FORT SMITH -- The U.S. Marshals Museum's effort to persuade voters to pass a temporary 1 percent sales tax to finance completion of the museum received an endorsement Tuesday from the Central Business Improvement District.
The eight-member district board that oversees development of downtown Fort Smith took the vote after hearing an appeal to support passage of the tax from Jim Dunn, president of the Museum Foundation, and Alice Alt the foundation's vice president for development.
"This is a national museum," Dunn said. "It's worthy of our support."
Dunn said the nonprofit museum raised enough money, $32 million, from a variety of private and public sources to begin construction on the 50,000-square-foot complex on the banks of the Arkansas River.
Even though the foundation was $15.5 million short of money to install exhibits, the ever-rising cost of steel forced museum officials to start construction in July.
The foundation had hoped to get a large donation but it fell through, Dunn said.
The donation "would have allowed us to get the ball across the goal line," he said.
Museum officials could have sought a loan to acquire the extra money needed, Dunn said, but the cost would have run an extra $2.5 million.
He said officials could not make all the arrangements necessary to get the sales-tax request on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. Waiting for the next general election would be difficult because there would be no income after the museum opens and the staff would need to be paid..
So, museum officials opted to ask city directors at their Dec. 18 meeting to hold a special election March 12 to seek passage of a 1 percent sales tax for nine months. City directors voted 6-1 to call for the election.
Dunn said opponents were wrong in their assertion the tax would be permanent. Another petition to city directors and another election would be needed to extend the tax.
Alt pointed out that Fort Smith has a connection with the museum because of the large number of marshals who served in Fort Smith through the years, especially during the frontier days. Many marshals also are buried in the Fort Smith area.
"This is us," she said. "This is who we are."
The museum will attract tourists to Fort Smith and will act as a catalyst for downtown and riverfront development, Dunn said. But it also is an education tool, which will teach children and adults respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and enforcement of the law.
The museum's education mission has touched thousands of children and provided teachers with materials they can use to carry on the museum's message.
There is opposition to the tax. Most recently, former Sen. Frank Glidewell, R-Fort Smith, wrote in a letter to the editor in the Southwest Times Record and said the sales-tax election "is nothing short of attempted theft from the pockets of hard-working families in Fort Smith to pay for a private, special interest project."
He said Fort Smith residents can't afford to pay an additional sales tax to fund the private museum, and holding a special election would be unfair because turnout would be low, giving proponents an advantage in gaining passage.
Dunn admitted the election will be an uphill battle but said the marshals have always been the underdogs in law enforcement.
"We relish that role," he said.
If the tax passes, a public facilities board composed of community members would buy the museum building and grounds and lease the building back to the museum.
The museum, with its more than 1,000-item collection, will consist of three permanent exhibit galleries that will tell the marshals' story with technology, a temporary exhibit gallery, the Samuel M. Sicard Hall of Honor to recognize those killed in the line of duty and a National Education Center.
The museum is scheduled to open Sept. 24, the 230th anniversary of the establishment of the nation's oldest federal law enforcement agency by President George Washington.
NW News on 01/16/2019