Forum to discuss recycling contract
A public forum to discuss recycling in North Little Rock will be at 5 p.m. today at City Hall, 300 Main St., one hour before the regularly scheduled City Council meeting.
The meeting will allow the mayor, City Council members and the public an opportunity to comment on the city’s current recycling contract with Waste Management of Arkansas and possible future recycling contracts. The city has had a contract with Waste Management for the past seven years.
Every North Little Rock household is charged $2.99 monthly as a recycling fee paid to Waste Management. The fee appears on households’ electric bills. A new contract proposed by Waste Management would raise that charge to more than $4 monthly, according to city officials. Recycling is picked up every two weeks.
North Little Rock has had complaints from residents that their recycling bins aren’t picked up for weeks at a time, and Waste Management has complained of many contaminated loads from residents placing non-recyclable materials in their bins, city officials have said. The current contract gives Waste Management responsibility to tag any bins that aren’t collected because they contain non-recyclable materials, but city officials have said the company hasn’t been tagging bins or enforcing that clause.
The new contract would put the responsibility of policing contaminated recycling onto the city, and the city would be charged when contaminated loads exceed a certain amount, according to city officials. Waste Management also will stop accepting glass under the proposed contract.
Adult story time planned at library
The main branch of the William F. Laman Public Library, 2801 Orange St., is beginning a lunchtime “story time” hour for adults, beginning Sept. 18.
The program, called “Lit at Lunch,” will start with a reading of A Stroke of Good Fortune, “a quintessentially Southern story” by Georgia native Flannery O’Conner. It tells the story of a woman’s unknown medical condition combined with her struggle to climb a flight of stairs.
More information on Laman Library programs or events is available at laman-library.org.
Fairfax name given for new overpass
City officials will dedicate signs to recognize the new East McCain Boulevard overpass as Fairfax Crossing at 11 a.m. Sept. 20 on the west side of the crossing, 4800 E. McCain Blvd.
The redone crossing opened in December after almost 18 months of closure to replace an at-grade railroad crossing with a bridge over the tracks where East McCain became Fairfax Drive.
In February, the North Little Rock City Council approved renaming Fairfax Drive, making it an extension of East McCain. Fairfax Drive used to be only a 0.4-mile road between Forrester Road and where East McCain ended. Fairfax Drive crossed the railroad tracks at about its half-way point.
City officials agreed to designate the crossing with the Fairfax name, honoring the area’s history and the Fairfax family that had settled in the area at least as far back as 1880, according to city history.
The overpass was a $10.17 million federal project. North Little Rock’s share of the cost was $2.03 million.