Kellams: Let's go to what is at talkbusiness.net, including a nationwide fundraising campaign for the Marshals Museum. What does this entail?
Tilley: They're calling it their "New Frontier of Giving." It's the first big fundraising campaign since the museum opened. They received a $12 million matching grant — it's an anonymous person or group — so that's a $24 million campaign. It's not uncommon for relatively new museums — this museum opened July 1, 2023 — to follow up a few years later with a fundraising campaign. Maybe not the museums that have a particular Walton writing the checks for them, but most other museums do that. It's also impressive that someone stepped up, or some group stepped up, with that $12 million matching grant. If they're able to match it, that $24 million will be a multi-generational benefit for that facility and its programs.
They want to improve access to the museum — I don't know if that will involve free or reduced entry for school groups, that type of thing. They want to boost their civic education. They have a pretty large program around civic education, especially around justice. And then just better manage — we still have to remember that the U.S. Marshals Service is the first federal law enforcement agency, and that museum is tasked with being a repository, a place where people can go from all over the country and learn about that historic agency and what it does.
Kellams: Fort Smith Mayor George McGill is going to close out his second term and not seek a third. What does this mean?
Tilley: Mayor McGill was kind enough to give me an interview before his State of the City address last Thursday, where he made the announcement that he was going to step down. He talked about his highlights. The foreign military pilot training program came to town when he was mayor. Some may say he didn't have anything to do with it, but I think you'd be surprised — he spent a lot of time behind the scenes working with state and federal officials and the congressional delegation when they were making the pitch to bring it here. He had more of a hand in that than probably most people realize.
He's also proud of the consent decree. They just modified that with very favorable terms, and he played a behind-the-scenes role in that. He told me that part of what he worked to do was to get the city of Fort Smith and the EPA and DOJ talking. I'm not sure their relationship was ever very cordial. He talked about his first task being just to reduce the temperature, get them to talk about facts and details and what they could reasonably do. I think he had a hand in getting that favorable modification of the consent decree, which requires hundreds of millions — maybe a billion before it's all over — in improvements to the city's sewer system.
He also talked about the city recovering from the historic 2019 flooding. The following March, COVID hit. Those are two back-to-back challenges. That 2019 flooding is historic — it shut down a lot of parts of the city for a month or more and damaged the city's water system and sewer system. It wasn't just a few houses flooded; there was a lot of infrastructure damage.
He talked about challenges remaining, including significant water system needs, and the need for folks in the city to work together to provide more affordable housing. He really finished off by stressing that the only thing that bothered him during his term was people who always want to talk bad about the city — he called it always wanting to "talk us down." It's not different from any other city. Every city, no matter how large or small, is going to have those folks. He was concerned that they may carry too much weight and cause outsiders to think there's something wrong with the city.
Kellams: Speaking of Mayor McGill not seeking a third term, there is still an active search going on for a new city administrator, and there's a petition drive to change the form of city government in Fort Smith. That's a lot in the same circle all at once.
Tilley: There's a lot of questions about a change of government. Right now Fort Smith is one of the few in the state that has the city administrator form — sometimes called manager-council — as opposed to mayor-council. There are folks who want to change it to a mayor-council form, similar to what Fayetteville, Rogers, Jonesboro, and Little Rock have. That petition is circulating. I've seen these come and go over my 30 years. People get mad at the city for whatever reason and want to change the government.
Keep in mind that you're asking someone — if it's a mayor-council form, if you're electing your former Sunday school teacher, whatever — this is a large business. Fort Smith has a $300 million-or-more operating budget and 1,000 employees. The mayor-council form also requires you to elect a city attorney, city clerk, and city treasurer, and it can change the way council members represent different wards of the city. So there's a lot to it.
They're going to have a study session in late April just to talk through it. I think the attorney that the city hires through Daily & Woods is going to be there to talk about the process. I've been surprised by the number of folks who are reaching out to me — they're either very much against the idea of a government change, or they say, "I'm open to it, but somebody's going to have to make a strong case for changing the form of government." I wouldn't put all my chips on that going toward a change right now.
Kellams: Also interesting to watch as it develops is your series about the Fort Smith water system replacement and repair needs. The third story is up now.
Tilley: The Fort Smith board approved moving forward on the process to replace the Euper Lane line — a 20-inch water distribution line in the city that crosses Interstate 540. It was installed around 1967. All the other distribution lines that were installed have already failed. Talking to Jimmie Johnson, the deputy director of engineering, he says it's not a matter of if it fails, it's a matter of when. That's about a $2 million project.
The way water comes into Fort Smith — I'm trying to summarize this because it's complex — two major transmission lines bring water to a point on the Van Buren side of the Midland Bridge. From there, one pipe goes over the bridge and one goes under the river. The pipe that goes over the bridge has a major leak. Todd Mittge, the city's director of engineering, said it's a "constant shower of water coming down" and you can get drenched in five seconds if you stand under it. Those lines were built in the '50s and '60s.
The board approved moving forward to address that — what they approved is for the city to get the design engineering and then come back for those contract approvals. But I think the city board is getting more focused on addressing these critical issues. If the Euper Lane line were to fail, it could impact Mercy Hospital and parts of east Fort Smith. We're not talking about somebody not being able to water their lawn. These are critical needs.
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