FORT SMITH — Fort Smith city directors and Sebastian County Quorum Court members have agreed to consider appropriating an additional $800,000 for the proposed aquatic center to avoid deleting features planned for the center.
Members of the two bodies met Monday to discuss amending the agreement through which they are undertaking the joint project at the county’s Ben Geren Regional Park. The amendment to the pact would raise the cost of the project the two entities are sharing from $8 million to $8.8 million.
The proposed amendment also states that of the additional $800,000, Fort Smith would contribute $457,500 and the county would appropriate $342,500.
The difference in the two parties’ shares relates to the amount of in-kind expenses the two sides have agreed to bear to reduce construction costs.
Fort Smith has agreed topay an estimated $335,000 for extending water and sewer service to the aquatic center and installing the traffic signal at the park entrance. The county has agreed to build the aquatic center parking lot at an estimated cost of $450,000.
The Quorum Court voted 7-6 at Monday’s meeting to approve the amendment. County Judge David Hudson said that because the margin of passage was not large enough, the justices of the peace will have to vote on the measure twice more. He said the Quorum Court will vote again at its regular meeting Tuesday. A time for the third vote has not been scheduled, he said.
The additional money for the aquatic center will come from the county’s capital improvement account that is funded by 25 percent of the county’s share of the 1 percent countywide sales tax, Hudson said. The county’s $4 million share of the aquatic center cost also is coming from that account.
Fort Smith city directors are scheduled to vote on the amendment at their next meeting, also on Tuesday.
Paving the way for the vote, the Fort Smith Planning Commission voted Wednesday to amend the city’s Parks and Recreation Department five-year capital improvements program budget to include the city’s share of the extra money for the aquatic center.
The amended budget will have to be approved by the city directors and will be presented to them next month, parks department Director Mike Alsup said Wednesday.
The parks commission voted 5-1 to amend the budget. Commissioner Bryan Merry said he voted against adding the money for the aquatics center because the configuration of the center is not what Fort Smith residents voted for last year when they allocated sales tax money for the project.
He said the money the commission was allocating for the aquatic center may not be enough, and the city directors could ask for more. He also said allocating money for the aquatic center has forced the commission to delay other parks projects.
Others at Wednesday’smeeting, including Justice of the Peace Danny Aldridge, said the aquatic center should include the features residents initially were told would be built.
Aldridge said the features that were cut from the project, such as a dive pool, rock-climbing wall and a 600-foot lazy river reduced to 400 feet, were features that would attract teens who he said would make up the majority of paying patrons at the center.
Others said that the aquatic center should be built with the features that people want even if the project has to be delayed to raise the necessary money.
The center initially was slated to open on Memorial Day weekend in 2014, but disagreements over funding pushed back the opening to Memorial Day 2015. A project schedule says planners need a notice to proceed by the end of December to meet the Memorial Day 2015 opening date.
At a meeting in February, residents voiced opposition to cuts that were made in the project to keep it within the $8 million budget. Officials restored the 600-foot lazy river and added the dive pool, and vowed to try to come up with the additional $800,000 the restored features would cost. The Quorum Court was initially against adding the extra money to the project.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/12/2013