Greenwood council calls for dissolution of FCRA

The Greenwood City Council passed a resolution during its board meeting Monday (May 6) calling for the dissolution of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, making it the third out of four beneficiaries to officially call for the FCRA to come to an end.

Only the authority board can vote to dissolve the organization. The FCRA was formed in 1997 to oversee redevelopment of 6,000 acres of land released by the U.S. Army from Fort Chaffee as part of a Base Realignment and Closure downsizing.

The trust has four beneficiaries – the cities of Barling, Fort Smith and Greenwood and Sebastian County. In late March and early April, the board of directors for Barling and Fort Smith passed similar resolutions. The Sebastian County Quorum Court has received a proposed resolution for study, but the matter has not been on an agenda for vote.

GREENWOOD ACTION
A draft resolution had been given to Greenwood board members at the April board meeting as an information item. At Monday night’s meeting, members asked that it be added to the agenda after Rod Blake, owner of Blake Construction, addressed the board concerning the dissolution of the FCRA trust.

The resolution recommended dissolution of FCRA, termination of indenture of trust, creation of an end date, and procedures for the distribution of trust funds and trust property to the beneficiaries. It passed with four in favor, one opposed and one abstention. It calls for the trust to end by Dec. 31, 2025, the same date as the Fort Smith resolution.

“I’m all for it,” said Greenwood Mayor Doug Kinslow. “If all four beneficiaries are saying it’s time, they are not going to say, no it’s not.”

The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority (FCRA) Board of Trustees agreed in a meeting April 18 to work with the authority’s four beneficiaries to begin talks on ending the authority and doing what is best for the Chaffee Crossing area.

Kinslow told the city council that the four beneficiaries have met and discussed what they would like to see happen.

“A lot of discussion has been had. There was some concern, everyone has a little different opinion on how it should end. Everybody agreed that it needed to come to an end. Everybody was not necessarily in agreement on a date. They weren’t that far apart,” Kinslow said. “I know as you mention, Barling has already approved the resolution that I provided to this council last month. They have a date of their own. Fort Smith same thing, they have another date. The meeting I had was to talk about that and to plan another meeting. The meeting we will have with Daniel Mann. We thought it best and right to hear from him.”

DONATION QUESTION
Among other things there was concern raised at that meeting regarding a donation made by the FCRA to the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center. FCRA announced April 11 that it contributed $500,000 to a reimagined JHRVC. A fundraising campaign to help the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission expand the center was announced in March 2023.

“All agree that it is a great thing. We want to know that it was done correctly, with authority from the board. None of the beneficiaries were aware of that at all. None of that is going to go without being questioned,” Kinslow said.

FCRA announced April 11 that it contributed $500,000 to a reimagined JHRVC. A fundraising campaign to help the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission expand the center was announced in March 2023.

Fort Smith City Administrator Carl Geffken said the FCRA is working to schedule a meeting with FCRA and representatives of all the beneficiaries.