This Week: Glass Recycling to Return in 2019; First Female Public Works Director Confirmed; Houston Celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; Road Closures for Chevron Houston Marathon.
Glass Recycling to Return in 2019
The Houston City Council authorized a 15-year, $38 million contract with Fomento de Construcciones Y Contratas Inc (FCC) for processing Houston’s recyclables. FCC will build a new, state-of-the-art processing plant in northeast Houston which will employ 100-140 people. Construction is expected to be completed in approximately 14 months, at which point the facility will be given to the City and curbside glass recycling will resume and Houstonians will be able to recycle plastic shopping bags for the first time.
Unlike the current recycling contract, this agreement will cap the City’s costs per ton and includes a provision that will lower our costs further should the value of recyclables in the global market increase dramatically. FCC has also agreed to relocate its corporate headquarters from the Woodlands to Houston.
First Female Public Works Director Confirmed
Mayor Pro Tem Cohen and her colleagues voted unanimously to confirm Carol Haddock as the first female Director of the Public Works and Engineering Department in the City of Houston’s history. The department, with more than 3,900 employees and a budget of $2.1 billion, is the largest of its kind in the United States with accreditation by the American Public Works Association.
Haddock has degrees from both Rice University and the University of Houston. Her extensive professional experience includes the private sector at Klotz Associates Inc, as well as the City of Houston, Harris County, and the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Haddock has worked in Houston’s Public Works Department since 2005 and has served as Acting Director since July, 2017.
Houston Celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
The District C office will be closed onMonday, January 15th in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Please note that there will be no Solid Waste pickup that day. Collection schedules will be altered on Tuesday the 16th and Wednesday the 17th.
Road Closures for Chevron Houston Marathon
The Chevron Houston Marathon will take place this weekend and a large portion of the course will run through District C. On the morning of Sunday, January 14th, many major thoroughfares in the central portion of the district will be fully or partically closed to traffic. The Houston Marathon began in 1972 and has grown to attract over 22,000 entrants from around the world and over 200,000 spectators.