Hope Rotary Welcomes State Senator Steve Crowell

The Hope Rotary Club met at Amigo Juan’s on Thursday (1-18). After starting with a lunch there was a prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Upcoming events were discussed such as the eclipse in April. It was noted t-shirts are already available for purchase.

Josh Jones introduced State Senator Steve Crowell. Crowell started off with a question as to how secure people thought the voting system was and talked about how many measures were passed to secure it. He state Arkansas had moved from the bottom half up to 4th in terms of security.

After mentioning the trafficking on I-30, Senator Crowell stated the focus of the upcoming fiscal session was going to be tax cuts and noted the state is doing very well overall.

He was asked what committees he works on and said they include County and City Audit, ALC, Voting,  and -Revenue and Tax. He stated Arkansas is working to get concealed carry in line with federal law.

Steve Harris asked what the status of the prisons were and Senator Crowell responded it was complicated but within a couple of months he saw the staffing issues being ironed out.

Senator Crowell went on to address the issue of lithium in the area. He said the 7th well is being drilled and he expects an influx of people and jobs to the area thanks to the lithium industry.  There is a lithium conference coming up in Little Rock. There will be a lot of support services connected to the industry.  The area needs housing, investors and private money.

Steve Harris asked how far out would the lithium project come to fruition. Crowell responded they haven’t set the royalties. The lithium comes out in salt water and the expenses are really unknown.  Right now there is an effort to get the numbers nailed down. By the end of 2026 there should be plants up and running with employees. He said it will be a lot slower than people think as the infrastructure needs to be built.  By 2028 Crowell expects a large influx in SW Arkansas.  Some positives going for Arkansas include that it has the shallowest deposit, the state is business friendly and the state has the ability to build the infrastructure for what is needed.

Senator Crowell said he was really excited about the Arkansas Department of Transportation.  Projects need to be planned two years out and ArDOT is on the ball with its planning.

In other countries the lithium is simply strip mined which isn’t allowed here. The salt water gets pulled out, the lithium extracted on site and the salt water put back in the earth.

When asked if there is bromine, a very toxic substance, the response was yes but there are many safety procedures in place. Crowell visited the plant in Magnolia, which is one of the largest in the world.

Crowell talked about the role of the universities and their being equipped to help with this process and that there were a couple of large companies talking with them.