Stories from Thursday, July 25, 2013

The first annual Buffalo Island Relay for Life Golf Tournament will be held Tuesday, Aug. 13, at Big Lake Country Club in Manila. The three-person scramble will be $90 per team and all proceeds will go to the BI Relay for Life, American Cancer Society...

Cardwell, Mo. William Keith Jones, age 66, of Cardwell, died Wednesday July 24, 2013, at his home. Born in Paragould he was the son of the late Jim and Kathleen Tweedy Jones and had been a lifelong Cardwell resident and was a retired watermelon farmer...

These days, technology drives production in business and, in turn, the way schools educate our children seems to be evolving. One of the items on the third-grade school supply list is a flash drive, a little device that stores electronic data. The list calls for as many sanitizing items -- Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer -- as it does paper. The only paper products on the list are one pack of loose leaf and some journals; no spiral-bound notebooks...

MOUNTAIN HOME--The Blytheville Century 21 McWaters/ANC Casons will take on Rogers at 1 p.m. Thursday in the opening round of the AAA Legion state tournament in Mountain Home. The two teams tried to play on Tuesday but the game was called after an inning because of rain. The tournament bracket is currently being updated because of the weather. If the Casons lose Thursday, they will play again at 3 p.m. Saturday...

Former Gosnell Pirate Tayler Jolly inked a letter of intent to attend Crowley's Ridge College on a baseball scholarship recently. Jolly, a four-year starter for the Pirates, was a versatile piece to the Gosnell puzzle. Playing infield, outfield, starting pitcher and relief pitcher, there were few, if any, situations that Pirate head coach Bret Jackson could not use Jolly...

Public Works director Marvin Crawford said that South Broadway St. from Ash Street south, will be closed from 4:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, as crews pour concrete on the overpass.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) will hold a public hearing on a draft permit for a new steel mill proposed by Big River Steel LLC at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 30, 2013, in the Osceola High School cafeteria. The new mill, to be located at 2027 E. State Hwy. 198 in Osceola, has received tentative approval from the ADEQ staff...

The Historic Preservation Commission is getting ready to take some major steps toward getting some of the dilapidated buildings on Main Street cleaned up and restored where possible. The Commission focuses on preserving the historic buildings in Downtown Blytheville, and a big part of that is finding a way to deal with abandoned and neglected properties within the Historic District...

Crime rates in Blytheville are on a downward swing for the year, and Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson said he would like to see this trend continue throughout the year and into the years to come. Blytheville has seen a fairly significant decrease in overall crime numbers so far this year, especially when compared to the numbers from this time last year. To date BPD has processed 2,112 reports ranging from truancy to homicide, which is down 165 incidents from July of last year...

A regular fisherman at the Walker Park pond -- James Moore -- was casting his line at several different spots Wednesday morning. He nabbed, then released a couple of smaller catfish as he waited for a whooper to bite. "There's some big ones in here," Moore said...

The First Tee of Northeast Arkansas will close as of July 31, 2013. Declining numbers in both revenue and students over the past three years was the main cause for the decision to close the Northeast Chapter that had been running since 2002. "Bottom line is, we weren't meeting the needs of the national office, we weren't meeting the needs of our office and we weren't meeting the needs of the community," said Mississippi County EOC executive director Sam Scruggs...

Mississippi County Sheriff's Department Intake Report for July 15, 2013, through July 21, 2013. Terry Bailey, 32, Marion, theft of property James Beke, 39, Blytheville, theft by receiving Dane Branscum, 31, Blytheville, failure to appear Jonathan Buxton, 33, Pocahontas, commercial burglary...

Recent reports from the Blytheville Police Department: July 23 Officers received at report in reference to theft. Stolen was a refrigerator worth $300 and a stove worth $300. Officers were dispatched to South Division in reference to theft. Stolen from an air conditioning unit was copper wire valued at $200...

William Keith Jones, 66, of Cardwell, Mo., died Wednesday, July 24, 2013, at his home. Born in Paragould, he was the son of the late Jim and Kathleen Tweedy Jones and had been a lifelong Cardwell resident. He was a retired watermelon farmer. In addition to his parents he was preceded in death by one brother, Leon Jones...

Mr. Larry Curtright, 69, of Blytheville, died Sunday, July 21, 2013, at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis.