A sketch by John Stalling shows the design for the new sculpture.

City of Fayetteville

Plans for a new sculpture along Scull Creek Trail are moving right along.

Officials with the city’s Recycling and Trash Collection Division last month commissioned Eureka Springs blacksmith artist John Stalling to build a trailside recycling-themed sculpture near the Marion Orton Recycling Center off North Street in Fayetteville.

Brian Pugh, city waste reduction coordinator, said a selection committee chose Stalling’s proposal over eight other submissions the division received in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) listed in May.

Plans for the artwork include a 20-foot-tall iron and steel sculpture in the shape of a tree, with “bark” made from aluminum cans and branches that frame a recycling symbol. Design sketches show a bearing assembly inside the trunk to allow the top half of the tree to turn in the wind.

The sculpture will sit adjacent to the recycling facility at 735 W. North Street near the Scull Creek Trail crossing.

Facility map: Todd Gill

The division has budgeted up to $10,000 for the project, but Pugh said the design must first clear the Fayetteville Arts Council next week before a contract can be finalized and sent to the City Council for approval.

Pugh said he hopes to have everything signed off on by mid-August so Stalling can can move forward on the construction. It could be another three months before the sculpture is completed, he said.

The recycling center, which opened in September, is named after Orton, a former Fayetteville mayor and 12-year City Council member who died in 2011 at the age of 83.

Orton was a strong supporter of environmental protection, and organized Fayetteville’s first recycling center inside a metal building on West Avenue in the early 1970s.