Stories from Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Manila has a newly formed beautification committee working on landscaping the entire park area starting in the community center. The landscaping project will continue to the new swimming pool/park once construction is complete...

Recent reports from the Blytheville Police Department:

Writing about Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe's announcement last week that Big River Steel will build a 525-job mill south of Osceola, Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo said, "The deal will transform an impoverished region into an economic engine."

The Blytheville Fire Department's "Firefighter of the Year" for 2012 is Deon Robinson. Robinson has been with the department for two years, and received the honor by the vote of his peers.

Gov. Mike Beebe and state economic development officials are scheduled to answer questions from the state House about a $1.1 billion steel mill that Big River Steel says it wants to build in northeast Arkansas.

Tuesday night, the Blytheville City Council's Health and Sanitation Committee received a proposed contract that calls for Knight's Disposal Service Inc. to take over commercial sanitation in the city.

Norma Patterson, 78, of Gosnell, passed from this life Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, at Gosnell Health Care.