Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 9/23/25
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting held 9-23-25 and led by Director Settle with Mayor McGill, Director Rego, and Director Good absent, the findings of the study of the Department of Solid Waste conducted by Sloan Vazquez McAfee were discussed. Topics in the study included analysis of service rates and fees needed to cover costs of solid waste services and fund obligations and potential for a City owned recycling facility.
Joe Sloan with Sloan Vazquez McAfee praised the landfill calling it “excellent”, “pretty stellar”, “Disneyland of Trash”, and a “spectacular unbelievable asset that needs to be cherished.” 3/4 of all materials coming in to the landfill are from third-parties (including companies like CARDS and Waste Management, small contractors, and individuals hauling in their own loads), not from the City of Fort Smith. The study mentioned that over the 100 years expected to be left on the lifespan of the landfill that it would bring in over $3 billion in revenue.
Currently, Fort Smith’s trash rates do not cover the cost of delivering the services. The current Fort Smith residential rate is $15.89 per household per month. With recycling and yard waste picked up weekly (the current program) the cost to provide services is $23.44 per household per month. With recycling and yard waste picked up bi-weekly the cost to provide services would be $21.93 per household per month. Without recycling or yard waste pickup at all (an option that is not actually an option because State law requires a yard waste program) the cost would be $17.42 per household per month. In the study, 17 other cities in Arkansas and Oklahoma were compared and found to all have trash rates higher than Fort Smith’s with the average being 57% higher than Fort Smith’s.
Director Christina Catsavis asked if the Solid Waste department is anticipating submitting a budget with a deficit for approval for the 2026 budget. Solid Waste Director McDonald said that it does anticipate a deficit budget. McDonald mentioned challenges with “creeping costs” increasing over the past several years.
Director Kemp pointed out that the Solid Waste department has a 50% reserve balance.
Director Christina Catsavis suggested looking for ways to improve efficiencies and make reductions to costs.
About 2,000 tons of residential curbside recycling are collected per year. The study mentioned that the current model, where households have to subscribe to recycling service (at no extra charge) rather than every household automatically being issued and encouraged to use a recycling bin, only has a participation rate of 25-30% of households. It would cost about $150 per household to issue 3 containers for each household. The study recommended that every household be issued recycling carts to increase participation and that the increased participation would make it more feasible to move to having an in-house facility for recyclable material sorting and baling and make it possible for the facility to save money over transporting the recycling and outsourcing it to the Marck facility in Lowell. Sloan showed a short video of the Revolution system for sorting and baling recycling that might be a good fit for Fort Smith in the future. Director Christina Catsavis voiced her support for going back to every-other-week pickup of recycling to reduce costs. Several other Directors expressed agreement with that suggestion.
Suggested actions recommended by the study included charging for all services rendered including ancillary services (like returning for missed pickups, pulling carts out, large item pick up, locking bins, etc.), issuing recycling carts to every household, performing audits (on billing, equipment, service, and routes), bringing rates up to the current cost of services and making scheduled annual rate adjustments.
Director George Catsavis suggested raising the rates on commercial enough to not have to raise the residential rates. Director Martin and Director Christina Catsavis said they are “not for raising rates.” Director Martin expressed concerns about low rates for the 75% of waste that are not City of Fort Smith collections being an incentive to live in outside communities. Sloan mentioned that if those outside rates were raised that those haulers might go elsewhere and the revenue would be lost while the costs of operating the landfill would not go down significantly. Director Kemp voiced his support for raising rates on non-city waste, for “right-sizing” and reducing costs, and for raising rates by a low amount and by a low percentage each year rather than making a big increase when the issue becomes a bigger problem. Director Settle voiced his opposition to raising rates for residents.
The Board discussed whether to enter into a loaned personnel agreement with Burns & McDonnell to allow for Ben Marts to serve as the Interim Director of Engineering. With all 4 Streets and Drainage project engineer positions currently vacant, there are no qualified applicants to fill the position even temporarily. The agreement would be for up to 6 months of full-time work at a cost not to exceed $317,493. This issue was discussed and tabled at the 9-16-25 meeting.
Director Kemp asked about the progress on hiring for the position. Acting City Administrator Dingman said that they are still actively recruiting and that there are interviews lined up already.
Ben Marts mentioned that there are 58 active projects at different phases currently. For the ones that are in construction, inspections by professional engineers are required by State law and that without Marts the City would need to use one of the 5 qualified professional engineers employed by the City in other departments, taking them away from their work in their department or else work on the projects would have to be delayed. Director Kemp said that he saw the “narrowness of the options.”
