Stories from Saturday, April 7, 2018

As many of you know the Blytheville School Board rectified its decision to not include the bus drivers in the $300 bonus to be awarded by the end of the academic year. After the meeting, another issue was brought up to me by some community member, as well as some members of the board, as to whether or not the hiring of Bobby Ashley as superintendent was considered to be a "proper" vote since it was not on the agenda prior to the meeting. ...

Mississippi County Sheriff Dale Cook recently kicked off his campaign for a fifth term as your Sheriff. Cook has served as Sheriff of Mississippi County for the past eight years, being initially elected in 2010. A former State Trooper for 23 years with the Arkansas State Police, Cook is dedicated to protecting the students of the nine Mississippi County school districts and ridding the county of all drug activity and associated criminal activity...

On Thursday, during the monthly Code Enforcement Committee meeting, Marcos Sierra, president of Sierra Group & Associates LLC, spoke to the committee about licensing and insurance issues of roof contractors in Blytheville. Sierra told the committee that several businesses did not have proper licensing and insurance (workers compensation). ...

The Blytheville City Council met Thursday with Arkansas Municipal League attorney Mike Mosley, who represents the city in the jail fees lawsuit against Mississippi County. "We've litigated this from, I believe, the beginning of 2013 until now…we won the issue that we had argued, which was that we felt like a municipal prisoner under the state's statute governing what we have to pay for was just a municipal ordinance violation. ...

Forty five years ago today (Saturday), three Prisoners of War returned to the Blytheville Air Force Base, greeted by some 500 well-wishers on a cold, rainy day. Rev. Dr. Robert G. Certain, Colonel, USAFR (Ret.), recalls that happy reunion well — Operation Homecoming, as is was known...