Board approves $8.575M engineering contract for Mazard Water Reclamation consent‑decree work

The Fort Smith Board of Directors voted unanimously on June 2 to authorize a professional services agreement with Garver LLC for engineering work on the Mazard Water Reclamation Facility improvements. Director of Engineering Todd Mitke told the board the contract is a fixed-fee design agreement for $8,575,000 and that overall construction is currently estimated at about $150 million.

Mitke said the design contract is intended to address the city's largest sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) site and to reduce the city's stipulated penalties by eliminating the cause of roughly 15,000,000 gallons of untreated wastewater discharged since February 2022. "This component of the project facilitates compliance with the consent decree by reducing and eliminating SSOs," Mitke said. Garver's vice president Andy Pruitt explained that the agreement includes clarifications for 'extra work' items that would be billed separately and that the fixed-fee approach protects the city if the consultant does not change the scope.

Board members probed schedule and procurement details: staff said they will hire a construction manager at risk to help with long lead times for specialty equipment and that the project schedule is intended to meet an Arkansas Department of Health / consent-decree completion date of Dec. 31, 2028. Several residents who spoke during public comment urged the board to secure an independent review of the design-fee proposal before final construction decisions; the board said it plans quarterly reporting and involvement of a program manager, and it approved the Garver agreement 7-0.