Heated Debate, Fort Smith Mayor against the City Board of Directors

Earlier today a special meeting was held and a decision made by the city board of directors and the shale will be hauled to a site off cliff street .And the project is estimated to take a month and 20 thousand truck loads of shale. It all stems from an October 19th meeting where mayor Ray Baker vetoed the city board of directors decision to approve shale to be dumped at a site off Cliff drive in Fort Smith. Mayor Ray Baker says he vetoed the resolution because he says the excess shale should be used responsibly. "Acme brick has offered to take all the shale. They make brick out of it. There a hundred year old company in our community. This should have been all worked out before the development site was selected." said Mayor Ray Baker. Deputy City Administrator, Ray Gosack, says this site off of Cliff drive is more practical for dumping shale because of traffic tie ups in moving the shale to another location. "We feel that this option will have the least impact on traffic because its on a lesser traveled street" said Ray Gosack. However, Mayor Ray Baker says the project to move the shale will be more expensive, bring up traffic safety issues and ruin the beauty of the land. "Its a beautiful area to develop. And the thing about it is, now then were going to take all that shale and dump it and then compact it. Fill it up with dirt and then put houses on it. No one is wanting to dig down and hit shale." said Mayor Ray Baker.