Environment notebook

Recycling district hires new director

The Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District has hired Craig Douglass as its executive director.

Douglass, who has worked in marketing and political initiatives and campaigns for most of his career, was hired at the end of May and started receiving paychecks in June as he transitioned into the position before taking over full time on Saturday.

Douglass, 65, will earn $100,000 annually. His predecessor, John Roberts, earned $125,731.20. Roberts, 74, held the position for 16 years and announced his retirement in March.

Douglass was offered the job from a 20-person applicant pool that included current Deputy Director Carol Bevis and current Comptroller and Human Resources Director Desi Ledbetter.

The district is one of 18 solid-waste districts in Arkansas, largely funded by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. It serves only Pulaski County but is a part of a multi-county tire district.

Douglass joins the district at the same time as Howard Gurley, who replaces Stacy Ford as the district’s waste tire recycling program coordinator. Gurley earns $32,500 annually.

$106,003 awarded for asbestos work

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has awarded $106,003 to an Arkansas county and a city to remove asbestos from two former hospitals, the agency announced in a news release.

The city of Arkadelphia received $92,503 to treat and remove asbestos at the former Clark County Hospital, and Howard County received $13,500 for similar work at the former Howard County Hospital.

The department has $150,000 available each year toward asbestos abatement projects, according to the release. Projects must remove asbestos from a “city or county owned structure that has unexpectedly collapsed, is at imminent risk of collapsing, or has failed in its structural integrity,” according to the department.