Fort Smith officials promote positive developments

Fort Smith residents and city leaders joined together Monday night (July 15) to discuss issues facing Ward 3 and the city as a whole.

Ward 3 Director Mike Lorenz started the meeting by telling residents about many positive developments happening in the southern section of the city.

"This is a real exciting time for Ward 3 and I just want to kind of point out one thing and not take up all the time, but there is a lot of excitement going right now and if you'll notice, there's a whole lot of jobs coming to Ward 3 between Answer Fort Smith that just remodeled the old CV's building on 271 bringing about 70 to 100 jobs when they're done, the HMA service center moving into Phoenix Village that's currently under construction will ultimately have nearly 600 employees there, Sykes just next door at Phoenix Village is expanding. We'll be adding another couple of hundred jobs there."

Lorenz said the key take away for residents and leaders at tonight's meeting was job creation and the impact it would have not only on Ward 3, but on the entire city.

Mayor Sandy Sanders said that since December 2012, nearly 1,200 new jobs had been announced, with many of them coming to the city's southern ward.

"That's great for the community," he said.

The number of employed in the Fort Smith region has grown from 121,200 in December 2012 to an estimated 123,501 in May 2013 – up almost 1.9%. However, the number of employed in the region is down 7.12% from the peak of 132,980 during June 2007, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Another project that has the potential to transform the southern section of the city is the Ben Geren Aquatic Center, which Parks and Recreation Director Mike Alsup said could make a big impact on economic development in what used to be a largely uninhabited section of town.

"Of course that's a combined county and city project that we're working on together. It was decided that together we could build something that's really nice for our community that everyone would enjoy. So we're excited about that one, too. I believe that one has got the potential to change the look of Zero Street. I'm not an economist or anything like that but I believe you will see a change in the look of Zero Street along that area in front of Ben Geren Park with this and the other improvements that the county is doing."

The other improvements include the addition of softball fields at an expense to the city, as well as the new storm shelter the county installed in recent years.

While the county is taking the lead on hiring a construction manager and operating the park, the city will be focused on other projects, according to Utilities Department Director Steve Parke.

According to Parke, the city has spent $22 million to improve drainage on the south side of the city and will continue to do so.

"Since 2011, we've spent a little over $22 million worth of improvements in the lower portion of Ward 3, that area south of Cavanaugh from 71 down along Cavanaugh following Mill Creek. In coming years from 2013 to 2015, we currently have identified another $21 million worth of work that we're going to do in getting the flows on down to Mill Creek."

Another project that Parke spoke to residents about was just north and east of Zero Street – the new pump station and equalization facility.

The site, he said, was actually a remediation success story, with the city undertaking nearly $3.2 million worth of remediation in cooperation with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality in order to restore the site to a workable use within the city. The location of the new pump station is a little over five blocks from the location of another site that is under review for remediation plans, the area just north of the former Whirlpool plant where trichloroethylene (TCE) has contaminated the groundwater.

Asked after the meeting whether construction would be impacted by the TCE plume that exists south of the construction, City Administrator Ray Gosack said the plume had not migrated north far enough to impact the construction or workers who may be working on the site. But another project taking place just south of the Whirlpool facility to improve drainage is a project that Gosack said was under review, with testing taking place to make sure that no risks were posed to workers or residents.

"There's going to be testing required in those areas to see if there is TCE present and if there is, then they'll put safety measures in place to protect the workers,” Gosack explained.

Parke said the safety measures were likely to include transporting any contaminated soil or liquids from the site, though he said with work only taking place about five foot below the original ground surface, he does not see contamination being an issue with any projects in the area.

Of the questions asked by residents, most dealt with minor neighborhood issues or questions regarding reporting of overgrown grass or neighborhood cleanup.

Resident Linda Mitchell said she was just concerned about bringing the Fort Smith economy back to pre-recession levels, something she hopes the current set of directors is able to do, though she did not hold out much hope.

"I just feel like we're falling further and further behind. We've been here for 45 years in September and Fort Smith was booming a lot bigger when we came here then than it is now. I just feel like we're losing everything to Northwest Arkansas and I'd like to see that change."