Fort Smith Board approves panhandling and smoking ban ordinances, $4 million drainage contract

The Fort Smith Board of Directors approved two controversial ordinances on street panhandling and smoking in city parks Tuesday night (Feb. 21) at its regular meeting. Also, the Board voted unanimously to proceed with a nearly $4 million street project at 46th Street.

Despite vocal opposition, the Board passed both of the ordinances with 6-1 votes.

For the panhandling ordinance, Director Tracy Pennartz was the lone “no” vote. She acknowledged the issue brought with it valid public safety concerns as well as concerns over freedom of speech, but ultimately felt the ordinance “lacks specificity” and that “certain terms need to be further defined.”

Director Don Hutchings voted “yes,” but with the desire to see a revised ordinance soon in order to “perfect” the ordinance. Director Keith Lau left the door open to revisions as well, but felt the issue was too important to table. “Panhandling is criminal in my opinion,” he said. “It makes us look bad, and these are serial panhandlers, who are operating day-in and day-out, taking money off our citizens, who are goodhearted.”

For the “truly indigent and homeless,” Lau said, the city has plenty of community service organizations ready to address those needs.

With Tuesday night’s approval, the rule will go into effect in 30 days. Any revisions that are brought before the Board and approved will push a revised ordinance’s effective date out an additional 30 days.

On the smoking issue, two citizens spoke out against the proposed ordinance, which was authored by Fort Smith Parks and Recreation Director Doug Reinert and previously approved unanimously by the city’s parks commission.

Nonsmoker Danny Siemens invoked the memory of the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair — plaintiff in the Murray v. Curlett lawsuit that led to a landmark 1963 Supreme Court ruling ending official Bible-reading in American public schools.

“O’Hair took prayer in schools away from all of us, and while this is nothing compared to that,” it was similar in principle, Siemens said. “If you take this away from me, it is depriving me of my freedom to smoke in the park, and I don’t see how me smoking on the south side of Ben Geren Park is going to affect anyone on the north side of Ben Geren Park.”

He continued: “It’s my freedom to choose one way or the other if i should or should not smoke in public parks or public streets. And by the way, I do not smoke. I just want to have that freedom.”

For Woodall, a compromise would be “designated smoking areas.”

“The realistic way isn’t to ban it. It’s to provide a special spot.”

Woodall did not feel the secondhand smoking threat in the open spaces of a public park was realistic and felt the city did not have the resources to enforce the law if it was already unable to enforce ordinances against littering. She also feared that “selective enforcement” would become a problem.

Director George Catsavis agreed that designated areas would be worthy for consideration and was the lone “no” vote. Vice-Mayor Kevin Settle, one of the six “yes” votes, sided with the ban, pointing out that in just one park — Carol Ann Cross — caretakers reported 70% of the litter was from discarded cigarette butts. Also, he did not appreciate how some smokers would “light up right next to a kid, who is waiting in line to get on the train. You would think they would be courteous enough to hold back, but they don’t.”

As for enforcement, Settle felt the ordinance would largely be self-policing.

DOWNSTREAM DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS
In an item related to the 2014 Future Fort Smith Master Plan, the Board voted unanimously to go with Township Builders of Little Rock for downstream drainage improvements on 46th Street.

Township was one of four bids on the project, beating out three Fort Smith contractors — Forsgren, Goodwin & Goodwin, and Steve Beam Construction — with a low bid of $3.995 million. The remaining bids ranged from $5.2-5.9 million against an engineer’s estimate of $5.7 million. The project consists of drainage improvements to reduce the frequency of flooding in the 46th Street area between R Street and East Valley Road. Six houses east of 46th Street are experiencing flooding in the area and severe street flooding is also occurring.

The project also includes asphalt resurfacing of 46th Street from R Street to East Valley Road. The estimated notice to proceed date for the contract is March 20, 2017. Based on a contract duration of 360 days, the estimated completion date will be March 14, 2018.