Vol. 2, No. 14
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Clark cools it as a virus hotspot By Bill Sutley Dispatch Editor
Keith Beason, the city’s communications director, prepares to check a temperature.
Clark County still remains one of Arkansas’ top per-capita hotspots for COVID-19, but the good news is that this week’s statistics reveal the rate of of persons contaminated has slowed significantly since a week earlier. As of Thursday noon, Clark County had 27 persons testing positive for COVID-19, up just one from a week earlier, according to statistics provided by the state Department of Health. But that rise of less than half a percent is dwarfed by the 60% increase in Clark County’s coronavirus count from 16 the previous week. A New York Times-developed database shows that Clark County’s COVID-19 incidence per 100,000 stands at 121, virtually unchanged from a week earlier. Cleburne County, home of Heber Springs and Greers Ferry Lake, has the
state’s highest incidence of COVID-19 infection with 266 persons per capita. Last week, Cleburne County was at 119 persons testing positive per 100,000, ranking right behind Clark County. Cleburne County now has 67 persons testing positive, with four deaths recorded. No Clark County deaths have been attributed directly to COVID-19, the state’s statistics show. Van Buren County, immediately west of Cleburne County, ranked second in terms of per capita positives for COVID-19 at 132. The actual total there is lower than in Clark County, with 22 people testing positive. Coming in fourth after Clark County is St. Francis County, home of Forrest City, with an infection rate of 110 and 29 actual cases. As for the state as a whole, the infection rate for all 75 counties slipped over the 1,000 mark
Wednesday morning and stood at 1,077 by nightfall. Arkadelphia’s Baptist Medical Center continues to advise persons displaying symptoms and who believe they’ve been exposed to COVID-19 to be tested at their drive-thru screening site at he Baptist Health Family Clinic in Caddo Valley, 10 Montgomery Drive. Hours for testing are 8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m. on weekdays. Persons seeking to be screened are asked to call 870-245-2198 to schedule an appointment for the drive-thru clinic. Baptist Health has established a hotline for Arkansas residents to call in with their concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1-888-BAPTIST, and is staffed See Virus • Page 4
Schools lament loss of ‘closure’ By Bill Sutley Dispatch Editor
Teachers at Arkadelphia schools are certainly being challenged by the governor’s decision to end the school year without students returning to their classrooms, Superintendent Karla Neathery said Tuesday. “It’s been emotionally challenging for students and staff,” she said, speaking a few hours before a City Manager Gary Brinkley, from left, Mayor Scott Byrd and board members Taylor Chaney, David Goodman and Jason Jones meet. similar discussion surfaced at an online city Board of Education meeting. “We’ve learned there’s a whole lot more to school than academics.” School board members discussed the decision, already made, to postpone graduation — one of many Brinkley to better exercise social distancBy Bill Sutley end-of-year traditions ing better than at the board’s chambers in Dispatch Editor that have been set aside in Thanks to the coronavirus threat, Arka- Town Hall. Everyone physically attendhopes they can be rescheding the meeting, which also broadcast on delphia’s popular Aquatics Park probably uled once the coronavirus Facebook Live, had their temperatures won’t open until Independence Day, but curve flattens more. Gone checked by Communications Director Parks and Recreation is taking advantage is the prom. Gone are the Keith Beason, who was dressed in perof the delay to oversee several improveend-of-year field trips. ments at the elaborate pool adjacent to the sonal protective equipment. (Firefighters Gone is the Arkadelphia working at the station have for weeks been city Recreation Center. Promise ceremony — but checking each others’ temperatures at the “We looked at Memorial Day and just temporarily, direcbeginning and end of each 12-hour shifts.) Father’s Day, but after consulting with tor Jason Jones promised In other business, the city board: others decided it was better to open about earlier Tuesday. • Unanimously approved allowing July 4,” City Manager Gary Brinkley said. “We do want to celebrate The city Board of Directors voted unan- Welch Funeral Home and Taylor King our seniors of 2020,” NeatLaw Firm take over a 300-foot city alley imously Tuesday evening to pay Little hery said. “We do feel bad. separating the