Friends, 

The City of Little Rock's comprehensive response to the recent winter weather event was a collaborative effort across our departments to prioritize the safety of our residents and guests. 

This morning, we demobilized our temporary, cold-weather emergency shelter, which we operated for eight consecutive nights to provide a safe, warm and dry place to stay for anyone who needed it. 

Our Public Works Department street crews worked around the clock in 12-hour, rotating shifts to treat and clear streets, bridges and overpasses. That work continues even today on secondary streets within the City.

During the period of heaviest snowfall, the Little Rock Fire Department, the Police Department, and Emergency Communications remained fully staffed and on-call for all those in need.

While the amount of snowfall we received is somewhat rare for Little Rock, our mobilization and response efforts were typical of the exceptional service and overall excellence we strive to provide to this City.

Emergency response, including the mobilization of our temporary, cold-weather shelter, takes a coordinated effort that includes the help of multiple community partners and organizations. We are grateful and appreciative of everyone who offered to help with supplies, food or transportation for the shelter. We opened the shelter on Sunday, Jan. 5, as a nightly operation and transitioned to 24-hour operation on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

When we demobilized this morning, we provided transportation and case management assistance to about 135 individuals who stayed at the shelter overnight Sunday.

With the potential for another round of extreme cold and winter precipitation as early as next week, our Emergency Management Division is actively monitoring forecasts. We will re-mobilize our temporary shelter when extremely cold temperatures or a combination of cold temperatures and precipitation is a danger to the life safety of our unsheltered residents.

Again, our appreciation and gratitude goes out to the City team members, community partners, organizations and volunteers who helped us meet the needs of our residents and guests during this winter weather event.

We can all do our part toward creating a more sustainable Little Rock through the City of Little Rock's recycling program. We ask residents to take advantage of the program to dispose of recyclable materials biweekly in the curbside containers provided by WM, our recycling partner.

To keep up with recycling schedules, we issued our 2025 calendar for residents to know when to expect recycling services. For residents uncertain about whether they live in a green collection zone or gold zone, visit our website to view a map. The 2025 calendar is below, and it can also be downloaded and printed on the website.

Biweekly recycling services are available to residents who live in single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, or quadplexes. If our recycling program is unavailable to you, please take advantage of other opportunities to recycle, like our quarterly Little Rock Recycles Day events at the Little Rock Zoo..

For more information about the City of Little Rock recycling program, be sure to check our website to learn what recyclables are permitted in your cart and other recycling opportunities available to residents.

• The Little Rock Board of Directors will set the agenda for its next regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 4 p.m. in the Board Room at City Hall, 500 W. Markham St. All board meetings are livestreamed on the City of Little Rock Facebook and YouTube pages.
• Little Rock's Board of Adjustment meets on Thursday, Jan. 16, at 4 p.m. in the Board Room at City Hall. The Board of Adjustment considers requests for variances from the city zoning ordinance.
• On Friday, the City's Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission will plan for 2025 starting at noon at the Willie L. Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center, 3805 W. 12th St.
• As noted above, the 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Service is Sunday, Jan. 19, at 5 p.m. at Saint Mark Baptist Church, 5722 W. 12th St.
• City offices will be closed on Monday, Jan. 20, in observance of Martin Luther King Day. The weekly sanitation and recycling pickup schedule will run a day behind because of the holiday.