Good afternoon.
The estate of Bryan Malinowski, the late executive director of the Little Rock airport, will receive $24,000 as a result of a vote by the panel that oversees the airport.
The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission approved the bonus unanimously during a meeting yesterday.
Patrick Schueck, the Airport Commission's vice chairman/treasurer, referred to the panel's historical practice of awarding bonuses and said Malinowski had a "very productive year" in light of a renewed partnership with Dassault Falcon Jet and grant funding obtained for airport projects.
Additionally, commissioners voted to raise the pay of Thomas Clarke, the airport's deputy executive director, while he occupies the top job on an interim basis and agreed to work with a search firm to identify Malinowski's permanent replacement.
Malinowski, 53, died on March 21, two days after he was shot when federal agents were attempting to execute a search warrant at his Little Rock residence. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Malinowski opened fire on the agents.
Authorities suspected Malinowski was illegally buying and selling firearms without a license and seized numerous guns from his home last month. One ATF agent was wounded in the exchange of gunfire on March 19.
Residential glass pickup is set to resume in Arkansas' largest city after a five-year pause.
With no opposition, Little Rock city directors yesterday evening authorized a contract extension with Waste Management, which handles recycling pickup through a regional agreement, that will add glass and so-called clamshell plastic containers labeled with a "1" to the list of items that can be accepted in the curbside cart.
Waste Management plans to install new equipment at its material recovery facility in Little Rock that is expected to sort and recover 95% of all glass that comes through.
The added convenience for households comes with yearly rate increases. The schedule can be found here.
On a Friday afternoon one year ago, an EF3 tornado hammered the metro area, damaging homes, businesses and parks.
It was the strongest tornado to hit Little Rock since 1999. Progress has been made since last year, but full recovery is going to take time, Josh Snyder reported.
"The first six months plus, it was just so frustrating because there was so much debris, so much damage," said City Director Capi Peck, whose ward was in the path of the tornado. "When the big contractors finally left, I had conversations with many of them, and they said they respond to disasters all over the country, and they had never seen so much devastation."
That's all for this week. Subscribe here to get access to exclusive articles, or just scroll down to browse some more local stories.
