Matthew Moore: We begin this edition of our show as we do most Fridays, and that is with Michael Tilley of Talk Business and Politics. Michael, welcome to the show today.
Michael Tilley: Well, thanks for having me. I feel bad for you, Matthew. You're normally interviewing mayors and high-profile elected officials, and now you got to stoop down and interview an old journalist. So hope it doesn't ruin your day too much.
Matthew Moore: You keep me humble, Michael.
Michael Tilley: Yeah. There you go.
Matthew Moore: Well, let's start by talking about the Fort Smith Regional Airport. There's been conversations worrying about its vitality, its vigor in the community. But we've seen the traffic has gone up almost 2% in January. It doesn't feel like a lot, but any movement up matters.
Michael Tilley: Yes. And you're right that the facility, the airport, that's not near as robust and the numbers aren't near as large as they are in northwest Arkansas. But the airport is important to the regional economy, a good active airport with commercial flights in and out. So that's why we saw January enplanements were a little over 4,300. It was up almost 2%, 1.9% compared to January 2024. And that is good news because there were several days, as we all know, that weather in late January shut down a lot of air travel nationwide. There are estimates that, for example, on Sunday, one of the key travel days, that last Sunday in January, there were more than 11,000 flights canceled nationwide. So there were some disruptions. But despite that, in the January traffic, it was also up more than it was in 2023 and 2022. So those are good trends.
Of course, the issue is that enplanements were on a growth trend, a very healthy growth trend, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. And we're kind of hoping that it gets back to that. I think the numbers are down. For example, in 2019, the year before the pandemic, there were a little over 95,000 enplanements. So we're significantly off. That's not really a Fort Smith issue. I think everyone knows that the nature of air travel changed significantly after COVID. A lot of airlines changed their routes, reduced routes. And that's what we saw. For example, Delta Air Lines used to have flights in and out to Atlanta from Fort Smith. They pulled those in 2021. And the airport is now served by three flights a day by American Airlines, and that's all to Dallas-Fort Worth. So they're still struggling. But let's hope. I know one month is not a trend, but this January follows about a 1.6% gain in all of 2025. So I'm sure there are a lot of folks at the airport hoping that January builds into February and so on, and they have another uptick in 2026.
Matthew Moore: Yeah, we may not be able to officially call it a trend, but we can certainly call it encouraging.
Michael Tilley: There you go.
Matthew Moore: Speaking of encouraging, we are seeing some federal funding go toward the Port of Fort Smith to help expand rail operations. We're looking at more than $8 million of federal funding that's been approved.
Michael Tilley: Yes, $8.1 million from a recent appropriations package driven largely by U.S. Sen. John Boozman, who's a Fort Smith kid. I know he has a business and lives in northwest Arkansas, but he was born and raised here. But this grant will — and it's a matching grant, so the city of Fort Smith Port Authority is going to have to raise about $1.6 million to match it — but I talked to Marty Shell. He's president of Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution. He manages the Port of Fort Smith for the Port Authority. He's confident that they can come up with that match.
What this will do is allow them to build two, maybe up to three, 30,000-square-foot warehouses to handle freight that arrives via rail car. They're seeing a little bit more of the rail activity. According to Marty, rail is more of a domestic product, stuff that's made or used in the U.S., while barge traffic can have more of an international market to it.
Some of the things they're seeing: bulk fertilizer for the agriculture market, bulk feed for the poultry and cattle market, and a lot of metal and wire products used in manufacturing, some of it by Bekaert, not only here in Van Buren, but also up in Rogers. In fact, according to Marty, their port operations in Fort Smith and Van Buren have customers that receive their products from 17 states. So it's quite a hub in terms of getting product in and out.
The other thing, I think the key thing to remember here, is that I'm not sure folks understand how close we came to just not having a port there anymore. The place was essentially destroyed in that 2019 flooding of the Arkansas River. Marty Shell and the city's Port Authority dug in and said, no, we're going to build it back. And this grant builds upon at least or probably more than $6 million that they were able to get through FEMA money, insurance proceeds and other grants. As of 2024 and 2025, they received a $1.8 million grant from the Arkansas Waterways Commission to rebuild. So it has been kind of a slow, arduous rebuild. But I think they're to the point now — I talked to Marty — they're to the point now where they think they've got it back, and now they're able to expand and make it better than what it was after 2019. So I think that's the key story here, that it could have been lost, but it's back and it looks like it's going to be better than what it was.
