Members of Mississippi County's Solid Waste Management District board were recently notified of a law which may alter the status of the district.
According to a report during the board's Thursday meeting by attorney Dan Ritchey, the statute in question says that districts must consist of 50,000 people or more. Since Mississippi County's population dropped below that number at the 2010 Census, the matter must be addressed.
If the district were to be dissolved, board members said it would most likely be combined with another small, nearby district, and they believed all funds appropriated to it by the state would still be available for use by the county. County Judge Randy Carney, however, said the board has a plan of action which may save the district's current status.
Ritchey is working, with help from Sen. David Burnett and the Arkansas Association of Counties, to form a petition for declaratory judgment in Mississippi County Circuit Court, asking the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for a legal ruling on the statute. He believes that the statute was written with the purpose of regulating the size of new districts being formed, and that it does not provide clear guidance for an existing district which shrinks below 50,000.
While the situation is in flux, the 2010 and 2011 grant money allotted to the district, totaling around $148,000, is being held out by the state for the county's future use.
From those soon-available funds, the board approved the use of $25,000 for the purchase of equipment for the county's recycling program -- the board's recycling committee has plans to expand the number of drop sites to five throughout the county.
Also approved were the amounts of $20,000 to be used for public education and promotion of the revamped recycling program within the county, and approximately $28,000 for the city of Etowah to purchase a leaf vacuum.
In the matter of the district's status, Carney closed the conversation with his belief that the law would be on the side of Mississippi County, and the situation would be resolved as soon as possible.
sharris@blythevillecourier.com