Stories from Friday, January 12, 2018

The Armorel School Board held their monthly meeting Monday and voted to extend Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree’s contract for an additional year. The board, absent Angela Finley due to illness, went into executive session to discuss personnel. The matter was to review Barbaree’s performance...

The Gosnell City Council met Tuesday to pass Ordinance 299. The ordinance eliminates the free pickup of curbside trash such as discarded furniture and other such items. City residents wishing to dispose of those types of items will now have to pay $5 for a single item or $25 for a truck bed full load...

The Blytheville Planning Commission Board met Tuesday and approved the new multi-purpose building that will be placed on KIPP’s Byrum Road campus. Brad McLaurin, from the Architectural Firm of WER in Little Rock, presented the plans to the board. KIPP ‘s Matt Perrin said the plan for the Byrum Road campus is to build out the high school; the building will block the school’s trailers...

Since September, the Armorel Environmental and Spatial Technology class (EAST) has been working to make life a little easier for an Indian Runner duck named Peg. Peg was found by Patsy Smith, missing part of his left leg. Smith found the duck in a pond at her home and sought a way to help the young bird. ...

Blytheville police are encouraging residents to stay off the roadway Friday morning. “It’s slick and it will get slicker,” Police Chief Ross Thompson said around 7 a.m. Friday. Chief Thompson noted the local streets are coated with ice, and though there have been no collisions, several cars have left the roadway, sliding into ditches...

The Facilities Board (FB) was scheduled to hold a meeting Wednesday night, but was unable to formally conduct business due to a lack of a quorum. The only two members present were Secretary/Treasurer Kellie Snyder and member David Hixson. President Ryan Perkins tendered his resignation since the last meeting and President Brent Edwards and member Billy Fair were both absent...

Because of inclement weather, tonight's Blytheville-Forrest City boys and girls games have been cancelled, according to BHS athletic director David Hixson. The games will be made up Saturday, with the first game beginning at 4 p.m.

“Lawlessness is a self-perpetuating, ever-expanding habit,” Dorothy Thompson. “No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it,” President Theodore Roosevelt. When one hears the word lawlessness, most think of drugs, murder, armed robberies or perhaps a young punk disrespecting their parents. But lawlessness goes much further than that and to me is far more egregious when it comes cloaked in respectability...