Fort Smith Board approves 2025 capital improvement budgets

Fort Smith

by Tina Alvey Dale ([email protected]) ago 0 views 

Approved City of Fort Smith utility department capital improvement plans (CIP) drastically reduce capital expenditures for water and sewer for the coming year compared to estimated spending in 2024.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors on Tuesday (Dec. 3) approved a string of CIPS including those for water, waste water-non consent decree and wastewater-consent decree.

The approved 2025 CIP for water is $25.495 million, down 35% from the projected capital expenditures of $39.298 million in 2024. Approved wastewater CIPs are down 91% in wastewater non-consent decree, from $8.236 million to $695,000, and 3% in consent decree capital expenditures, from $34.075 million in 2024 to $32.993 million in 2025.

“Currently, we do not have additional funding for non-Consent Decree wastewater or water projects. The Non-Consent Decree wastewater CIP includes what is already under contract or needs to be put under contract in 2025. The Water CIP contains projects that are already accounted for, with some projects already allocated and others contracted for the coming year,” noted a statement from Josh Buchfink, the city’s public relations manager. “Regarding Consent Decree wastewater projects, funding remains available thanks to the 5/8% sales tax dedicated to Consent Decree projects.”

Other CIPs approved Tuesday include Streets and Bridges, which has an estimated total of $57.085 million for 2025, up 16% from the estimated $49.189 million spent on capital expenditures in 2024. Also approved was the $965,000 2025 CIP for Streets and Traffic Control, which is a 39% reduction from the $1.58 million expected in 2024.

Buchfink said the streets department is planning to replace or add less equipment in 2025 compared to 2024.

“Equipment needs can vary from year to year based on current priorities and conditions,” he said.

The approved CIP for Parks and Recreation included capital expenditures for 2025 of $6.09 million, down 32% from the $8.945 million expected this year. The CIP does not include funding for the Parrot Island Waterpark.The board appropriated $2.1 million from the unobligated balance of the city’s general fund to fund 50% of a five-slide complex for Parrot Island Waterpark in July. At its Sept. 3 meeting, the board approved the purchase of the five-slide complex for Parrot Island Waterpark for an amount of $4.2 million because the Sebastian County Quorum Court declined to fund their half of the purchase saying they did not have the funds to do so.

An additional $2.1 million is needed to complete the installation of the slides, according to Parks Director Sara Deuster. She said administration directed staff to include funding for this through the one-eighth city sales tax committed to parks in their initial CIP submitted in October. That CIP eliminated $175,000 for improvements at John Bell, Jr. Park; as well as $750,000 for pickleball courts at that park, and $250,000 for a neighborhood park at Riley Farms, Deuster said. The CIP approved Tuesday included those projects and not the money for the waterslides.

The Solid Waste approved CIP was $8.025 million, a 110% increase from the $3.819 million in 2024. This includes $4.025 million for new equipment. The department’s Residential Collections Division requested replacing one cart delivery vehicle and one half-ton four-wheel drive pickup. The Commercial/Industrial Collections Division requested replacing two commercial front loaders in 2025. The two front loaders are scheduled to be replaced next year. One is a 2015 model with 131,069 miles. The other is a 2013 model with 161,364 miles, noted a summary of the CIP given to directors.

“With the purchase of these replacement collection vehicles, we’ll place (two older vehicles) on our spare or backup list and can use them whenever we have a main line truck down for service,” the report said.

The board also approved a $196.552 million budget for 2025, with directors voicing the budget will need to be amended once a complete study of allocations is complete early in 2025. Both the budget and CIP approvals passed by a vote of four to three, with Directors André Good, Lavon Morton, Jarred Rego and Kevin Settle voting for the budgets and Directors Christina Catsavis, George Catsavis and Neal Martin opposing. Those opposing said they wanted more time to consider the budgets.