Kellams: Right now, Michael Tilley with Talk Business and Politics. Michael, happy to have you back.
Tilley: Well, I'm glad to be back. I hope this is worthy of everybody's time.
Kellams: I think so. Hey, I've got a business idea. What about earplugs for next May in Fort Smith? You're going to have a weekend with a lot of machinery and some decibels.
Tilley: Yeah, you can definitely sell earplugs. You might even be able to sell neck braces for the day or two after, because everybody will be looking up the whole time. So yes, early May 2027, I will have the Steel Horse Rally rolling in. Everybody knows what that is. I think it'll be in its eleventh or twelfth year now. Very successful motorcycle rally. It brings anywhere from 150,000 to 250,000 folks to Fort Smith. And then the air show is back. It's called the Lightning Over the Fort Air Show, held the same weekend. So you'll have the roaring on the ground and roaring in the skies.
But this has brought about, of course, everybody knows, or I think everybody should know, that Ebbing Air National Guard Base there at the Fort Smith Regional Airport is now home to this pilot training center. So there's a manned aircraft mission back, which is what you need to provide support for an air show, from fuel to fire to the crews to work it, that kind of thing. So they're going to bring this back. It's the first air show since 2011 that will be there. They will not have the premiere groups like the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels, but they'll still have performance teams, F-16, F-35, maybe even F-22, the demonstration teams. They'll have skydiving teams, they'll have the military exhibits, existing aircraft and the old warbirds, which everybody likes.
And there's one thing that they're going to have, they don't have as much detail out on it yet and we'll get more detail available. But they will include, and I've never seen this in their show at maybe common, but hands on what they're calling the STEM, science, technology, engineering, math exhibits for regional students. So that'll be a cool aspect of the event also.
But look, a thousand years ago when I worked at the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce, one of the things we did is we worked with some other groups to bring the air show back. And we had the Blue Angels one year and we had, I think the estimate was around 150,000 people. There, I mean, we were using school buses from around the area, from districts around the area, getting people in, hell of a show. But so if you've ever complained there's nothing to do in Fort Smith, you might want to mark this on your calendar because from downtown Fort Smith out to the airport, there will be plenty to do and see.
Kellams: There is still this lingering question about will there be an option for a change of government in Fort Smith on the ballot. If it's there, it's not because the city board approved putting it on the ballot.
Tilley: Yeah. No. So this Tuesday, it was the second time that this question was brought to the board. And there's a group of folks in Fort Smith who want to change the form of government. Right now, the city government is a council-manager where it has a city administrator. The mayor position is largely ceremonial. And it's unlike, it's one of the, I think the only two or three cities in the state that have it. Of course, all the cities in Northwest Arkansas, for the most part, the four primary cities have a mayor-council form of government. And that's what a group of folks in Fort Smith want to change the form here to, and they are underway with the signature gathering effort. They need a little over 2,600 valid voter signatures. And they have to have those turned in and then approved by the city clerk, and turned over to the Sebastian County clerk to put on the ballot by Aug. 25. They say they have 3,400 to 3,500 signatures, but they've been pressuring the board to just put it on the ballot without going through the petition process.
There was a vote in May that failed, and in this vote again, failed. And they've only been able to get three directors to vote for it. And one of those directors, Christina, who's also running for mayor, she told me after this second vote that, because she was one of the directors to vote to put it on the agenda, she said after the second vote failed, she's not going to do that anymore. So it looks, unless there's some crazy change in the will of the board, this group is going to have to get their signatures turned in here later this month or very early August to provide time for signature verification, and that'll be the process to get it on.
I'm not yet convinced that the folks who are supporting this say that a majority of people in the city want to change government. I'm not convinced that's the case. There are also folks who said that a majority of folks were not going to support that significant sales tax reallocation package to fund the consent decree, and yet it passed by 65%. So anybody tells you they know the will of the people in Fort Smith, you might want to just not trust that view.
Kellams: Well, whether or not that matter is on the November ballot, it's going to be a packed ballot. It looks like in Fort Smith.
Tilley: Yeah. So the mayor position is open. Fort Smith Mayor George McGill, who served two terms, is not running. So as of early this week, there were 29 candidate packets. Three of the seven director positions are open. And so you've got four key municipal elections, and there have been 29 candidate packets picked up, and 12 of those were for mayor. So yeah, I think maybe it's me and you, Kyle, are the only ones that maybe have not announced their intent to run for a city position. But it will be a packed ballot. And if all of those turn in and are verified, it'll be a lengthy ballot, but it also kind of points to there'll probably be several runoff races. And we'll have the Nov. 3 election, but it'll probably be Dec. 3 at the runoff before we have answers to who wins some of these races.
Kellams: And as Talk Business has been doing for some time covering water matters in Fort Smith, we've talked about the consent decree and things like that, infrastructure, water meters. You've got a story this time around this week that more than a thousand water leaks have been fixed in the first half of this calendar year.
Tilley: Yeah, I know that water leaks are not the most sexy, glamorous thing out there. The internet influencers would probably not touch this with a ten foot pole because it doesn't drive clicks. But as a basic function of city government, it's important. So let's go back to 2022, when the city couldn't stay on top of the water leaks. There were more than 2,500 water leaks, and that had risen more than 40% since 2021. It was like the classic Hydra, you cut off one head and two emerge. And so I think that's the right mythology. But a year or so ago, the city changed the person who was in charge of it, and they kind of changed how they handled the work crews. And so they've knocked this number down significantly and in a very impressive manner.
But so far, for the first six months of the year, they've repaired 989 leaks, and the active leaks at the end of June was 20. So, you know, to go from 2,500 active leaks four years ago to just 20, I know some people say that they want to criticize city government, but that's a hell of a turn. And we should give kudos to the folks who are making that happen.
Kellams: Well, I like your analogy there, because killing the Hydra is one of the twelve labors of Hercules, and fixing all these leaks is something of a Herculean task.
Tilley: Yeah, and it's expensive, but I think it's, and it's not just water leaks. There's another side of this. The city has been trying to get a better handle on its unaccounted for water. They produce X millions of gallons of water every day, but they have thousands of gallons of water that they really can't account for. And so I think this process gives them a better idea. And then if you get a handle on that, then you get a better idea of where you should be investing your dollars in the water infrastructure system. So it's a part of a bigger, more important picture. So again, kudos to the city for making this happen.
Kellams: Hey, I've got one infrastructure question. So when there is a water leak and water is escaping from pipes, where does it go? What further damage can leaked water do?
Tilley: Well, yes, depending on where it is. You know, the city reminds folks that if the water leak is between your house and the meter, it's your leak. If it's between the meter and the city, it's their fix. But yeah, so that's the concern. Is it leaking underneath roads? Is it making road beds soft? Yes, there can be some other damage from it. And I think there's even a perceptive damage, from the people, if you live in a city where every time you turn around there's a water leak, it makes you wonder what kind of city you're living in, who's running this train, kind of thing. So again, I think that's important, why it's important that they've been so aggressive and so successful in addressing this issue.
Kellams: You can read about this and everything else we've talked about, and much more, at talkbusiness.net. It covers Fort Smith, but the entire state as well. Michael Tilley, thank you so much for your time. We'll do this again next Friday.
Tilley: Hey, I always appreciate the time and look forward to it.
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