Matthew Moore: Looks like we've got a name that has been entered into the race for Fort Smith's mayor.
Michael Tilley: Yes. Director Christina Catsavis, she's now a city director on the Fort Smith Board of Directors, still in her first term, but she's officially entered the race. I think other folks have said they are running, but I've not seen any official announcements. I'm not sure talking about running on social media accounts. But then again, maybe I'm just an old-school journalist. But she's the first one to announce at a media event.
She's pretty passionate about what she wants to do. She's been opposed to the city's adding these water slides. She's not opposed to spending in the park, she's just opposed to the way it was done and how much it's going to cost us. Her focus, according to what she says, is on preparing the city. She thinks there needs to be more transparency in terms of the items that come before the board, the interaction not only between the board and city administration, but the public. So that's her focus.
We'll see how that plays. I think there have been some issues with the city of Fort Smith in terms of some transparency issues. I think she's also interested in making sure that this consent decree that the city is under with the EPA and the Department of Justice is handled as transparently as possible.
The filing period for the mayoral election and the three board positions that are up is July 29 through Aug. 5. So we'll have a better idea who's officially in the race. We have three at-large board positions that will be up, and Director Catsavis is one of those at-large positions. So we'll definitely see at least one change on the board.
Matthew Moore: Fort Smith is one of those cities where the role of the mayor looks different than perhaps what you would assume a mayor to look like. For example, it's slightly different than the role of a mayor in Fayetteville, right?
Michael Tilley: Right. It's not a CEO position. It's more of a ceremonial position. When I mentioned that to Director Catsavis, she pushed back. She said, well, it doesn't have to be. I can be more active. She told me, she said, I want to set the tone. I want to set a better tone for the board in terms of direction. I have had some people note, and reasonably note, that she is passionate about the city, wants to do a lot for the city, and some have said, well, you can do more as a director because you're part of the legislative body than you can as a mayor. But she thinks otherwise, I guess, obviously, or she wouldn't be running for mayor.
Matthew Moore: Finally here, the Fort Smith Board of Directors is on a path to renew funding for a popular program, that is the spay and neuter voucher program.
Michael Tilley: Yes. This kind of comes from the you-don't-know-what-you've-got-until-it's-gone category.
In November of last year, the city board was faced with some significant budget cutting that it needed to do. It had run a budget deficit for the past few years. So they buckled down. To their credit, they made some significant budget cuts. But now I think they're getting some pushback on some of those. And one of those was ending this spay and neuter voucher program. It was around $375,000 a year.
We had the study session Tuesday. There was some testimony, and there have been some requests. I think the directors have been getting a lot of phone calls and emails saying, hey, what the hell have you done here?
There were a little over 2,300 animals that were spayed and neutered in 2024 and about 1,500 in 2025. The program funding was halted in August 2025. So it wasn't a direct budget cut, but they decided not to renew it.
I talked to GaeVon Hoover. She's a supporter with Kitties and Kanines. Her testimony was that you have to have these spay and neuter programs nationwide. You start seeing results around four years, and then you start seeing significant results by about year 10. At some point, some communities are able to end the voucher program.
Her argument is that the spay and neuter voucher program will reduce the strays, it will reduce municipal animal control costs, there will be higher adoption rates with animals that have been spayed or neutered, and you have fewer animals that have to be euthanized.
So it's a very emotional topic. It always has been in Fort Smith city politics. It's not a lot of money, but like I said, it's emotional. The ordinance to renew the funding for it is on an upcoming city board meeting agenda. So we'll see if that emotion carries into enough yes votes to renew it.
Matthew Moore: I'm sure you'll bring us that news when it does come. If you ever miss reporting from Michael Tilley and his friends at Talk Business & Politics, you can head over to TalkBusiness.net. Michael, how do you plan on celebrating your Friday the 13th?
Michael Tilley: Just trying to lay low. I don't want to cause any attention. Just lay low and get through it.
Matthew Moore: I love it. All right, we'll talk next week. Thanks, Michael.
Michael Tilley: You're welcome, sir.
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