Kellams: First, let's welcome in Michael Tilley from Talk Business & Politics. How are you doing, Michael?
Tilley: I'm doing well. Thanks for asking. I hope every other than just, you know, this wonderful 106-degree weather, which everybody I know is enjoying. But other than that, I'm OK.
Kellams: I did see that there will be highs by mid next week only in the lower or mid 90s.
Tilley: Yeah, I've broken out the parka just to be ready for it.
Kellams: I mentioned it's a busy week. There's a lot to cover. Let's start with what is kind of, I think if you think back to the last couple of years, a surprising end to what had been a really big story, a proposed prison.
Tilley: Yeah. Well, is it the end? I don't know. That's kind of the story within the story. So the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, to its credit, was the first to report on some internal emails, the Department of Corrections, suggesting that this state prison in Franklin County may be dead. That they've moved on. It's not an active project.
Now, by way of reminder, a couple of years ago, state of Arkansas bought around 800 acres just north of Charleston in Franklin County to build this 3,000-bed prison. And, you know, out of the gate, it was controversial. County judges, state representatives, state senators knew nothing about it. It surprised everyone. But I think a few folks within Gov. Sanders' orbit. And the price tag went from, I think, $200 or $300 million. And then, you know, at the last estimate was over a billion. So who knows?
The Arkansas Senate, if we remember, decided not to fund it. There was a $750 million appropriation request from the Department of Corrections, which is really from Gov. Sanders' office. That was approved by the Arkansas House, not approved by the Senate. So it failed. And then there's just been any number of grassroots movements pushing back against this.
So here we are, you know, is it dead or is it not? You know, we got a statement from the governor's office essentially saying, look, those emails, those internal emails were just discussing policy. That doesn't mean there's been a final decision made. But I think I would put a majority of my chips, I was at, on a betting table, I'd put a majority of my chips that there's just not the political will for this new prison. I don't know if there's been some speculation that the governor's waiting until after November, after the election cycle, to admit that it's not going to go down or it's not going to go up, I guess is the way to look at this. But it seems that, again, we can't get a clear answer out of the governor's office, but if we're to believe some of these emails, if we're to believe some of our background sources, that the project seems to be dead.
Kellams: If it is dead, what happens to that land?
Tilley: Well, that's a good question. You know, I had, and not that it's funny, but Adam Watson, who was one of the leaders, there are several leaders of different movements. But I asked him, you know, when are you going to be comfortable that it's dead? And he said, when I can see a deed showing that the state no longer owns that property. So, you know, and he said that is probably the sentiment of a lot of folks in Franklin County. They're not going to trust that it's dead until the state no longer owns that property.
So at some point, you know, maybe the state to try to save face tries to come up with another use of that property. But I've been out there and it's, you know, it's on the side of a mountain. It's going to be difficult to build on. There's not, you know, utilities aren't there in a substantive manner. So at some point they'll have to sell it. And they bought it for a little over, well now I've just gone blank on the price. It was several million dollars that they bought it for.
Kellams: If we were to sum up the latest news from the Fort Smith Airport, it's somewhat fewer people taking off, but another flight coming in.
Tilley: Yeah, it's the classic good news, bad news story. But we'll start with the bad news. The July enplanements at the airport were down 3.1%. The enplanements through July are down 1.5% through July. So it's just, they started out the year strong, numbers were up and that's, you know, that's slowing down. That's not necessarily a Fort Smith issue. We're seeing that nationwide. With the conflict, the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran and what has done to oil prices, fuel prices, especially jet fuel prices, we've seen ticket prices go up. Americans are traveling in vehicles, shorter destination type vacations. So air traffic is down nationwide. So that's an impact on Fort Smith.
But yes, Andrew Meyer, the director of the airport there, said that they had just finalized discussions with American Airlines and that they're going to add a fourth daily flight that was not originally planned and that will be on their winter schedule. So hopefully that will add some traffic numbers out of Fort Smith. I think there is some concern that if numbers, you know, if you can't get enough numbers that airlines, that American, can cut flights. Or I can't imagine they would totally abandon Fort Smith. But we've seen a lot of, I don't have to tell you, you keep up with the news. We've seen a lot of airlines cutting routes, cutting service. So let's keep our fingers crossed that the energy prices subside, the cost of living improves, so people are more likely to travel and that the American flight in the winter adds more traffic out of Fort Smith.
