Fort Smith directors OK $2.2 million for riverfront utilities project

FORT SMITH -- City directors gave the green light to spending almost $2.2 million to extend utilities along the riverfront to support a proposed park for recreational vehicles.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors voted 6-1 to approve two resolutions for this project during its regular meeting Tuesday. George Catsavis, director for Ward 4, cast the sole negative votes.

The first resolution authorized Mayor George McGill to execute a more than $1.94 million contract with the Fort Smith-based Goodwin & Goodwin Inc. for construction of the project for a period of 330 days.

The second resolution authorized McGill to execute an agreement with Hawkins-Weir Engineers, Inc. of Van Buren to provide engineering construction services. This agreement will also span 330 days and cost $236,660.

Utility Director Lance McAvoy said both items would be paid for through 2018 revenue bonds. The proposed RV Park would be north of the Riverfront Drive and P Street intersection.

McAvoy said this project could not only provide water and wastewater services to the proposed park, but also other potential facilities that could come about along the riverfront. One of the directors who supported the project, Neal Martin, at-large Position 7, said he believed the city couldn't get further development in that area started without it.

McGill said he thought this project would create opportunities for others to develop on the riverfront.

"It's about our future," McGill said.

Development in the riverfront area has been discussed at prior Board of Directors meetings.

McAvoy wrote in a memo to the board that the water portion of the project would include extending a 12-inch water line along Riverfront Drive from P Street to Spradling Avenue. This would tie into an 8-inch water line that runs along Spradling Avenue to the north and a 12-inch line running along Riverfront Drive and P Street to the south.

The project would also entail the installation of a sewer pump station on Riverfront Drive, as well as about 1,100 feet of 3-inch sewer line that would run from said pump station to an existing sewer line along P Street, according to McAvoy.

Tuesday's meeting came after the board approved tabling the two resolutions Aug. 17. City Director Kevin Settle, at-large Position 6, asked administrators and the utility department to find a more cost-effective solution to the proposed pump station. The resolutions had previously been tabled Aug. 3.

McAvoy wrote in his memo that utility department staff and Hawkins-Weir Engineers afterward looked at five options to convey wastewater from the proposed RV park site to the nearby water reclamation facility on P Street. Staff determined that installing the sewer pump station and sewer line would be the most cost-effective option.

Settle told McAvoy he appreciated the due diligence McAvoy displayed by following through with his request and expressed support for the project.