The three largest metropolitan statistical areas in Arkansas were awarded nearly $100 million by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of its Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program. For Carl Geffken, city administrator for Fort Smith, this funding is significant. He said they often find themselves in a geographic Catch-22.
“It’s funny, on certain grants we’re not considered rural, which is 50,000 or under, and in others we’re too big,” he said.
Fort Smith is the third-largest metropolitan statistical area in Arkansas, but that is still less than 300,000 people. To be involved in the chance to be awarded a share of $4.3 billion, they had to think bigger.
Tim Conklin, executive director for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, said the EPA sent a notice a little over a year ago.
“It basically asked if your metropolitan statistical area was interested in participating in developing a priority action plan and a comprehensive action plan to send a notice of intent to the EPA.”
Conklin said the Northwest Arkansas Planning Commission and the City of Fort Smith joined forces with Metroplan, the planning commission for Central Arkansas, to apply collaboratively for this grant.
“The EPA strongly encouraged the formation of coalitions,” Conklin said. “Casey Covington, Metroplan executive director, reached out. During one of our calls, he suggested that maybe we should look at forming a tri-region coalition. It’s going to be very competitive; we’re hearing this. We took that back to our members, our board, and said, ‘There’s an opportunity potentially to have an application that competes on a national scale.’”
Conklin said when it came time to decide how much to apply for, the price tag kept them in a specific category of the grant.
“If your listeners are wondering why it’s $99,999,999, it’s because we were trying to stay under $100 million,” Conklin said. He held a packet of slides printed out as a reference point for the interview and said, “Even though I have this in my hand — they can’t see it — it says $100 million on here. So that’s how that all happened.”
Casey Covington, the executive director of Metroplan, said he thinks this big ask worked in their favor.
said he thinks this big ask worked in their favor.
“If you looked at the application,” Covington said, “those that were awarded, they were all big asks. They were projects and people that were willing to think comprehensively and see how those projects would work. I think that that was a big part of us, the $100 million request. It was big and it showed an effort to achieve multiple strategies. Going for that amount of money, including multiple strategies, was pretty important. And then the willingness to partner, I think that was an absolutely critical part of our award and the willingness of our three different urban areas of the state to come together and say we want to achieve energy and environmental efficiency for Arkansas.”
The $100 million is split between the three entities based on the size of the metropolitan area. Metroplan in Central Arkansas will get $49,250,000; Northwest Arkansas will receive $36,250,000; Fort Smith will receive $14,500,000. Covington said their priorities in Central Arkansas include regional greenways, like improving and expanding their bicycle and pedestrian systems.
“A part of that will be right of way acquisition of critical corridors and vegetation,” Covington said. “And then, work to restore those to a natural environment which has benefits and allows us to improve air quality and make sure that we maintain the things that we enjoy here in Arkansas.”
Active transportation is a major point of emphasis for all three regions. Everyone agrees that one critical way to reduce carbon emissions and conserve the nature of the Natural State is through modal shifting, which means incentivizing people to move away from driving cars to riding bikes, specifically e-bikes. Conklin said all three metro areas will be using part of their funding for vouchers for the purchase of one.
“E-bikes have really changed the equation about how far you can ride,” Conklin said. “I can tell people are carrying groceries [on them], they have shirts on going to businesses and going to work in those businesses. I see this more and more up and down our trail system.”
By making e-bikes more affordable and available, the hope is they will be seen less as a recreational-only type of transportation. Conklin says the vouchers will be available at the point of sale, meaning you will be able to get the discount immediately at your local bike shop.
“With a focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities,” Conklin said. “One of the things that we learned when we were talking about how to develop an e-bike incentive program is that you can target certain census tracts and blocks and make sure you’re trying to address these incentives to people that may find it more challenging to buy a $1,000, $2,000, or $3,000 bike for transportation.”
The program is also a boost to the local economy.
“Our local bike shops will be selling more e-bikes,” Conklin said.
Geffken in Fort Smith said adding EV charging stations is a major priority for them.
“We have been trying to get EV charging stations here in Fort Smith for about four years,” Geffken said. “We worked with one of the larger companies that basically do turnkey work and we couldn’t come to agreement on the contract. Which is fine. And then we’ve been applying for grants and haven’t made that final cut. And we’re not eligible for the Volkswagen settlement funds either. Having this means that we can put EV charging stations in our downtown area and our libraries.”
Geffken said they don’t have any charging stations in Fort Smith. “And with our proximity to Interstates 40, 49, and 540, people going across the country there’s a desert here. And so now having them in downtown so close to Interstate 40, we now become an area where they can come eat, do a little shopping all while their car charges. And we are looking to put in level three chargers — the fast DC chargers. So, 20 minutes, car is charged, grab a bite to eat. And they’re here in Fort Smith and they get to see what we have to offer and how we are — which is a lot.”
For Covington in Central Arkansas, the emphasis fits into three main categories:
“Greenways, critical corridors, and critical habitats.”
Looking 10 years into the future, Conklin said his hope is that they continue to look at funding more projects besides the 18 that were funded from this grant.
“That there’s other opportunities to protect and preserve additional natural areas in our region,” Conklin said. “I’ve been here over 30 years now, and we did not really have a bicycle trail network. Today, we have over 200 miles. We did a scientific survey asking people how satisfied they are with certain aspects of our infrastructure, and the number one ranked most satisfied component of Northwest Arkansas’s infrastructure was our bicycle infrastructure. So, I would like to think that after 10 years, we’re talking about our natural areas and open spaces that we’re moving that direction to that. There’s other opportunities. I’ve heard people say, ‘Is Northwest Arkansas done building trails?’ No, we’re just starting to build trails. I think for open space preservation, the natural areas, I think we’re just starting to protect that. I applaud the work of the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust and what the Illinois River Watershed Partnership is doing and the Beaver Watershed Alliance, we need to protect Northwest Arkansas. We need to make sure that when we have a million people here and we’re 25 years out that what we love today about our region is protected and preserved and we love Northwest Arkansas in 2050 as we do in 2024.”
The funding for the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants came from the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress in 2022. None of the six members of the Arkansas congressional delegation voted for the legislation that provided funding for these projects.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The authoritative record of KUAF programming is the audio record.