Kellams: All right, let's consider city government of Fort Smith right now like a Rubik's Cube. You can turn it this way and that way and this way. There is now a full time city administrator. However, enough signatures have been approved to put in front of voters a change of government question, and the board might have a separate change of... Help us out here, Michael, what's going on?
Tilley: Yeah. I don't know if it's a Rubik's Cube or more of an Escher painting. You know, just where does that stair go? I don't know. So yes, so I'll tackle the form of government question, I guess, first.
Kellams: Sure.
Tilley: So since April earlier this year, maybe March, there was a group organized, loosely organized, said they were going to gather signatures to force a change of government in Fort Smith. Fort Smith's one of the few cities in Arkansas that has the council manager form of government. We have a mayor, but he's largely ceremonial. Mayor George McGill. Whereas in your part of the world, Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, they all have a mayor, a strong mayor, a mayor council form of government. And so there's some folks in Fort Smith that want to change that to a mayor council form of government. They think that, you know, you get better representation, better results from that. I think you can argue both sides on which government is best, but nevertheless, so they've been gathering signatures.
They've also been pushing the board. There are two ways to put that question on the ballot. You can get enough signatures. In this case, they needed 2,607 valid voter signatures, or the Fort Smith board could put it on the ballot. So we recently learned that there were enough signatures to put it on the ballot. And this group also then said, hey, we've got the signatures. We need the board to also put it on the ballot in case there's some kind of legal challenge to our signatures. So the board has also voted.
Now that's created a little bit of a dilemma. And as we tape this, it's not yet resolved. Or if it is, they're keeping it quiet. But, you know, so we have the signatures and we have the board vote. That legally presents two proclamations that have to go to the county clerk. Which one of those, you can't put two votes on the ballot. So they're going to have to work that out legally. So we don't know that answer yet, but I think we do know that there will be a ballot question to change the form of government.
So then to the other part of that equation that you pointed out, Jeff Dingman, who's been the acting city administrator for almost 20 months, they finally officially hired him. They voted a couple of weeks ago to hire him, and then they just approved the contract to hire him. So he's official now. And so I think our lead was we've ended the uncertainty over whether we're going to have a new city administrator, but now it's uncertain how long he's going to be the city administrator if citizens approve this November, if they approve a change of government, then there will be an election in 2028 to elect the people in that new form of government. And then on Jan. 1, 2029, the new government would take place, would be installed.
So as you said, there are a lot of layers. It's kind of, each layer has some complexities. And in this change of government, you're not just electing the mayor, you'll also be electing a city treasurer, a city attorney, city clerk. And so that's where there's some downsides. For example, if our existing city clerk structure, Sherri Gard and her staff, were to leave, that's a lot of institutional memory that walks out the door, you know, same with, you know, our chief financial officer, Andy Richards. That's a lot of experience, institutional memory that would walk out the door for hiring a city treasurer. So I think those are valid questions that the citizens of Fort Smith are going to have. They're going to have an opportunity between now and November to figure out where the pros and cons are. But that's kind of where we are, where we have some certainty now that we're going to have a ballot question. We have a city administrator who's not acting, but is that going to last for several years or just until 2029?
Kellams: And what's really interesting about all this, Michael, is that we're in late August and the vote is in November. I mean, this is a compact period of time.
Tilley: Yeah, we're right around the corner. And it was Aug. 25, which is next week, when the proclamation has to be presented to the county clerk and time to get it on the ballot. So there's still a couple of things that have to click here in the next few days. But yes, it'll be interesting to see. I'm sure the group that want the change of government, they're going to find a way to campaign for it. They've had a pretty effective social media campaign. I suspect they'll continue that. It will be interesting to see if any formal group organizes to oppose the change of government. So yes, you nailed it. It's going to be an interesting few months leading up to that vote.
Kellams: And you can follow the lead up to that and so much more at talkbusiness.net. Michael Tilley, thank you.
Tilley: You're welcome, sir.
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