FORT SMITH -- City directors have awarded contracts totaling nearly $2 million in an effort to satisfy local demand for soccer fields.
Meeting Tuesday for the first time in the new year, city directors approved a resolution awarding a $938,752.38 contract to Axioo Construction of Mulberry to build two adult-size soccer fields and parking as the first phase of a sports complex on 51 acres the city owns on Riverfront Drive north of downtown Fort Smith.
Axioo's bid was the lowest of eight submitted for the project. The highest bid was from Goodwin & Goodwin of Fort Smith at $1.729 million. Other bids were submitted by companies in Fort Smith, Booneville, Waldron, Van Buren and Russellville.
City directors also approved a resolution awarding a $999,517.55 contract to Forsgren Inc. of Fort Smith to build a 1,700-foot access road to the fields.
Forsgren was one of six companies to bid on the road project. The highest bid was submitted by A.J. Greenwood of Van Buren at $1.342 million. Other bidders were from Fort Smith, Van Buren and Little Rock.
Money for the project will come from a one-eighth percent sales and use tax that voters approved in 2012 for parks and recreation.
The only city director who expressed opposition was George Catsavis, who voted against the field-construction contract after learning there would be no water or sewer service to the site. Parks Director Doug Reinert told him it would cost $700,000 to extend those services to the site.
The plan for the Riverfront Park Sports Complex includes 10 new fields, according to a memorandum from Reinert. More fields and amenities will be built as funds allow.
The soccer complex is being developed in response to questionnaires the city circulated among residents about how they wanted that land to be developed. Results heavily favored soccer fields.
Reinert said in his memo that Fort Smith has more than 350 soccer teams and that the limited number of fields leads to overuse, which prevents the grass from recovering and growing. About 20 additional fields were needed to accommodate the growing soccer community, he wrote.
The 51 acres lies undeveloped in a large bottomland area that is currently used as farmland. The city bought the land from the Kansas City Southern Railway in 2004 to develop replacement fields for the Sebastian County Girls Softball Association. Fort Smith donated the 9-acre Andrews Field, which the association had been using, for expansion of the Fort Smith National Cemetery.
The association turned down the offer of the 51 acres and moved onto new fields the city built for it at Ben Geren Regional Park.
State Desk on 01/05/2017