District backs landfill expansion

Vote held at meeting after email poll’s legality questioned

County leaders approved a landfill’s certificate of need for expansion at a specially called meeting Wednesday morning, a week after leaders determined a previous vote via a private email chain was not permitted under Arkansas law.

The vote helps provide state environmental regulators with a required document for the landfill’s expansion application. The landfill has faced environmental violations and consent orders related to mismanagement but is now under new ownership.

Craig Douglass, executive director of the Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District, emailed the mayors of six Pulaski County cities and the county judge Dec. 27 asking them to vote on a measure certifying that Central Arkansas Recycling and Disposal Services needed to expand its landfill. He asked them to reply by Dec. 28, and four of the seven replied with votes in favor.

Last week, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported the email vote and raised questions about its legality. District Chairman Virginia Hillman Young, the mayor of Sherwood, later called a special meeting for Wednesday morning.

The mayors and county judge, who constitute the district’s board, heard opposition from Waste Management, which owns a Class I landfill in the county, at their Dec. 6 meeting. A Waste Management official said at the meeting that the previous owner owed thousands of dollars in fines for environmental violations and reiterated his company’s concern that the facility did not recycle as much as the previous owners said they would.

Barry Hyde, county judge for Pulaski County, said he’d received concerns from one constituent and wanted to hold off on voting until he could explore the complaint. Hyde withdrew his hold on the vote by the end of the month after looking into the landfill.

“They’re in good standing,” he said Wednesday. “There’s no dispute about that.”

The mayors or mayor-proxies in attendance Wednesday approved the application to expand on a voice vote with no opposition. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. did not have a proxy but had indicated he would be running late for the meeting.