Fort Smith will benefit from a Brick Yard Park

In 2007, Bentonville city leaders built five miles of mountain bike trails in a valley that was previously used for butchering cattle. Slaughter Pen Mountain Bike Park was the spark that led to more than 300 miles of trails in Northwest Arkansas that stretch from south Fayetteville almost to the Missouri border in Bella Vista.

Fort Smith now has an opportunity to create a similar project at the old ACME Brick plant on Old Greenwood Road. The proposed Brick Yard Park – which will provide numerous recreational and athletic opportunities not just mountain biking – is the type of quality of life project cities must invest in to attract new residents (especially remote workers) and retain the thousands of college students at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education.

On the personal level, the ACME property has been a constant in my life as long as I can remember. I grew up on Hendricks Boulevard. I remember the old Old Greenwood Road before it was widened. My first job was umpiring at what was then the Church League ballparks. And for two decades, I’ve lived just off Greenwood Avenue, up the hill from ACME. I remember – and miss – the smell of the ACME kilns firing bricks. Driving past that property daily, I can see the potential for a park there. I hope the city can see it as well.

Most importantly, study after study shows infrastructure projects like this show a positive return on investment. Property taxes rise. Local businesses catering to cyclists launch and blossom. Out of towners book hotel rooms and eat in restaurants to ride the trails. Healthcare costs drop as locals get more exercise.

Need some data? In June, the University of Arkansas’ business college released a study that showed bicycling contributed more than $100 million in revenue, 743 jobs and $6.1 million in tax revenue in 2022 in northwest Arkansas. The study estimated a $59 million avoidance of chronic healthcare costs thanks to reduced risks of heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Nobody is suggesting Brick Yard Park will necessarily lead to similar success for Fort Smith. Then again, nobody predicted it for Bentonville in 2007.

But Northwest Arkansas has already cut the trail, showing us the way. We should follow their lead.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. It is easier for Northwest Arkansas to build quality of life infrastructure due to a variety of factors. Nobody denies that. But as one of our business leaders likes to say “The cavalry isn’t coming to save us.” We need to do the heavy lifting to improve Fort Smith. The status quo mindset has left us lagging behind the rest of the region. (Fort Smith did recently acquire the property, but plans for the property have not been set.)

Luckily, we’ve already seen that happen with city leaders landing the foreign military pilot training base. Fort Smith got a resounding victory as we were awarded the base thanks to their leadership.

The Brick Yard Park is another opportunity for Fort Smith to tug on its own bootstraps.

Editor’s note: Scott Faldon is a lifelong Fort Smith resident and former sports editor of the Times Record. The opinions expressed are those of the author.