- The Fort Smith Board of Directors will hold a study session Feb. 11 to discuss water utilities and the consent decree.
- The board will discuss ways to expedite the repair of water leaks, potentially by addressing staffing and equipment needs within the water department.
- The board also will review elements of the proposed financial plan for the consent decree, including sanitary sewer rates and bond issuance.
- Additionally, the board will review the city’s auto and property insurance renewal, as the current policies are operating at a loss.
The Fort Smith Board of Directors has a short agenda for its next study session at 6 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Blue Lion.
Most of the session will focus on the water utilities and the consent decree, including the sanitary sewer rates.
The board will discuss ideas to address and expedite the repair of water leaks. Directors Lee Kemp (Ward 3) and Jarred Rego (Ward 1) discussed this during the Jan. 7 study session and the Feb. 4 regular meeting.
Kemp mentioned in the last meeting that the city needed to do more to build trust and goodwill with its citizens and that repairing the water leaks promptly would go a long way.
The city contracted Forsgren to repair the water leaks from 2021 to February 2024. Forsgren repaired 619 leaks at an average cost of $4,248.05 per leak.
For 2025, the city has repaired 1,615 leaks and has 739 active leaks by the end of December.
Another part of examining the water utilities is reviewing the water department’s staffing and equipment needs. Rego and Director Neal Martin (At-Large) also placed this on the agenda. The original plan was to have 10 three-person leak crews, which caused some issues. If one person was out or someone had to leave the site, the work would stop for safety reasons. Five four-person crews are dedicated to repairing water leaks, and there’s an opening for seven equipment operators.
The board also will discuss elements of the proposed financial plan for the consent decree, including sanitary sewer rates, bond issuance and using sales and use taxes to finance such bonds.
The board was poised to raise the sanitary sewer rate by 3.5% at the Feb. 4 meeting, but some questions and confusion among the board of directors postponed the vote.
The board also will review the city’s auto and property insurance renewal for March 2025 to February 2026.
At the Dec. 17, 2024, meeting, the board authorized First Western Insurance to assist the city in evaluating and comparing the current program with the Arkansas Municipal League and other carriers and reviewing the cost and sufficiency of the City’s insurance programs and risk management policies.
Fort Smith had a two-year loss ratio on its motor vehicle policy of $283 and a loss ratio of $236 on its property policy. This implies that the city’s insurance policies are at a loss for the AML. In turn, this could cause the premiums to increase. Fort Smith paid about $1.18 million in premiums in 2022 and anticipates spending more than $2.45 million in 2025.
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