Fort Smith: A great place for all

The Fort Smith area, as noted in a recent commentary, has many great attributes for retirees, but Fort Smith also is a great place to live for families and community leaders are doing more to attract and retain young professionals to help make it a great place for them to live.

From the perspective of a father with two children, ages 8 and 5, I can’t fathom any other community in which I would rather raise my children. Our community offers all the amenities I’d like my children to have access to: quality schools, well organized youth programs, a quality library system, museums (with more to come!), numerous parks, and numerous opportunities in the Performing Arts.

How many communities in America can offer my family a waterpark with a wave pool this summer, an iconic train they can ride through a canopy of beautiful trees for 25 cents per ride, and an iconic Ferris wheel that overlooks Downtown and the Riverfront for $1 per ride? Maybe there would be a few more things to do in big cities, but can you do all these things at this cost and get to all of them in less than 10 minutes?

For those who have kids, let’s not discount the value of not being stuck in traffic with kids in the backseat for 30+ minutes. The only time my kids are stuck in the backseat for over 30 minutes on the weekends is to enjoy the close proximity of the beautiful Ozark National Forest, Mulberry and Buffalo Rivers, Devil’s Den, Lake Fort Smith, and many other surrounding lakes that provide access to the beauty of our Earth that the vast majority of human beings in this World can only dream of seeing in person.

And in this area, we also have access within a short drive to the great museums and family entertainment venues in Northwest Arkansas.

What I love most about raising my children in Fort Smith is our people and the strong sense of community we have. I am truly blessed to live in a community where being friendly to everyone is the norm, not the exception. I am grateful my children live in a community where people care about one another, and will do anything to help. It’s a community where so many people know one another, smile and greet one another, and who want to give back to the community to make it better for all. The values the residents of Fort Smith teach my children are priceless.

If you think Fort Smith still isn’t doing anything to attract young adults who don’t have children, you must have missed what all has been announced just in the last year:
• An arts festival that will bring in talent from across the globe;
• A downtown music festival with an impressive diversity of musical talent;
• A groundbreaking for a first class Riverwalk Trail; and
• A major national bike rally.

Those are only a few things that have just been announced. This right after Fort Smith just hosted its first ever regional marathon that attracted 1,000 participants and was a complete success on all accounts.

On May 12 the residents of Fort Smith have yet another opportunity to invest in our future and help attract and retain the human talent we need to strengthen our local economy and make our community an even better place to live for all of us. Our willingness to invest in a trails system throughout our community to help attract and retain young adults, families, and retirees is yet another platform to create the vibrant community we all hope for.

The Fort Smith Regional Council, which consists of 23 CEOs of local companies that provide employment to thousands of families in the Fort Smith Region, have endorsed and are actively supporting the effort for our community to invest in a trails system with the renewal of the 1% sales tax. The Fort Smith Regional Council is supporting this initiative because we have seen how the investment in trails in other cities across America has helped foster economic growth by attracting young professionals, entrepreneurs, families, and retirees.

This is an investment in our city’s future that is worth making and will be a powerful statement to those of all ages that we are willing to invest in ourselves to attract others. Fortunately, what makes this even more attractive is approximately half of this investment will be paid for by nonresidents.

I hope you will join us by choosing to continue investing in our community by renewing the street tax and also investing in a trails system without raising taxes, which will allow us to continue collecting taxes from nonresidents who come to our city and take advantage of the many amenities our community has to offer people of all ages.