Agenda Highlights 9/9/25
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting scheduled for 9-9-25, the Board will discuss entering into an agreement with the River Valley Film Society/ Border Town Live for a City funded Entertainment Fund that would make the City funding for attracting and promoting Broadway style shows and events at the Fort Smith Convention Center and Arcbest Performing Arts Center its own separate line item in the budget instead of a combined line with the operations for the Convention Center.
Border Town Live would handle publicity for the shows and also run the box office and ticketing. Border Town live put on RESPECT Aretha Franklin Tribute show and Sesame Street Live shows at the Convention Center this past spring. Upcoming planned shows for 2025-2026 include national touring company productions of The Addams Family Musical, Elf The Musical, Dolly Parton’s Christmas Musical, Peter Pan, and Cat in the Hat. Single tickets would range from $20-35 student tickets to $25-45 for budget tickets to $50-75 for orchestra/mezzanine tickets to $80-120 for VIP tickets. These prices are modeled after prices for tickets to similar shows at comparable venues including Walton Arts Center, Little Rock’s Robinson Center, and Tulsa Performing Arts Center and for concerts and performances at local venues including the Fort Smith Symphony, Fort Smith Little Theater, Temple Live, and Majestic. The plan is for Border Town Live to start out City funding assisted but transition over 3 years to being fully self-funded through ticket sales, sponsorships, grants, and donations.
The Board will discuss amendments to the contract with Oakview Group (OVG) for managing the convention center. The amendments requested by OVG were discussed previously at the 4-22-2025 meeting during the annual update from OVG. OVG would like to be allowed to offer off-site catering to any event. Currently, they are only allowed to cater off-site to events that are for a client that has an event booked at the convention center that same week. OVG would like for an Event Marketing Fund to be created like the one requested by Bordertown Live as a separate line item from the convention center’s operating fund. OVG would like their original contract with a 5 year initial term followed by 5 one year terms changed to have an initial term of 8 years followed by one 2 year term. This amendment is requested to make it easier for them to attract and retain high quality staff. OVG would like to act in an advisory capacity regarding City parking around the convention center in the parking garage including potentially implementing and enforcing a digital paid parking system.
As the starting point for the 2026 budgeting cycle, the board will review the budget requests and preliminary 2026 budget comparison summaries. This year, with a new budgeting approach being used, the new capital outlay requests will be included from the start of the cycle instead of separate from the base budget and considered for approval later than the base budget. The highest dollar cost new capital outlay requests include
LED lighting retrofitting $175,000
Parking garage elevator modernization $165,000
Police training facility $1,250,000
Police equipment from Axon $727,284
Remodeling of 2 pumper fire trucks $582,000
2 ton dumptruck with snow plow for Streets $275,000
Lee Creek hydroelectric work $3,000,000
Freightliner M2-106 with sewer cleaner for Utilities $553,193
Ford E450 cutaway with camera inspection equipment for Utilities $409,690
Rehab of the elevated water tank on Country Club $750,000
Residential trash carts $250,000
Fixed route Transit bus $730,000 and Transit scheduling software upgrade $480,000 (the majority of both of those costs would be reimbursed by Federal grants)
