Fayetteville needs more knowledgeable leaders
There were some missing pieces in reporter Stacy Ryburn's recent recycling article, which said, "Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville contract their services with companies using trucks with mechanical arms to pick up bins containing recyclable material mixed together. The contractors have access to third-party facilities where the items are sorted."
This is single stream folks, the method used by Fort Smith when they got caught landfilling their filthy, mixed, single-stream recycling.
A clean, fenced drop off supervised by an attendant who continually interacts with the public will result in clean loads. Such drop-off facilities are far less expensive to operate than curbside programs, and as the story reported, citizens will use them.
Why doesn't the city staff know how many people are using the drop offs? They could have placed counters at the 15th Street and Marion Orion centers and collected that data. They should have been collecting these data regularly, well before the pandemic ever started. City Council should have been getting quarterly reports on participation rates, costs and contamination associated with both supervised and unsupervised drop offs.
Hopefully January 2021 will bring new members to the Fayetteville City Council, ones who have time to get educated enough on issues that they can ask questions and not simply rubber stamp staff recommendations. Hopefully we'll have a council that doesn't accept the results of biased surveys complied by city staff, but rather requires statistically accurate data before voting on expenditures, like consultants and pilot projects.
The pandemic has alerted citizens to the need for closer scrutiny of city expenditures. We need council members with enough business savvy to understand how our tax dollars are being spent. And we need more transparency.
Filing time to run for Fayetteville City Council is July 29-Aug. 5.
Louise G. Mann
Fayetteville
How many more must die before a mandate?
Monday's paper listed 508 covid-19 cases announced on Sunday. And Gov. Asa Hutchinson knows (as does Dr. Nate Smith) they'll be reporting seven more deaths from this collection of cases down the line. Why? Because they're not doing their jobs.
Hutchinson wants to be in the "I'm really a good guy, well-liked governor" column. Just like Texas, Florida and Arizona governors were. Were! Does he want to be in their column today?
Hutchinson was elected to lead. And Dr. Smith was appointed to guard our health. What kind of grades do these gentlemen think they deserve? Did the governor call each of the 265 families who had a loved one die on his watch as of June 28? In my Marine Corps, a platoon leader who had a Marine die under his command called the family. Is that what leadership is all about?
Gov. Hutchinson keeps refusing to issue a "wear a mask" order for people going into any public establishment, saying we're all Arkansas good folks, we'll do the right thing. Well, does he believe 100 percent of his constituents are trying to do the right thing? Seventy-five percent? Sixty percent? Have you been to Walmart lately? Lowe's or Allen's Food Market? A hardware store? I have, and I don't believe 50 percent are being "Arkansas good folks."
Governor, do your job and issue an order -- you must wear a mask entering a public establishment. And hold the establishment accountable. Develop a penalty. Because if we do not, every day the governor is going to report more deaths than necessary. If Hutchinson doesn't have the courage to issue that order, have the decency to call the families of the dying. There will be more, on Hutchinson's and Dr. Smith's watch.
Don Fayles
Bella Vista