The Arkansas Supreme Court sided with a Holiday Island business owner in a decision last week that reversed a local court ruling.

In a 5-2 decision, the state’s high court ruled that the City of Holiday Island does not have the authority to prevent Steven Hedrick, owner of X-Dumpsters, from offering waste disposal services in the city.

Holiday Island contracts with the Carroll County Solid Waste District to provide garbage collection services, including pickup of household trash.

Hedrick’s company rents rollaway solid waste containers. The city had barred him from offering those services in Holiday Island, pointing to a 2022 ordinance that permits only CCSWD from providing services in the city.

Hedrick filed suit against the city in August 2023, and Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson issued an order in July 2025 granting the city’s motion to dismiss the suit. Jackson’s ruling said the city ordinance was authorized by state law.

In its ruling issued Thursday, Dec. 4, however, the state Supreme Court said the Arkansas Solid Waste Management Act does not give the city authority to exclude “alternative providers.”

“Nothing in that provision says that where, like here, a municipality opts to contract with a single provider, it can also bar city residents from using other providers to collect solid waste,” said a majority opinion written by Justice Nicholas Bronni. “Instead, it simply permits municipalities to con- tract with one or more contractors capable of collecting and disposing of the city’s solid waste.”

The Goldwater Institute, based in Arizona, assisted Hedrick in his suit, arguing that Holiday Island’s ordinance created “an illegal government-backed monopoly.”

Arkansas Municipal League attorney Brie Gibson issued a written statement after the Supreme Court ruling, saying: “We respect the Supreme Court of Arkansas’s opinion and are carefully reviewing both the decision and dissent in this case. The City’s priority continues to be providing Holiday Island residents with consistent, responsible, and affordable solid waste services that can be properly managed.”

Holiday Island Mayor Dan Kees said he is waiting for clarity from the city’s attorneys on how to proceed.

“Our attorneys are still talking it over and I’m waiting for their advice and guidance on what we should do now in light of that ruling,” Kees said. “We respect the decision of the Supreme Court. We don’t necessarily agree with it. We think that it might have some broader ramifications, but we’ll see when the attorneys get done analyzing it.”

Berryville Mayor Tim McKinney, who chairs the solid waste district’s board of directors, said the Supreme Court ruling could have more far-reaching implications than allowing Hedrick’s business to operate in Holiday Island.

“The municipal league and a lot of people are looking at it,” McKinney said. “They seem to say in the ruling that cities do not have the right to contract with an exclusive hauler for any kind of trash service. If that’s true, it’ll affect about every contract in the state of Arkansas.”