Sebastian County Quorum Court vote leaves Aquatics Park contract in limbo

The Fort Smith Board of Directors and the Sebastian County Quorum Court voted Tuesday (Oct. 21) to enter into a contract with Erie, Pa.-based American Resort Management, but the deal is not yet done since the Quorum Court did not have enough votes for passage on the contract's first reading.

The deal would contract ARM with the city and county for the amount of $88,000, split between 2014 and 2015 budgets. Each body would be responsible for paying its half of the fee each year for pre-operations, which would amount to $22,000 this year and another $22,000 next year for each government.

Work expected to be completed during the pre-operation period includes marketing (naming, branding, and advertising), consultation with the governments on operating budgets and policies, recruiting staff, programming, community outreach, training and safety programs for staff, as well as setting pricing. The contract stipulates that an annual budget will be approved by the city and county which ARM will have to abide by annually. The budget would set pricing, as well as operations and maintenance budgets.

The agreement would also establish a facility account from which the company would pay all bills associated with the aquatics center and would be subject to review by both governments. Daily reporting of the fund will be available for the governments.

The contract would also include performance pay as incentives for the company to turn higher profits at the aquatics center. The draft contract presented to the board laid out a 5% straight payout of revenues, plus a bonus of 10% if operation goal of 110% was met, 7.5% if 105.1%-109.9% of goal was met, and 5% if 100.1% to 105% of the goal was met.

Justice of the Peace Tony Crockett spoke against the proposed contract during a joint meeting on Oct. 9 and was one of five justices to vote against the contract Tuesday at the Quorum Court meeting at the Greenwood courthouse.

Crockett spoke with another company that had bid for the contract before the Oct. 9 meeting, Amusement Aquatic Management of California. AAM's CEO Kent LeMasters had previously spoke to both governmental bodies about the need for a wave pool in the water park. LeMasters had also privately expressed concerns about costs for the construction of the water park, saying in an email to the city that construction costs were too high.

Fort Smith Parks and Recreation Director Mike Alsup said Oct. 9 that Lemasters' proposal included a price tag of $155,000 annually, while the ARM proposal equaled about $75,000 based on revenues of $1.5 million, receiving a 5% cut."Kent's pre-opening fee was $114,750," Alsup added, drawing a contrast to ARM's pre-opening of $88,000. Even if revenues were higher, Alsup said, $2 million in revenues would equal pay of $100,000 per year to ARM and $2.5 million would be $125,000.

Other justices of the peace to join Crockett in voting against the contract included Phil Hicks, Shawn Looper, Linda Murry, and John Spradlin resulting in a vote of 8-5. Without nine votes in favor of the contract, Sebastian County Judge David Hudson said the resolution to approve the contract and appropriation would have to come back for a total of three readings.

"I've asked them to reconsider. I'm hoping that at least one of them will reconsider so it passes on the next reading next Tuesday. It's important to keep the project moving forward on a timely basis," he said after the meeting.

Even without the second reading or passage with a possible third reading, Hudson said the city and county would move forward as scheduled.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors passed the contract unanimously. Other budgetary items associated with the park that will still have to be paid for by the city and county include marketing expenses, according to City Administrator Ray Gosack.

"That'll be the most significant," he told the Board. "There will be some reimbursement with travel. But (many of the meetings and communications) can be done through e-mail exchanges.”

Holman told the bodies that ticket prices would likely be in the range of $16 to $21, though there would be specials for different zip codes and possibly sponsored days in partnership with local businesses and industries.

In other business, the Board approved the hiring of Tracey Shockley as internal auditor. The position has been vacant since Mitzi Kimbrough resigned May 16. Shockley will begin work for the city on Dec. 8 and will be paid an annual salary of $74,600. Shockley is relocating to Fort Smith from Texas, where she has been internal auditor at the Spring Independent School District.