Stories from Tuesday, August 19, 2014

"101 Reasons to Feel Good about Where we Live" is a year-long celebration of the many good things in our community.

Norman Williams, 78, a lifelong resident of Black Oak, passed away Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, at St. Bernard's Medical Center in Jonesboro. Mr. Williams was born Feb. 7, 1936, in Black Oak to the late Jake "JK" and Eva Fisher Williams. ...

The Buffalo Island Central School Board set two public meeting dates to discuss with parents as well as patrons the district's proposed new preK-12 grade facility to be built on Highway 18 at the Mississippi County/Craighead County line...

Mary Smith, Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) teacher at Manila High School, has been honored as the Arkansas ACTE (Arkansas Association for Career and Technical Education) Teacher of the Year and the AATFACS (Arkansas Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences) FACS Teacher of the Year for the state of Arkansas...

Mark Cahoon, architect with CahoonSteiling Architecture Planning, presented building plans for the new Riverside East elementary building at the Monday, Aug. 11, meeting. Cahoon said the specs are 90 plus percent complete. By the next meeting the plans should be in Little Rock for approval and to the contractor for final cost estimates...

Caraway council voted to pass a resolution allowing Mayor Barry Riley to pursue a grant application for the Caraway Fire Department at the Aug. 14 meeting. The matching grant in the amount of $2,500 will be used to purchase equipment...

The East Initiative technology team was at Buffalo Island Central High School last week installing state-of-the-art equipment with the help of several high school students and facilitator of the new class, Jill Sanders...

The bell rang on the first day at Manila School on Monday with one welcoming smile missing, that of Mrs. Faye. Faye Davis retired at the end of the 2013-14 school year with 36 years of service to the school. She had greeted students for over three and a half decades as she was known as Mrs. Faye...

PIGGOTT -- Guests will be treated to a 1920s-themed evenning of food, music and fun at the Lost Generation Dinner, Saturday, Sept. 6, hosted by the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center in Piggott...

DYESS -- Hundreds of fans and friends joined the Johnny Cash family for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration at the grand opening of the Cash boyhood home here Saturday. The ceremony crowned the restoration of the structure that was home to the Cash family from 1935 until 1953...

JONESBORO -- On the eve of the grand opening of her father's boyhood home, Tara Cash Schwoebel, the youngest daughter of Johnny Cash, announced the publication of "Recollections by J.R. Cash: Childhood Memories of Johnny Cash."...

Mississippi County Farm Bureau held its annual Resolutions meeting Tuesday, Aug. 12, at the Northeast Research and Extension Center in Keiser. John Tipton, president, gave a brief overview of the importance of the resolutions meeting and how Farm Bureau can make a difference. Policies developed/supported at the local level can go on to the state and even national level to benefit agriculture...

Arkansas prison officials say a 24-year-old state inmate has been found dead in his cell at the maximum security Varner SuperMax unit in Grady.

The Blytheville City Council raised wholesale water rates to $2.50 per 1,000 gallons on Tuesday night.