CBID reviews downtown Fort Smith improvement efforts

The Fort Smith Central Business Improvement District (CBID) Commission is adjusting downtown Fort Smith improvement programs created with the help of revenue from an assessment on property in the district.

The assessment had been in the works for more than three years and allows the CBID, a semi-autonomous governing body, to levy a supplemental annual assessment of up to 10 mils on real property within the CBID boundaries – primarily in downtown Fort Smith. The Fort Smith Board of Directors in 2022 approved an assessment on properties in the CBID.

The assessment funds, roughly $220,000 received in October 2023 and the same expected to be received in October this year, were earmarked to support an ambassador program with Fort Smith police officers as part of a downtown Safety and Security program, and a Green and Clean project.

At its regular meeting Thursday (July 18), CBID commissioners voted to take $32,000 of the $110,000 set aside for the Green and Clean program and use it to supplement salaries for two full-time employees and one part-time employee with the Fort Smith Parks and Recreation Department, who will become the Park’s Department’s Downtown Green & Clean Division, in 2025.

Commissioners had intended to use part of the Green and Clean funds to hire a landscaper to plant and care for landscaping along Garrison Avenue, but multiple requests for bids on the project have not netted any interest.

‘MORE FLEXIBILITY’
“The establishment of this program was one of the main goals of the special assessment on properties within the CBID. Our department, along with vendor recommendations from the CBID, has tried to solicit interest in this comprehensive program. One proposal was submitted. However, the cost was too significant, and this company is no longer in operation,” Parks and Recreation Director Sara Deuster said in a memo to the commissioners.

She said using the funds instead to supplement salaries for the parks department employees and create the Downtown Clean & Green Division would allow the CBID to achieve one of its goals of the special assessment and the city to ensure quality service delivery in downtown Fort Smith.

The city has a contract with a local landscape company for downtown landscape maintenance, funded through the Park’s Department, but that contract is set to expire Dec. 31. The new division of the parks department would take over those responsibilities plus more, Deuster told the commission Thursday.

“What I like about bringing it in house is it would give us more flexibility. If the CBID wants to expand, we can amend that as needed versus a contract,” Deuster said, adding that the city would continue to fund the duties of the new division with the funds it has now, and the CBID funds will supplement the salaries.

Duties, including those added to what is already expected downtown, will include litter and debris with hours adjusted so that work downtown in the entire CBID area will be more visible; graffiti removal, including in the parking garage area as well; power washing of sidewalks twice a year for all and spot washing after events; vegetation control on sidewalks and parking areas; seasonal planting if desired, which could include store-front planters; routine inspection of infrastructure and repair to broken items, chipped sidewalks, etc.; minor maintenance; irrigation system repairs; and maintenance of lighting, trash receptacles and downtown statues.

The proposed Downtown Clean & Green Division will need to be outfitted with standard small
lawn and landscape equipment and various hand tools. That equipment will include a power washer and a utility vehicle with a snow plow attachment for use in bad weather. Deuster said those requests will be made to the Fort Smith Board of Directors as part of the Park’s budget for 2025.

CBID commissioners voted to fund the program for one year starting in Jan. 1, and then to evaluate the division’s success in the CBID to see if it is the best way to continue.

AMBASSADOR PROGRAM
Commissioners also agreed to continue with the current Ambassador program, the other program funded by the assessment, until at least the end of the year. The Fort Smith Police Department hired Jon Raspberry to start the ambassador program in 2021. Raspberry served as the department’s downtown ambassador/meter technician. At the first of August 2023, the police department hired Saylor Steward and Allyson Wilson, as part-time ambassadors. There are ambassadors downtown 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Raspberry has said.

At the CBID meeting June 20, commissioners voiced concerns that the ambassador program was not going as expected. Originally the ambassadors were to spend half their time checking and enforcing parking meters downtown and the other half communicating and interacting with the public offering help when needed and helping to keep the homeless population from loitering downtown. Because the Fort Smith Board of Directors voted to keep parking meters covered until the end of the year, the ambassadors only need to concentrate on engaging with the community downtown, Mundy said.

Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman told commissioners that FSPD Chief Danny Baker reassigned the ambassadors from the Patrol Division chain of command to the Community Relations division, which reports directly to the chief’s office.

FSPD Officer Robyn Shoptaw addressed the commissioners Thursday saying she is now overseeing the ambassador program. She and her fellow officer in the community relations division have been talking to business owners in the CBID to see how well the ambassadors are doing and most have reported positively.

The concern, Shoptaw said, is the ambassadors have no law-enforcement capabilities. If there is an encounter with a homeless person, all the ambassadors can do is talk to them and make requests. If interactions, escalate, they can call FSPD for officer assistance.

“It is hard for a civilian to walk up and say, ‘You can’t be here, will you move?’ There is nothing else that can be done,” Shoptaw said, regarding the ambassadors. “I think they do the best they can with the tools they have. They want to do a good job.”

CBID commissioners agreed that they wanted to see how things worked with the ambassadors now that it is under the community relations umbrella. They said they would re-evaluate it later in the year to see if there was a better way to spend those funds to make the program work.