FORT SMITH -- A public-private partnership designed to improve a Fort Smith city park and stimulate the local economy is officially underway.
Sam Sicard, president and chief executive officer of First National Bank of Fort Smith, announced during an event on Monday that artificial turf would be installed at four of the Kelley Park Ballfields. Sicard, along with Bobby Aldridge, owner and principal engineer of Frontier Engineering Inc., proposed the project to the Fort Smith Board of Directors during its Nov. 26 study session.
It is hoped that dirt will be turned for the project by Feb. 1 and that it will be finished by April 1, according to Aldridge.
"What we wanted to do was provide some good quality artificial turf infields," Aldridge said. "... By making the infields all artificial turf, we should be able to play, barring lightning storms, even during a hard rain if they choose to do so, so therefore, we can bring in the large economic impact and bring the hundred team tournaments back to Fort Smith again."
The fields that will receive artificial turf include the Flocks, Skokos, Higgins and Kuykendal fields, Aldridge said.
During its regular meeting Dec. 17, the Fort Smith Board of Directors unanimously approved an ordinance amending the fiscal 2020 budget and parks capital improvement plan to include an allocation of $250,000 for this project, which will be used to match private funds of the same amount. Sicard said $227,500 in private funds have been raised for the project so far.
Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman wrote in a memo included in the Dec. 17 meeting packet that improving Kelley Park fields with artificial surfaces 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 due to the weather.
The impact of youth sports and tournaments of significant size from across the region would benefit the local economy as a result of the hotel, retail and restaurant sales that could be realized.
Fort Smith At-Large Position 6 Director and Vice Mayor Kevin Settle said on Monday the city is excited to be part of this partnership.
"This is a great opportunity for all of us," Settle said. "It shows how we've utilized that one-eighth cent sales tax for parks, utilizing it further than we've ever imagined five or six years ago."
It was also during its Dec. 17 meeting that the Fort Smith Board of Directors discussed 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 the Kelley Park artificial turf project. However, the board voted against the resolution 3-4.
The developers of the River Valley Sports Complex -- then-state Sen. Jake Files and his business partner, Lee Webb -- approached the city in 2014 looking to build a tournament-quality complex. The city budgeted $1.6 million for the project, with the condition that Files and Webb complete it by June 2015 with donations of materials and labor.
From there, Files and Webb missed deadlines that city directors continued to extend until the end of 2016, at which point the pair expressed their desire to withdraw from the project.
City directors voted to terminate the agreement with Files and Webb in February 2017, although by then they had spent $1.08 million of the city's money. Directors also demanded that Files and Webb return the $26,945 in state General Improvement Fund grant money they received for infrastructure work.
Files pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and money laundering over receipt of the grant money on Jan. 29, 2018. He also pleaded guilty to bank fraud for pledging a forklift he did not own as collateral for a bank loan, and began serving an 18-month sentence in August of 2018. Files had a scheduled release on Nov. 11.
State Desk on 12/24/2019