Fort Smith city administrator back in running for Clearwater job arkansasonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arkansasonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Times Record
A five-year extension offered in May 2020 to Fort Smith for sewage system improvements, which could help stabilize sewer rates, has yet to be approved by the city s Board of Directors.
The extension, granted to the city by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality, came after Fort Smith fell five miles short of replacing sewer lines required for that piece of a 12-year consent decree timeline for 2019.
As per terms of the decree, the city had $246.1 million remaining to pay as of Monday for sewage system improvements to fix sewer runoff into the Arkansas river, which the EPA and Department of Justice lodged for Fort Smith in 2015.
Times Record
The precursors for several prominent decisions in Fort Smith were set in 2020. The city will see them play out in 2021.
City officials in 2020 made decisions related to the extension or implementation of taxes and the federal Consent Decree. Outside of the city government, state and federal officials vouched for Fort Smith as the location of a fleet of fighter jets for a security initiative in Pacific Indochina.
The Times Record has compiled a list of five significant decisions to be made or further considered in 2021 for Fort Smith.
Fighter jet fleet
Ebbing Air Force Base at Fort Smith Regional Airport is in the running with four other locations throughout the country for the location of F-16 fighter jets for the Republic of Singapore and F-35 fighter jets a decision officials expect to be made early in 2021.
Times Record
Editor s note: This story has been updated to accurately state the kinds of businesses that were shut down for 74 days in Arkansas because of COVID-19.
Bar and restaurant owners in Fort Smith who say they re already suffering under the COVID-19 pandemic are worried about an incoming 5% alcohol tax hike from the city.
Slated to go into effect Dec. 1, 2021 with a study session to reconsider in October, the capped-out alcohol sales tax would push adult beverage taxes in Fort Smith up to 19.75% for beer, 23.75% for wine and 33.75% for liquor when purchased in a bar or restaurant. While it was presented to the Fort Smith Board of Directors at Dec. 15 meeting as a tax upon the gross proceeds or gross receipts derived by such private club, City Administrator Carl Geffken on Wednesday said the tax would apply to all bars and restaurants in Fort Smith that serve alcohol.
Times Record
The City of Fort Smith doesn t currently have any solid plans for a transitional workforce program, but talks with a local workforce developer have kept the idea on the table.
Miles Crawford, TRAC s New Business Development and New Markets specialist, said Friday he has sent out a proposal to keep his transitional workforce pilot program between the city and Go Ye Christian Workforce Services going. Go Ye is Crawford s former workforce agency set to close at the end of the year. Crawford s pilot program gave the city two transitional employees to work at the city landfill, one of whom was eventually hired full-time.