Agenda Highlights 10/21/25

At the Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting scheduled for 10-21-25, the Board will vote on whether to renew contracts with four insurance companies to provide City employee insurance benefits. Everest Reinsurance Company’s renewal costs would go up 49% from $953,674 to $1,421,073. QCA Health Plan Inc.’s renewal costs would go up 3% from $351,160 to $361,750. Delta Dental’s renewal costs would go up 15% from $43,140 to $49,600. Mutual of Omaha’s renewal would include a 3 year free on premiums and a 20% decrease in long-term disability rates.

The Board will vote on whether to purchase liquid chlorine for water treatment from Brenntag Southwest. This issue was discussed and tabled at the 9-2-25 meeting to allow for the standard bidding procedure to be conducted. Bids were solicited and only Brenntag submitted a bid.

The Board will vote on contracting with Steve Beam Construction for construction of an enclosed solid waste vehicle wash bay. The contract for $1649,700 would be for construction of the wash bay, equipment room, exterior wash, and associated utility improvements but would not include the washing equipment.

The Board will vote on whether to make changes to the purchase of compressed natural gas used for Solid Waste Department vehicles including establishing a fuel swap with Clean Energy Renewable Fuels (CERF) in which the City would buy back some of the fuel produced at the landfill it sells to CERF and the City getting 5% of the market value of the Renewable Identification Numbers. RINs are traded on the open market and bought by fossil fuel producers who need renewable energy credits to meet EPA requirements. The CNG for the Solid Waste Department is currently all purchased directly from AOG. The changes would result in still paying the same price for CNG as buying it from AOG, but would yield $99,760 over 5 years from the RIN credit sharing.