FORT SMITH -- Fort Smith park and trail backers broke ground Tuesday on a 1.6-mile riverfront trail that officials view as a visitor attraction and a catalyst for further riverfront development.
About 20 people gathered on a sunny, warm afternoon at the Harry E. Kelley River Park on the Arkansas River near the trailhead to mark the start of construction on the $1.9 million park.
"This is part of our front-door welcome to visitors," Mayor Sandy Sanders said during the ceremony.
The trail is being named the Greg Smith Riverwalk in memory of the Fort Smith attorney and trail enthusiast who started the Parks Partners organization that promotes the development of parks and trails in the city. Smith, 60, died in March 2012.
"He came down here himself," said his widow, Sue Plattner-Smith. "He said we need a trail down here, and he didn't wait for other people to do it. He said 'I'm going to do it.'"
She said he had built a trail, which parallels the roughed-out river walk trail, by himself or with an occasional helper using a push mower and weed cutter.
He began developing the trail even though he knew he wouldn't be around to finish it, Plattner-Smith said. But he started it "with the hope and the belief and the faith that others would continue on. And they did."
Also having faith in the project was the Walton Family Foundation, which donated $1 million in November 2013 toward building the trail. The city's one-eighth percent sales tax that voters approved in 2012 for parks and greenways is also funding the project.
Fort Smith city directors awarded the construction contract in December to Dixon Contracting Inc. for $1.9 million. Project engineers will be Frontier Engineering with a support team from Tim Risley and Associates. Construction is scheduled to be completed in September.
During the ceremony, Sanders said the trail will be 12 feet wide and made of concrete, with lighting and irrigation. Nine rest areas along the way will have pavilions, benches, tables and lighting.
A 140-foot-long footbridge will cross the P Street drainage channel with a rock pathway leading down to the river, he said.
The trail will be a physical sign that efforts are being made to develop the riverfront, Assistant City Administrator Jeff Dingman said. He said the city installed water and sewer lines along Riverfront Drive to encourage new construction along the river, and the U.S. Marshals Museum is being planned for the riverfront.
"But this is a real improvement that the public can see, that potential investors and developers can see," Dingman said. "That Fort Smith is serious about developing the riverfront as an attraction for people to come and visit."
Metro on 04/01/2015