First effort to plan for equipment replacement reviewed by Fort Smith Board

A plan to better understand and plan for replacement of Fort Smith city equipment was reviewed by the Fort Smith Board of Directors on Tuesday (Oct, 23), with several directors praising the concept.

The “General Fund Equipment Replacement Plan” is intended to provide directors and city staff leadership a five-year look ahead of what money may be needed to replace aging equipment across all departments.

“This report may be used as a starting point for strategically planning for the City’s capital and equipment needs over the next several years. The City faces challenges such as an aging fleet, overcrowded work spaces, and equipment that is no longer supported by manufacturers. This plan begins to address some of these primary concerns,” noted Finance Director Jennifer Walker in a memo to City Administrator Carl Geffken.

Geffken said during Tuesday’s meeting that the plan also is part of an effort to give citizens a better idea of where and how the city spends money.

The draft plan suggested $47.755 million will be needed during the next five years for equipment replacement. The money included $19.2 million for a new city hall, but Walker told the directors during Tuesday’s meeting that “we don’t have money for those,” but wanted to acknowledge a possible discussion about a city hall. And in response to a question, Walker said the money noted in the plan does not represent additional spending, but provides a picture of what each department may need to spend from their respective budgets for new equipment.

The fund plan also prioritizes equipment replacement using a priority ranking, with 1 being top priority and 3 being the lowest. City Director Kevin Settle thanked Walker for prioritizing the items, and also asked for a separate presentation that shows the priority breakout for each year. All directors at the meeting concurred that such information would be helpful in making better spending decisions. Walker said that would be easy to do. The board also asked Walker to pull the city hall money and any other building funds out of the budget and just focus on equipment replacement.

City Director Keith Lau, who has pushed in recent years for better budget planning, thanked Walker for the work.

“It’s great. It’s a start to long-term planning,” Lau said.

Also reviewed Tuesday was the five-year capital improvement project (CIP) budget for streets, drainage and associated projects.

“The proposed plan includes a combination of neighborhood street improvements, major street projects, local and basin wide drainage improvements, and traffic signal/intersection improvements. The plan totals $30.2 million for the year 2019 and $142 million for the five year period from 2019 to 2023,” Stan Snodgrass, director of engineering for the city, noted in a memo to Geffken.

Key parts of the streets CIP include:
• Spending about $400,000 in 2019 to add more automation and cameras to improve traffic flow
• Wrapping up design on a Kelley Highway extension, with $1 million set for utility relocation and rights-of-way acquisition; and
• $4 million in the plant to help with a $16 million widening of Arkansas Highway 45 from Zero Street to U.S. 71.

Construction on the Kelley Highway extension is set to begin in 2021.

In the next study session, the board will review five-year capital spending on water systems maintenance and improvements, wastewater systems maintenance and improvement related to the federal consent decree, and wastewater systems maintenance and improvements not related to the consent decree.