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Board approves contracts to manage Fort Smith’s installation resilience grant from DOD program
Summary
The board authorized funds to contract with Roosevelt Group as project manager and approved a professional-services agreement with Converge Strategies LLC to conduct an installation resilience assessment under a grant from the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC).
The Board of Directors approved appropriation of funds and professional agreements tied to a Mission Installation Resilience Grant awarded through the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC). The board approved an ordinance to fund a contract with the Roosevelt Group to serve as project manager and a resolution to execute a professional-services agreement with Converge Strategies LLC as the project contractor.
Chris Hoover, the city’s government relations coordinator on grants, told the board the appropriation will fund Roosevelt Group as an intermediary with OLDCC and Converge Strategies, the contractor that will perform the infrastructure assessment. Hoover introduced representatives from both firms: Sarah Jen of Roosevelt Group and Claire Reynolds of Converge Strategies.
Sarah Jen said Roosevelt Group will act as the project manager and liaison with OLDCC, drawing on prior work in Fort Smith and more than five years’ experience with the federal program. “As the program manager, what we will be is the intermediary between Fort Smith, Converge Strategies, and obviously, OLDCC,” she said.
Claire Reynolds said Converge Strategies focuses on civilian–military partnerships and critical-infrastructure projects that support local mission needs. She said the assessment will examine energy, water, wastewater and telecommunications and is intended to identify projects that could be pursued for additional grant funding. “The goal of the study is to find projects that after the study is complete, that we can go up for more grants,” Reynolds said.
Board members asked whether projects similar to those planned for other bases — for example wastewater improvements at Travis Air Force Base — could apply in Fort Smith. Reynolds said the consultant team expects to do stakeholder interviews and a sector-by-sector assessment and that the initial study phase is expected to take about 12 months; a subsequent implementation-phase assessment would typically take about 12 more months.
Hoover and the consultants noted the grant award to the city is already in place; the board’s approvals allow staff to use city funds to contract the project management and contractor services necessary to deliver the grant work.
The board approved both items by a recorded vote of 6-0. No citizens spoke on the item.
