Agenda Highlights 1/13/26

At the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting to be held 1-13-26, the Board will hear an update from RDG Planning and Design about the masterplanning that is being done for the former Acme Brick property.

The Board will conduct their annual review of the Board of Directors Best Practices Document. This list of non-binding guidance suggestions includes things like a code of conduct and ethics and the responsibilities for the Board of Directors.

The Board will discuss carrying over $310,000 in unspent funds from the 2025 budget for replacing the siding and improving the parking area at Miss Laura’s Museum into the 2026 budget. That and other budget carry overs from 2025 to 2026 would come to the Board for approval at a meeting in February.

The Board will discuss breaking a sewer repair contract involving 30,000 ft of sewer line and 190 manholes into two smaller projects instead of one large project and rebidding the projects. The previous lowest bid from Timco for $17,745,767.50 was 60% higher than the engineer’s estimate for the project.

The Board will discuss breaking a sewer repair contract involving 12,640 ft of sewer line and 130 manholes into two smaller projects instead of one large project and rebidding the projects. The previous lowest bid from Morgan for $9,111,352 was 75% higher than the engineer’s estimate for the project.

The Board will vote on whether or not to lease the County’s half of Parrot Island waterpark for $1 per year, resulting in the City having sole control over and responsibility and liability for the park. This issue was discussed and tabled at the 8-6-24 meeting, 8-20-24 meeting, 9-3-24 meeting, 11-19-24 meeting, and the 12-16-25 meeting.

The Board will discuss renewal of the contract with American Resort Management to manage Parrot Island water park. Since this issue was tabled at the 12-16-25 meeting, the City of Fort Smith and the County have entered a temporary agreement with ARM to allow them to continue to manage the park through 3-31-26, but issued a Request for Proposals and received 5 responses. Those 5 responses will be reviewed by a panel of City and County officials and staff.

The Board will discuss costs for installation of the additional water slides purchased for Parrot Island water park. Recently 2 bids were received for the installation. The lower bid at $2,828,810 that did not include costs related to the pool pump so it would not have delivered a complete project and would be well above the remaining $655,000 of the $4.2 million planned for the purchase and installation of the slides. The other higher bid at $3,134,000 did not exclude the pump.

Local company Royal Ridge Construction has offered a proposal that would cost $1,059,934.12 for the plumbing, fittings, and concrete foundations and an additional $680,000 for pumphouse and electrical work, for a grand total of $1,739,934.12. That proposal would still leave an estimated $600,000 in work that would need to be done by other companies. The grand total for the Royal Ridge work and the work from other companies that would be needed to get the slides installed and operational would be $2,339,935. That price would not include fencing, sidewalks, landscaping, etc. Those items are estimated to cost an additional $350,000. With adding together the $655,000 remaining and using the interest from the account for the sales tax for Parks capital projects, the amount available from those sources for the project would be $924,935. To move forward with the Royal Ridge proposal would require awarding the contract to Royal Ridge no-bid instead of going through the normal bidding process.