FORT SMITH — The city set aside a considerable amount of money for a possible public-private partnership to improve the ball fields at one of its parks.
The Board of Directors unanimously approved an ordinance amending the fiscal 2020 budget and parks capital improvement plan to include an allocation of $250,000 during its meeting Tuesday. This money will be used to match private funds of the same amount for the installation of artificial turf at the fields at Kelley Park.
Sam Sicard, president and chief executive officer of First National Bank of Fort Smith, and Bobby Aldridge, owner and principal engineer of Frontier Engineering Inc., proposed the project to the board during its Nov. 26 study session.
In a memo to City Administrator Carl Geffken, Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said an effort to raise private funds of at least $250,000 to match a city contribution of the same would improve at least three of the Kelley Park fields with artificial surfaces. These improvements would make the park more attractive and usable for hosting travel baseball and softball tournaments, with it being less likely that the tournaments would be canceled because of the weather.
With the hotel, retail and restaurant sales that could be realized, Dingman wrote that the impact of youth sports and tournaments of significant size from across the region would benefit the local economy.
“The [Advertising and Promotion Commission] has metrics for evaluating the tax impact of these events,” Dingman wrote. “One particular tournament formerly hosted in Fort Smith, the ‘Southeast Global Shootout,’ had an average positive local tax impact of $103,000 for 2014/15/16. That tournament, and all others formerly hosted at Kelley Park, have either moved to NWA (Northwest Arkansas), or ceased entirely.”
“There is an effort to recruit baseball and softball tournament directors to host tournaments at the Kelley Park fields, but it likely will only be successful at attracting up to 10 tournaments per year if the fields are turfed, which significantly decreases the chances of having to cancel tournaments due to weather.”
Dingman wrote that many other communities in the state are realizing these positive economic impacts from investments they have made in youth sports facilities.
City Director Lavon Morton expressed his opinion that this is an excellent project, citing the private funds that will match the city’s contribution and the positive local tax impact of the Southeast Global Shootout that Dingman described.
“So clearly, this is a project that not only draws matching funds, but it also has enormous potential to have a positive tax impact on an ongoing basis,” Morton said.
While City Director Kevin Settle said he supported the ordinance, he asked that the city administration work with the parks department and come back to the board to inform it on what the amended capital improvement plan is going to be and with recommendations on the source of the city’s $250,000.
An item that was discussed earlier at Tuesday’s meeting was a resolution accepting a $210,273 bid for about 68.15 acres of city property at Chaffee Crossing, about 62 acres of which was formerly designated for the defunct River Valley Sports Complex project. A section of that resolution stated that the proceeds from selling this property would be designated toward installation of artificial turf at Kelley Park. However, the board voted 3-4 against the resolution.