Fort Smith directors questioned whether the city should finance a proposed $10 million police headquarters through bonds on Tuesday, with a broader discussion about officer retention and long-term planning ending without action on the project.
Directors reviewed a financing option for developing city-owned property at 8200 Highway 71 South into a police precinct, training facility and vehicle garage. One proposal estimated construction costs at $9.925 million. Financing the project through bonds would increase the total cost to about $15 million over the life of the debt.
In March, directors selected the less expensive of the two proposed designs for the project and asked city staff to return with financing options. The staff presented a proposal estimating construction costs and that financing the project through bonds would increase the total cost over the life of the debt.
"I think this is something we should create long-term funding for. I feel like we rush into these things, and then we just bond out with all this mounting interest," said director Christina Catsavis. "It's going to be on the backs of my children and all the children throughout the city."
After Catsavis raised concerns about financing the project, Director Jarred Rego asked Police Chief Danny Baker for his perspective.
Baker said the department eventually will need the new facility, but cautioned that it would not address its most immediate challenges.
"There's a concern that this project will distract from their salaries and from having additional personnel to help with the workload that they're experiencing," Baker said. "If we can accomplish this without making sacrifices, I think it'll be a win for everybody in the department."
Christina Catsavis said that the directors will want to support police personnel and ensure they have the resources they need. George Catsavis added that he wasn't ready to move ahead with the construction project. Acting city administrator Jeff Dingman said the directors and the city are at a crossroads with the property, which appears to be inadequately maintained at times.
"We've owned this property for two and a half years by now, and everyone can see that we do minor things to keep it maintained, but that's not enough," Dingman said. "We're at a point, I think, where we either need to invest in this property or at least make a plan to do it and move ahead, or plan on doing some work on this other precinct, which I agree is needed."
Several directors said the department's immediate needs should take precedence over the construction of a new facility. The police chief added that, at some point, the new facility, along with the garage and training space, is needed, and they already have an outline to do it in phases.
"What we do now is that the majority of this budget goes to the police department, which comes out of the general fund, and I would rather give you guys what you need right now," said Director André Good. "Right now, our retention is poor. We're losing officers to small municipalities, but I don't want ot jeopardize what we've invested in this, but we should be investing in our people."
Baker said the department's immediate priorities are competitive salaries and updated safety equipment. He noted the department's starting salary is about $50,000, compared with $64,000 to $67,000 for Arkansas State Police recruits.
Baker said the training facility could eventually serve as a regional law enforcement training center, bringing officers from surrounding agencies to Fort Smith. The city has lost 10 officers since Jan. 1, and Baker said it costs about $100,000 to recruit, hire and train each new officer.
"When we talk about training and investing in our new officers, and then we lose them to someone else, we've become a training center," Good said. "The reason I wanted to focus on that is that we need to stop being the center for training, and what is that going to take, because we're investing a lot of money that we're throwing out the door. We need to look at what it's going to take to maintain and keep officers."
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Fort Smith board weighs police station as staffing concerns grow