Director Christina Catsavis expressed frustration at the “mismanagement” leading up to the need to be “operating in crisis mode” on the situation.
The issue was added to the agenda for a vote at the October 14th meeting.
The Board discussed the City potentially taking ownership and responsibility of Forest Park, Roselawn, Holy Cross, and Washington cemeteries. The situation was discussed at the 7-15-25 study session meeting where Fort Smith Cemeteries Inc. (the non-profit organization that currently operates Rose Lawn, Holy Cross, and Forest Park cemeteries) and Bobbie Woodard-Andrews (who currently operates Washington Cemetery) requested for the City to take over responsibility for all of those cemeteries and was discussed again and tabled at the 8-19-25 meeting. The 9/23/25 discussion included a proposal by Fort Smith Cemeteries Inc. that includes plans for scaled back levels of care (rather than matching the levels at Oak Cemetery that is currently owned by the City) and contracting out services to lower costs. The annual costs of the new proposal would be $404,021 annually (versus the previous proposal of $719,153). The one time capital expense of the new proposal would be $159,350 (and after the distribution of the $170,000 from the perpetual care fund would only be $10,650), $782,200 less than the previous proposal.
Marty Clark with Fort Smith Cemeteries Inc. said that the previously proposed budget was “grossly over-inflated” and called the new proposal a “rebuttal budget.”
Director Christina Catsavis said “we have a moral and civic obligation to take care of” the cemeteries. She expressed concerns about it being embarrassing and shameful for Fort Smith to not take care proper care of the dead. She mentioned that if the facilities are allowed to fall into disrepair it will cost even more to repair them.
Director Kemp mentioned that some Streets department mowing projects were outsourced to save money and then were brought back in-house when it turned out to be cheaper to do them in-house after all. He asked if the companies are giving realistic bids. Clark said that they got 3 bids and the average bid was $75,000 and it was from King Irrigation that has done the mowing at the cemeteries in the past. Clark suggested that the City also look into whether outsourcing could save money at Oak Cemetery, too.
Clark recommended that if the City were to take over the cemeteries that they also establish a Friends of Fort Smith Cemeteries community group that could engage in fundraising and volunteer efforts. Director Christina Catsavis mentioned that the Friends of the Library raises a significant amount of funds for the library.
Direct Kemp expressed his desire for the City to just give the cemeteries funds rather than to take them over. Dingman clarified that so long as they are not owned by the City it would be against the State Constitution to give them funds. Director Kemp suggested that the City should urge the State lawmakers to change the law to allow cities to give funds to non-profits including for things like cemeteries and homeless services.
Director Christina Catsavis mentioned that there is not very long left before the Blue Lion building is paid off, suggesting that funds being spent on it could be redirected to offset costs for the cemeteries. Dingman said that the building would be paid off in April of 2027 and that that would free up $5,800 per month but that only 25% of that would be from the general fund where the cemeteries cost would be coming from.
Director Martin said that the original proposal for the cemeteries budget “was high.” He voiced his concerns about the costs for the cemeteries coming from the strained general fund. He also voiced his concerns that if the City were to take over those cemeteries that other cemeteries would also request to be taken over in the future.
Bobbie Woodard-Andrews with Washington Cemetery said that Washington Cemetery is currently in the black financially. She mentioned that she intentionally did not have Washington Cemetery included as a part of Fort Smith Cemeteries Inc. when that organization was formed in 2020. Director Kemp asked if she wants the City to take over Washington Cemetery. Woodard-Andrews answered that no, she does not really want the City to take over the cemetery entirely, but rather that all that she really wants is help with grass-cutting. She reminded that Washington has no clean-up liens and that every time there has been a neighborhood code complaint about the maintenance at the cemetery that it has been cleaned up quickly before the City had to have it fixed. She praised the community efforts and generosity of individual donors that have made it possible for her to keep maintaining the cemetery, but she acknowledged the struggle of keeping the grass mowed.
Director Kemp said that “everything the government does takes twice as long and costs twice as much” in expressing his preference to find ways to keep the City out of having to take over the cemeteries. He also said that he wants to see the 2026 budget first before considering the cemetery issue.
Director Christina Catsavis asked if churches have reached out to help the cemeteries since they’ve been being discussed at the City meetings. Clark said that they have not. Director Christina Catsavis suggested that the Friends of Fort Smith Cemeteries could help with getting churches engaged with helping the cemeteries.
The Board was slated to discuss the Strategic Priorities. They were discussed at a day-long session and were slated to be voted on at the 9-2-25 meeting but were tabled to allow for further discussion. However, with the Mayor, Director Rego, and Director Good absent, the Board opted to table the issue again to a future study session.
