Kyle Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large for Friday, September 29th, 2023. October is knocking on the door. With me — not at the door but on the phone — is Michael Tilley with Talk Business and Politics. We're going to review some of the week's news. Welcome back, Michael.
Michael Tilley: Thanks for having me back. And it's kind of good, I know, we got a government shutdown coming, but, Stephen Colbert coming back to router strikes over a little bit of humor back in my world. I know some folks may not like him, but I'm a big fan.
Fort Chaffee upgraded to Level 1 training site
KK: Well, it's funny you mentioned the word that the phrase “shut down” because it was a few decades ago when some people feared Fort Chafee would be shut down forever. And it's the farthest thing from that.
MT: Yeah, and this is how old I am. I was working for the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce at the time when that Base Realignment Closure Commission was meeting and came down with the decision to close the base. And so, that was in the mid 90s, there was a pretty big pucker factor in the region, because, you know, again, we thought it was all going to go away this large base. And with all that’s happened on the trust property, you know, the College of Health Education, all the housing, the new ArcBest headquarters, I think sometimes we in the region, lose awareness of how big this military asset is that just sits right nearby. But I think we just got news this week, that could be a reminder that Fort Chaffee has been upgraded to a level one training facility.
Now, I never knew until this press release came down, there are different levels, but apparently there is. And this is a big deal. Their International Guard system, which there are over 150 bases in the country, there are only five that have this level, this level one ranking, and Fort Chaffee is one of them. So, it's obviously a big deal for training and polls these folks in. I've been told —and in fact, I hope they follow through — I visited with Public Relations Officer this week asking if they conducted the economic impact of Fort Chaffee recently, they said they haven't, but they are considering one for the near future. Because one of the things I've heard from restaurant owners and hotel workers is that they get a lot of military personnel coming into your training for two weeks, at a time, one month at a time, that type of thing. So it does have an economic impact. And we were also told that because of the ranges, there's about 1000 acres that are used, designated as the Razorback range used for Air Force jets, to practice bombing and strafing runs, and we were told that that had a big impact on the recent decision to bring the foreign pilot training center to Ebbing Air National Guard Base which is in Fort Smith. So good news.
And again, a 65,000 acre piece of property. And one of the things I learned also from the press release is that Chafee is the only designated trainings site of the Army National Guard system that has a navigable waterway, on which they can conduct river crossing, and they can control it because the lock and dam is just north as the river flows, or I guess, West as the river flows from the training site so they can control the flow of water to simulate different training needs. I knew that but it's just it's a good reminder. And that the base can also house right now 5000 troops at one time. That's quite a lot of a lot of folks. So, good news for the region, good news for Chafee and helps kind of ensure ideally, hopefully, the longevity of that facility there.
Firm hired to investigate Peak Center flooding
KK: Well, a facility that doesn't have nearly the age the peak innovation center that's owned by the Fort Smith School District, there have been flooding problems that you and I have talked about for some time. Finally, it appears there's going to be an independent investigator into those flooding problems. What more can you tell us?
MT: Yes, sir. And that was a bit of good news because they had submitted requests for proposals —I think we've talked about this before — they didn't receive any responses. This is a very unique workforce education center, operated by the Fort Smith Public School District. Very important to the region. Although it's operated by the Fort Smith district, a lot of schools use it, students from other schools use it. It’s pretty advanced training in terms of workforce education. But it's had some serious flooding problems and continues to have serious flooding problems. And so they were seeking a firm come look and see what the problems were and kind of find fault also. And so no one initially applied. This is a pleasant surprise, I was concerned that the school board would just kind of take the easy way out and give up when nobody applied. But they persisted and they hired a firm. And so that will, they will begin. Envista Forensics is an Illinois based group. We've been told the expense will cap at about $50,000. Ideally, once they get started, then they'll have findings in 90 days.
Our own reporting clearly shows that the district failed to obtain necessary and usual hydrology related engineering. We've had one firm say, Look, we don't want to work with you guys anymore, which is somewhat alarming. And our reporting also shows were several times these firms working on the project raise objections about, you know, proceeding without some of these studies. But they were dismissed by school officials as a firm hired by the district to manage the work. So we will be watching with great interest.
Fort Smith sales tax revenue up more than 6% from record year last year
KK: Finally, Fort Smith sales tax revenues continued to go upward. Compared to last year, what was it up four and a half percent in the last month report compared to the same time last year?
MT: For the month, yes. For the full year, though, it continues to be impressive, and I still would love for an economist to drill down to see how inflation impacts this. The Fort Smith share of the Sebastian county 1% sales tax, through the August report has generated $16.5 million. That's up to 6.3% compared to last year. I may sound like a broken record because I think I say this every time, but that's up 6.3% against what was a record last year. So, it’s healthy increase over what was healthy increase. The city's 1% sales tax was just a little over $20 million. That's up 5.4% through the August report. So, good numbers for the city. It continues to show good consumer spending consumer confidence again, I'd like to see how inflation has had an impact on that. City officials are still budgeting very conservatively and not out and about trying to spend the money but because again, their costs have gone up also. But still a good report for the city overall.
KK: And finally, NFL tight end Travis Kelce is perhaps in a relationship with someone named Taylor Swift This should help up her profile.
MT: Yeah, I know sometimes when stars like Taylor Swift are struggling to be known, they have to look to football. So, good for her, maybe she'll finally kind of have a breakout moment.
KK: You can read about all of this except Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. I don't think that's at TalkBusiness.net, but everything else we talked about — and so much more — is at TalkBusiness.net. Michael Tilley, thank you for your time.
MT: You're welcome, sir.
