Fort Smith Fire Department capital plan approved

The Fort Smith Board of Directors on Tuesday (Nov. 7) approved a five year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the Fort Smith Fire Department with $3.385 million in estimated budgeted expenses for 2024.

“This plan will serve as an outline for fire apparatus replacements, staff vehicle replacements, fire station repairs/upgrades, and major equipment purchases,” said Fire Chief Boyd Walters in a memo explaining the department’s CIP.

Fire suppression apparatus purchases will use the fire department’s portion of the one-fourth percent sales and use tax for fire and parks, Walters said. The plan also uses the historical figures and the projections for the sales and use tax for the fire department.

“This plan will be adjusted in the future as department needs or priorities change,” Walters said.

Over the next five years, the fire department expects to replace six vehicles through its apparatus replacement program. In 2024, the CIP projects replacing Pumper 5, which is 21 years old, at a cost of $1 million. Pumper 10 is listed to be replaced in 2025 ($1 million), followed by Ladder 3 in 2026 ($2.3 million); Ladder 4 in 2027 ($1.4 million); and Pumper 4 and Rescue 1 in 2028 with a combined cost of $2.475 million.

“All prices are estimated increases of 5% annually,” Boyd noted.

Additionally, Royd said, there are other necessities that require attention in the immediate or near future. Those necessities include a training facility complete with large lecture classroom, small breakout classrooms, offices for the fire training division, public restroom facilities, men’s toilet-shower-locker rooms, women’s toilet-shower-locker rooms, and shared functional/support areas, which has an estimated cost of $4 million.

“This would be located at the current Fire Training Facility located at 5901 Commerce Road. Currently, classroom portions of training for Fire are held at either Station 1 (downtown) or Station 11 (Chaffee Crossing), both classrooms are limited to 25 persons max. With a training center classroom located on premises of our training facility, academic to practical hands-on training would be streamlined, resulting in better consistency of training evolutions,” Boyd noted in his report.

He said a large lecture style classroom could host regional, or even national training courses.

“These types of courses are paid for by visiting departments, resulting in a small return on investment for each class held plus the addition of tax dollar revenues by each firefighter visiting Fort Smith,” Boyd said. “While this is a major investment in our public safety departments, the benefit of this type of center would serve for decades to come.”

The department also will need to remodel the fire stations in the next few years. The last remodel occurred in 2013.

Boyd said the tablets for the fire apparatus equipment need to be upgraded every five years to keep up with current technology and to make certain personnel have reliable equipment.

“Having up to date computers on the apparatus helps supply the crews with crucial information including directions, hydrant location, building information, etc.,” he said.

Another fire station will be needed if annexation continues to expand to the south and/or east of the city, or at whatever point in time development exceeds the fire department’s current fire suppression coverage requirements, in order to stay in line with ISO (insurance) standards, Boyd said.