FORT SMITH, Ark. — The old Crain Kia dealership along Highway 71 could be the potential site for a new Fort Smith police precinct location.
City administrator Carl Geffken says the buildings that are already there will be used as a new precinct, training center, and for city vehicle maintenance.
The property holds 4.44 acres of land. Of that acreage, 2.75 acres would be for the police department and 1.69 acres would be for the centralized maintenance facility.
"We currently have a maintenance facility at our 3900 Kelly Highway location, but it's not large enough and that area is also very congested," Geffken said. "[There's] a lot of land at the former Crain Kia dealership location. [There's] a lot of bays where we can bring in the vehicles so that consolidated maintenance shop will be for vehicles that are under one ton."
This project has been in discussions for quite some time. Geffken says the city has been wanting another precinct location since 2017 but didn't have the resources.
"The city of Fort Smith is so large, we're over 70 square miles, and having your headquarters in downtown, it's quite a distance to the other parts of the city. To better serve our residents, we felt it would be better to have a second precinct," he said.
Fort Smith police has the city broken up into zones but with this location on the southern part of town, Geffken says it will help response times.
"This means that they'll be able to operate from two different locations," he said. "To support those zones in southern and eastern Fort Smith, we'll have a second precinct. It's also another place where our residents, should they need help or assistance, could go to."
The deal for this project is set to close on Friday with plans to hire an architect to design the facility. No timeline for the project has been determined yet.
“We're very excited to do this. We're very excited to have another location, so our residents can see our police department in action and have another place [to go] if they feel that their safety is threatened,” Geffken said.
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