work downtown and somebody needs to get ahold of somebody with some money. Bentonville's got it up there, Walmart, get with them and everything. They've got money all over the place. That will help with that museum that's wanting to go in over there. They've got it, they've got the ground now, but they're not doing anything. Let's get it done. That'll bring people into town. I can remember when I first came here, I came by train to Fort Chaffee. I met a local girl and married her. Lost her last year, but we were married 62 years and I've watched this…you know how many movie houses used to be on Main Street? Nine. And how many do you have on Main Street now? Ok."

• Carmen Aldridge: "Rogers has an energy that is alive and people feel it and they're going up for the day. Why do we not have that happening here? And maybe I'm just not out enough. Maybe I need to go out more and maybe it is happening here, but I'm not feeling it here.

"It's not like I go up to Rogers a lot. I'm talking two or three times in the last couple of years, but something is happening there and I hear people say it when I was there. I talk to people and they say this is a great city. And you go up there and you see something new is built and even the old parts are being…it's wonderful."

• Fran Hall: "One thing I really feel like that we need to promote is the history. Of course, we're doing that somewhat but I mean really promote the history. And I envision actually a cable car going to Judge Parker's courtroom onto the Marshal's Museum onto the historical district and stopping at the Clayton House, which I happen to be a board member of. But that's part of history. I'm going to tell you, if they'll do that, the people will come."