Fort Smith Board approves changes to partnership agreement on ball fields at Chaffee Crossing

The River Valley Sports Complex made a successful request to change draw and payment schedules for its already overdue collaboration with the city at Tuesday night’s (July 5) meeting of the Fort Smith Board of Directors. City Directors voted 6-0 with one abstention (Director George Catsavis) to approve the alteration.

RVSC project coordinators Lee Webb and Arkansas State Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, wrote to Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman on June 29 requesting the “slight modification.” In the amended agreement, the city will release $150,000 when all infield surfaces and topsoil are set for each of the eight fields. A second $150,000 payment would be issued after the irrigation and playing surfaces are finished for same.

Webb was in attendance Tuesday night and under questioning of Catsavis, said the fields would be ready for use in the fall, though it would likely be spring before the complex saw much action due to the seasonal nature of softball and baseball.

The facility is a public/private partnership between the city and the RVSC. The Board of Directors is committed to a maximum payout of $1.6 million for construction of the facility, which is located on city-owned land at Chaffee Crossing. Originally authorized in March 2014, additional amendments were made in May 2015 to alter the draw schedule and completion date. A third amendment followed in April of this year to push out the completion date by an additional 90 days.

Webb assured Directors that in spite of the alterations, it is the “same amount of money and scope of work” as initially requested and that by altering the draw and payment schedule, it “lets us move all the dirt in, and then have an assembly line production of irrigation crew and sod layers there to complete their scopes without having to re-mobilize.”

“There are four to five trades working out there at any given time, and we are working hard to meet our completion date,” Webb said.

While Catsavis did not outright vote against the request on Tuesday night, he has been critical in the past. At the April 19 meeting, he voted against the 90-day extension, feeling uncomfortable with the delays on the project to that point.

The initial completion date was set for June 10, 2015, with the RVSC being ready for public use by July 1 of that same year. The agreement’s first modification assigned a new completion date of March 18, 2016, with March 31 being the day the complex would be ready for public use. The new “substantial completion date” is July 22 with July 31 set as opening day.

The RVSC project has moved somewhat slow because of weather delays and the fact that each part of the project requires review and approval before a new “draw” can be made financially, Webb explained at the April meeting. Of the $1.6 million in funds the city has agreed to pay, $620,000 had been released prior to Tuesday’s meeting.

The request led a light agenda, which also saw City Directors voting unanimously to authorize an $18,386 telecommunications services agreement with Cox Arkansas Telecom, LLC.

The next regular meeting of the Fort Smith Board of Directors will be July 19.