Fri 09|03|10

Fort Smith directors ready to pursue water park plan

Submitted by The City Wire staff on Tue, 01/26/2010 - 5:00pm.

Fort Smith city directors appear unanimous and excited in their support of further investigating a partnership with Sebastian County to develop a water park at Ben Geren Regional Park.

The directors during a Tuesday (Jan. 26) study were presented a water parks plan by Sebastian County Judge David Hudson, Andrew Smith, a principal at Kansas City, Mo.-based Larkin Aquatics, and Ken Ballard, president of Highlands Ranch, Colo.-based Ballard King & Associates.

A 2009 public survey conducted by the University of Arkansas as part of a Ben Geren park review found that an aquatics park was the most requested new feature, Hudson said. With that potential demand, Hudson said the county sought a business and design plan, which Larkin and Ballard King recently completed.

The design plan includes two concepts. The first concept could cost about $4.75 million, with a projected operating budget of $540,463 and projected revenue of $415,250, leaving an expected annual operating loss of $125,213. This proposal will serve 815, and is based on the county being solely responsible for construction and operation.

A second concept could cost about $7.5 million, with a projected operating budget of $822,772 and projected revenue of $709,300, leaving an expected annual operating loss of $113,472. This proposal will serve 1,500, and is based on the county and city partnering on construction and operation.

The 66-page study from Ballard King and Larkin suggests an aquatics park at Ben Geren would serve a population of 271,000 within a 30-mile radius — which would include the municipal water park in Alma. Ballard and Hudson stressed several times during the presentation that the economic analysis was based using conservative projections.

“We’re not oversizing, even with concept B, for your market,” Ballard said when asked about market demand for the larger concept. Ballard even predicted the larger water park “will hit capacity on a hot July day.”

Although many details would have to be approved by the city and county, Ballard estimated an average admission ticket of $5.

Director Don Hutchings called the presentation “exciting,” and said Fort Smith “needs this,” although he wanted more information about the economics behind the project.

Director Kevin Settle said the larger concept “will be packed every day,” and added that area citizens “deserve something like this.” City Director Andre Good also supported the larger concept.

The board is expected to consider action at its Feb. 2 meeting that would authorize city staff to work with Hudson and county officials on a partnership agreement.

In a proposal for quality of place projects, City Administrator Dennis Kelly has suggested setting aside $4 million for the water park with an annual $130,000 budget to support park operations. The funds would come from a 10-year, 10% reallocation of the 1-cent street tax that generates around $20 million a year.

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Pools and Parks

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 7:56pm.

Silly rabbit. Trix are for kids. These kinds of things are more appropriate in communities like Conway and any of the four cities in NWA who have leaders who don't seem to mind stepping up to the plate and making things happen for their youth and families. Not here in Fort Smith. Here in Fort Smith we need to focus on keeping our roads paved and our sewers running.

Tea Park

Submitted by convivial on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 11:02pm.

Funny. If you have kids, you're for the water park; if you're an older couple or a single adult, you see it as a waste of taxpayer money. Much like any other social argument, if it serves you, you buy in, if it doesn't, you protest. We are truly are a nation divided by self interest.

The water park argument is intriguing in that it does bring out one thing in common for all of us, a slippery slope.

i can agree with that. I'm a

Submitted by matt1524 on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 9:45am.

i can agree with that. I'm a single adult, i could care less about a water park. But im for it if it can be self-sustaining (which it cant). O and on the comment on NWA, well guess they have the "fun stuff" but still cant seem to get more than one dang road up there as a main highway (540). Crazy to me.

Conway and NWA have better

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 11:10pm.

Conway and NWA have better jobs that provide a tax base that allows them to spend money on "fun stuff". Focus on building a tax base then the money will be there to have fun, not the other way around. The old "build it and they will come" doesn't work with parks and playgrounds spurring business growth.

Why don't we add a full

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 2:59pm.

Why don't we add a full scale amusement park with roller coasters and the works? Seriously, this all sounds real nice, but we (as a city) are broke. The BOD can't find a way to pay for the Convention Center. They are trying to raise taxes to pay for it, and you guys are all giddy over spending millions of dollars we don't have and committing to losing over $100K a year for infinity. WAKE UP AMERICA! You can't keep spending money you don't have. It doesn't work for personal finances and it doesn't work with public finances. Someone has to pay for all of this and they only way to do it is higher taxes or cutting something.

There is a need for more to Fort Smith's life!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 11:50am.

I am a former resident of Fort Smith, Arkansas but I do maintain knowledge of Fort Smith's current affairs through wonderful sites such as the City Wire!

I think that a water park is wonderful and that it will boost tourism in Fort Smith. Fort Smith is the second largest city in Arkansas and sadly there is not much to show for that. I loved the small town mentality when I was a child growing up (late 70’s and early 80’s) but in order for Fort Smith to grow, it must grow up and look to the future which is abruptly hitting our beloved city head on.
In order for our city to grow and create a stable economy, in my humble opinion I believe that our city must continue to move forward, pay homage to our past to demand a better future and create a place that contains things for families to live and children to have something to do.
I recall a previous comment that there was the girl scouts but nothing much to do…I truly agree because I was a girl scout and involved in the girl’s club and there was nothing more to do unless we walked, toured downtown Fort Smith for the hundredth time, and volunteered through the girl scouts. It was fun and it helped me to develop my character as well as my parent’s teachings, but our children deserve something wonderful now.
Some youths in Fort Smith end up in trouble because there is not much for them to do so they turn to trouble in hopes of having fun. I would to see other things come to Fort Smith such as a YMCA or a YWCA, a children's museum or children's science museum, or a zoo.
I could go on because the possibilities are endless but the factor is… what does our city want in the future and how will we proceed?

Nice Idea Mam But....

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 3:36pm.

Nice idea mam but unless you have the money to put down for a new city pool, the tea partiers say no, no, to any new taxes. I wish there was something that could be done but you know, people have taken pledges to no new tax increases. We need to honor those that have taken such a stand.

Since when do you listen to

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 4:42pm.

Since when do you listen to the tea party? Hell, O'bama and the wicked old witch and her pose sure don't.

Swimming pool

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 9:58am.

I am all for the waterpark at Ben Geren. However, I think our immediate needs are screaming for a swimming pool. After visiting Creekmore one Sunday afternoon last summer, I realized that our only public pool was Creekmore, and it was packed to the rim! Could we build a swimming pool first and incorporate the water park around it in stages?

Waterpark

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/18/2010 - 9:17pm.

Me and five other students at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, are recently working on a speech and we had to come up with a question and find a way to solve it. Well our questions was How can we gain tourism by expanding Fort Smith's resources and the crazy thing was one of the ideas was to turn Ben Geren Park into a water park. I think this is such a great idea for the city of FGort Smith. I know growing up I was in Girl Scouts but beside that there really wasn't much to do. I have three children of my own now and I think that bringing a Water Park to Fort Smith will be a great for the children here in the city, It will give them something better to do during the summetime.

WOW

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 2:33pm.

What an amenity for our area's children. I certainly hope they are sincere in their partnership talk to make this a reality. Fort Smith desparately needs something like this.

I will certainly be casting my votes in the direction of those city and county elected officials who will be pushing this idea forward.