two businesses between Rock-based Clarity Pools LLC $71,352.60 We know there are seniors Clinton and Main streets and 3rd and 4th to address a nagging water-loss issue and who are not going to get the streets. The project will allow for expanmake several technical adjustments in closure they’re due.” filters and other infrastructure elements to sion of the King Law Firm’s offices. She promised more • Unanimously approved allowing a improve the park’s technical operation. information as soon as A separate effort to repair and paint the 1994 street sweeper, a 2000 Dodge Ram coronavirus risks lessen. Darrin Boyette, facilities manager for city Parks and Neathery indicated she pickup and parts from two John Deere park’s slide towers is being handled by a Recreation, sprays an area of the city Aquatic Cen- knew that board president mowers to be sold on govdeals.com. local firm, Durae Ferguson Construction, • Postponed action on posting notice ter Wednesday morning with a solution designed for just under $20,000. K.C. Motl had a vested into destroy a wide range of city documents Tuesday evening’s meeting was held in to deter mildew. On Tuesday night, city Board of Di- terest in such actions since ranging from 1966 invoices to 2011 bank the city’s Fire Station I on Caddo Street rectors’ action cleared the way for more significant statements. See AMI • Page 4 in an effort to allow the city board and improvements before its opening.
City’s Aquatic Center won’t reopen until July 4
Lawsuit seeks to stop Veolia foam incineration By Bill Sutley Dispatch Editor
A new federal lawsuit filed by four environmental groups seeks to stop the U.S. military from sending expended toxic firefighting foam to be disposed of by the Veolia plant in Gum Springs, among many others. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality last year approved updates to permits that allow incineration of such material and other hazardous wastes at the plant, which was then run by Alcoa. Veolia, a French conglomerate, bought the former Reynolds Aluminum plant from Alcoa for $200 million in cash in January. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Northern California focuses on a class of chemicals — per- and polyfluoralkyl substances, better known as PFAS — found in the foam. “The same properties that
Veolia plant, formerly Alcoa plant, in Gum Springs. have made PFAS a widely used fire suppressant also make them difficult and dangerous to incinerate,” the lawsuit states. “Because of the strength of their chemical bonds, PFAS do not readily burn and are not destroyed under typical incineration conditions. Instead, uncombusted PFAS are emitted into the air along with other hazardous chemicals, contaminating the communities surrounding the
incinerators.” Bob Cappadona, president and chief operating officer of Veolia North America, said in a January interview that many of the hazardous chemicals it handles are converted into a non-toxic solid material that’s disposed of in the 1,300-acre plant’s monitored landfill. One of the main arguments of the lawsuit is that the DoD has failed to conduct any environ-
mental review before approving the incineration of millions of gallons of toxic firefighting foam at nine incinerators across the nation. The Sierra Club, founded in 1892 and now the nation’s oldest environmental organization, is the best known plaintiff among the four represented by an environmental legal group known as Earthjustice. The others are Save Our County, an Ohio-based nonprofit founded to oppose a hazardous waste incinerator authorized for PFAS incineration; Community In-Power and Development Association, Inc., a nonprofit working to empower residents in low-income communities living near an incinerator in Port Arthur, Texas; and United Metro Congregations of Metro East, an Illinois-based not-for-profit organization representing 34 churches east of St. Louis that have fought for
stronger emissions monitoring at an incinerator in Sauget, Ill. Beyond the Veolia plant south of Arkadelphia, the lawsuit also mentions the Clean Harbors incinerator in El Dorado, the Ross Incineration Services incinerator in Grafton, Ohio; the Clean Harbors incinerator in Deer Park, Texas; and the Norlite lightweight aggregate kiln in Cohoes, N.Y. The main defendant is the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency, an agency with in the U.S. Department of Defense that manages its global supply chain. The DoD is the largest user of the firefighting foam, mostly at Air Force bases, because of its ability to handle even fires involving jet fuel. The lawsuit contends that PFAS “cause cancer, liver disease, infertility and other serious See Veolia • Page 4