FCRA: ‘No comment’ yet on conditions set by beneficiaries

The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority and its board of trustees have received a list of conditions agreed upon by the trust’s four beneficiaries regarding dissolution of the FCRA trust but have “no comment.”

Representatives from the four beneficiaries of the FCRA met privately April 23 to discuss ideas about the dissolution of FCRA and agreed upon 15 conditions to move forward on ending the authority.

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. The cities of Barling, Fort Smith and Greenwood have passed resolutions calling for FCRA dissolution.

Barling Mayor Greg Murray, Barling City Administrator Steve Core, Greenwood Mayor Doug Kinslow, Sebastian County Judge Steve Hotz, Fort Smith Mayor George McGill, Fort Smith City Administrator Carl Geffken and Jessica Underwood, executive assistant for Fort Smith, attended the April 23 meeting, according to meeting minutes provided by Geffken.

It was agreed in the meeting that the beneficiaries would develop a set of conditions to be met for the FCRA dissolution. Geffken emailed Daniel Mann, FCRA executive director and CEO, Dean Gibson, chair of the FCRA trust, and the beneficiaries Tuesday (May 7) informing them of the meeting and the conditions.

“The Beneficiaries listed above met on April 23 to discuss the FCRA dissolution. I took notes from that meeting and sent the attendees the attached minutes. The minutes contain the 15 conditions. Conditions 14 and 15 were added to ensure all representatives of the Beneficiaries receive all communications and are all invited to any meetings,” Geffken said in the email.

He added that his office would work with the FCRA office to arrange “a mutually agreed upon date where the eight representatives of the Beneficiaries, you, and one of the members of the Trustees will begin the discussions.”

Gibson said Thursday (May 9) he had seen a list of the conditions.

“We have made the Trustees aware of them and have no comment at this time,” Gibson said.

FCRA had not responded to Geffken’s email by Thursday afternoon.

The 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.